Jay Rockefeller Quotes on Government (7 Quotes)

Everything is about accountability to the American people, accountability of the executive branch ... and accountability of the oversight of the Congress,

If they misled about the war and if they misused intelligence, then the American people need to know that the Congress will do everything in its power to make sure that it never happens again,

If we had prescribed in Congress each of the relationships between the agencies, I think that would have been an enormous mistake and would have rendered this person more useless. This person can exercise power, and I think that's good.

If the Senate oversight committees are either unwilling or unable to tackle the tough but necessary questions associated with detention, interrogation or rendition of prisoners, then we should step aside -- regrettably, if we have to -- and let the work be done by others unfettered by other considerations,

Any time the intelligence committee pursued a line of inquiry that brought us close to the role of the White House in all of this in the use of intelligence prior to the war, our efforts have been thwarted time and time again, ... The very independence of the United States Congress as a separate and coequal branch of the government has been called into question.

Grassley is a very good chairman, very fair, and he tries his very best to be bipartisan, ... But the Senate Finance Committee is made up of a lot of 'true believers' that people should exercise personal responsibility, that the governors will do the right thing... For them, it's about balancing the budget. For me, it's about taking care of a huge chunk of West Virginia... I was a governor, and this makes me very nervous.

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.