Oversight
Sessions: By Refusing To Offer Budget Plan, Senate Majority Endorses Nation’s Current Dangerous Financial Direction
"The party running the Senate has neither written nor offered a budget plan for our nation's financial future… The budget votes expected this week will once again bring into crystal focus that the party running the Senate is refusing to meet its financial obligations… Through its continued unwillingness to advance a sound plan for the future, the Senate majority is endorsing the unsustainable course we are on now." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the … Continue Reading
04.27.12
By The Numbers: Three Full Years Since Senate Democrats Last Adopted A Budget
"This Sunday, April 29, we will have gone 3 full years since the last time the Senate Democrats have brought a budget to the floor of the Senate… They are unable to unite behind a financial vision for this country that they are willing to go to the American people and advocate for and publicly defend." - Ranking Member Sessions, floor speech, April 26, 2012 1096 .................... Days since the Senate majority last passed a budget $10.4 trillion .......... Total federal spending sin… Continue Reading
04.27.12
Sessions: Exactly Three Years Since Senate Majority Last Adopted A Budget
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about April 29th, the three-year anniversary of the last time the Democrat-led Senate passed a budget resolution: "This Sunday marks exactly three years since the last time the Senate's Democrat majority adopted a budget. For three years, in the midst of fiscal crisis, the party running the Senate refused to even attempt to produce their financial plan in willful and kn… Continue Reading
04.24.12
Sessions Comments On Senate Waiving Budget Rules To Increase Debt
"This is not a debate about the merits of the postal bill. It's a debate about paying for it… A vote to waive the point of order was a vote to waive the debt deal agreement… yet every Democrat Senator voted to break the budget. Today's vote is more evidence that their Senate majority-which, as of this Sunday, will have refused to pass a budget since exactly three years ago-is determined to avoid any semblance of financial accountability." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL),… Continue Reading
04.24.12
Action Alert: Decisive Procedural Vote—Postal Bill Violates Debt Deal
Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions announced today that he will be raising a PAYGO budget point of order against S. 1789, the postal reform bill. The Congressional Budget Office has scored the bill as adding $34 billion to the debt by 2022, spending more than the levels derived from the Budget Control Act-levels set in law as a condition for the $2.1 trillion debt limit increase. The point of order has a 60-vote threshold to waive. The postal bill violates the debt limit deal … Continue Reading
04.24.12
Why Senate Democrats Cancelled The Budget Mark-Up
"The fact is what we don't have is a longer term plan. What we need, I believe, is at least a 10-year plan. That's why I'm going to mark up the first week that we're back in session." - Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, interview on "Fox News Sunday," April 8, 2012 After not adopting a concurrent budget resolution since April 29, 2009-1,086 days ago-the Senate's Democrat majority appeared set this week to hold a mark-up in the Budget Committee. But the mark-up was cancelled at the last mi… Continue Reading
04.23.12
Sessions To Raise Point Of Order Against Postal Bill For Spending Billions More Than Debt Limit Agreement Allowed
"Spending and debt under the postal bill violates the debt limit agreement reached just last summer… This is particularly odd since the President and the Senate Majority Leader have accused the House of breaking the budget agreement by trying to save extra money for taxpayers. This argument, of course, is not sound… Not one word in that law requires you to max out the cap… Only in Washington does spending underneath a cap get you accused of breaking a deal while spending mo… Continue Reading
04.20.12
Sessions Says President Must Impose Disciplined Management On Dysfunctional Government
"Right now, the President needs a Solyndra rule, not a Buffett Rule: instead of focusing on extracting more money from the American people, he must focus on ending the abuse of taxpayer dollars and restoring faith in the operation of the federal government." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding scandals in the executive branch and waste of taxpayer dollars. He also called on the President to dem… Continue Reading
04.18.12
Sessions Issues Opening Statement At Budget Committee ‘Mark-Up’
"The effective cancellation of this mark-up puts in crystal focus that the Senate's Democrat leadership is determined to go to November without ever bringing a budget to the floor… They have proven themselves unable to meet the defining challenge of our time. But if Republicans are honored with a Senate majority next year, we will conduct a real mark-up and we will pass an honest budget. And it will change the debt course of America." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking M… Continue Reading
04.18.12
Chairman Conrad’s Budget Proposal: More Taxes Than President’s Budget, No Spending Cuts, No Structural Reform
All of the deficit reduction in Senator Conrad's budget comes from tax increases. The proposal will increase taxes by $2.6 trillion and provides no net change in spending relative to the current policy baseline after enactment of the Budget Control Act. Taxes in 2022 would be double the 2012 level. Over the 10-year period, the tax increases in the Chairman's proposal exceed those proposed by the President by $600 billion. The Chairman misses the opportunity to reduce spending. Over the 10 years… Continue Reading
