Nirmala Sitharaman Quotes

Don't count on Congress. Laws come into being because people on the ground demand it.

When we visited with legislative counsel, they told us that the only way to effectively accomplish what we were trying to do was to put the words in the legislation.

You've got to have a theme if you're going to get Congress to do something difficult.

Stop sending out press releases and start passing some bills...

If I could solve these problems with passing laws in the Congress, I would do so.

I'm always going to have a strong preference for things that can actually pass into legislation. We can talk about big issues and have big goals while also working on pragmatic things.

Ultimately, Congressional medicine is like veterinary medicine: It must be strong enough to work, and tasty enough to swallow.

I know how to take good ideas and turn them into sensible law at great odds.

As I've learned in my time in the state legislature, important legislation is always a work in progress.

Since I joined Congress, I've been shocked at how many times we were forced to vote on 1,000-plus-page bills without ample time to read or review what was in the final legislation. It's no wonder Congress doesn't enact good policy.

Speaker Newt Gingrich has appointed a task force, which I'm on, and over the next couple months the task force is going to try to come up with legislation that does what we're all trying to do. I feel pretty good about the members that are on the task force.

They rushed to move it forward, uh, and then a lawsuit was filed and we spent many months litigating, rather than trying to come up with legislation and move forward on that front.

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

The only way to improve the GOP brand and make good public policy is to fix the process. This requires transforming the way Congress does business.

I know how to make sausage, and now that I've seen how laws are made, I'll stick with sausage.

Probably the most effective legislator we've ever had.

Members of Congress often have to have testimony to hang their hat on if they wish to do something for you or do something for the country.

Changing social policy is just dogged hard work.

Every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject.

Do you want to make a statement or do you want to make a law?

When you pass legislation, it is not tied to a particular problem. It can have unintended consequences.

Legislation is a matter of more or less intelligent improvisation aiming at palliating conditions by means of patchwork policies.

If it comes out of Congress, I think it has traction in America.

If you can't legislate, you can't deal with problems.

If we can't get where we need to go to protect people through our regulatory channels, through our legislative process, then unfortunately what we have left is our legal process.