Senate Quotations

I think I'm pretty politically informed, and I find myself watching Senate hearings on C-SPAN.

Today, Democrats not only have the White House; they have the Senate too. So we have to be realistic about what we can and cannot achieve, while at the same recognizing that realism should never be confused with capitulation.

I really think the Patriot Act violates our Constitution. It was, it is, an illegal act. The Congress, the Senate and the president cannot change the Constitution.

First, I have the privilege of being Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It is not an oxymoron I assure you.

Orrin Hatch is old enough to be my father, and I don't want my father running the United States Senate Finance Committee.

At that point, which would be around February 2002, they came and they confiscated my computer, because, they said, they were suspecting that I was communicating with certain Senate members and taking this issue outside the Bureau.

The reason that minorities and women don't have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.

I'd worked in the state senate in college and seen how important legal decisions were. And at the last minute, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said, 'Why don't you come do an internship?' That turned into almost 15 years in the government, in the White House, and at the State Department.

Well, my constituents are happy that the Republican Party has finally gotten off its duff, seeing that we do control the House and the Senate and the presidency, and taken up the issue of illegal immigration.

The decision of such judges as Claudius and his Senate is worth very little in the question of a man's innocence or guilt; but the sentence was that Seneca should be banished to the island of Corsica.

If you go through the regular process of the House and Senate passing companion bills and then try and work out differences in the conference, maybe we can get something done.

I am guilty of asking the Senate for pork and proud of the Senate for giving it to me.

Mr. Gonzales' failure to respond to questions legitimately posed to him by the Senate raises grave doubts in my mind as to his fitness to serve the people of the United States as their Attorney General.

Jim, I'm not aware of any formal requests from the Senate Judiciary Committee for these kinds of documents.

Crossroads is second to none in our support of Tea Party candidates. In 2010 and '12, we spent over $30 million for Senate candidates who were Tea Party candidates. We spent almost $20 million for House candidates who were Tea Party candidates.

I travel to Chicago a lot. And I've followed Obama through his Senate race and beyond. I found him to be an exceptional candidate who was able to transcend ethnic and racial lines.

I think that if Republicans are given the reins of leadership in the House or Senate or both, we will have to govern in a way - at least put forward solutions whether or not the president goes along with them or not, that deal with these long-term challenges.

I'm not going to run for Senate and I'm not going to run for Governor. I'd like to put those rumors to rest.

Guns are part of the Constitution, and no one is willing to have that tough conversation with Congress and the Senate and the president to say maybe that's got to change. People talk about it - but I mean actual change.

It's a cliche that the Senate is broken, and like most cliches, it's true.

I think the problem with President Obama - and I like him personally, I came into the Senate with him - is his agenda.

I feel very confident that that information should be sufficient for the members of the Senate to make an informed decision about John Roberts' qualifications.

One reason the Founding Fathers thought that states should have two senators was so that smaller states wouldn't get run over and could bring their interests to the attention of the Senate more broadly.

Americans simply ask for, not just Democrats in the House but also the Senate has asked the President for a clear plan as it relates to dealing with the issue of Iraq and our troops and making sure that we can bring families together in the very near future.

Twenty-six years ago, I became the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate in her own right. I was the first, but I made sure I wasn't the only.

What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that's what the American people are expecting.

I was entirely comfortable reaching across the Senate aisle to work with Democrats.

Prior to that I testified before the Senate subcommittee addressing mountaintop removal.

The Senate was an odd compromise between the founders and the early leaders of the republic who wanted a single house which was based on popular sovereignty representing the people and those founders who wanted two houses, the upper house, the Senate, being the more aristocratic.

The medical device tax repeal is the only proposal that had the most bipartisan votes coming out of the House and has the opportunity in the Senate to gain tractions, and it fixes a part of ObamaCare in terms of repealing an awful tax. And it's got bipartisan support.

We are worried about the size of the deficit, which is why the president is pleased that the House and Senate have followed his lead in cutting the deficit in half over the next five years.

My fervent expectation is that sooner rather than later, the United States Senate will more closely reflect the rich diversity of this great country.

I want to have a good vote in the Senate so we send the message that the Republicans and the Democrats are together in favor of immigration reform.

I'm interested in being part of a majority in the Senate.

When I came to the Senate in 1997, the world was being redefined by forces no single country controlled or understood. The implosion of the Soviet Union and a historic diffusion of economic and geopolitical power created new influences and established new global power centers - and new threats.

The closest I've come to being on a reality TV show is C-SPAN's live coverage of the Senate floor.

If the notion on this is we're going to elect somebody to the United States Senate so they can be the 100th least senior person in there and be polite, and somewhere in their fourth or fifth year do some bipartisan bill that nobody cares about, don't vote for me.

