Following well-established national security screening procedures and accurately informing Congress about them is not a joke or a political game. It is essential to guaranteeing that our national secrets are protected and to preventing possible blackmailing of key administration officials.

Before I was elected to Congress, I helped to create the public corruption unit in the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Unfortunately, business was good. Among the usual suspects were government contracts steered to insiders - leaving Illinois taxpayers holding the bag.

As a small-business man myself, I believe strongly that improving the health of small businesses is the key to improving the economy, growing the middle class, and creating innovative products and services.

In my experience, union leaders are respected by their members.

Illinois is large, but we do not always receive our fair share of federal resources because our leadership is often divided. When we all row together, good things happen.

Illinois is becoming more diverse, more tolerant, and even more green.

Mail in our country serves as an economic engine.

Mail enables businesses to deliver vital services and products, including medication, and allows these same businesses to receive payments in a timely way.

So many of our businesses rely on green card holders - how are we supposed to attract these people if they think they'll be detained at the airport if they go abroad for a wedding or just to show their baby to relatives?

I was always a little skeptical of how voters would react to my name.

Pocketbook and economic issues is pretty much all I campaigned on.

In terms of what I wanted to do before I got into politics, I was a businessman. I ran a company that makes and sells infrared night vision military technology and solar technology, so I wanted to grow that company and pursue groundbreaking technology in each of those areas.

If I'm privileged to be elected, I'd be blessed to represent a diverse district, including South Asians and Indian Americans.

My parents climbed their way to the middle class.

We cannot afford to balance the budget on the backs of America's middle class and seniors and must do what it takes to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, including enabling the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs.

I strongly support screening all visitors and potential immigrants thoroughly to prevent bad actors from entering the country.

A porous border is a danger to America's national security, the people who live near it, and to those who cross it.

As the president of a cutting-edge research and development firm, I deal with the development of solutions to long-term national security and renewable energy problems every day and will bring this same perspective to Congress.

Making Congress into a less crisis-driven institution starts with electing members of Congress who can take the long view.

Partisan politics is not my passion.

We need to cut unnecessary weapons programs like the F-35 fighter plane that cost trillions of dollars and don't even work.

We need to invest in our crumbling infrastructure to create jobs and remain economically competitive.

Ultimately, much of the dysfunction in Congress is due to the impact of big money, which drowns out the voices of working families and leads to the special treatment of special interests.

Everyone agrees that our immigration system is broken. Building a wall with Mexico isn't going to fix it.

As the son of legal immigrants to America who came from India, I support stronger border security for our nation as well as deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

As a party, Democrats must focus on the pocketbook issues that our constituents care about every day when they wake up to go to work, drop off their kids at school, and tuck them into bed at night.

I am hopeful that both India and U.S.A. would be able to expand their counter-terror partnership through wider intelligence sharing and effective coordination.

While U.S. investments in India are growing, we also need Indian investments in America.

A functioning democracy cannot stand when its people do not trust their leaders to uphold the law.

Step one of the initial process of getting a non-immigrant visa is tough, renewing it is tough, and then transferring from the status of non-immigrant to immigrant or green card is tough. The only process which is easy is the last part of transferring from green card to citizenship, but getting there is quite a journey.

When you encounter some form of discrimination or maybe even worse, I urge you to alert others. Regardless of how small the incident is, it has to be brought to the attention of people like me and also the law enforcement agencies.

We have numerous mandirs, gurudwaras, and mosques in my Congressional district and all across the U.S.

When we came to this country, unfortunately, my father lost his job, and we were this close to destitution. We were put on food stamps. We were put in public housing.

One of the positives of the Illinois delegation is the congressmen and women work together on issues of local concern in a lot of different ways.

I'm an immigrant. I came here when I was 3 months old.

I think it's so important we're a nation of laws but also a nation of immigrants.

China is eating our lunch with regard to renewable energy.

I'm a product of public schools. They are resource-challenged, and when you take those dollars away from public schools and send them to private schools, you're further starving the system.

I will not stand for any tax increase for middle class or working Americans. There is no way I will support that.

When the norm is decency, other virtues can thrive: integrity, honesty, compassion, kindness, and trust.

A high school diploma will no longer be sufficient. But that post secondary education does not have to be a four-year university or a four-year college. It can be career technical education, vocational education, community college.

In some ways, 'decency' is a hazy concept; we know it when we see it.

Americans want Washington to put aside political differences, find common ground, and start producing real economic solutions for the middle class.

The most important thing is to recognize that research is our seed corn. It's a national security priority. It's not just a way to have enough going on that graduate students can do their Ph.D.s and scientists can publish. We have to do research, or we'll fall behind the rest of the world.

In the past, leaders of both parties have been able to reach across the partisan divide. They succeeded by retaining their own humanity and recognizing the same in their political opponents.

I've led programs that have helped thousands of individuals, small businesses, veterans, the disabled, farmers get low-interest loans to prosper.

I believe you cannot survive in this global economy without some form of postsecondary education.

As an immigrant, I am grateful for the tremendous opportunities that this great nation has afforded me and my family. I am also aware of the ongoing challenges that immigrants confront, and understand that respecting law and borders is essential for keeping America strong.

When our Founding Fathers wrote the historic words 'all men are created equal,' they probably didn't have people like me in mind.

Working with a Republican co-sponsor, Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, I introduced a bill to strengthen our nation's career and technical education programs and more closely align them with the needs of local businesses and industries.