William S. Cohen Quotes

Without the authority of Congress, the President cannot fire a hostile gun in any case except to repel the attacks of the enemy.

Congress has a constitutional right to an authoritative voice in declaring and proscribing the foreign policy of the United States ... and it is the constitutional duty of the President to respect that policy ...

We have not found a way to give Congress control without depriving the President of essential power.

The respective powers of the President and Congress of the United States, in the case of war with foreign powers are yet undetermined. Perhaps they can never be defined.

Congress ... is far more than the simple, limited advisory council that most Presidents would like to maintain.

Foreign policy is always a sticking point between Congress and the executive.

The power to make war is vested in Congress and not in the President. Congress has no constitutional authority to grant such authority to the president.

The Constitution provided an invitation to the President and Congress to struggle for the privilege of directing American foreign policy.

The President … does not originate laws or resolutions; he takes no part in the deliberations on them during their progress; he does not act in relation to them indirectly by advice or interference of any sort, until they have passed both houses: it is only when their operations are concluded that his power begins.

Everything the CIA does is secret and it is secret particularly from the Congress.

My husband [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] always said the President of the United States had the best information in the world on which to base the government's decisions as to policy in foreign relations. Part of this was because of the efficiency of the intelligence reports he received. Over the past few years, however, the CIA has become an agency not for gathering information and reporting it to those who make policy and take action, but it has itself made policy and taken action. And by so doing it has involved the government in situations from which no administration could quickly extricate itself.

Every American war has brought a struggle between Congress and the Executive over war powers. The Constitution is somewhat annoyingly ambiguous on the point declaring that the President is Commander in Chief but empowering Congress to provide for the common defense, declare war, and raise and support armies.

There is no part of the executive branch that more exists on the outer edge of executive prerogative than the American intelligence community - the intelligence community, CIA, covert action. My literal responsibility as director of CIA with regard to covert action was to inform the Congress - not to seek their approval, to inform.

Since the enactment of the War Powers Act in 1973, which I supported then and support now, Congress has been reluctant to assert its authority when presidents decide to send American soldiers into harm's way.

As a member of Congress, I believe Congress must provide oversight of actions by the Executive Branch as our system of checks and balances requires.

The President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it.

The imperial Presidency requires a passive Congress.

If our forefathers had wanted Congress to be the Commander in Chief, they would have said so.

The powers that are surrendered [by Congress] to one President remain to be used by others.

I do not believe that we [Congress] should allow him [the President] to nullify acts of Congress by executive fiat. There is not one syllable in the Constitution which authorizes the President to exercise such power.

We are told here today, that what the King of England can't do, the President of the United States can.

Congress has a constitutional right to an authoritative voice in declaring and prescribing the foreign policy of the United States. It is the constitutional duty of the Executive Department to respect that policy, not less in diplomatic negotiations than in the use of national force when authorized by law.

It is not the Congress's job to rubber stamp bad decisions [of the President.]

If the president can make whatever policy he likes, we are governed not by law, but by the arbitrary whims of one man ...

No President is going to say, “I am not going to preempt.” This is simply a reality.