Fred Thompson

There's a lot more to competence than a law degree and a modicum of courtroom skill.

So if you look back over the long history of China, they've never tried to take over the world, but they've been quite aggressive in their own neighborhood... in carrying out their own purposes and interests in their sphere of the world.

Nobody wants to open a business near a Superfund site and risk being sued.

In the end, we may be hurting the very people we should be concerned about - the inner-city poor, those who already have to live with many risks in their daily lives, those who do not have clout here in Washington.

For example, lead paint in old houses can be a greater threat to children's health than lead that may be under some industrial site where there are no children.

The problem is that agencies sometimes lose sight of common sense as they create regulations.

We have some real political differences among us, but we all share the same goals: clean air and water, injury free workplaces, safe transportation systems, to name a few of the good things that can come from regulation.

For a long time in American history, people didn't even come up before the Senate. They didn't come before the Judiciary Committee, and up until about 1923, something like that.

While we believe there are fruitful opportunities to update and improve old rules, we do not want to set up a review process that could create a litigation morass.