Steve Scalise Quotes

One of the things I give Nancy Pelosi a lot of credit for is that she's able to get things passed and hold her members together because she shows us that she's doing everything possible to get our views into these bills.

I really focus on making sure that we pass good policy. I don't mind throwing my elbows around to get it done.

When you are President you have to get something done, and that often means compromise.

You cannot rely on House or Senate staff to pass a piece of legislation for you, but if you have antagonized staff, they can block you.

What will most certainly happen is that there will be very clear and full communication between the government and independents and minor parties. The precise mechanisms will evolve over time, but we certainly intend to keep the minor parties and the independents very much in the loop. We have to if we want our legislative agenda to have a reasonable chance of success and that's what we intend to do.

Being Speaker of the House is a really tough spot.

If at the end of May we don't, we'll reform, regroup, decide how we're going to go about it, but if the task force can't come up with the bill, I'm going to push mine, and go ahead and make the changes in it that we've been working on now for a year or two and just go for it.

I think there's a lot to learn from Rockefeller on how to pass legislation.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

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.

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

To go from chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the Kansas Legislature to one of 50 on the Appropriations Committee and one of 435 in the whole House, it is more difficult to directly impact policy here.

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.

Tom Daschle and I worked together on Families First every step of the way, making sure that Democrats in both the House and Senate were involved in putting the agenda together.

Nearly all legislation is the result of compromise.

I've served under six Speakers of the House and each of them has had difficulty in administering the House.

It’s like volleyball. There are setters and spikers. The chief of staff is a setter, putting the ball in the air so the Senator can spike it.

I prefer a simple bill which deals with a single basic issue. When you add new provisions to a bill you develop a larger coalition of opposition. Each new provision brings in more opponents who combine with the existing opponents until you no longer can pass the law.

Presidents are evaluated not by what they did by the stroke of their own pen; it's what they persuade Congress to do.

Jon Kyl did a really good job of presenting a case and moving issues. John McCain probably is one of the more effective legislators, getting things on through the process. I always thought, too - and this may seem kind of odd - Richard Shelby was just an effective guy a lot of times at stopping things.

When you elected me to serve as your Whip, I committed to create an inclusive and open Whip operation - one that didn't just register your objections and move on, but instead actively sought you out and worked to build coalitions that enabled us to advance our agenda on some of the most controversial issues we have faced.

House Speaker John Boehner and presumed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell understand the art of politics.

I want to continue to serve as whip of the caucus.

I've assembled a team with a broad variety of experiences to lead my Senate office.

White House staff are meant to coordinate and set policy, not carry it out.