Legislation Quotes - Page 8

• Don't condemn the gangbangers, they've got guns that are trafficked, that are not enforced, that are straw purchased and they come into places even that have strong gun laws. Why? Because we don't have sensible gun legislation.

  Sheila Jackson Lee

  Strong, Stupid, Gun

  170 Copy quote

• To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for the common defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust.

  James Madison

  Views, Giving, Special

  James Madison (1819). “The Writings of James Madison: 1808-1819”, p.387

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The administration of private justice between the citizens of the same state, the supervision of agriculture and of other concerns of a similar nature, all those things in short which are proper to be provided for by local legislation, can never be desirable cares of a general jurisdiction . . . the attempt to exercise these powers would be as troublesome as it would be nugatory; and the possession of them, for that reason, would contribute nothing to the dignity, to the importance, or to the splendour of the national government.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Exercise, Agriculture, Government

  25 Copy quote

• There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable. Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence.

  James Madison

  Mean, Thinking, Knowing

  6 Copy quote

• Bills of attainder, ex-post facto laws and laws impairing the obligation of contracts are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.

  James Madison

  Law, Sound, Principles

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.207

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of government.

  James Madison

  Party, Government, Regulation

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.49, Coventry House Publishing

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• One single object . . . [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gratitude, Judging, Politics

  14 Copy quote

• It's time for me to give out an award to newly elected Majority Leader John Boehner. Mr. Boehner was elected just a few days ago to reform House Republicans, who are feeling the heat from lobbyist scandals. Well, CNN found out that he rents his two-bedroom apartment from a lobbyist who had clients who had interests in legislation that Boehner sponsored. And for that, Mr. Boehner, you've just won a pair of Stephen Colbert's big brass balls.

  Stephen Colbert

  Two, Cnn, Awards

  4 Copy quote

• The ideas embodied in the New Deal Legislation were a compilation of those which had come to maturity under Herbert Hoover’s aegis. We all of us owed much to Hoover

  Rexford Tugwell

  Maturity, Ideas, Hoover

  12 Copy quote

• I said last year, and I still believe there are the votes in the House to pass Death with Dignity legislation.

  Shap Smith

  Believe, Years, House

  5 Copy quote

• We should not use special budget procedures to jam through legislation to drill in the Arctic Refuge. This topic is too important to the public to address it in such a back-door manner. We should be having a full, open discussion of the issue during an energy debate.

  Russ Feingold

  Issues, Doors, Special

  21 Copy quote

• The idea that money is corrupting innocent politicians would be laughable if it did not lead to such dangerous legislation.

  Thomas Sowell

  Ideas, Political, Would Be

  8 Copy quote

• I watch too much cable, I admit. Day after day it gets frustrating. Yesterday I watched as someone called legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout - but I know thats not a view held by many, nor were the views I was frustrated about.

  Robert Gibbs

  Teacher, Views, Yesterday

  "Robert Gibbs Clarifies “Professional Left” Criticism, Calls Initial Comments Inartful" by Sam Stein, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 10, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The moment this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject slavery, it dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach, and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood.

  James Henry Hammond

  War, Taken, Home

  James Henry Hammond (1836). “Remarks of Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, on the Question of Receiving Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia”, p.12

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am 100 percent supportive of the stand-alone bill to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell' that Sens. Lieberman and Collins have now proposed, and indeed I will co-sponsor that legislation. It is time for this discriminatory policy to end, and I am willing to pursue any effective legislative path that could lead to that result

  Carl Levin

  Supportive, Bills, Path

  4 Copy quote

• Oppositions are not there to get legislation through. Oppositions are there to hold the government to account.

  Tony Abbott

  Government, Accounts, Opposition

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Law, Two, Body

  "Callanan v. United States, 364 U.S. 587". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. January 9, 1961.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Eastern Washington has experienced a number of deadly forest fires this season, and it is crucial that we have bipartisan legislation that will expedite the research and restoration process.

  Cathy McMorris Rodgers

  Numbers, Fire, Forests

  8 Copy quote

• As much progress as we think we've made with legislation, litigation and education, anti-Semitism still continues to be the No. 2 hate crime in the United States. You can't eliminate it, but you can try to keep a lid on it.

  Abraham Foxman

  Hate, Thinking, Progress

  4 Copy quote

• The overarching issue, as I see it, is the elitism of America's political system; the fact that regular, ordinary Americans aren't considered in policy debates or legislation, and regularly get shafted by the powers-that-be in Washington.

  Jerry Springer

  America, Issues, Political

  "Democratic Veteran". Interview with Jo Fish, June 23, 2003.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• For years, my colleagues and I - primarily Republicans but also some Democrats - have introduced legislation and written to the FCC asking the commission to cease attempts to regulate the Internet unless given the clear authority to do so by Congress.

  Mary Bono

  Years, Fcc, Asking

  4 Copy quote

• There are bills being discussed to raise the amount that Members of Congress pay in to their benefits and I support these pieces of legislation.

  Rob Woodall

  Support, Pieces, Benefits

  "Rob Woodall Won’t Give Up Government Health Care ‘Because It’s Free’" by Ryan Grim, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 25, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you have laws and legislation that ban certain things based on the principles of the Scriptures and based on your Christian background, then let it stand there. Who is having big debates with the Islamic people about it (gay rights)? Who is telling them to bend their laws? If your laws are based on your Christian points of view, then you must stand your ground?

  Bishop Noel Jones

  Christian, Islamic, Gay

  61 Copy quote

• Without question, the true goal of some in Congress is to create a system of socialized medicine. It's politically expedient to slap a "patients’ rights" label on legislation that simply leads us closer to a complete government takeover of medicine.

  Ron Paul

  Rights, Government, Medicine

  "Bill Of Rights . . . Or Federal Takeover Of Medicine?". www.heartland.org. August 1, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All "public interest' legislation (and any distribution of money taken by force from some men for the unearned benefit of others) comes down ultimately to the grant of an undefined undefinable, non-objective, arbitrary power to some government officials. The worst aspect of it is not that such a power can be used dishonestly, but that it cannot be used honestly. The wisest man in the world, with the purest integrity, cannot find a criterion for the just, equitable, rational application of an unjust, inequitable, irrational principle.

  Ayn Rand

  Integrity, Taken, Men

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.161, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

  Show source