Oversight
Sessions Opening Statement: Washington’s Policies Limiting Economic Growth And Opportunity
"We are quietly downsizing the American Dream. The 'new normal' really refers to the increasingly modest dreams hardworking families allow themselves. Maybe education after high school, maybe retirement, maybe a paid-up home and car when you stop working… but [these things are] increasingly not certain and perhaps not even likely… Let's take this [time] to debate the spending priorities and set some much-needed reforms in motion that will actually deal with the problem of economic… Continue Reading
09.19.13
Sessions Gives First In Series Of Addresses On U.S. Economy: Deteriorating Conditions For Working Households
"I have directed my staff on the Budget Committee to conduct a detailed analysis of the economic conditions facing working Americans: their wages, their employment, their household finances. I will give a series of talks over the coming weeks looking at their financial condition and the state of our nation economically… It's not just the unemployment rate, which remains too high at 7.3 percent… It's the number of people we all know who are working well below their potential becaus… Continue Reading
09.17.13
Sessions Comments On New CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook
"The report demolishes any argument that the decline in the size of our deficits provides any basis for the country to relax. Annual deficits and debt are certain to rise relentlessly and without end unless we take action… Reforms to [America's trillion-dollar welfare budget is] necessary to ensure not only that taxpayer dollars are being wisely spent, but that we are fulfilling our moral obligation to help more Americans become financially independent." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessio… Continue Reading
09.17.13
Long-Term Budget Outlook Shows Urgent Need For Spending Restraint
The Congressional Budget Office's updated Long-Term Budget Outlook projects a relentless rise in federal debt held by the public after a shallow decline for the next few years. Debt held by the public (which ignores debt borrowed from and owed by the government to trust funds such as Social Security) will increase from 73 percent of GDP today to 100 percent in 25 years, and 245 percent of GDP at the end of the 75 years covered in the report. According to CBO, debt at these levels would reduce na… Continue Reading
09.13.13
Sessions: Zients The Wrong Man For The Job—And For The Country
"The President has appointed a loyalist whose main contribution to the economic debate has been to mislead the public about the effects of the President's budget plans. What we desperately need is economic leadership that is willing to look the American people in the eye and tell them the truth about the disastrous conditions facing working Americans... I would respectfully urge the President to reconsider this appointment and to search the nation for someone with the caliber and stature necess… Continue Reading
09.06.13
Sessions Comments On August Jobs Report
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding this morning's Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the economy added just 169,000 jobs during the month of August: "Today's alarming jobs report should give policymakers in Washington pause. Several of the most worrisome trends in our economy are not only persisting, but getting worse. Labor force participation continues to fall, and is now at its lowest le… Continue Reading
08.15.13
Sessions Presses FCC Over Loopholes And Abuse In ‘Obamaphone’ Program
"The failure to check applicants' eligibility might be one of the reasons the Lifeline program has more than doubled in recent years-from $822 million in 2008 to over $2 billion in the latest annual report… [A recent] news article suggests serious flaws in this program. These public concerns must be addressed." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent a letter today to Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clybur… Continue Reading
08.02.13
Sessions Comments On July Jobs Report
"We need to refocus our economic policy in Washington to deal with the economic realities of our time. Instead, Washington continues to centralize power-helping the well-connected while punishing the average citizen." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the new employment figures for the month of July: "This morning's jobs number of 162,000 demonstrates that we still aren't adding enough jobs t… Continue Reading
08.01.13
Immigration Policy As Corporate Welfare: Sessions Hits White House For Immigration Report That Shills For CEOs
"In its report today the White House embraced [a historic surge in immigration] as its central economic argument: what our economy needs most is a large increase in the number of low-skill workers. Perhaps we can finally have this debate out in the open-and dispense once and for all with the idea that the CEOs bankrolling the immigration push are concerned with anything other than reducing the cost of labor. It's not about 'reform'-it's about profit… Immigration reform has become synonym… Continue Reading
07.23.13
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At Hearing On Defense Spending And Sequestration
