Ranking Member Press
Sessions Announces Opposition To Controversial Budget Nominee
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in opposition to the nomination of Heather Higginbottom to be Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget: "Ms. Higginbottom has no real budget experience. She would be the least qualified nominee to hold this post in decades. During her hearing she struggled to defend the administration's indefensible claim that the president's debt-doubling budget would no… Continue Reading
10.18.11
Sessions Unveils Amendments Combat Billions In Waste, Gimmicks As He Challenges President To Do The Same
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, spoke on the Senate floor today as he announced the filing of the following three amendments to the pending "mini-bus" appropriations package: No CHiMPs that don't save money-This amendment would create a 60-vote point of order against any appropriations bill if it includes CHiMPs that do not reduce outlays over the ten-year window. The current bill includes $7.5 billion in phony CHiMPs savings. Since 20… Continue Reading
10.14.11
Sessions On CLASS Act Termination: ‘Very Troubling Questions Remain’
"Very troubling questions remain about why this crucial information was not disclosed prior to the bill's passage and I continue to believe that the Senate Budget Committee's majority should hold a hearing with Secretary Sibelius at once." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the notification from the Obama Administration that it was dismantling the controversial CLASS Act program, the sustainabi… Continue Reading
10.14.11
Bipartisan Senate Budget Committee Leaders Submit Recommendations On Process Reform To Deficit Reduction Joint Committee
WASHINGTON-Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) today submitted bipartisan recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The two Budget Committee leaders urged the panel to strengthen the congressional budget process and to switch to a two-year, or biennial, budget cycle. Upon release of the letter, the text of which is pasted below, Sessions issued the following statement: "I'm pleased that Chairman Conrad and I have… Continue Reading
10.14.11
Sessions, Ryan: 900 Days Since Senate Democrats Offered Budget Plan Is ‘National Disgrace’
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, issued the following joint statement today to mark the 900th day since Senate Democrats last adopted a formal budget plan as required by the Congressional Budget Act: "America is greatly in need of strong, competent leadership. Our nation's total debt is now larger than our entire economy. Unemployment is painfully high and growth is … Continue Reading
10.11.11
Sessions: President’s Jobs Bill Rejected Over Substance, Not Politics
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as voting continued on proceeding to President Obama's second stimulus bill, with members on both sides of the aisle voting in opposition: "The president has demanded a jobs bill vote and he got it. The Senate tonight is set to reject his latest tax-and-spend plan that would dig our debt hole nearly $500 billion deeper and increase taxes. This bill was not rejected for… Continue Reading
10.06.11
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
