Luther Strange Quotes

You need the House, you need the Senate and you need the administration. And absent one of them, you're not going to get a heck of a lot done.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

Now, for this book I had to learn the world of the Senate, which is really for all that's written about the Senate, an unknowing world and its mores, and the way things work with subcommittees and all. I loved learning about that.

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.

The history of Congress shows that once parliamentary tools become big enough obstacles for the majority party, they are abolished or reformed.

What happens is that, you know, on Mondays, at least in the Senate, you know, Monday night we'd have what you'd call a bed-check vote. Just to get, you know, the machinery of the Senate up and running so they can start the committee process; on Tuesday morning, things go. By Thursday, you know, jet fumes, the smell of jet fumes.

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.

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

The House of Representatives eliminated the filibuster way back in the 19th century, and somehow it managed to survive.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'

I'm the only person that has ever run a principle-based legislative body.

Just as we cool our coffee at the breakfast table we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it

What is the value of bringing a bill to the floor without the members having an opportunity to read it.

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

Congress no longer exercises its lawful function of lawmaking; that has gone to the committees.

All free governments must consist of two councils, a lesser and a greater.

No check is necessary on a Legislature composed as the national Legislature would be, with two branches—an upper and a lower House.

There’s a sausage machine on Capitol Hill. We’ve given the sausage machine the right kind of ingredients. Now it’s up to the sausage machine to turn out the right kind of legislation.

Being a freshman Senator, you spend your first 18 months just trying to find out how the Senate works.

I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care if the Senate doesn’t do one other piece of business this year. You’ve got to keep this bill on the floor. You can tell Mansfield [the Senate Majority Leader] … The President of the United States doesn’t care if this bill is there forever. We are not going to have anything else hit the floor until this bill is passed.

We all went up to Washington on a mission to change things. What I found is that the Founding Fathers set it up where it's a little more difficult to do. We've got the Senate and the president to deal with.

Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.

The Indian government is extraordinarily large, and it is difficult to try and believe that one leader can make all the change. This is a federal system.

I think the thing that's impressed me the most has been the fantastic professionalism of the officials in the Senate.

You have to understand government and you have to understand how hard it is.