Pete Hoekstra Quotes

It's about businesses nervous about taking on school leavers because of a mass of red tape. It's about health and safety regulations and green fines.

I think that the question is very clear-cut, not only as a matter of ethics, but also as a matter of law, that a lawyer should not be aiding and abetting in a fraudulent scheme, and part of that aiding and abetting would be to draw up subsequent documents in order to conceal the true nature of the scheme from federal investigators.

The Inspector General issued six reviews and reports on actions taken based on provisions of the act. In those six reports, the IG found that not one violation of an individual's civil liberties - a total of zero - had taken place since the act was instituted.

Anything my staff does in my office is pursuant to congressional rules.

As the Executive cannot decide the question of war on the affirmative side, neither ought it do so on the negative side by preventing the competent body [Congress] from deliberating on the question.

It is up to Congress to see to it that its powers do not slip through its fingers

In the past few months, as a result of our action, we have demanded of many citizens that they surrender certain licenses to do as they please in their business relationships; but we have asked this in exchange for the protection which the state can give against exploitation by their fellow men or by combinations of their fellow men.

We don’t care what the cost-benefit is. We’re going to build it somehow because Congress says it’s going to be built.

I respect the Congress's oversight responsibility.

I've always said that anytime Congress can provide us direction and answer the question of how they would like the commission to implement something, then I am totally supportive.

Whistleblowers play a vital role in ensuring that the federal government is accountable to the people it serves.

We've very steadily and single-mindedly been building the bureau so that we can do the work that, quote, Congress required us to do and that the American people have every reason to expect, and deserve, that we will do.

In this country, if you are supposed to show up in court and you don't go, there are real consequences. A subpoena from Congress is no different.

As members of Congress, we have to pursue the Congressional Review Act legislation as soon as possible.

It's all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersections, no fish and no ducks. OK?

Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something. Men don't like to do that. Sometimes it's unpleasant.

Deregulation has been, above all else, a means of reducing corporate business's accountability to the public.

Every man must be taken to be cognizant of the law, otherwise there is no saying to what extent the excuse of ignorance may not be Law carried. It would be urged in almost every case.

The Constitution is only there to regulate matters.

The law compells no man to impossible things. The argument ab impossibili is forcible in law.

Unfortunately, I have to follow the law.

I have had a long tug-of-war going on with the FDA, in particular, and with other regulatory agencies, and it has nothing to do with vaccines.

No law can give Congress a backbone if it refuses to stand off as the coequal branch the Constitution made it.

We have a team in Nevada that is looking for licensed cultivators to grow Chong's Choice. Hopefully recreational passes this year and we can go full force.

The Congress is pretty powerful if it wants to be.