04.17.12
Sessions Responds To Last-Minute Cancellation Of Planned Senate Budget Mark-Up And Votes
"Chairman Conrad's stunning announcement, forced on him by his party, is a defining moment in 2012 and a national embarrassment for a Senate majority that is unable to meet the great challenge of our time." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to Chairman Kent Conrad's announcement about the Committee's planned budget mark-up: "Chairman Conrad's stunning announcement, forced on him by his par… Continue Reading
04.13.12
Sessions Issues Statement On Conrad’s Planned Mark-Up, Reid’s Decision To Block Budget From Floor
"I am glad that the Chairman is moving forward with this mandatory process despite the apparent wishes of his leadership. But the great question before us now is whether Majority Leader Reid will reverse his unconscionable stance that no budget-even his Chairman's-should receive consideration on the Senate floor. If that stance does not change, then the whole purpose of the mark-up is undermined and the American people will have been denied the open, public process they deserve… I hope Ch… Continue Reading
04.03.12
Sessions Responds To President’s Budget Speech, $17 Trillion In New Health Law Obligations
"President Obama might have more credibility on these matters were his plan not rejected 0-414 in the House and, the year before, 0-97 in the Senate. President Obama would also enjoy more fiscal credibility if he spent less time assailing the House and more time encouraging the Senate's Democrat Majority to comply with the law requiring them to write a budget and pass it on the floor-something they've refused to do for three straight years… The American people-Democrat and Republican-are… Continue Reading
03.29.12
Sessions: Health Law’s Unfunded Obligations More Than Double That Of Social Security
"Part of my responsibility as the Ranking Member is to look at the long-term costs of legislation… I was floored by what we discovered. At a time when we should be trying to shore up Medicare and Social Security, this health law adds an entirely new obligation-one we cannot pay for-and puts the entire financing of the United States government in jeopardy. We don't have the money. We don't have another $17 trillion in unfunded liabilities that we can add to our account." WASHINGTON-U.S. S… Continue Reading
03.29.12
President’s Health ‘Reform’ Grows Unfunded Obligations By $17 Trillion
Before President Obama's health care law was enacted, unfunded obligations for federal health programs totaled $65 trillion over a 75-year period. The most recent Senate Budget Committee staff estimates show that after the law's passage, that figure has grown by $17 trillion, to $82 trillion. Why we should be concerned that the law is adding to our unfunded obligations: We are challenged by both a short- and long-run debt problem. Unfunded obligations are an approximation of total federal spe… Continue Reading
03.29.12
Sessions Contrasts House, Senate Budget Action; Says Reid ‘Determined To Avoid’ Votes On Health Law
"As President Obama once said, a budget serves as 'an economic blueprint for this nation's future.' Where is the blueprint from the party given the high honor of leading this Chamber?" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as the House of Representatives prepared to hold a vote on its budget plan, while the Democrat-led Senate continues to both insist that a budget is not needed and to ignore the April 1st… Continue Reading
03.23.12
Sessions Issues Statement On 2nd Anniversary Of President’s Health Law
"This bill is unpopular, unaffordable, and unconstitutional. It must be repealed." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today to mark the second anniversary of the signing of President Obama's health spending law: "Two years ago, the president signed his 2,000-page health bill into law after it was forced through Congress over the outcry of the American people. The law represents an unprecedented expansion of … Continue Reading
03.23.12
SBC Analysis: The Fiscal Impact Of The President’s Health Spending Law
Health Law Spends $2.6 Trillion-Not $900 Billion-Over Honest Ten-Year Window President Obama promised the American people, before a joint session of Congress in 2009, that we would spend approximately $900 billion for the first ten years of his health law: "Now, add it all up, and the plan that I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years." As is well known, Democrats in Washington used an egregious accounting gimmick to produce a CBO score of $938 billion for FY2010-2019-but this… Continue Reading
03.21.12
Sessions: A Senate Republican Majority Would Pass A Budget
"[The House] presented an honest plan to control wasteful Washington spending, restore Medicare to safety, and grow the middle class-not the government… The Senate's Democrat majority [is going] three straight years without offering a budget… In so doing, Senate Democrats forfeited their claim on leadership. Should voters give Republicans the privilege of a majority in the Senate next year, we will work with our colleagues in the House to finally pass a congressional budget plan. I… Continue Reading
03.20.12
Sessions’ Remarks At House Press Conference Unveiling Their FY13 Budget Plan
"House Republicans… have courageously, intelligently, and responsibly laid out a new plan for America's future… [Senate Democrats] have refused to offer a budget for now three straight years now… The Senate's Democratic majority has forfeited their claim to leadership for America. If the voters give Republicans in the Senate the honor of having the majority next year, we will work with the House to pass a congressional budget… It will change the debt course of America… Continue Reading
