Doc Hastings Quotes

In mid-May, the House of Representatives approved the full amount of money that the Veterans Administration said was needed for next year - plus an additional $1 billion increase for veterans' health care.

I am a Marine Corps veteran, but more importantly - or as important maybe - I'm the chairman of the Oversight Investigation Subcommittee and the House Veterans Affair Committee.

Our system of checks and balances requires policymakers to have accurate information about government actions.

Members of Congress must live according to the same laws as everyone else.

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.

The most basic obligation we have to our veterans is that we keep the promises that were made to them. That is what makes the recent failures of the Veterans Administration so shameful.

We have to remind the people: Congress has the constitutional obligation and public responsibility to oversee these issues and the Department of Justice's operations.

But in this Congress, accountability is just a catch phrase, usually directed elsewhere. Demands to personal responsibility or corporate accountability abound, but rarely congressional accountability or fiscal responsibility.

I believe that successfully addressing our national security needs while protecting our basic freedoms and civil liberties requires continual Congressional oversight, and I will continue to work to assert the role of this body in carrying out this grave responsibility.

And I also serve on a caucus that addresses financial literacy for young people in this country. And it is so hypocritical that we want to talk to these kids about how to better manage their money when we are not doing a good job with our Nation's resources.

Cliff Stearns talks about what he did to Planned Parenthood, making Solyndra a household name - why didn't he do this sooner? Why didn't he see it coming? It's the oversight committee, not the hindsight committee.

We want to increase our investment so the next year we'll borrow less. We want to make sure that we provide more jobs for our people. We need to bring fresh money.

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.

Understand and accept the cycles of money. The setbacks you may have today or next year will not keep you from financial freedom. If you hold on to your goals and dreams, you will get there.

I have a business manager and a book-keeper who deals with our household bills. My husband and I sit down with her for a weekly report on how much money is going out, but I'm not terribly interested, and I don't have the patience for it.

If you make time each month to give your money some attention, you'll start the next year in fabulous financial shape.

Now that we have a Republican Congress, their [Republican members of Congress] job is to hold up the hands of executive departments, but they have not learned that yet. Their automatic thinking is to tear them down.

Checks and balances, in time of war, are more important than ever.

Congress can’t discipline itself.

The people have the right to know what their Agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in the option of the Legislature to conceal their proceedings.

Congress has chosen to recognize that a president may be forced to pursue legitimate foreign policy objectives by covert means. Such recognition, however, does not mean it surrenders the right to be informed of covert measures so that it can express its views as to the legitimacy of the goals or the wisdom of seeking to achieve them.

Bureaucrats, dunderheads and knaves have always denounced congressional oversight.

The idea that every subcommittee of Congress gets to question the [cabinet] Secretaries as often as they want to is an extraordinary waste of time.

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

The only oversight on many of these programs is what the annual review in the appropriations process gives you, because the legislative committees generally fail to do their jobs.