Oversight
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
02.12.13
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At First Budget Hearing Of 2013
"It has been four years since the Democrat-led Senate has produced a budget as the law requires… I am glad that the Senate majority has relented and is going to do a budget this year, else I wonder what our Committee might find itself having to do-whether we would even need the Committee. So we look forward to meeting the Committee deadline of April 1st to publically produce a resolution and then April 15th on the Senate floor… While we talk of cuts and frugality, total spending i… Continue Reading
02.05.13
CBO’s Budget And Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2013 To 2023
CBO's latest baseline budget projections show that the nation has a severe spending problem that needs to be addressed. After deficits are projected to fall for three years, they begin a relentless rise again to almost $1 trillion in 2023-clearly an unsustainable path. Without a course correction, out-of-control spending will fuel a $9 trillion increase in the gross debt, further slowing the economy and limiting opportunity for millions of Americans. Cumulative interest payments alone will amoun… Continue Reading
02.05.13
Sessions: White House Must End Its Violation Of Federal Medicare Law
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the Committee's oversight of Jack Lew's role in the Administration's defiance of Medicare law, as well as other controversies surrounding his nomination: "Jack Lew must never be Treasury Secretary. As director of the Office of Management and Budget, he submitted to Congress two spend-and-debt budget plans which not only received zero votes but which would have… Continue Reading
02.04.13
Jack Lew: Architect Of Two Failed Budgets And A Campaign To Mislead The Country
As Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Jack Lew was the chief architect of two failed budgets which garnered zero votes in the Senate and represented the most irresponsible financial plans ever brought before Congress. But not only did Mr. Lew develop two inexcusable plans during a time of grave fiscal emergency, he made a series of outrageously false statements about these plans to Congress and the American people. Mr. Lew's budgets, and his egregious disregard for the truth, … Continue Reading
02.04.13
Sessions Comments On Jack Lew’s Role In Violating Federal Law
"The Secretary of the Treasury is the premier financial post in government and our financial ambassador to the world. How can we place in that post a man who has consistently placed his own partisan interests above the financial well-being of our constituents?" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after Committee Republicans launched an inquiry into Jack Lew's role in violating the "Medicare trigger" law:… Continue Reading
02.04.13
Committee GOP Launches Inquiry On Jack Lew’s Complicity In Violating Federal Law
"We therefore request the following submissions be sent to Congress so that we may properly consider Mr. Lew's nomination: 1. A detailed legislative proposal responsive to the latest Medicare funding warning to bring the administration into compliance with federal law; 2. All documents, electronic or otherwise, received, reviewed or authored by Mr. Lew regarding responding to Medicare funding warnings during his most recent tenure at the Office of Management and Budget." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Je… Continue Reading
02.01.13
Murray’s Deficit Reduction Goal Flawed And Dangerous
In a recent letter to the Democrat Conference, the new Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Patty Murray, released a memo assessing the nation's fiscal situation. The memo asserted that over the last two years, Congress reduced deficits by $2.4 trillion, including "almost $1.5 trillion" in 2011 alone. These figures echoed claims made by President Obama at a press conference 10 days earlier: "We've made progress towards that goal [of reducing deficits by $4 trillion]. Over the past tw… Continue Reading
02.01.13
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
01.25.13
Sessions Confronts Democrat Leaders On Budget Games; Senate ‘Failing Miserably’ To Do Its Job
"Paul Ryan is leading. Speaker Boehner is leading. House Republicans are leading. But Senate Democrats, who control this chamber-who asked for this job-are refusing to allow a budget to move forward. They are refusing to share with the American people the contents of the plan they crafted behind closed doors-a plan they claim exists. "I look forward to the chance to support the House GOP budget… But let's look at the bigger picture this week. The planned series of votes are designed by … Continue Reading
01.24.13
Issue 1: Sequestration After The Fiscal Cliff
01.23.13
Sessions Comments On Majority Relenting, Promising Senate Budget Mark-Up And Regular Order
"I have repeatedly and emphatically called for an end to the Senate Democrats' brazen legal defiance in this time of national fiscal emergency… To compel Senate action I have introduced legislation, blocked recess, and encouraged the use of the debt ceiling as leverage. Now, with their pay threatened, and long-simmering public anger growing, Senate Democrats have suddenly seen the light. Even just a few days ago, they were not willing to commit to doing a budget." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Je… Continue Reading
