Oversight
Congress Should Cut Its Own Budget To Have Credibility On Spending, Sessions Says
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following comment today after the passage of a non-binding resolution that expressed the "Sense of the Senate" that the Senate should cut 5 percent of its budget, but that will not actually do so. Sessions opposed the measure, urging more significant and meaningful action: "For Congress to have any credibility with the American people when it comes to spending cuts, it ought to lead to tri… Continue Reading
11.29.11
Sessions: Obama Budget Nominee Must Reject Bogus WH Claims
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following statement today at a hearing to consider the nomination of Heather Higginbottom to be Deputy Director for the Office of Management and Budget. Unlike previous nominees for this post, Higginbottom lacks formal budget experience or training. Sessions' remarks, as prepared, follow: "I join Chairman Conrad in welcoming you to our committee today, Ms. Higginbottom.… Continue Reading
11.29.11
Sessions Speaks In Support Of Latest Spending Reduction, Stresses Need For Further Action
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, spoke on the Senate floor today in support of a continuing resolution to fund the government over the next three weeks while reducing spending by $6 billion. The measure, which passed by a vote of 87-13, follows a resolution early this month to reduce spending by $4 billion over two weeks. Congress must still agree on a continuing resolution for the remainder of the fiscal year. An excerpt… Continue Reading
11.29.11
‘The Most Irresponsible Spending Plan In Our Time’: Sessions Reacts To CBO Score, Renews Call For Honest Budgeting
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement today after the release of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the president's budget, which revealed that the official White House proposal concealed an additional $2.3 trillion in deficits and, within a decade, would quadruple our nation's publicly held debt from what it was at the beginning of the 2008 fiscal year. On the heels of these revelations… Continue Reading
11.29.11
Sessions, Hatch Ask Medicare Trustees To Account For Medicare Double Counting In Next Estimate On Medicare Solvency
Dear Honorable Trustees: We strongly reject the notion that the spending reductions from and the payroll tax increases to the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund enacted in the new health care law (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA) can both improve the government's ability to pay future Medicare benefits and finance new entitlement spending outside of Medicare. While we recognize your specific charge as a Medicare trustee allows you to assess the financial s… Continue Reading
11.28.11
Don’t Retreat On Spending Cuts: Sessions Argues Momentum Is On Side Of Action
"America's strength is measured not by the size of our government but by the scope of our freedoms. Endless spending, taxing, and borrowing is a certain path to decline." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered remarks on the Senate floor today explaining that Republicans stand behind a strong, immediate spending reduction to begin restoring confidence in the economy: "Government funding is set to expire next week on April 8th. So we … Continue Reading
11.28.11
Balanced Budget Amendment Would Pave Way For Unprecedented Economic Growth
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after all 47 Republican Senators joined to introduce a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "In the Budget Committee we have heard countless warnings from expert after expert and witness after witness. We are on a dangerous and unsustainable path of spending and borrowing. The chairs of the president's own fiscal commission warned that the United States f… Continue Reading
11.23.11
Effects Of The Budget Control Act Sequester On Defense Spending
The Budget Control Act imposed caps on discretionary spending and provided a mechanism for achieving an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years through the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the so-called supercommittee). The failure of the supercommittee to find that additional deficit reduction will cause a $1.2 trillion spending reduction over 2013-2021 through an across-the-board process known as sequestration. The sequester will achieve $492 billion in… Continue Reading
11.22.11
Sessions Comments On Committee’s Analysis Revealing True Impact Of Defense Sequestration
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today upon the release of a new Budget Committee analysis about the concrete effects of the sequester on both defense and non-defense spending. In light of the supercommittee's failure to reach a deficit reduction agreement, the disproportionate nature of defense cuts has received increased attention: "There's been much confusion over the actual effects of the sequester. This… Continue Reading
11.21.11
