Oversight Failure Quotes

We thought we would get around to it sometime down the line. Theoretically we could have regulated it, but it wasn't on our radar screen.

I want to emphasis again, Governor (Thomas) Kean and Congressman (Lee) Hamilton pointed out that congressional oversight also was a major contributor to our failures prior to 9/11 and that has to be fixed as well.

In the absence of sound oversight, responsible businesses are forced to compete against unscrupulous and underhanded businesses, who are unencumbered by any restrictions on activities that might harm the environment, or take advantage of middle-class families, or threaten to bring down the entire financial system.

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.

Complacency by the watchdogs hurts both taxpayers and beneficiaries.

I will say, nothing in my time in the Senate has more surprised me than senators and House members want to weigh in on everything under the sun, but they do not want to weigh in on a clearly defined constitutional duty to declare war. It just stuns me.

Given the large size of the illegal harvest, ... I find it difficult to understand how this could have been a casual oversight.

For the past three years, the Senate intelligence committee has avoided carrying out its oversight of our nation's intelligence programs whenever the White House becomes uncomfortable with the questions being asked. The very independence of this committee is called into question.

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.

The last 6 months make it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work.

The deficit is the symptom, but spending is the disease.