Colin Powell Quotes

I happened to have the privilege of serving in Congress. It will be 16 years at the end of this term. And I think I made a difference here on important issues.

As a legislator, I was elected to make the tough decisions and produce solutions to the problems facing our country.

I am proud to be a member of the Congress of the United States.

As lawmakers, we swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution.

U.S. Constitution declares rather unambiguously that Congress has the responsibility to “declare war.

Having been in Congress, you know that's part of our responsibility the constituent has a problem, We're supposed to write back and say, 'Well I can't do anything' That's not what they elect you for.

No one can be responsible for every congressman or every member of his own party.

The civil servant, the general or admiral, the foreign service officer has no authority to make policy. The act only as servants to the government and therefore they must remain in line with the government policy that is established by those that have been elected by the people to set that policy.

At present the direction of our affairs, foreign and domestic, has again come to be almost wholly in the hands of the Senate, because there are in the Senate a few courageous men who have dared to take control from the Executive.

If I were now presiding in the Supreme Court of the United States as Chief Justice, I should feel entirely at home, but with the troubles of selecting a Cabinet and the difficulties in respect to the revision of the tariff, I feel just a bit like a fish out of water.

Washington is not the problem; the Congress is the problem.

You might be considering elected office because you are angry with those in power. Indignation can be a motivator to run but not to govern. If you win you'll need more than anger to govern.

It is a privilege to serve the country in the United States Senate and serve the people of New Hampshire. I wake up every day with a sense of purpose.

I respect the Congress's oversight responsibility.

It's important to remember that whatever the presidential candidates of either party say, they will have to interact with the United States Congress, particularly the Senate, when it comes to crafting policy... we play an important role. And I'm going to continue to play that role, whoever is president.

Members of Congress are people too.

Congress is the appropriate place to make laws about our country's immigration policy; it is not something that the president gets to decide on his own.

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

In government, our chief executives have been lawyers. The great majority of our cabinets and congresses are and have been men trained in the law. They have provided the leadership and the statecraft and the store of strength when it was needed.

There is an important role for a United States senator as a check and balance on the president of the United States.

I have confidence in the responsibility of those who occupy a seat in the legislature.

My view is that politics should be on the basis of issues.

Hoosiers sent me to Washington to offer solutions.

Speaker Boehner has said many times that the House of Representatives is the closest institution to the people, and he recognizes that by empowering the members to have direct input into the process.

Congress must control their MLAs.