Kirsten Gillibrand Quotes

The majority in the Senate is prepared to restore the Senate's traditions and precedents to ensure that regardless of party, any president's judicial nominees, after full and fair debate, receive a simple up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.

In a unity government, it's very difficult to move anything at all.

To get Congress to do anything.

Nothing gets done (in Congress) unless it's bipartisan. And the reason that matters is that it's a function of reality.

The Senate used to be a place of great debate and accomplishment. Now it is run like a dictatorship shutting out the voices of millions of Americans.

It is a pipe dream to think that that bill is going to the floor and be voted on.

The country didn't get that way in a week; we've had years and years of getting behind in our economy. So President [Barack] Obama stepped into a hellhole and people wanted him to change it as soon as he came in. But he's got his adversaries to deal with in the House and Senate, so it's not easy.

There has never been a major program in this country that when it was first passed, didn’t have glitches in it.

Our system of checks and balances makes it simpler to stop bills than enact them.

The wheels of compromise lose traction as Congress sinks into an ooze of dysfunction.

Tax reform is one of the easist things to talk about in a campaign, and one of the hardeest things to do if you are governing.

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.

Remember, Obama was elected by a bigger margin than George W. Bush. He deserves to have his appointees, and he deserves to have votes on the issues, to have the government function, and to fight for the policies on which he was elected.

I'm tired of divided government. It doesn't work very well.

In fact, when I first came to the Senate, people laughed. I had people telling me, 'There's no way you're going to get a comprehensive criminal justice reform bill done.'

Democratic, Republican members of Congress get along fine. But what you have is this institutional Hatfield and McCoy sentiment coming from our constituents, where the base of both sides doesn't want people to get along. But the majority of Americans, I feel, the majority, they are in the middle. They actually do want both sides to get together.

The shelf life of a seventh-year State of the Union address is about five minutes. Presidents can propose stuff. They're probably not likely to get it done.

Congress has been productive when focusing on bites of policy that don't inflame the divisions within the party and quietly do the work of governing.

The biggest problem in our government is that even those people who are there that are good and well-intended, there's too many people in positions to write legislation who have never experienced the challenges of regular people.

As every newspaper reader, liberal activist, or parliamentary junkie knows, the overarching barrier to most of Obama's agenda is the abuse of the filibuster in the Senate. In fact, several of Obama's second term priorities are not ideas in search of a majority - they are majorities in search of an up-or-down vote.

A divided government doesn't have to be a death blow to foreign policy.

In the business world, those who are slow to act and adapt find themselves out of business in a hurry. In Washington, it can take 10 years to get even a good idea across the finish line.

At certain moments, both the WEEE Act and the First Step Act appeared doomed to dead end in partisan gridlock and procedural hurdles.

Democrats would use every tool in our arsenal to ensure that his [Charles Pickering] nomination is rejected again this year.

Immigration reforms are always controversial. Our Congress was created to muster political will to answer such challenges. Today we didn't, but tomorrow we will. I yield the floor.