Legislative Ethics Quotes

Apparently it's acceptable for members of Congress to own stock in companies we regulate in Congress, but somehow, our plumbing company crosses some line.

During my first term in Congress, I signed a pledge that I will take no more earmarks and I've been faithful to that pledge.

The framers of the Constitution did not entrust this House with the power to impeach the President of the United States in order to establish this body as a court of personal morality.

In 1984, I gave a speech at Notre Dame titled 'Religious Belief and Public Morality.' I said that Catholic legislators will live by the laws of the church because we want to stay in the club.

America is a nation of laws, and it is wrong for Congresswoman Markey to propose bending the rules for a group of people whose first act in this country was to break the law.

If anyone tells you that you cannot legislate morality, remeber that legislation IS morality.

The Congressional Ethics Committees are the brothers and sisters of member of Congress and no one wants to investigate their brothers and sisters.

If Oak Flat were a Christian holy site or, for that matter, Jewish or Muslim, no senator who wished to remain in office would dare to sneak a backdoor deal for its destruction into a spending bill - no matter what mining-company profits or jobs might result. But this is Indian religion.

If a senator gets drunk at home it's nobody's business. If he is drunk on the floor of the Senate, it's the public's business.

If you're a representative, you listen to your constituents, and then you go vote their conscience. You don't go vote your special interest buddies' interest and then come back and justify it.

The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.

All Lords [legislative representatives] of the Five Nations Confederacy must be honest in all things. They must not idle or gossip, but be men possessing those honorable qualities that make true royaneh. It shall be a serious wrong for anyone to lead a Lord into trivial affairs, for the people must ever hold their Lords high in estimation out of respect to their honorable positions.

[The] fundamental principal of all just legislation [is] that the legislature shall not take the property of A and give it to B.

Are there two sets of laws in this country—one that applies to Congress and one for the rest of America? At a minimum, it goes to a lack of public accountability. At its worst, it's raw hypocrisy. The practice ought to stop, and today is as good a time as any to start.

The Office of Congressional Ethics was created to provide more transparency in the House of Representatives. It was a commendable goal.

I'm more concerned about members of Congress being drug-free than I am about members of the Yankees or Giants.

Charlie Rangel was writing laws on our taxes as chair of the Ways and Means Committee while somehow neglecting to pay his own.

Unlike the United States Congress, which mostly forbids outside employment, state legislatures are generally composed of people with other careers.

If we can't remove a member of Congress who has been convicted of 10 felonies - including using his office for personal gain - we risk losing the faith and trust of the American people that we have.

Here is your government at work. A congressman from Colorado said he wants to draft a rule that would make it unethical to have a sexual relationship with an intern. Only Congress would need a rule to tell them cheating on their wives is not ethical. Don't we have that rule? I believe it's called the Sixth Commandment.

Ideal legislators do not vote their interests.

We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right [individually] to appropriate a dollar of the public money.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he shall have been elected, be appointed to any civil office under this State, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during such time.

Congress shall pass no law that exempts themselves!

We see people voting for bills that their ideals and principles are opposed to, but because their little funding project is in there, they're voting for it. We might say it's one percent of all spending but the impact of that spending is far greater.