Tony Cardenas

I have recently taken on two major challenges: running the CHC BOLD PAC and serving Los Angeles as our voice on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Every community needs to get its fair share of services.

All parents want their kids to be on a healthy track to success.

Our kids have to understand that drinking underage is a poor decision that could drastically affect their chances to achieve the goals they've set.

The NCAA is acting like they can or are willing to self-police. It doesn't appear that they are willing to do it to the degree that they should.

The American people are happy to help small businesses grow, but paying fines for multi-millionaires, subsidizing bad behavior, should not be the responsibility of American taxpayers.

Being fined for violating the rules of your league is not the same as a shop owner on Main Street paying to have a new sign hung in front of their business. One is a business expense, the other is a punishment.

We must make the masses understand that we have a responsibility to care for our animals and that when things get messed up, it's usually because human hands have caused it.

When you see the horrible conditions that these animals live in, you wonder why operators of puppy mills have gone undetected for so long.

No living being should have to endure conditions that you wouldn't put on your worst enemy.

When millions of law-abiding people achieve citizenship, our communities benefit, and the U.S. economy grows and strengthens.

If recycling is the future, then we must focus our efforts on mitigating negative impacts to our community while protecting our environment.

As someone who has owned a small business in the past, I understand how difficult it can be to get a loan.

Satisfying a profit motive must never be the reason for law enforcement, and it certainly must never be allowed to support the seizure of personal property by those who we trust to protect and defend our nation and our Constitution.

Bad policy tends to be done in a rush.

For most of the Latinos in our nation, merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable would mean one company controlling their window to the world of culture and entertainment.

My parents didn't speak English. They learned it little by little. They realized that education was the ticket to a better future in their own rudimentary way. They kept the house clean, kept us on the straight and narrow, and none of us ever got into trouble with the law.

Priests and nuns actually meditated. It's not religious. It's about centering yourself.

Meditation is about getting to a place where you're approaching things in a more calm, centering place rather than allowing yourself to get caught up in it.

I do like the nonpartisan atmosphere here at City Hall where you can talk with the person who opposes you and either get their support or not.

California's redistricting process creates a historic opportunity for Valley Latinos to have a strong and unified voice in Congress for the first time. The opportunity to be the Valley's first Latino Congressional representative is humbling, and I'm proud that so many diverse leaders have come together to support this campaign.

President Obama helped move this country forward.

No candidate can become president without the Latino vote.

If Latinos stay at home, we determine the outcome of an election.

My father worked with a first-grade education in this country and managed every single day without a hiccup.

Everybody should be defended, and people should be willing to stand with them to let them know that an attack on them is an attack on me.

Every day, opportunities within the hemisphere go untapped, and millions of dollars are lost simply because companies do not know where to begin if they want to expand into new territories and grow their business.

Who cannot appreciate the smell of bacon? It smells good, but I never want to grab a bite.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of media as a tool to encourage civic engagement and participation, and the importance of a diverse and well-informed public.

Every time I got paid, I would give my parents money. I would save some money, and I would have a little money to spend.

The FCC was founded in 1934, and their first major action was in 1941 when they broke up NBC. NBC used to be NBC Red and NBC Blue, and they broke them up for the same exact reason: that there wasn't going to be a diversity of voices and because they were vertically integrated.

When you have 20 nominations - 20 names on the nomination list of best actor, supporting actor and actress, etc., and there's absolutely no representation of color whatsoever, I think that's a subset of perhaps a bigger problem.

Hollywood and film portray who we are as a people and what we value as a culture.

The San Fernando Valley has plenty of manufacturing zones, especially in the 29th Congressional District.

When we act ignorant as a community, we are not doing the right thing.

My focus has been on being a good congressman, and there is so much other work to do.

It's not up to one individual to decide, 'I'm going to dictate the outcome of what's going to happen legislatively.' That is not a democracy; it's an atrocity.

I think it's not up to Congress to dictate what the right amount of diversity is, but I think it's Congress' place to ask the question, to any industry, in talking about what's going on out there. Is there a lack of preparation of the community to be ready to be involved in that industry?

There is no organic process where you can take a diverse community like America and then distill it down to it only looks monolithic without having some kind of inorganic interplay going on that created that outcome.

I meditate, and I try to do that twice a day.

I don't eat pork or beef. I cut that out when my father passed away about 20 years ago. I wanted to modify my diet because he passed away from diabetes. And, you know, it's very hereditary.

I love chocolate, and I love ice cream. That's a double whammy there. I constantly have to check myself and say, 'I've already had dessert today.'

I wasn't the student body this, student body that. I was not much into running for office.

Nearly one-fifth of our fellow citizens are Latino. They are families who are impacted by our education system, by our economy, by our healthcare delivery, and by every policy we make here in Washington.

To truly utilize the full potential of every person in our nation, our laws and representation must track the needs, concerns, and goals of the Latino community.

When we fail to include diverse, talented faces, reflecting both today and tomorrow's America, we send a poor message to our youth and the world.

Consumers deserve the opportunity to watch their program of choice.

Comcast is a big voice: they have a tremendous voice across America; they're a tremendous voice in Spanish and English, and they have a tremendous voice in Washington.

I am proud of the fact the community elected a congressman who was born and raised in the community. I am trying my best to be successful for the community.

As an engineer, you learn there is a solution to every problem. It may take you a while, but eventually you're going to find it.