Oversight
Sessions, Ryan Issue Joint Statement On Jobs Report, Call For Senate Action On Budget
"Reports recently issued by the House Budget Committee and the minority staff of the Senate Budget Committee demonstrate that the federal government's dramatic overspending and enormous debt burden are directly hurting job creation. Employers large and small know that today's excessive borrowing will be tomorrow's tax hikes and interest-rate increases. This lack of confidence in the future puts a chilling effect on hiring and investment right now… While the House has passed a serious, cr… Continue Reading
07.07.11
Sessions, GOP Senators Warn Reid Against Blocking Budget, Debt Work In Senate
"To date, Republicans have offered a number of proposals to reduce and control spending, including a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution… However, as we understand it, [Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad's] latest budget-announced last week-has, like those prior to it, only been unveiled to his Democratic colleagues with no scheduled action on it. We ask that you, as Majority Leader, call for the latest Democratic budget to immediately be made public, in all of its detail, an… Continue Reading
07.06.11
“Phantom Budget”: Sessions Remarks On Unseen Democrat Resolution
"The Budget Committee Chairman says he now, once again, has a budget that he is sharing secretly with his Democrat colleagues. Yet we hear no indication that a full text of the resolution will be made public or, crucially, that it will be slated for a public mark-up in the Committee as required by law… Making matters worse, we have reason to believe from statements and news leaks that the budget will have even more taxes and even fewer cuts than advertised. Tax increases may well exceed $… Continue Reading
07.05.11
Sessions Announces Opposition To Libya Resolution, Urging Dems To “At Once” Begin Budget Work
"No real work is scheduled in the Senate this week on the budget, nor is any on the debt ceiling. Instead, we are moving today to a Libya resolution. This resolution, not requested by the president, is not why we asked to cancel recess… For this reason, I will oppose cloture today and urge the Democrat majority to use this cancelled recess to begin at once the serious budget work, including discussion of a balanced budget amendment, that the American people expect. We have a statutory an… Continue Reading
07.01.11
Sessions And Ryan: Obama Administration Ignores Looming Medicare Bankruptcy
Speeches And Op-Eds From White House Won't Save Medicare WASHINGTON-The Obama administration continues to overlook its legal obligation to address Medicare's growing fiscal imbalance. Instead of offering constructive solutions to avert a looming crisis, the president's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, published a new opinion piece containing numerous falsehoods about the Republicans' plan to save Medicare, while simultaneously defending the president's decision to do … Continue Reading
07.01.11
Sessions Renews Call: Senate Shouldn’t Recess, Should Stay To Work On Debt Ceiling, Budget
"On the floor, we spend week after week on bills that have little or nothing to do with our economic danger. We name post offices and courthouses but ignore the gathering fiscal storm. And now the Senate is scheduled to take next week off… Before the Memorial Day recess I presented to the Majority Leader a letter, signed by 46 Republican Senators, stating that we should not recess but remain in session to work on a budget plan… I renew the request from our letter… Until we w… Continue Reading
07.01.11
Top Budget And Finance Republicans Tell President To Present Debt Plan Details For Committee Review
"We respectfully request that you provide us, in detail, the most recent version of the proposals that were discussed, including a list of any tax increases for which the White House reportedly advocated… The Congressional Budget Office needs time to review and analyze the proposals that were discussed, and the Budget and Finance Committees need to be able to hold hearings to weigh the plans' budgetary and fiscal impact. Most importantly, the American public needs time to review proposals… Continue Reading
07.01.11
As Senate Schedule Raises Alarm, Sessions Announces Proposal Requiring Sufficient Time To Review Any Debt Limit Bill
"For weeks, Republicans have insisted that the Senate should not recess without working to control our enormous surging debt and unsustainable spending… But now it looks like we may be in session only for show-it seems no work is slated on cutting spending, developing a budget, or addressing the debt ceiling… Given where we are headed, I will introduce legislation next week that establishes a new rule requiring that a debt limit increase be made public 7 days before a vote occurs."… Continue Reading
06.24.11
How Debt Destroys Jobs–And Why We Need A Budget
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. For example, Reinhart and Rogoff found that, in advanced economies with gross government debt above 90 percent of GDP, median economic growth tends to be between one and two percent lower (depending on the time period analyzed) when compared to countries with lo… Continue Reading
06.23.11
