Chairman's Press
Budget Republicans Call For Hearing To Uncover Why CLASS Act Warnings Were Not Made Public
"Transparency is crucial… There are a number of important questions that remain unanswered." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, were joined today by Republican Members of the Senate Budget Committee in sending a letter to Chairman Kent Conrad to request a hearing on the CLASS Act, a long-term care program created as part of the president's health care law. … Continue Reading
10.05.11
Sessions, Snowe Unveil ‘Honest Budget Act’ To Strip Away Washington’s Most Outrageous Gimmicks
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today announced the introduction of the Honest Budget Act, a nine-plank legislative package that targets Washington's most dishonest budget gimmicks and accounting tricks: "Washington relies on an astonishing array of dishonest budget gimmicks to enable and conceal countless billions in federa… Continue Reading
10.04.11
Sessions Encourages Adoption Of Biennial Budget Reform
"I have long-supported [biennial budget] legislation and am eager to begin renewed work on this proposal… But the process reform will achieve little if we don't address the underlying problem: the ideology of big government. As long as Washington operates under the idea that the federal government is the first and best solution to all our problems, then our budget will always tend to be too large, too hard to manage, and place too heavy a burden on the economy." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff… Continue Reading
09.27.11
Sessions Addresses Debate Over Disaster Funding In CR
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding spending offsets for disaster funding in the continuing resolution now under consideration in the Senate: "Throughout this year we have seen a stark contrast: Republicans in Congress have tried to responsibly manage the federal budget by reducing those expenditures which are not necessary and by better paying for those which are. Democrats in Congress have res… Continue Reading
09.27.11
Sessions Comments On Stopgap Funding Measure
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the consideration of a short-term continuing resolution: "The current debate over yet another stopgap funding measure should be understood in one fundamental context: Senate Democrats have shunned their basic governing responsibility. They failed to follow regular order, produce appropriations bills, or pass a budget in 875 days." ###… Continue Reading
09.27.11
Sessions Asks: What Did Sebelius Know About Health Program’s Unsustainable Cost?
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, joined a bicameral group of lawmakers in sending a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, about the CLASS Act, a long-term care program created as part of the president's healthcare bill. The letter calls on Sebelius to explain her agency's plan for the implementation of CLASS, and to answer questions about when she first became aware of internal HHS concerns… Continue Reading
09.20.11
At Budget Hearing, Sessions Details “Astounding” Inaccuracies In President’s Plan
"The White House says that the president's plan achieves $3.2 trillion in deficit reduction. The actual deficit reduction is only $1.4 trillion… The White House asserts $2 in cuts for every $1 in tax hikes… In reality, under the president's plan, the net change in spending is an increase… This has become the pattern: the president understates the depth of our fiscal danger, then overstates the scope of his fiscal plans." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Me… Continue Reading
09.19.11
Sessions: No Net Spending Cuts In President’s Deficit Plan
"The White House is trying to be clever at the expense of being credible… [they claim] the president's plan is $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. But in truth, the president's deficit reduction comes entirely from tax hikes. Total federal spending, including the stimulus, will increase under the president's plan, not decrease. On balance, there is not a penny of net spending that is cut… This plan is gimmick piled upon gimmick, adding up to little more than a tax hike c… Continue Reading
09.16.11
Sessions Remarks On President’s Stimulus Plan And Discredited Keynesian Predictions
"Now, in the grips of crisis, we are told the president has a new plan to revive the economy. We received a proposal on Monday, with no fiscal details, that just offers more of the same. It calls for a sudden increase in the deficit with a promise to pay for it at a later date… Why should we continue to trust the 'masters of the universe' who tell us that we can spend and borrow our way to prosperity? They've been wrong from the beginning… Indeed, [committee witness] Dr. Zandi, who… Continue Reading
09.14.11
Sessions To White House: Stimulus Plan Sent To Congress Missing Key Information
"When we received a copy of the legislation yesterday, we were expecting the Office of Management and Budget-which enjoys a five hundred person staff-to provide a precise and detailed estimate of the fiscal impact of the president's proposal. But no such information was provided… Perhaps even more troubling, however, is that despite the emphatic promise that we would learn yesterday how the bill would be offset, this information is missing too." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sess… Continue Reading
09.12.11
Sessions On President's Upcoming Address: A Speech Is No Substitute For A Budget
