Oversight
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
05.30.14
Record Number Of Men In Prime Working Years Are Not In The Workforce
There are currently 61.1 million American men in their prime working years, age 25-54. A staggering 1 in 8 such men are not in the labor force at all, meaning they are neither working nor looking for work. This is an all-time high dating back to when records were first kept in 1955. An additional 2.9 million men are in the labor force but not employed (i.e., they are looking for jobs). That means a total of 10.2 million men aged 25-54 - or one out of every 6 men in his prime working years - are … 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
04.24.14
The Economy Since 2009
The recession officially ended in June 2009, but by nearly every measure, the period since has seen the slowest economic recovery since the end of World War II. Job creation is historically low for this point in a recovery, investment is poor despite record low interest rates, and labor supply is sluggish. Every day that passes in this "snail economy" sees working Americans slip further away from the income gains that could have been theirs in a normal recovery. At the aggregate level, the econ… Continue Reading
04.17.14
CBO Analysis: The President’s FY 2015 Budget
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the President's budget would increase the 2015 deficit to $509 billion, up 3.5 percent from the $492 billion deficit CBO estimates for 2014. Over 10 years, CBO projects that the President's policies would result in deficits of $6.6 trillion and total federal debt of $26.1 trillion. The President's budget would increase deficits by $117 billion over the first five years covered by the plan, and reduce deficits by just $261 billion over the ful… 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
04.01.14
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At Hearing On Economic Challenges Facing Working Americans
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today at a Budget Committee hearing on opportunity, mobility, and inequality in today's economy: "Thank you, Chairman Murray, for holding this important discussion today. A sober review of the data reveals that the economic situation for too many Americans remains unacceptable. Household incomes have declined each of the last five years. The number of households at… Continue Reading
03.28.14
Economic Growth In 2013 Just Half Of What The President Said His Policies Would Deliver
In 2009, President Obama predicted his policies would produce 4.2 percent growth in 2013-more than double the actual, anemic growth rate of 1.9 percent. Since making that projection, President Obama has had much of his economic agenda implemented: the $870 billion stimulus bill, Dodd-Frank financial regulations, Obamacare, restrictions on American energy, $1.7 trillion in higher taxes, unfettered regulation, etc. Our debt has soared from $10.6 trillion to $17.5 trillion on the promise that this … Continue Reading
03.28.14
CBO: Interests Costs To Dwarf Virtually Every Federal Expense
The U.S. gross federal debt currently stands at $17.548 trillion, and net interest payments to our creditors are the fastest-growing item in the budget. In 2014, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the nation will spend $233 billion on interest payments. By the end of the budget window in 2024, however, CBO forecasts that interest payments will nearly quadruple to an astonishing $880 billion. Every dollar spent paying our creditors is a dollar wasted-money for which we get nothing in r… Continue Reading
03.12.14
SBC Summary And Analysis Of President Obama's FY 2015 Budget
Spending in 2015 would total $3.901 trillion under the President's spending policies, an increase of nearly 8 percent ($279 billion) above today's levels. This is $114 billion more than the OMB baseline, which assumes compliance with the Budget Control Act (BCA) as revised by the Ryan-Murray spending agreement. The President's budget recommends $1.759 trillion in higher revenues over the next 10 years. The budget also assumes $1.386 trillion in higher revenues from generous economic assumptions… Continue Reading
