Tom Graves Quotes

You run Washington DC though the House. The Senate gets in the way. The President gets in the way.

I like the House. The House is where you can effect the most change. It's such a fast-moving dynamic body compared to the Senate.

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.

Is it best to put the pseudo-aristoi (of wealth and birth) into a separate chamber of legislation, where they may be hindered from doing mischief by their coordinate branches, and where, also, they may be a protection to wealth against the agrarian and plundering enterprises of the majority of the people? I think that to give them power in order to prevent them from doing mischief is arming them for it, and increasing instead of remedying the evil. For if the coordinate branches can arrest their action, so may they that of the coordinates. Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively... Nor do I believe them necessary to protect the wealthy; because enough of these will find their way into every branch of the legislation to protect themselves

The Senate's role is to advise and consent. Very little advice has been sought and consent has thus been a problem.

It is the duty of parliament to look at the men as well as the measures.

If I have to invade the sacred precincts of the White House to find out what is behind this paralysis of the Senate, I will.

The Executive is a co-ordinate and independent branch of the Government equally with the Senate; and I have yet to learn under what constitutional authority that branch of the Legislature has a right to require of my an account of any communication ... made to the heads of departments ...

The difference between being a member of the House and being a member of the Senate is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit.

The Vice President breaks ties in the Senate. In our 200 years of history there have been about 200 ties broken so you can see what an important job it is.

As the House is designed to provide a reflection of the mood of the moment, the Senate is meant to reflect the continuity of the past—to preserve the delicate balance of justice between the majority’s whims and the minority’s rights.

From an institution standpoint, I want the American people to understand that the Senate can function, even on the most serious things.

National security needs to be priority number one and if you're willing to play politics with our national security then you have no business serving in the Senate or the House.

It's important to remember that whatever the presidential candidates of either party say, they will have to interact with the United States Congress, particularly the Senate, when it comes to crafting policy... we play an important role. And I'm going to continue to play that role, whoever is president.

We are a Republic with different branches of government, and so the Senate and the House are going to be full partners in working with the White House.

It should be mandatory that any tax breaks go through appropriate committees and be voted on separately by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Senate is a remarkable institution. It is unique. There is no other body, no other political body, no other democratic legislature in the world quite like the U.S. Senate.

I've been in the legislative branch and now the executive branch and in each case I felt it was important we use our constitutional responsibilities to the fullest.

I do strongly believe myself that members of the government who sit in the House of Lords should be accountable to the elected House because otherwise there is a democratic deficit, and that is wrong.

The traditional role of the Senate has been to be the adult in the room.

The House of Representatives was not designed to sit idly by and rubberstamp every piece of legislation sent their way by the Senate, especially legislation passed on a straight party line vote under the spurious policy of reconciliation.

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

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.

Let a bill, or law, be read, in the one branch or the other, every one instantly thinks how it will affect his constituents.

We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.