Oversight
Ranking Member Sessions Opposes Debt Limit Increase
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the debt limit increase: "This measure would increase America's debt limit approximately $1 trillion while failing to reduce spending by a single penny. And the legislation takes no steps whatsoever to eliminate gimmicks that allow spending above our budget limits. The tax, spend, and borrow agenda in Washington has not worked: wages are down, the workforce is… Continue Reading
02.11.14
Sessions Delivers Statement At Hearing To Examine CBO’s Obamacare Report And Budget Outlook
"The President said his stimulus bill, the Affordable Care Act, increased taxes and regulations, and more government spending would result in a strong [economic recovery]… Sadly, CBO's report recognizes that the President's 2010 health care law is a hammer blow to lower-income workers… It is our duty to take principled, achievable steps that will benefit the most Americans, not just the fortunate few, and do so without increasing our debt, which is already well in the danger zone.… Continue Reading
02.07.14
Sessions: Time To Begin National Conversation About Moving People Off Welfare And Into The Workforce
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the state of U.S. labor markets: "Today's jobs report provides further evidence of the damage done to labor markets by the slow economic recovery. One of the most troubling factors is the sheer number of people who are completely outside the labor force. Indeed, testimony presented this week in the Budget Committee revealed that the number of people actively l… Continue Reading
02.06.14
The Economic Effects Of Mass Immigration On U.S. Workers
The great public policy question of whether the United States should continue admitting about 1 million immigrants a year under current law, or triple that number as proposed in the recently passed Senate bill, has now come to the House. This question is momentous not only because our immigration system needs reforming, but primarily because proposals to do so include massive increases in migrant flows in addition to the legalization of millions currently residing in the U.S. illegally. Given th… Continue Reading
02.05.14
Senate Budget Committee Analysis Of CBO Baseline Outlook
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement today as the Committee released a staff analysis of the new Congressional Budget Office baseline outlook. The analysis follows Sessions' comments: "CBO's stunning report shows that our fiscal outlook is markedly worse than in its previous estimate, with deficits up by $1 trillion (to $7.3 trillion) over the 2014-2023 period. Gross federal debt will climb past $27 trillion in 10 years. Ma… Continue Reading
02.04.14
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At First Budget Hearing Of The Year
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today at the Budget Committee hearing on the economic outlook for 2014: "The recovery from the 2009 recession seemed to be solid at first, but it has not come close to meeting the projections of the Administration (OMB), the Federal Reserve, CBO, and others. For example, every year when OMB and others have made their two-year GDP projections, they have missed. Not … Continue Reading
02.04.14
Ranking Member Sessions Comments On New CBO Baseline Projections
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the new 10-year baseline from the Congressional Budget Office: "This morning, the Budget Committee held a hearing with the ostensible purpose of reassuring us that all is well, that the economy is getting stronger, and that there is no urgent need to change our debt course. But all is not well. New baseline estimates from the Congressional Budget Office reve… Continue Reading
01.28.14
Ranking Member Sessions Comments On State Of The Union Address
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement this evening regarding President Obama's State of the Union address: "President Obama says he is concerned about low wages and chronic unemployment for American workers. Yet his signature second-term legislative item is an immigration bill that would immediately and permanently double the flow of new immigrant workers competing against unemployed Americans-reducing wages, inc… Continue Reading
01.28.14
Sessions: We Owe Vets ‘Swift, Diligent Action’ To Fix Pension Cuts
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding testimony from a senior Department of Defense official regarding recent cuts to veterans' pension payments: "I was pleased to see Christine Fox, Acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defense, agree with the need to fix the veterans' pension cuts contained in the recent budget deal. These cuts could amount to a more than 60 percent reduction in COLA adju… Continue Reading
01.28.14
Sessions: SOTU Message Undermined By President’s Wage-Depressing Policies
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks on the Senate floor regarding President Obama's expected call for the House to pass an immigration bill that would dramatically increase the number of low-skilled workers brought into the country: "President Obama is preparing to deliver a State of the Union Address in which he will address the continued financial collapse of the American middle class, much of which… Continue Reading
01.27.14
History Of Obama Administration’s Missed Budget Deadlines
The Office of Management and Budget recently announced that President Obama's FY 2015 budget would be delivered to Congress on March 4, just over one month past the statutory deadline (which requires the President's budget to be submitted by the first Monday in February). This will be the 18th occasion that the Administration has missed an in-law budget deadline. To view the complete history of missed deadlines, click on the image below.… Continue Reading
01.17.14
Sessions Details Reid’s Subversion Of Senate’s Historic Role
"The Senate is where the great issues of our time are supposed to be examined, reviewed, and discussed before the whole nation. Yet, in the last few years, we have witnessed the dramatic erosion of Senators' rights and the dismantling of the open legislative process… All of us, both parties, have a responsibility to stop and reverse these trends. It's in the national interest. It's the right thing to do… All of us owe our constituents an open, deliberative process where the great … Continue Reading
01.16.14
Analysis Of H.R. 3547, The FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act
To view the Budget Committee's detailed analysis of the omnibus as a 14-page PDF, including tables comparing the bill's spending with the continuing resolution and 2008 enacted levels, please click here.… Continue Reading
01.14.14
Sessions: More Work Needed To Fix Pensions For Veterans
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the military pension provision in the omnibus: "I was pleased that the House-Senate package includes a provision restoring the pensions for disabled veterans, after we called attention to the fact that wounded warriors would be impacted by the budget deal. However, the deal fails to restore pension payments for millions of active duty and retired military pers… Continue Reading
01.13.14
Budget Points Of Order Against Reed Amendment #2631 To S. 1845
Senate Budget Committee Republican staff, in consultation with the Committee's Democratic staff, have identified at least four budget points of order that lie against Sen. Jack Reed's amendment #2631 to S. 1845 (the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act) for violating the FY 2014 deemed spending levels in the Ryan-Murray package. The points of order, which all require 60 votes to waive, are as follows: Senate PAYGO (sec. 201(a), S. Con. Res. 21, the FY 2008 budget resolution, 110t… Continue Reading
01.10.14
Sessions Delivers Address On Poverty And Unemployment In America
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks on the Senate floor yesterday addressing the issue of persistent, long-term unemployment: Today, President Obama delivered remarks on the growing problem of poverty and chronic unemployment that has occurred during the five years of his presidency. Just this week, his Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, said that 'the rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting … Continue Reading
01.10.14
Ranking Member Sessions On Jobs Report: Nearly 5 People Left Workforce For Each 1 Job Added
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement on the December jobs report: "Today's jobs report underscores a deeper problem facing our economy: a large and growing block of people who are chronically jobless and completely outside the workforce. In December, the economy added only 74,000 jobs - not nearly enough to keep up with population growth -and 347,000 left the workforce. That means for every one job added, near… Continue Reading
01.09.14
Ranking Member Sessions Responds To Obama’s Speech On ‘Promise Zones’
"It represents an admission that five years of tax, spend, borrow, and regulate have produced economic misery for countless Americans." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to President Obama's address on chronic unemployment: "The President today announced five 'promise zones' scattered throughout the entirety of the nation for the millions of chronically unemployed Americans. It represents … Continue Reading
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 … Continue Reading
12.17.13
Sessions Comments On Reid Majority Blocking Amendments To Budget Deal
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement tonight after the Senate voted 46-54 not to table Reid's amendments that 'filled the tree' in order to allow actual amendments to the Ryan-Murray budget deal: "Today, Reid and his majority quashed the ability of any Senator to offeramendments to the spending deal that emerged from the House. They voted to undermine their own ability as Senators to offer amendments and do legi… Continue Reading
