Ranking Member Press
Ranking Member Sessions Opposes Donovan Nomination To Head OMB
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after voting in committee against the nomination of HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to be the next director of the Office of Management and Budget: "During this time of growing financial danger, the Office of Management and Budget should be led by one of the most disciplined and skilled financial managers in the country. Instead, in Mr. Donovan, we have an inexperienced nom… Continue Reading
06.19.14
HHS Ignores Rule Of Law To Transfer Billions Of Dollars To Insurers Through PPACA Risk Corridor Program
WASHINGTON-The Department of Health and Human Services this week responded to a recent letter from Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) regarding the department's legal authority to issue payments under the President's health care law's risk corridor program. Now, HHS argues that the risk corridor program would be considered a user fee in order to justify its authority to make payments under the program, bu… Continue Reading
06.18.14
Sessions Testifies Before House Oversight Committee On HHS’ Lack Of Legal Authority To Make Obamacare Risk Corridor Payments
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: "Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Cartwright, and members of the Committee: thank you for inviting me here today to discuss a specific concern that our Budget Committee staff has identified with the risk corridor program in the President's health law. But the issue is much broader than … Continue Reading
06.12.14
Sessions Warns That HHS Risk Corridor Payments Under Obamacare Would Be Illegal
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the letter he and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) sent to new Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell: "It is plain that under current law, the Obama Administration does not have the ability to divert money from programs that Congress has funded to one that it has not. Congress alone was given the power of the purse-th… Continue Reading
06.11.14
Sessions Opening Statement At Hearing On The Nomination Of President’s Budget Director
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today regarding the nomination of Shaun Donovan to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget: "Secretary Donovan, thank you for joining us here today. You will get a fair hearing, and I will carefully consider your record and your testimony here today in reaching my decision about whether to support your confirmation. The Director of the Office of Managem… Continue Reading
06.11.14
Sessions, Upton Press HHS For Answers On ‘Unlawful’ Risk Corridor Payments
In letter to Secretary Burwell: "Under current law, payments made under the risk corridor program would constitute an unlawful transfer of potentially billions of taxpayer dollars…" WASHINGTON-Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) today released a letter to newly-installed Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell regarding the legal ability of HHS to issue payments to health insurance prov… Continue Reading
06.06.14
Sessions: 7 Million People Have Left The Workforce Since The President Took Office
"There are still 3.2 million fewer full-time employed persons than there were in 2007. Since President Obama came into office in 2009, 7.2 million people have left the workforce entirely. One out of every six men aged 25-54 is not working." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the May jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: "Today's jobs numbers are only enough to tread even with popula… Continue Reading
06.06.14
Sessions: Burwell’s OMB Record Demonstrates She Should Not Be Placed In Charge Of Obamacare
"Ms. Burwell does not have the background one associates with a position of this magnitude. Nor does she possess the specific experience and skills critically needed today. The OMB office she now holds has 500 employees. HHS has 72,000… [Additionally,] her time as Director of the Office of Management and Budget was controversial. The budget plan she submitted to Congress plainly violated the spending caps we passed into law. Yet… to my dismay she went to enormous lengths during her… Continue Reading
05.23.14
Ranking Member Sessions Comments On The Nomination Of New OMB Director
"The Office of Management and Budget should be one of the least political departments of government. But the President has made it into one of the most political… What we need in this position is someone who will demonstrate political independence and finally tell the American people the bitter truth about how badly their finances are being handled." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding Pr… Continue Reading
05.13.14
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement On Economic Challenges Facing American Women
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today at a hearing on the weak state of the American economy and the challenges facing women and families: "Chairman Murray, thank you for holding this important hearing today. There is no question that the state of our economy remains poor, and that millions of American families are barely scraping by: Workforce participation rate for women is now at its lowest … Continue Reading
05.08.14
