113th Congress

At a time when indictments and allegations of ethics violations of our elected leaders have become all too common, now more than ever we must use every tool at our disposal to fight corruption. Unfortunately, the federal government is currently preventing numerous states from using one of the most important tools we have to fight cronyism, corruption and waste. '

By ending the arbitrary 34,000 bed mandate for immigration detention, we can cut spending and do the right thing... Were spending more than $5 million a day to detain immigrants, 45 percent of which have no criminal record...We have the power to change a policy that does nothing but waste the taxpayers money and cause undue hardship to immigrant families across the country. '

"Its hard to shock and awe someone from Chicago, Illinois about scandals. My last two previous governors either went to jail or are in jail. Two of my last four predecessors who were sitting in my seat are in jail or went to jail. So I get it, but this is getting there." '

"I was very, very disappointed and I immediately talked to my staff about the possibility of getting that back into some provision either when it comes back to the House or it goes for a full vote. But its not something we want to give up on lightly." '

"As we sit down to address our fiscal woes, everything has to be on the table, including the trillion dollars we spend each year in tax expenditures." '