Mike Lee

[O]n January 10 I authorized all defense components to begin taking immediate actions to slow spending in order to prevent even more dire consequences later in the year.

I didn't come prepared to cite Supreme Court precedent on this point but it's a well known fact --

Not aware of one person who is saying children with glasses are going to be taken away from their parents.

The U.S. has a moral obligation to act immediately if there's concrete proof Syrian troops have loaded chemical weapons that are ready to be launched.

U.S. law, including the Americans with disabilities act, already provides the worldwide gold standard on the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities.

Well, you can't assume that because something hasn't happened already, that it couldn't happen in the future.

Typically, Anderson, we use treaties to deal with international relations, to deal with the law of nations acting on the world scene. This deals with a lot of issues that are distinctively domestic in nature.

Well, I respectfully disagree with the former attorney general's conclusions. I look at the treaty and I see one provision that arguably sets in place international entitlement rights, another provision that can be read to undermine the…

That is why it is so important to get this right right now.

The way you discern the intent of the legislature is by the language that they use.

The Senate does in fact have control over its own calendar. Article 1 makes that pretty clear.

I certainly appreciate your concerns. I respect and I agree with your desire to ensure that we have civility marking all of our proceedings in Congress.

Political philosophers for centuries have believed that centralization of power brings about an unacceptable risk of tyranny.

But when the executive branch contravenes, contradicts that policy as established in Federal statute, that we have the wrong body in effect legislating, the executive branch rather than the legislative branch.

We cannot ignore abuses of power because if we ignore them then they become part of the established practice and tradition within the constitutional system and that is dangerous.

These things happen not because we have had bad men as Presidents. We haven't, we have had good men, that includes our current President.

Congress is free, the Federal Government is free to grant religious exceptions and doing so does not amount to an establishment clause violation.

Making sure there is a religious exemption here would not in my opinion cause either of the two problems that have been suggested.

I was personally somewhat concerned when we got involved in military action in Libya without any prior consultation of Congress.

Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, whether you are a liberal or a conservative, whether you are pro-immigration reform or anti-immigration reform, especially if you are a Member of Congress, and in any event if you favor the rule…

When the Administration starts to overstep its bounds and uses administrative agencies in a way that restricts on fundamental First Amendment freedoms you are seeing a serious problem and you are seeing a serious overreach of Executive…

Here with this Executive order we have what is in effect a piece of legislation. It didn't go through Congress.

To legislate is to make rules, rules carrying the force of generally applicable law.

The Constitution in its opening line, right after the Preamble in Article I, Section 1 says that all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in the Congress which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.

The Constitution itself gives each House of Congress the prerogative of determining its own schedule