Henry Cuellar | Ask Your Lawmaker

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What will you do to reform the redistricting system in this country, which has led to most seats in Congress being so safe that even a major shift in public opinion won't be reflected in an election.
Asked by: Barbara Knapp from Germantown, MD. Received 51 Votes.
Categories: Money & Politics. Tags: government · politics.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

Well as you know the way this is done, it's really handled by the state legislature. The state legislature, every year right after the census is done, will go ahead and consider the reapportionment. I served in the state legislature 14 years, one year as Secretary of State, so I went through one redistricting as a state legislator and then another one as Secretary of State, so it is something we need to look at because there have been in certain circumstances, even here in the state of Texas, where it got too partisan.

Answered on Apr 22nd, 2008 More
Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility and Congressional oversight often these days.When they were the majority the national debt soared to 9 trillion and oversight was nonexistent.How do they reconcile the apparent contradiction?
Asked by: srd from Arlington, VA. Received 25 Votes.
Categories: Economy · Money & Politics. Tags: budget · constitution · fiscal responsibility · oversight · tax cuts · taxes.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

Government should be efficient, should be effective and accountable to the people. The debt is the largest that we’ve ever had in our history, its over nine trillion dollars. We need rules like pay-go, pay as you go.

Answered on Feb 20th, 2008 More
Congestion, sprawl, schools, health care, crime, pollution, affordable housing, diminishing resources, wages, tax burdens, are all result of unconstrained immigration. How would more people chasing fewer resources address these problems?
Asked by: Ed Weirdness from Mesquite, TX. Received 1 Vote.
Categories: Economy · Education · Environment · Homeland Security · Immigration · Taxes. Tags: crime · economy · education · health care · immigration.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

The first thing is we do have to have border security. The right type of border security; Will that stimulate the economy building the fence?...I’m against the fence. If you’ve going to spend $3 million a mile there are other ways, using technology, getting rid of the Carrizo, the plants that grow so high that border patrol can’t do their jobs. Our economy does depend on people doing certain type of jobs. I would say first, give them to the Americans, but if you have ag products or construction or hotel industry jobs that people don’t want to do those jobs, let someone else do it.

Answered on Feb 20th, 2008 More