Town Hall Questions
During Congressman Fallon’s Town Halls in June, many constituents were unable to have all their questions answered due to time constraints. Below are answers from Congressman Fallon to questions constituents wrote down and submitted to Congressman Fallon. Many questions on the same topic were combined to eliminate redundancy. As more questions are reviewed, more responses will be posted.
What happened on January 6th? What did you do? What is your response?
What happened on January 6 was horrific, criminal, and completely inconsistent with the values of a vibrant, healthy Republic. It should receive condemnation in all forms. What we should be doing today, for that matter, what leaders of the House and Senate should have been doing with the past four months, is trying to find out what counted for the massive security failure, and who is truly responsible.
How can an unorganized mob of strangers could have breached the Capitol. The best, most effective way to answer these questions is to take the obvious political theater out of the equation.
I was one of the last to leave the chamber on that fateful day, and I'll say straight out the full candor, I didn't know what on the other side of the door. I heard Capitol Police shout “shots fired”. I will be forever proud of those great members of the chamber who stood their ground on the right, left, with the capitol police. We will also be able forever tell the world that the House Chamber, unlike the Senate, was never breached.
At the end of the day, Republicans have proven themselves and only ones who have been maintained consistency. We have condemned violence, rioting, and mayhem. We did so in the summer of 2020 during the BLM and antifa violent riots that swept the country, we did so on January 6th, and we will continue to do so.
How are you helping veterans in Texas’s Fourth District?
The courageous men and women who dedicated their lives to our nation can never be fully repaid for their service and sacrifice. The United States must do everything it can to ensure we can to inspire bipartisan initiatives to honor and watch over our military heroes.
I recently introduced the “Veteran Employment Recovery Act,” which would expand both short-term unemployment and long-term unemployment tax credits under the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which provides a tax break to businesses hiring veterans who have previously received unemployment benefits. Military service must never be a detriment to future employment, but rather an asset. I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation prioritizing veteran employment following the COVID-19 pandemic. We will be doing much, much more in the near future.
What are your thoughts on infrastructure? Will we pass a bill?
The Biden "infrastructure" plan was another classic example of the ole bait and switch. Democrats across the country say their definition of "infrastructure" includes: universal pre-k, climate action, climate justice, eradicating right to work environments, caregiving, affordable housing, police accountability, and paid leave. That’s not infrastructure. Until the Democrats get serious about implementing a meaningful infrastructure plan, we will not be able to pass a bill.
What is happening with the border crisis and immigration?
Joe Biden is facilitating the largest modern-day human trafficking operation in the United States today, and your tax dollars are funding it.
Unfortunately, Democrats only seem to care about human life when it fuels their narrative or political agenda. The crisis unfolding on our southern border proves it. When Joe Biden unilaterally reversed the successful Trump policies shielding our country from a flood of illegal immigration, he created conditions allowing the Mexican cartels to flourish, endangering the lives of both Americans and the illegal aliens being trafficked.
If the cartels had lobbyists, they wouldn’t advocate for a single change to Biden’s border and immigration policy. Border crossings are at a twenty-year high under the Biden administration, and the rate of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has nearly doubled between February and March.
Key Democrats, once highly critical of the law-and-order immigration policies championed by President Trump, have fallen silent as these disturbing statistics rise and this ugly trend continues. They seem to care more about the politics of the immigration crisis than even the migrants themselves. Biden’s sordid attempts to block reporters and members of Congress from viewing the crisis have gone unreported in the media, who have suddenly been transformed from attack dogs to lap dogs under the Biden administration.
A few months ago, I visited the Donna Holding Facility in Donna, Tex. It’s currently at 1,600% over its maximum capacity, thanks to the Biden administration’s drastic shift in immigration policies. My colleagues and I were assigned a “minder” – someone who followed us closely, told us what we could and could not photograph, and took notes on everything Customs and Border Protection told us.
We likened her to our very own KGB handler and promptly ignored all her directives.
The Biden administration doesn’t want you to know the truth about the border crisis because it’s an abject disaster. Democrats have politically pigeonholed themselves from intelligently solving a crisis of their own making because they refuse to reimplement Trump-era policies they KNOW will reduce the current flood to a trickle.
This crisis doesn’t end at the border. The border is merely a gateway for crime, drugs, violence, and human trafficking. Last month in the district I represent, which is roughly 500 miles north of the border, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department pulled over a vehicle suspected of smuggling drugs. But they didn’t find bricks of cocaine. They found 18 illegal immigrants from Guatemala being transported to Baltimore, Md. The migrants admitted to being illegally trafficked, and one of the two smugglers even confessed to being wanted for bank robbery in Central America.
Biden’s Homeland Security Department was notified, and their instructions to the sheriff were to release the illegal immigrants into our district.
“Release them where?” Franklin County Sheriff Rick Jones asked.
Homeland Security didn’t have an answer. They only said the aliens didn’t meet the qualifications for deportation. One Homeland Security official candidly admitted to the sheriff: “If this had happened in January [under President Trump], things would be different.”
This explanation was unbelievable to all the sheriffs in my district and to me. If you knew a house in your neighborhood was the epicenter of a human trafficking organization, and you called the police, what would you expect any reasonable law enforcement officer to do? There would be dozens of police vehicles and personnel outside within minutes. But in Biden’s America, those who break our laws are released onto the street.
When the party of “JFK” suddenly becomes the party of “AOC,” logic becomes scarce. Those on the outskirts of the party carry the radical energy of the party, and drag the moderates kicking and screaming to the far left. Open borders, catch and release, and illegal immigrants voting are no longer ideas joked about on satirical websites; they are embraced by the editorial boards and “thought leaders” of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, our nation suffers gravely.
In such a hyper partisan government how are you working to promote and be bipartisan?
This is the most hyper partisan legislative body in this country. It's awful. And I'm not saying that my party may not have done something similar in the past, I don't know I was not here, but I served in a Texas Legislature, both the House and the Senate. I was very proud of the fact that almost 99% of things we passed in that body had some bipartisan support, because we work together for the betterment of our state, to make Texas better.
Why can't we do that here for the betterment of our country? Not everything has to be partisan. I know it is now, but doesn't have to be. We need to work together to change that culture.
I'm a backbenching freshman, I have a lot to say. My voice isn’t really heard here yet, that's okay. But if there's ever a day where it is, I pledge to do everything I can to work, when possible, on a bipartisan basis because it's better for this country. We don't always have to score cheap political points, looking down the road for the next fundraiser or the next election, we can really do what's best for the country. Not red America, not blue America, America.
I see reports of increasing antisemitism, I believe because of misinformation about the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. What can congress do to show support for the human rights of Jews, both in America and Israel?
Israel is a critical ally of the United States and extraordinarily important to the national security of our nation. Israel has daily come under attack by terrorists hell-bent on the destruction of not only their nation, but also the Jewish people. I wrote the ‘‘Maintaining Our Resolve to Defend, Encourage, and Conserve our Alliance with Israel Resolution” (“MORDECAI Resolution"). It was filed in response to the multiple terrorist attacks launched against the state of Israel this month by the radical Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. I’m proud to stand with the sovereign state of Israel, and by introducing this resolution, I hope my colleagues will join me in reaffirming the strong ties between our two countries.
What are your views on law enforcement and the push to defund the police?
Defunding the police was a disastrous idea. Democrats are now scrambling to reverse course because their citizens are in extreme danger. I will NEVER support defunding our police! When you demonize police you are going to demoralize police. The police are our heroes. As citizens, we are not free when we are not safe. We pay them to go into harm's way to protect us and our families and they do a phenomenal job.