12.18.13

Ranking Member Sessions Comments On Passage Of Ryan-Murray Spending Package

“Majority Leader Reid rushed through this closed-door deal without a single amendment.”

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement tonight after the Senate voted 64-36 to adopt the Ryan-Murray spending package:

"I appreciate the earnest work that went into crafting this proposal and the sincere policy disagreements on both sides. Had amendments been allowed in the Senate, we could have fixed the problematic features of this proposal, some of which have only recently been uncovered.

The Senate is supposed to function as a deliberative body where bills are carefully considered, amended, and debated. Instead, Majority Leader Reid rushed through this closed-door deal without a single amendment. His conference blocked my amendment, for instance, to replace pension cuts for wounded warriors with the closure of a tax welfare loophole.

At present we are left with a tax-and-spend plan that also removes a procedural tool to prevent Senate Democrats from exceeding spending limits and raising taxes again in the future.

[NOTE: To view a section-by-section description of the legislation from Budget Committee Republican analysts, please click here. To view additional information about Sessions’ amendment to replace military pension cuts with the closing of the illegal alien welfare loophole, please click here.]