Oversight
Sessions Comments On President’s Rejection Of Keystone Pipeline
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to reports that President Obama has decided to reject the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a plan that has been estimated to immediately result in the creation of 20,000 new jobs: "This is a stunning decision at a time when the need for economic growth and job creation could not be greater. It is a huge lost opportunity to create good-paying jobs fo… Continue Reading
01.17.12
How Debt Destroys Jobs—And Why We Need A Budget
In one week, on January 24th (the same day as President Obama's State of the Union address), 1,000 days will have elapsed since Senate Democrats offered a budget plan for the nation. Higher debt leads to slower economic growth. Empirical studies show that high levels of government debt inhibit economic growth by creating uncertainty, displacing needed private investment, and placing upward pressure on interest rates.[1] For example, a respected study by economists Rogoff and Reinhart found t… Continue Reading
01.09.12
Sessions Raises Questions Regarding White House Staff Changes
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement today about the selection of current OMB Director Jack Lew to be the new White House chief of staff, and the resulting vacancy at the Office of Management and Budget: "I wish Jack Lew the best fortune in his new post. However, the president's decision to elevate Mr. Lew to White House Chief of Staff-after Lew and the White House attempted to mislead the country into believi… Continue Reading
01.09.12
Sessions Asks Administration To Make Good On New Promise Of Food Stamp Oversight
"At $89 billion, the annual food stamp budget is… the second-largest of nearly eighty federal welfare programs that cost taxpayers around $900 billion a year… the USDA recently [announced] 'new tactics to combat fraud and enhance SNAP program integrity'… I would therefore ask that the Committee be immediately provided with a thorough explanation of all oversight actions your Department is taking, as well as a list of recommended federal reforms… I would further ask fo… Continue Reading
12.17.11
Sessions To Oppose 11th Hour ‘Omnibus’; Cites Billions In Gimmicks
"House Republicans have worked vigilantly all year to change our debt course, and produced a budget to do exactly that. The great shame is that they never had willing partners in President Obama and his Democrat-led Senate." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today prior to a vote on the 'omnibus' package containing nine appropriations bills for fiscal year 2012: "Once again, we find ourselves racing tow… Continue Reading
12.16.11
Crucial Budget Vote: Will The Senate Vote To Increase Or Decrease Spending Over Last Year?
Soon, the Senate will hold a series of three votes on H.R. 2055, H.R. 3672 and H. Con. Res. 94 to complete the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2012. The first vote is on H.R. 2055, the omnibus appropriations bill; the second vote is on H. Con. Res. 94, a 1.83 percent across-the-board rescission to offset disaster spending; and the third vote is on H.R. 3672, which provides for the actual disaster spending. Temporary funding for the government expires tonight at midnight. The Budget Commi… Continue Reading
12.16.11
Sessions: Keystone Underscores How President Is Harming Middle Class
"[The Keystone Pipeline] is precisely, precisely the kind of thing that this Congress should take action on… because it will create jobs, lots of jobs, create wealth, make us more secure as a nation, and help bring down the cost of energy… yet the president has blocked the pipeline construction for some time, deferring a decision now until after the next election… There's a lot of things that we can do that will not cost this Treasury a dime… It's time, indeed, for a… Continue Reading
12.14.11
Senate Budget Committee Republican Summary of President’s FY2012 Budget
THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET SPENDS, TAXES, AND BORROWS TOO MUCH - STIFLING JOB GROWTH TODAY AND THREATENING OUR ECONOMIC FUTURE In challenging times, a chief executive must lead. But President Obama has failed to confront the fiscal and economic challenges before us. Instead, he continues down the same unsustainable path: growing the government, weakening the economy, and increasing the burden of debt on each and every American. Spends Too Much: $9.1 Trillion In New Spending Despite this year's $1… Continue Reading
12.14.11
Sessions Supports Strong Balanced Budget Amendment
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in support of S.J. Res. 10, the Republican balanced budget proposal, and expressing concern over provisions in the Democrat counter-measure (S.J. Res. 24): "Washington has both a moral and economic responsibility to balance the budget. Morally, we have a duty to spend taxpayer dollars wisely and to protect, for our children, the integrity of the United States Treasury. … Continue Reading
12.14.11
SBC Summary Of The House Payroll Holiday And Jobs Bill
The House bill extends the temporary two percentage point payroll holiday for an additional year and relies largely on reductions in mandatory spending to offset its cost. There are no tax hikes. Major Budgetary Provisions Extends for one year the temporary Social Security payroll holiday. Increases the incentive to expand and hire by extending 100 percent expensing so that businesses can immediately deduct the cost of an investment from their income. Extends unemployment benefits to 59 w… Continue Reading
12.13.11
Sessions On Fox: President’s Policies Threaten The Middle Class
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, appeared on FOX News' "America's News HQ" today to discuss how President Obama's policies are hurting hardworking taxpayers, including on the issues of debt, energy, trade, and illegal immigration. Excerpts from the interview follow: On the lack of honest leadership:"I felt this president has a duty to lead selflessly. He needs to tell the American people the truth, [that] the greatest threat to the mid… Continue Reading
12.08.11
Sessions Comments On Social Security Votes, Encourages President To Return To Governing
"With no long-term economic plan of any kind, the president has abandoned governing in favor of campaigning. His only ideas are short-term measures and temporary stimulus checks that make the debt worse… no one can disagree that this country, and our beleaguered middle class, would be better off if the president would lay out a long-term plan for sustained job growth and deficit reduction." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, del… Continue Reading
12.06.11
Responding To President’s Kansas Address, Sessions Asks: Where Will His Policies Leave Us?
