Federal Oversight Quotes

The creation of a consumer agency, structured similarly to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, levels the playing field. It gives consumers a powerful advocate at the federal level.

Washington, DC does not have to live with much of what they produce legislatively for us.

I have never seen conduct of the Federal Government so egregious.

The CARFA Act is about accountability in the federal government: making sure that taxpayers are getting their money's worth and not being defrauded. This is a bipartisan concept, and it is worthy of broad support across the Congress.

I think there are too many bosses in Washington telling Nashville Diesel College and Harvard University how to run - how to run their campuses, and I'd like to reduce the number of Washington regulations on higher education and keep this marketplace of wonderful institutions among which students can choose; that's oriented toward job growth.

Simply put, broadband voice is an interstate matter that must be dealt with through clear national standards.

The Miccosukee facility in Miami only offers bingo, poker, and video gambling machines. Because it does not have slot machines or table games, the Miccosukee tribe doesn't need an agreement with the state. The Miccosukees only answer to the federal government.

Among the most serious allegations a federal court can address are that an Executive agency has targeted citizens for mistreatment based on their political views. No citizen - Republican or Democrat, Socialist or libertarian - should be targeted or even have to fear being targeted on those grounds.

TSA serves as the operator, administrator and regulator for the nation's transportation security. But in fact, the TSA bureaucracy does all it can to thwart any conversion to a system with more private-sector operations and strong federal oversight and standards. This agency cannot, and should not, do it all.

Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled as they have been during the Bush administration. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance.

The Federal Elections Commission is impotent by design.

We need to do a top/bottom review of the federal government and for every agency administration bureaucracy that is not called for in the United States Constitution, we have to really ask the question what is its purpose, how many people work there, how much does it cost the taxpayers and what is the value to our society.

However, the sovereignty of the states is constitutionally defined and recognized, while the powers of the local government in Puerto Rico are defined by, and subject to alteration under, federal statutory law.

Under the United States Constitution, the federal government has no authority to hold states "accountable" for their education performance...In the free society envisioned by the founders, schools are held accountable to parents, not federal bureaucrats.

A federal Voters' Bill of Rights could press the states to put non-partisan managers in charge of elections.

People frequently say that it is human nature to want to gamble and, therefore, you cannot prevent it. It seems to me there are ways of satisfying this enjoyment in gambling without encouraging widespread crime organizations. Much of what we read about could not possibly go on without the connivance of government officials in cities and states and even at the Federal level.

We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the obligations, their obligations as teachers. We want them to know how to teach the science of reading. In order to make sure there's not this kind of federal-federal cufflink.

I believe the public's confidence would be increased if the federal government took over the functions of airport security screening for all passengers.

To be clear, we the Department of Education want curriculum to be driven by the local level. We are by law prohibited from directing curriculum. We don't have a curriculum department.

The Federal Communications Commission needs to listen and serve the American people, not special interests.

I think Common Core is a disaster. That doesn't mean there can't be a little tentacle left of the Department of Education, like 5 percent, just in terms of local coordination, perhaps.

There are issues the EPA should be dealing with. When I talk about the EPA and its role with the states, it's not an abolitionist view, that we don't need that agency. It's that the agency should act within the outlines established by Congress.

The Federal Highway Administration has allowed states to take advantage of a loophole in federal regulations, delaying bridge inspections to every four years instead of the two years normally required.

The federal, state, and local governments are involved in virtually every aspect of business.

We [Congress] weren't elected by the people of the District [of Columbia] to be the city's government, but we do have a federal responsibility.