Senator John Cornyn

Maxwell Treu

Professor Edward Jackson

POLS 2413-13

7 October 2014

Senator John Cornyn

        As a resident of Texas, one of my Senators is John Cornyn of San Antonio, Texas.  Born in Houston but raised in San Antonio, Senator Cornyn attended Trinity University and graduated from the Saint Mary’s University School of Law.  He also earned a Master’s of Law the University of Virginia Law School.  Prior to being elected as a Senator, he served as the Judge of Texas’ 37th District Court.  In 1990, he was elected to the Texas Supreme Court and after eight years he was elected Attorney General of Texas.  He was elected to the Senate in 2002 and was then re-elected in 2008.  Senator Cornyn is a Republican with ideological views centered on the protection of the individual’s liberties and national defense.  

Senator John Cornyn takes a strong stance regarding illegal immigration.  This is proven after studying his voting record in the Senate.  He voted yes to building of a border fence along the United States / Mexican border and he voted yes to making the English language the official language of the American government.  He voted no to eliminating the “Y” nonimmigrant guest worker program, no to establishing a guest worker program, no to allowing illegal aliens to participate in the Social Security program, no to comprehensive immigration reform and no to continuing funds to “sanctuary cities.”  In 2007, Senator Cornyn pushed diligently to deport illegal immigrants by co-authoring an enforcement bill that would allow for more enforcement and easier deportation of illegal immigrants.  He sponsored numerous key immigration reform bills during his time on the Judiciary Committee.  He believes that the amount of visas granted to immigrants with advanced degrees in STEM related fields as well as those working in labor intensive industries should be expanded.  He would also like to find a compassionate solution to deal with the over 11 million people living in this country illegally, while still respecting the rule of the law.  Senator Cornyn wants to ensure immigration reform is done correctly and the mistakes of the past are not repeated.  

Senator Cornyn has acknowledged that the United States has a spending problem.  In order to fight National Debt, he believes changes must be made to the budget.  Democrats in the Senate had failed to pass a budget for nearly four years until just last year when Senator Cornyn and other Republicans introduced the No budget, No Pay legislation, forcing Democrats to approve a budget.  Senator Cornyn is also fighting to eliminate unnecessary spending by the National Government.  He supports the banning of earmarks as well as introducing bills to reduce wasteful spending, fraud and abuse in government, including legislation to audit the Pentagon and prevent irresponsible bailouts or foreign countries.  He is on record of having said that for far too long, federal spending has gone nearly unchecked; resulting in the trillion-dollar deficit we face today.  By passing the budget put forth by Republicans in Senate, Senator Cornyn believes it is a step in the right direction, he will, however, continue to fight to reduce National Debt.