All alone in a committee room of the Senate Office Building in Washington, I was reading the dry typewritten pages in an unpublished report of an almost forgotten congressional committee hearing.

You can never solve a problem without talking to people with whom you disagree. The United States Senate is predicated and based on consensus building. That was certainly the vision of the founding fathers.

When I was in the Maine Senate and proposed Maine RX - a plan to lower prescription drug costs by forcing the pharmaceutical companies to negotiate - I was told by many people that it was too big an idea, and we couldn't overcome opposition from the drug companies.

I think national issues play into gubernatorial races less than, obviously, in Senate and Congressional races. Much less. They tend to be more decided by personality, leadership qualities and by state or local issues. They still have some effect, no question about it, but not as much as Senate and Congressional races.

Obama has offered no solutions; his Democratic majority in the Senate has failed to produce a budget in 1,200 days; and they have both obstructed the Republicans' proposed remedies.

The United States Senate wasn't designed to be a majority-rule institution. It was designed to include and accommodate the rights of the minority in small states as well as large states.

I hope that the Senate acts quickly to pass this legislation so that Americans will no longer worry about having to sell the family farm or business to pay taxes after the death of a loved one.

The Farm Bill is one of the only bills that provides substantial deficit reduction that passed the Senate this year. It only makes sense that this deficit reduction bill would be included in a larger deficit reduction agreement.

For those of us who originally disagreed with ObamaCare and now disagree with the majority opinion of the SCOTUS, the challenge remains the same as it would have been had the Court ruled otherwise. We need to elect Mitt Romney and House and Senate majorities that will repeal ObamaCare and replace it with free-market, pro-liberty solutions.

Unfortunately, actions taken by the Senate ensured that relief from the death tax would only be temporary and that it would come back to life at the full rate again in 2011.

I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.

I hold it to be the most monstrous proposition ever uttered within the Senate that conquering a country like Mexico, the President can constitute himself a despotic ruler without the slightest limitation on his power. If all this be true, war is indeed dangerous!

The single biggest surprise about arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here.

If I wanted to be president of the United States, I'd run for the Senate in 1986. And I'm just not going to do it.

Back in his Chicago Senate days, when he was seeking greater black credibility, Obama was happy enough to attend the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ.

I am prepared to admit that when it comes to dealing with the House and Senate leaders, Obama is terrible. But he's great with the public. Which hates the House and Senate as much as he does.

I hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me, they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.

To be honest, I haven't seen much serious budget planning since the Republicans took control of the House after the 2010 elections and grabbed onto the Senate filibuster. It's not the White House's fault that John Boehner couldn't deliver on a bigger deal.

There are conspiracies all over the Senate floor on any day!

Others have said it before me. If you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the menu. And so it is important that we have women in the United States Senate - strong women, women who are there to help advance an agenda that is important to women.

When we look at the situation in Ferguson, Missouri and the tragic death of Michael Brown, we are reminded of the importance of who we elect to our city councils, who sits on our local board of education committees, who we pick to represent us in Congress, in the Senate and more.

Senate Republicans have engaged in a record number of filibusters and other obstructionist tactics.

I didn't get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race ... maybe it's because I hadn't given money to the foundation or donated to his wife's senate race.

In 1940, then-Senator Harry Truman headed up a Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. In the course of World War II, more than $15 billion in unnecessary and fraudulent defense spending was identified.

The Senate voted 59 to 39 in favor of an amendment I offered to the Budget Resolution calling on the Fed to tell the American people who they loaned $2.2 trillion to and how much each bank received.

And the people I have been accountable to every single day in the Senate are the 27 million Texans who I represent and I made a promise to them that I make to you today, which is, if I am elected, every single day I will do two things: tell the truth, and do what I said I would do.

The Senate Majority Leader has the unilateral ability to stand up and say, 'If you defy Congress, if you defy the Constitution, if you defy the American people, none of your nominees will be confirmed.'

More importantly, Arroyo and her defenders must stop attacking the Senate for its probes and allow the truth to come out.

One of the highest-ranking union officers in the state is given a half-million-dollar gift by a sitting U.S. senator. That is precisely the type of transaction the Senate wants to know about.

one of the more controversial and colorful figures in Texas. His company has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for violating state environmental laws. And a decade ago, Pilgrim appeared on the floor of the state Senate dispensing $10,000 checks to lawmakers as they debated a workers compensation bill.

One of the most critical issues facing agriculture right now is the immigration reform that was just taken up by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The House passed an immigration bill at the end of 2005 that could be very harmful to agriculture.

On the federal front, we achieved an historical win with the House passage of the bill updating the Endangered Species Act, and we will continue to work with the Senate as they take this issue up this year. In addition, we will continue to bring attention to the permanent repeal of the Death Tax.

