Legislative Efficiency Quotes

I think what Americans need and what Mainers need more than anything is government that functions and I think that the filibuster prevents us from functioning and making progress on issues.

Our whole system was to settle disputes within the [congressional] committees. It's a waste of time to bring out a bill if you can't pass it. I just don't like to have a record vote for the sake of having a vote.

I'm going to reduce the size of the Cabinet, cut the number of ministers, reduce the size of the House of Commons, campaign for a European Parliament with 100 fewer members, halve the number of political advisers, and abolish a huge swathe of Labour's regional bureaucracies and agencies and their offices in Brussels.

The Senate was designed not to be efficient. If was designed to slow things down, And it does a pretty good job of it.

Those who obstruct the Senate should pay a price in public notoriety and physical exhaustion. That would lead to a significant decline in frivolous filibusters.

The Knesset is the parliament that passes the most laws in the world. It's a disaster for the business sector.

Parliament should start earlier in the day and finish earlier. Otherwise I love it.

... government by commission is a boon to all members of Congress, who cringe at facing no-win situations.... It gets the job done.

We already spend too few days in Congress working on meaningful legislation; we simply can't afford to waste more time on legislation that doesn't move the needle to improve the lives of everyday Americans.

Reform is not for the short-winded. I'm committed to making sure the Senate is more than just a graveyard for good ideas.

There are lots of things one can criticise about the European parliament, but it does work pretty well in terms of the speed with which you can vote, the fact that there's room to sit, the fact that there are offices when you arrive.

I think, from the broad political spectrum, not just the Freedom Caucus, I think there is a need for internal reform that is how we bring bills up, getting back to regular order, how we offer amendments or don't offer amendments.

The 112th Congress passed only 220 laws, the lowest number enacted by any Congress. In 1948, when President Truman called the 80th Congress a 'Do-Nothing' Congress, it had passed more than 900 laws.

Force members of Congress to be here four or five days a week—to be here full time as legislators.

Congress is corrupt, gridlocked, broken, dysfunctional. It's not working and we need it working again. It's not going to get fixed by people who are deeply, in one way or another, inside this really broken system.

The average congressman has a time and attention span of about 2 minutes.

Probably the most effective legislator we've ever had.

A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.

The instability of our laws is really an immense evil. I think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that there shall always be a twelve-month between the ingross-ing a bill & passing it: that it should then be offered to its passage without changing a word: and that if circum-stances should be thought to require a speedier passage, it should take two thirds of both houses instead of a bare majority.

I am sorry to say that sometimes matters of very small importance waste a good deal of precious time, by the long and repeated speeches and chicanery of gentlemen who will not wholly throw off the lawyer even in Congress.

We are scheduled to meet this year fewer days than any Congress since at least 1948. And that is even before I was born. So far, we are in the 123rd day of this year, and yet we have only had 26 voting days in this body. That is a shame.

If taxpayers want better results from Congress, they must stop paying their elected officials for failure. After all, you get what you pay for.

Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.

I can see both sides of term limits, and I think, in different positions, term limits make more sense than in some others.

We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.