John Fleming Quotes

What is interesting in Washington, D.C., is I've never missed a vote. The veterans' committee keeps track of hearings, and I've never missed a hearing or a vote on the VA committee.

And I have been campaigning for the past three months trying to get the Senate Judiciary Committee that has the oversight authority and responsibility to start its own public hearings.

Whether I'm trying to figure out what the U.S. military is doing in Latin America or Africa, Afghanistan or Qatar, the response is remarkably uniform - obstruction and obfuscation, hurdles and hindrances. In short, the good old-fashioned military runaround.

Congressional staff members do have a considerable amount of responsibility. But in my experience, the loyalty of the vast majority of staffers to their bosses leads them to be honest brokers of information for the members they work for.

The American public should simply accept no distractions. In our democracy, it is our duty to hold our elected leaders accountable. We do it at the ballot box.

Senators will do what they think they need to do to represent their constituents.

As a legislator, I saw how effective I could be by being transparent, posting and explaining all of my votes.

We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.

Any spending should be debated openly on the floor of the House and voted on in open session, with the American people having a chance to watch and listen.

If one of my colleagues wants to block a bill, they should stand up in front of the American people and explain why.

We’ve reformed our representative democracy into the past.

The respect of the American people for the Congress has been increased. They can see the Congress as a vigilant Congress.

We enjoy bashing Congress because they are us.

When it comes to listening to my constituents or to the governor's staff, who are more interested in their pet projects and their government cars, I'll vote for my constituents every time.

Although governments will also benefit from improved access to information, increased transparency will allow people at home and abroad to better observe and critique what governments do and to hold leaders accountable for their decisions. As a result, governments will find it harder to adopt strategies that require secrecy or violate international norms.

We must keep the pressure on Congress to curb Obama's continued abuse of power. We must always expose that abuse to fellow citizens.

The primary reason that I'd be here or that Don Payne Jr. would be here is for you to know that members of Congress actually exist and are human.

I am a U.S. senator from North Carolina. I'm worried about doing the business on the Capitol Hill. I'm not going to get into the parlor games and the political discussions about a separate and co-equal branch.

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.

Everything is about accountability to the American people, accountability of the executive branch ... [and] accountability of the oversight of the Congress.

You're encouraging a response in citizens and the public, that has nothing to do with an informed decision, that has nothing to do with policy, that has nothing to do with any of that but that just kind of turns it into a competition they're watching as if they're watching the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes and I think if we want people to make more cool-headed, sober-minded decisions covering elections as horse races is the antithesis of doing that.

As things are now, no one can tell to whom members of Congress are responsible, except that it does not often appear to be to the people. Everyone else is represented in Washington by a rich and powerful lobby, it seems. But there is no lobby for the people.

The experience of a century and a half has demonstrated that our system of free government functions best when the maximum degree of information is made available to our people. In fact, free and candid discussion of vexing problems is the bedrock of democracy and it may be our surest safeguard for peace.

It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.