Congressional Role Quotes

If the presidency is the head of the American body politic, Congress is its gastrointestinal tract. Its vast and convoluted inner workings may be mysterious and unpleasant, but in the end they excrete a great deal of material whose successful passage is crucial to our nation's survival.

In coming to the Congress as a new Member and becoming a fellow Blue Dog, we have had an opportunity to share and really spend a great deal of time in examining the challenges that our Nation finds itself in in getting its fiscal house in order.

Being Speaker of the House is a really tough spot.

Congress is the voice, the conscience, and the judgment of the American people

The congressional role in declaring war is especially important not when the United States is the victim of an attack, but when the United States is planning to wage war abroad.

It is not the Congress's job to rubber stamp bad decisions [of the President.]

When I made my first trip to Israel as a member of Congress, not only did I meet with the Israeli president and prime minister, but I also traveled to Ramallah to meet with the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. That's what being a member of Congress is about.

Now that we have a Republican Congress, their [Republican members of Congress] job is to hold up the hands of executive departments, but they have not learned that yet. Their automatic thinking is to tear them down.

Obviously, I am a member of Congress, and things that I say are elevated on a national level, and I understand that very clearly.

We cuss Congress, and we joke about 'em, but they are all good fellows at heart, and if they wasn't in Congress, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be even worse.

I think there's always a role for Congress under every instance in every administration to conduct oversight of the executive branch.

It's not the function of Congress to do criminal investigations.

When it comes to helping make the country strong, we in Congress have an important role to play.

My job in Congress is to identify projects with federal or some other public component and then to push developers to provide employment opportunities to neighborhood residents.

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?

We need a return to transparency and a system of checks and balances, to a president who respects Congress' role of oversight and accountability.

Serving in the U.S. Congress is about much more than voting on bills. It is about taking on the corporate bullies that taint our democratic process and pushing back when the system is broken.

In a certain sense, and to a certain extent, he [the president] is the representative of the people. He is elected by them, as well as congress is. But can he, in the nature [of] things, know the wants of the people, as well as three hundred other men, coming from all the various localities of the nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a congress?

I want to make sure that every kid, every young boy and young girl in this country gets the opportunity to live their American dream. That's what the role of being in Congress and being a United States senator is all about.

Except for the title 'father,' there is no title, including 'vice president,' that I am more proud to wear than that of United States senator.

Our most important job in Congress is to provide for our national defense, and therefore, every year, Congress allocates funds and determines defense priorities in a bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

I understand the needs of both the military and the veteran, and that has helped me tremendously as a congressman. I am proud to serve on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

You know, the bully pulpit that the president has is pretty significant. And I think that one of the things this I've learned in my two and a half years in Congress is the American people want to see us transcend party label and transcend D and R and actually get things done, deliver to the American people, and I think if we were focused on that, we would be seeing a lot more folks happy with what's going on in Washington, D.C.

As a member of Congress, and a parent, I understand the importance of ensuring that families are able to provide a meaningful and proper burial for their loved ones.

I became a co-chair of the Congressional Study Group from Germany several years ago with the expressed purpose of helping increase aid to Holocaust survivors.