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following opening statement today at a hearing on the impact of sequestration on the nation's defense: "Thank you, Chairman Murray. I join you in welcoming our distinguished panel to discuss the impact of sequestration on national security. In August of 2011, Congress and the Administration came to an agreement that $2.1 trillion needed to be cut from our projected growth in spending, and I … Continue Reading
07.10.13
Senate And House Committee Republican Leaders Seek CBO Cost Estimate Of Obamacare Train Wreck
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, joined with Republican committee leaders in asking the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to analyze the budgetary effects of delaying Obamacare's employer mandate and reporting requirements. Last week, the Obama Administration decided to ignore specific requirements in the health care law as mandated by Congress, conceding their signature legislative achievement is unworkable. This action will alter previo… Continue Reading
07.08.13
Sessions Comments On OMB Mid-Session Budget Review
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after the administration provided the annual budget update known as the Mid-Session Review: "Today's updated budget report from the White House confirms that the president's budget plan leaves us on an unsustainable fiscal path: despite a $1.1 trillion tax hike, the president's budget grows the total federal debt by $8.7 trillion over the next ten years. Spending increa… Continue Reading
06.24.13
Sessions Writes Colleagues Ahead Of Tonight’s Vote On How 1,200-Page Substitute Will Reduce Wages
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following letter sent today to his Senate colleagues in both parties discussing how the doubling of guest workers and large increase in low-skill future immigration will adversely impact wages, particularly for lower-income Americans: "Dear Colleague, Wages for working Americans have been falling since 1999. 21 million of our citizens who want work are unable to find full-time employment. Nea… Continue Reading
06.21.13
SBC Analysis Of CBO Immigration Report: Senate Bill Increases On-Budget Deficit, Increases Unemployment, Depresses Wages
This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released two documents analyzing the budgetary and economic effects of the immigration legislation currently before the Senate (S. 744). The fiscal cost estimate demonstrates conclusively that the legislation as reported from the Judiciary Committee will increase the costs of welfare benefits provided to newly legalized residents by more than the income taxes and fees that they will pay, resulting in added deficit spending over the next 10 years. … Continue Reading
06.19.13
Sessions: CBO Immigration Report Shows On-Budget Deficits Going Up, Not Down
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today correcting an erroneous characterization of the Congressional Budget Office score of S.744, the Gang of Eight immigration bill: "The CBO report unequivocally finds that even over the first 10 years of the bill (a period when many welfare benefits are denied to RPIs), the 'on-budget' deficit will increase by $14.2 billion. The report then shows that the deficits in the … Continue Reading
06.18.13
Ranking Member Sessions Comments On CBO Score Of Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the Congressional Budget Office's new estimate of the deficit impact of S. 744, the Gang of Eight immigration bill: "The bill's drafters relied on the same scoring gimmicks used by the Obamacare drafters to conceal its true cost from taxpayers and to manipulate the CBO score. There is a reason why eligibility for the most expensive federal benefits was delayed… Continue Reading
06.11.13
Issue 2: Sequestration And Appropriations
06.10.13
Sessions Calls For Welfare Reform Ahead Of Senate Vote On Food Stamp Legislation
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the Senate farm bill, of which 80 percent goes to the food stamp program: "A shocking 80 percent of the farm bill's spending now goes to food stamps. This has been the fastest growing major federal program in recent years. It has expanded fourfold since just 2001, and even as the economy slowly improves, enrollment is projected to remain permanently elevated a… Continue Reading
06.05.13
Ranking Member Sessions Welcomes New Staff Director
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today welcoming the Committee's new minority staff director: "We are all sad to see Marcus Peacock leave the Budget Committee and wish him the best of luck in his next adventure. Marcus joined up with us from my first day as Ranking Member, and he has been a source of wise counsel and leadership ever since. His keen judgment proved indispensable during the many high-stakes bu… Continue Reading
06.03.13
S. 744 And The Welfare State
It is a long-held principle of immigration that those seeking admittance to a new country must be able to financially support themselves and their families. This is not only sound fiscal policy, but sound social policy that promotes the civic virtue of economic empowerment. In the United States, this principle was codified in Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which states that "an alien who… is likely at any time to become a public charge is inadmissible." Oversight fro… Continue Reading