I worked in the Senate in the 1970s. I worked for the Labor, Public Welfare Committee, and we had Ted Kennedy and my old boss, Bill Hathaway, and Walter Mondale.

If we get too much of that, we'll go before the American people and the United States Senate and suggest we need an extension (in the hearings.) And those same people, I'm sure, would not want an extension,

When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

When I left the Senate in 1979, there were several publishers who had approached me about writing an autobiography, and I knew that politicians write books for many reasons, but at that time, I just thought I wasn't ready and my story wasn't over, and I knew I had a new life ahead of me.

When I left the Senate in January 2013, I decided to take a full year away from all media interviews, editorial articles, and direct political activities.

No decision has been made regarding a Senate Judiciary Committee rule that permits any committee member to request a one-week postponement of a committee vote.

One way that we might encourage others to come forth with potential savings is to demonstrate that we ourselves are willing to forgo this COLA, ... It's a gesture that members of the Senate ought to make.

Montana is a cheap seat in terms of U.S. Senate races. So there is going to be a tremendous amount of third-party money in this race and it is going to make this race competitive, there is no doubt about that.

No one is anywhere near 60, and any measure in the Senate that is even remotely controversial now require you to get 60, not just 51, ... So I think just as the situation is now, it will require bipartisan cooperation to advance any agenda." ()

Of course I am for stopping violence against women. It is unfortunate that the Senate Democrats are making the current re-authorization of Violence Against Women bill into a political football. The Republicans are offering an improved version of the reauthorization bill and I want to review it.

My decision not to run for the U.S. Senate is based on my commitment to achieve a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and my desire to become the next chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

My concern is the integrity of the process, respect for the Senate and the subcommittee. So it's really important to clear the air, to find out what folks knew and when they knew it.

No one thought that the Senate would ever approve witnesses in this case. It goes to show that there's a lot of ebb and flow, a lot of shifts in momentum as people look at the evidence and weigh it and make decisions, and so I think today's vote shows the strength of the managers' case.

Now that the president has said he will nominate Judge Roberts as chief justice, the stakes are higher, ... The Senate must be vigilant in considering this nomination.

Now that this legislation has passed the House, I look forward to the vote in the Senate that will bring us to Conference, where we can resolve any outstanding issues and make this postal reform reality - for the Postal Service and for all Americans.

Richard is a senior member of the House's Transportation Committee, ... I was on a relevant Senate committee. We were both named to the joint legislative committee which developed the final version of the bill. If not for Richard's leadership, a lot of this wouldn't have gotten done.

Right now, if I had to bet would the Democrats take the House and Senate back, I'd say no. But are the odds a heck of a lot better than they were three months ago or six months ago? Heck, yes.

My job in the Senate is not just to give speeches and do interviews, it's to solve problems.

If the Senate believes that the American public supports any of the proposals for drastic increases in legal immigration and amnesty, no matter how they want to label it, they need to use to the Easter break to go home and listen to what their constituents really want.

If the Senate cannot ease off the executive branch, it can at least have pity on the people.

If the Senate does go ahead and pass something that looks like amnesty, they will never get this passed in the House.

If the Senate oversight committees are either unwilling or unable to tackle the tough but necessary questions associated with detention, interrogation or rendition of prisoners, then we should step aside -- regrettably, if we have to -- and let the work be done by others unfettered by other considerations,

If the Senate passes it, we'll pass it.

If the Senate were to reject the treaty, then it would be highly publicized worldwide. It would be an open excuse for countries like India and Pakistan to continue nuclear testing which I think is very undesirable, destabilizing that area of the world,

I didn't notice the Senate wanting to put the House bill that we passed, twice, on their calendar, unchanged, and have no amendments on it,

I don't have Bob Torricelli's experience. I haven't had my office raided by the F.B.I. I don't have the Senate ethics committee plowing through a file from the U.S. attorney's office.

I did not lie under oath in front of the Senate committee.

If we're relying on a decision from a German judge about what our Constitution means, no president accountable to the people appointed that judge and no Senate accountable to the people confirmed that judge. And yet he's playing a role in shaping the law that binds the people in this country. I think that's a concern that has to be addressed.

If we're relying on a German judge about what our Constitution means, no president accountable to the people appointed that judge and no Senate accountable to the people confirmed that judge. And yet, he's playing a role in shaping the law that binds the people in this country.

I grew up in a family that nearly lost everything, but I ended up in the United States Senate because I grew up in an America that invested in kids like me and built a real future for us.

Last year was the last best chance for quite a while. If the Republicans lose any Senate seats this fall, as they well might, they will need to wait until they have a Senate majority willing to move this again.