"The president talks about fairness. Yet one of the results of his administration has been to widen the inequity between the middle class and the political class… The middle class must pay for the president's failed policies twice-first, they have to pay the bill for profligate federal spending, and then they must pay the price for its economic consequences in the form of lost jobs and mounting debt." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Com… Continue Reading
12.06.11
U.S. In Fiscal Denial
Recent reports assert that the federal government has entered a new era of austerity. For instance, an article in Politico claimed "2011 was a year that saw spending trends break heavily in favor of deficit hawks."[1] In fact, federal spending continues to increase at a rate well above inflation, despite the country having amassed $15 trillion debt-an amount larger than our entire economy. Other debt-ridden governments have cut spending by more than five percent in one year and, in at least… Continue Reading
12.06.11
War Savings Gimmick Explained
Some in Congress are willing to use a reduction in war spending to offset increases in domestic spending and reductions in revenue. This offset is a budget gimmick since it claims savings from money that would never be spent in the first place. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline assumes that war spending (overseas contingency operations or "OCO" spending) will grow every year from the $159 billion provided in FY 2011 and cost $1.8 trillion over the FY 2012-2021 period. … Continue Reading
12.06.11
Sessions Challenges War Savings Gimmick
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding reports that some lawmakers may attempt to use the war savings gimmick to 'pay for' increased spending and borrowing: "There are a series of items that Congress must address before the year ends that, together, could add hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit. These items include the AMT, the pension holiday, an extension of unemployment insurance, and… Continue Reading
12.02.11
The November Jobs Report: A Closer Look
The total number of people without jobs is 13.3 million. Additionally, 2.5 million people wanted and were available for work-more than this time last year-but were not included in the overall unemployment rate. The unemployment rate dropped from 9.0 percent to 8.6 percent, but 315,000 Americans left the labor force. This means that the percentage of Americans unemployed dropped because fewer were looking for jobs, thus exaggerating the trend downward. Had labor force participation remai… Continue Reading
12.02.11
The Chorus Grows: Obama’s Budget Represents Failure Of Leadership
"President Barack Obama has unveiled a hugely disappointing budget, cutting only a few percentage points from the $100,000bn in projected US federal deficits over the remainder of this century… If Mr Obama will not make this case, who will?" Financial Times, Obama's budget shows failure of leadership "The larger problem with the budget is the administration's refusal to confront the hard choices that Mr. Obama is so fond of saying must be faced." Washington Post, President Obama's budg… Continue Reading
11.29.11
The Case For Growth: Sessions Lists Benefits Of Discretionary Cuts
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered an opening statement today at a hearing with former Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici and former OMB and CBO Director Alice Rivlin to discuss the report from their bipartisan debt reduction task force. Sessions argued that immediate reductions in discretionary spending will result in numerous benefits, such as spurring economic growth, easing the deficit burden by hundreds of billions of dol… Continue Reading
11.29.11
Sessions Expresses Concern Over Obama Nominee For Key Budget Post, Lack Of Candor From White House
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement ahead of tomorrow's hearing to consider Heather Higginbottom's nomination to be Deputy Director for the Office of Management and Budget. Over the past 20 years, other appointees for this position have had an average of seven years of budget or finance experience, but Ms. Higginbottom has admitted that she has not had any such formal training or experience. "President O… Continue Reading