Sessions Remarks On Supercommittee Announcement
"Had the president made clear he wanted an agreement, a deal would have been achieved. It seems clear he wanted a campaign issue instead. Rather than confronting the great threat of our time-our $15 trillion debt-the commander-in-chief fled the battlefield." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following remarks today regarding the news that the supercommittee had failed to reach a deficit reduction agreement: "All of us had hoped… Continue Reading
11.17.11
Citing Gimmicks And Spending Increases, Sessions To Oppose Appropriations Bill
"It is strange and bizarre that we have tasked a committee of 12 to achieve deficit reduction at the same time that Congress is working to increase the deficit with bills such as this… With the president at the helm, Washington is continuing to steer the ship of state towards financial disaster. I therefore oppose this bill and hope the president will do the same." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following statement… Continue Reading
11.16.11
Sessions: Debt Deal Includes Yet Another Washington Gimmick To Conceal Deficit Spending
"[Under the Budget Control Act,] we're supposed to spend $1,043 billion, down $7 billion from $1,050 billion in discretionary spending last year. Unfortunately, this is just one more empty Washington promise. Because the bill was rushed to passage in the 59th minute of the 11th hour, nobody knew the gimmick at the time… The truth is that it's not, and never was $1,043 billion, but $1,054 billion… If we can't even reach the paltry goal of $7 billion in savings, how on Earth can we t… Continue Reading
11.16.11
Questions And Concerns: What’s Really In The Gang Of Six Proposal?
When the Gang of Six constituted itself after the Fiscal Commission submitted its report in December 2010, its apparent mission was to turn the Commission's proposals into legislative language in a way that could potentially be added to the debt limit bill and that would achieve the Commission's proposed savings. Yesterday the Gang released an only an executive summary of a "bipartisan plan to reduce our nation's deficits." If the Gang had produced legislative language as it had originally inte… Continue Reading
11.15.11
Issue 2B: The Budget Control Act
11.15.11
Issue 2A: The Budget Control Act
11.15.11
As Political Class Calls For Stimulus, Sessions Counters With Middle Class Agenda
"These 'masters of the universe,' as I sometimes call them, are quick to make confident predictions and even quicker to explain why the failure of their last prediction should not count against the one they have just made. They say the mammoth stimulus failed because it just wasn't mammoth enough... What we need is a middle class agenda. That means creating jobs through the private sector; producing more American energy; making the government lean and productive, confronting our dangerously ris… Continue Reading
11.10.11
Sessions Warns: Pushing For Taxes To Avoid 3% Cut Threatens To Collapse Supercommittee’s Effort
"Pushing for tax hikes, instead of seeking common ground to reduce wasteful spending, threatens to collapse the entire effort… Bailing out banks with tax dollars makes them less accountable-it's the same thing with Washington's big spenders… Is a 3 percent cut really too much to ask?" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as "supercommittee" negotiations continued: "It has become increasingl… Continue Reading
11.08.11
Sessions Recommends Food Stamp Reform To Supercommittee
"Like welfare reform in the 1990's, smart reforms to the food stamp program will improve outcomes and help more Americans achieve financial independence. Unmonitored welfare programs, over time, can hurt the very people we are seeking to help. A thoughtful reform of funding will not only improve the outlook for our indebted Treasury, but for millions of Americans seeking a better future." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, today released … Continue Reading
11.04.11
Solyndra Economics: Sessions Writes Chu For Answers On How Department Calculates Taxpayer Risk
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chu today requesting detailed information on how the Energy Department calculates the risk factor for the Department's efforts to subsidize certain energy corporations. Sessions asked whether the calculation was revised after the Solyndra incident, and expressed concern that the default and recovery estimates may underestimate the taxpayer risk. Text of the Sessions' lette… Continue Reading
11.03.11
Sessions Remarks On Latest Effort To Increase Borrowing As Part Of President’s Stimulus
"Hardworking Americans have every right to be upset. They watch as major corporations with connections to the White House get bailouts, handouts, and taxpayer-funded loans while they're asked to bear an ever heavier burden." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after another bipartisan Senate vote to reject a component of the president's second stimulus package, which would overall increase the deficit by … Continue Reading