"Today's dismal jobs numbers further demonstrate that the country needs much more than a speech-it needs the confidence and certainty that only a concrete fiscal plan can provide." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the president's upcoming address to Congress in light of today's figures showing that no net jobs were added last month, and in light of the president's submission of budget revisio… Continue Reading
09.12.11
Addressing Concerns With 'Paid For' Promise, Sessions Says President Must Submit Debt and Job Plans Together
"The president?s intention to release the details of his spending and deficit reduction plans separately, over a series of weeks, suggests he does not comprehend the debilitating impact America?s debt is having on the economy right now, and casts additional doubt on the president?s sincerity in paying for his latest „stimulus? program." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, remarked today on the president's plan to release separately his… Continue Reading
09.12.11
Sessions Warns That President's New Borrowing Will Weaken Economy
"The president's plan makes a mockery of the recent debt limit deal. That agreement cut $7 billion in appropriations next year but the president now wants to borrow hundreds of billions more to finance a second stimulus package… Saying that something is 'paid for' isn't enough… Borrowing even more to spend immediately in exchange for vague promises of distant future cuts means that we are digging ourselves into a deeper fiscal hole and moving quickly in the wrong direction." WASHI… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions: President Fostering Uncertainty, Unpredictability In Economy
"Our nation's total debt has now officially eclipsed the size of our entire economy… but the president continues his call for more failed government 'investments.' We need certainty and predictability, not more experiments in progressive economics." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to the July employment report, which showed the unemployment rate nearly unchanged at 9.1 percent: "Un… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Opposes Debt Limit Bill: 'Answer is More Accountability, Not Less'
"The new normal in Washington has become panic-driven 11th hour votes in which Members are told to fall into line before pandemonium ensues. This is no way to run the Congress or to run the government… No select committee or secret meeting is going to force the Congress to look in the mirror or to look the American people in the eye." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement today after voting in opposition to … Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Reacts To Announcement Of Late-Hour Debt Limit Deal
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement this evening following the announcement that a deal had been reached to raise the debt ceiling: "I am glad that this matter appears to be on its way to resolution prior to August 2nd. However, I have warned from the very beginning that by shunning our legislative process and Senate heritage we would find ourselves in the 11th hour forced to vote on a bill with little or no time for meani… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Comments On Possibility Of Last-Minute Debt Deal
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the current status of debt negotiations as the Senate awaits a vote on Majority Leader Reid's debt limit proposal: "One thing every American should know: the level of spending cuts currently being discussed is only a small step. It will not change the debt course we are on. The Republican House has passed several measures, including a historic budget, which wo… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Remarks On Senate Democrats’ Rejection Of House Debt Limit Extension
"If the White House or the Democrat leadership in the Senate had taken the legally required budget process seriously at any point in the last year-if they had presented a single credible plan to cut spending-we wouldn't be here right now in the 11th hour." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following comment today after voting against tabling the House-passed Budget Control Act. The motion to table was agreed to: "I am disappoin… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Budget Committee Republicans Warn Reid Against Attempting End-Run Around Budget Law In Debt Bill
"Had the Senate adopted a budget in a timely manner this year, as the House of Representatives did, we would not be at an impasse on the debt limit increase at the 11th hour…[your] provision would provide a further excuse for avoiding a budget and increase the likelihood the Congressional Budget Act will be violated for a third straight year. This is an abrogation of the responsibilities of the Senate Committee on the Budget and the U.S. Senate." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions: Reid's Accounting Hoax And Dem Leaders' Budget Law Defiance Has Brought Us To 11th Hour
"If the year had begun with a serious budget proposal from the president, we wouldn't be in this mess right now… Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have refused to pass a budget in 820 days or even present one this year… Democrats defied the law and sound policy all year long and now we are paying the price… There have been suggestions that Republicans are simply unwilling to budge from their position. But the Boehner proposal represents only a small portion of the cuts Republica… Continue Reading