Oversight

03.18.13

Sessions Replies To Vilsack On Foreign SNAP Promotions, Seeks Cost Info Ahead Of Budget Votes

"As you may know, the Senate [is scheduled to] vote on the budget resolution. To assist Senators in their work on the budget, and as well as work on future government funding measures, it would be helpful to have certain additional details about the food stamp program as well as the 14 other nutrition-support programs administered by USDA… According to the standards you referenced, immigrants can access 85 percent of the welfare state and still not be deemed public charges. You may also b… Continue Reading


03.16.13

Vote Alert: Budget Committee Democrats Reject Key GOP Amendments To Grow Economy, Not Gov't

WASHINGTON-During the mark-up of what would be the first Senate budget in four years, Republicans on the Budget Committee offered several key amendments to balance the budget, grow the economy, and return to the sound principles of the bipartisan 1996 welfare reform agreement. Amazingly, the panel's Democrat majority unanimously opposed each of these efforts. Amendment summaries and vote tallies follow: SESSIONS AMDT.: This amendment would reduce revenues in the Chairman's Mark to the level o… Continue Reading


03.15.13

Senate Democrats Try To Fool Nation With Budget Hoax

On the day Paul Ryan released his budget, Chairman Murray released a summary document to media that claimed $1.85 trillion in deficit reduction, including $975 billion in spending cuts. Both of these claims are completely false and were proven to be so by the actual budget resolution Chairman Murray released later the next day. Yet Senate Democrats continued to make these same provably false claims throughout the mark-up, and they show no signs of stopping yet. Senate Democrats' claim of $1.85 … Continue Reading


03.14.13

Ranking Member Sessions Remarks On Conclusion Of FY14 Senate Budget Mark-Up

"This is the kind of meeting we should have been having all along-public, open process… [but] I remain deeply disappointed that the majority's proposal not only fails to change our debt course, but actually increases spending over the next 10 years-including $162 billion of increased spending next year alone… What is particularly troubling is that the majority shields from accountability government programs that are failing those who need our help the most… The Murray budget… Continue Reading


03.13.13

Senate Democrats’ Tax-And-Spend Plan Grows The Government—Not The Economy

A Budget That Never Balances-EverSenate Democrats had four years to come up with a plan to balance the budget and grow the economy. Four years to develop a proposal to make government less wasteful and more productive, and to reform failing government programs that have trapped millions in poverty and joblessness. But after four years and $6 trillion in debt since a budget was last passed, their vague proposal leaves America with a budget that never balances and a government that never stops gro… Continue Reading


03.13.13

After Reviewing Murray Budget, Sessions Conveys ‘Deep Disappointment’

WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after his initial review of the Murray budget which, if enacted, would be the first Senate Democratic budget in four years: "Four years have passed since the last time Senate's Democrat majority attempted to pass a budget. Four years of trillion-dollar deficits. Yet, to my amazement and deep disappointment, the majority has come forward today with a proposal that does n… Continue Reading


03.13.13

Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At Committee Meeting To Produce First Senate Democrat Budget In Four Years

"Is it really possible that after four years, the majority has failed to identify any reforms? That all we have is just a tax-and-spend budget that makes no alteration to our dangerous debt course? Does the majority believe the government is perfect and requires no reform? … Is the Budget Committee of the United States Senate really prepared to say we cannot balance the federal budget? If that is so, it is a sad day in America… I fear the majority's plan will enrich the bureaucrac… Continue Reading


03.12.13

After Four Years, Senate Democrats Have Obligation To Present Budget Free Of Gimmicks

After four years of defying their statutory responsibility to lay out a financial plan for the nation, Senate Democrats have relented and announced they will draft and introduce a budget this year. The nation's debt has climbed to $16.7 trillion since then-greater than the size of the entire economy-so it is essential that their budget be an honest one that changes our debt course, not a plan full of gimmicks. Here are some of the accounting tricks that must be avoided. False 'Balance'We have a… Continue Reading


03.09.13

Sessions Delivers Weekly Republican Address

"We need to grow the economy-not the government… Government has never been bigger or more out of control. They say there is no problem with waste, fraud, and abuse; they say the problem is you; they say you are not sending them enough money; they say they have wisely spent every penny. So, you must just send them more. And, if you don't? Well, they won't stop spending, they'll just borrow more. These destructive policies cannot continue. We are at the breaking point." WASHINGTON, D.C.-In… Continue Reading


03.08.13

Sessions, Ryan Call For Halt On Taxpayer Funding For Risky High-Speed Rail Project