Sessions Comments On Yellen Testimony Before The Budget Committee
"Not only did the Fed not avert the 2007 crisis, but its policies helped to foster it. And while the big firms were bailed out and the big spenders in Washington quickly frittered away a trillion dollars of borrowed stimulus, the American worker soldiered on in a weak economy. We can't pump our way to prosperity..." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's te… Continue Reading
05.08.14
Sessions Delivers Opening Remarks At Hearing With Fed Chair Janet Yellen
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today at a hearing discussing the state of the economy with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen: "Thank you, Chairman Yellen, for appearing before our committee today. I look forward to our discussion. Like the foundation of a home, America's economy must be built on something real, something solid, and something firmly planted. Neither federal stimulus in the form … Continue Reading
05.06.14
Sessions: Murray Filed Budget Numbers To Spend $19 Billion More This Year
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the deemed budget allocations that Chairman Patty Murray was required to file in the Congressional Record as a condition of the Ryan-Murray spending deal: "I'm disappointed that Senate Democrats have chosen to make yet another end-run around the Murray-Ryan spending limits in an effort to spend $19 billion more this year than we agreed to. While House Budget C… Continue Reading
05.06.14
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At Hearing On President’s Education Budget
"Congress and the President agreed to certain spending limits, but now you are simply proposing to spend well above that… This is not acceptable. If you and the Administration want to spend more money on education, you must make it a priority, reducing spending somewhere else… More federal money is not a substitute for the support of a family or community, for the value of a role model or mentor, or the quality of a great teacher. More money cannot make a student do his homework o… Continue Reading
05.02.14
Ranking Member Sessions Statement On April Jobs Report
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the April jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: "For every one job added, almost three people left the workforce. In fact, all of the decrease in the unemployment rate is attributed to the 988,000 more people who are not in the labor force at all. So while it is welcome news anytime jobs are added, these larger workforce departures point to a more f… Continue Reading
05.01.14
Sessions Investigates Disability Benefits Being Awarded On Basis Of Inability To Speak English
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent a letter today to the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration regarding high rates of approval for Social Security Disability claims, including the fact that the inability to communicate in English is being treated as a determinative factor in getting approved for these taxpayer-funded benefits. The text of Sessions' letter follows: "Dear Acting Commissioner Colvin: I write to expr… Continue Reading
04.11.14
Ranking Member Sessions On Nomination of President’s Budget Director To Head HHS, Implement Health Law
"Director Burwell's nomination must and will be considered fairly, and with an open mind... [She] has a comparatively thin resume for the demands now placed on this position-she has never run anything on the scale of HHS-and, during her short stint as budget director, she did more to obscure the nation's poor financial state than to illuminate it." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about the nomination … Continue Reading
04.10.14
Sessions Questions National Endowment For The Humanities Over Dubious Expenditures
"News reports indicate that NEH has contributed close to $1 million to the [Popular Romance Project]… The program 'will explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, song, and internet fan fiction…' Now is not the time for us to come up with creative ways to spend money. Now is the time for us to come up with creative ways to save money. NEH is obligated to do its part. Eliminating some of thes… Continue Reading
04.08.14
Sessions: Americans Are Right To Believe Washington Has Stacked The Deck Against Them
"Washington and Wall Street are booming. The greatest growth area in the United States is Washington, DC… Lobbyists, consultants, and politicians are doing quite well. But median household incomes have declined by $2,268 since 2009… Tax, spend, borrow, and regulate is not only dangerous, but it won't create jobs and higher wages. We must act to create more jobs and rising incomes-without adding to the debt. Here's how…" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Mem… Continue Reading
04.03.14
Sessions Writes To Small Business Administration About Cost Of Loan Program
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released a letter today sent to U.S. Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet concerning the cost of SBA's 7(a) loan program. The text of Sessions' letter follows: "Dear Administrator Contreras-Sweet: Encouraging lending to small businesses is one of the primary purposes of the Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA's main program to achieve that goal is the flagship 7(a) loan guarantee… Continue Reading