"We are deeply troubled by the prospects of subsidizing another costly, wasteful, and risky high-speed rail project, particularly when our nation is facing a debt crisis that threatens the well-being of the current and future generations of Americans… We would urge the Administration to reject the XpressWest loan application and to direct its available RRIF funds to more worthy transportation infrastructure projects that could truly provide a reasonable rate of return to the taxpayers of … Continue Reading


03.04.13

Sessions Comments On Nomination Of New OMB Director

"The Director must lead an effort to make government leaner and more efficient, and must be committed to providing honest and accurate information on the dangerous financial condition of our country." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding President Obama's nomination of Sylvia Burwell to head the Office of Management and Budget: "We will fairly and thoughtfully evaluate this nomination. Whoever h… Continue Reading


03.01.13

Sessions: Data In New State Dept. Letter Further Proves Immigrant Welfare Prohibition Being Ignored

WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding newly released data from the State Department demonstrating that only 0.0033 percent of net applications for admission to the United States were denied on "public charge" grounds in 2011, despite the federal law prohibiting admission of any individual deemed likely to be a public charge: "The data just provided by the State Department, like that recently provi… Continue Reading


03.01.13

Sessions: Fed Workers Should Have Opportunity To Find Budget Savings

"[Federal] workers know firsthand how much waste and inefficiency exists in the government. Our Budget Committee office will look for a way to solicit federal employees to send suggestions for how to save money in their departments, agencies, and divisions. What is better? To furlough someone or to empower them to make their office more efficient?" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as the sequester was… Continue Reading


02.28.13

Sessions Delivers Opening Remarks At Budget Committee Hearing On Government Spending

WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered remarks today at a Budget Committee hearing scheduled by the majority to make the case for additional federal "investments." Sessions' remarks, as prepared, follow: "Thank you, Chairman Murray. This hearing deals with an important subject: Government spending and long term economic growth. It provides an important opportunity to address the economic harm caused by excessive federal spending and … Continue Reading


02.27.13

Sessions Delivers Closing Remarks On Lew Nomination

"This was the strategy: offer a plan that does nothing to alter our dangerous debt course while pretending the opposite. Then, once you've done that, attack anyone who dares to reduce the size of the bureaucracy. Attack anyone who suggests Washington is too powerful… It is time that we pointed out that the establishment they are shielding from cuts-the big-government apparatus they are defending-is hurting people every day. Their policies, their endless support of the bureaucracy, has cr… Continue Reading


02.27.13

Sessions Opens Debate On Opposition To Jack Lew Nomination

"Normally, and necessarily, the OMB director is the single office that drives efficiency and demands accountability on behalf of the President and the American people. In that aspect of his job, and in this time of surging debt, I rate Mr. Lew's performance as an F… [It] was decided [that] Mr. Lew would go before the American people and Congress and just declare that the budget did put the nation on a sound financial course… To anybody that has the slightest concern for the meani… Continue Reading


02.19.13

Immigration And The Welfare State

It is an explicit and unambiguous tenet in federal law that those granted entry into the U.S. must be able to support themselves financially. But the Obama Administration has aggressively defied this strict federal statute.­ What are new promises worth when existing law is unilaterally waived? Last year, the Ranking Members of Budget, Finance, Judiciary, and Agriculture Committees wrote an oversight letter to Secretaries Napolitano and Clinton that said in part: "The [Immigration and Natio… Continue Reading


02.15.13

Jack Lew Complicit In Violation Of Law Aimed At Saving Medicare

Alarmed by the unsustainable growth of Medicare's unfunded obligations and the direct threat this posed to seniors, Congress in 2003 enacted a legal requirement that the President submit legislation if the Medicare Trustees issue a funding warning for the program as part of their annual report. This provision of federal law is commonly known as the Medicare Trigger, and it is intended to ensure that steps are taken to shore up the program's finances before it is too late. The law (31 USC §… Continue Reading


02.14.13

Sessions: DHS Letter Confirms Public Charge Immigration Law Not Being Enforced

WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement today regarding the long-delayed response from the Department of Homeland Security about the Administration's apparent waiving of federal law with respect to welfare restrictions for immigrants. The response indicated that, in 2012, not a single immigrant was identified by the federal government as being a public charge: "The law that excludes immigrants from entry if they are likely to … Continue Reading


02.13.13

At Budget Hearing, Sessions Presents Moral Case For Welfare Reform

"Since President Johnson's Great Society, the federal government has spent $15 trillion dollars in the war on poverty. Yet the poverty rate has remained largely unchanged… Welfare is now the single largest item in the federal budget. It is larger than Medicare, larger than defense, larger than Social Security… Today, like in 1996, opponents of reform label any attempts to change the way these programs operate as cruel, uncaring, and dangerous. But what is actually cruel and uncarin… Continue Reading

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