Sessions Responds To Debt Talk Rift, Warns Against 11th Hour Deal
"It will be unacceptable for the White House talks, or any talks, to produce a controversial decision at the 11th hour and for its passage to then be demanded in panic… Additionally, raising the debt ceiling should not be accompanied by tax hikes. A punishing tax increase would not only threaten needed growth, it would also give a free pass to the egregious overspending in Washington… Ultimately, $2 trillion is just the beginning of what we can and must cut to get our country back … Continue Reading
06.22.11
Sessions On CBO Outlook: Threat Of ‘Greece-Like Calamity,’ But No Budget Or Hearing From Senate Democrats
"The CBO data also reaffirms that our surging debt is being spurred by excessive spending and insufficient growth-not because Washington isn't taxing enough-and that excessive government borrowing is already slowing economic growth… If CBO's long-term projections come to pass, America as we know it will be in peril." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, commented today on the 2011 Long-Term Budget Outlook released by the Congressional … Continue Reading
06.14.11
Sessions & Ryan Demand President Uphold Obligation To Law And To Seniors
Top Republicans on Senate and House Budget Committees call upon President to respond to Medicare trigger WASHINGTON-Earlier today, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, sent a letter to President Obama following his Administration's failure to submit a proposal, as required by law, to address Medicare's financial insolvency. Ranking Member Sessions stated: "Faced with an appro… Continue Reading
06.13.11
Sessions On President’s Budget: ‘Unserious Response To Serious Situation’
"Our crushing debt undermines confidence in our economy, weakens our standing in the world, and results in devastating job loss for Americans… Nearly every expert that has testified before this committee has sounded the warning call. So too has the IMF, Moody's, our own Federal Reserve-all have cautioned us to turn back from the abyss of runaway spending and debt. And yet the President submitted a budget yesterday that fails to change course. It was a very unserious response to a v… Continue Reading
06.13.11
Senate Fails Crucial Test, Sessions Says, After Democrats Block Spending Cuts
"The president and his party leaders still don't get it. If they think we can now proceed to some meager compromise, they are gravely mistaken. This Congress must deliver whatthe situation demands… One way or another, we are going to reduce spending andrestore prosperity. The fight goes on." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following comments today after the Senate failed to pass a bill to lower discretionary spending for … Continue Reading
06.13.11
Devil In The Details: Sessions Criticizes Mystery Funding In Obama Transportation Plan
06.13.11
Spending Doesn’t Equal Investment, Sessions Tells Obama’s Energy Secretary
March 2, 2011 Contact: Stephen Miller, 202.224.0642 "Just because you call something an 'investment' doesn't make it so… The president's plan worsens a desperate fiscal circumstance and fails to invest-by any honest measure-in our nation's energy future. America has vast, proven energy reserves and yet the president continues to lock those away in the pursuit of a failed green jobs stimulus that has produced neither the promised energy nor the promised jobs. Instead, the president's pla… Continue Reading
06.13.11
Sessions On CR: Reductions In Spending Must Be Sustained
"We will fight every day, week, and month to make the government leaner and the economy more prosperous." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following comments today following the passage of a continuing resolution that funds the government over the next two weeks at approximately $4 billion less than current levels: "Washington tried the big-government approach for the last two years. It failed. All that was achieved through the … Continue Reading
06.13.11
Sessions Questions WH Rhetoric After Report Detailing Government Waste
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following comment today following the release of a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that highlighted redundancy in federal programs: "Today's GAO report proves that for all the president's rhetoric about tough cuts, he has failed to make some of the easiest: leaving untouched countless programs that are wasteful, duplicative, and unnecessary-helping speed the country to his p… Continue Reading
06.13.11
Sessions To Obama Education Sec.: Can’t Win Future For Our Children With Borrowed Money
"Interest on our debt was $196 billion last year-three times as large as the total education budget this year. In 10 years, under the president's plan, the annual interest payment will be $844 billion, 10 times the size of the budget's call for education spending... You cannot win the future for our children with borrowed money." "What we need is leadership that focuses on why our education system is not meeting our expectations. This funding crisis is an opportunity to challenge the education … Continue Reading
06.13.11
The Spending Binge Continues: GAO Exposes Billions In Waste, Duplication
Today, GAO identified massive duplication, fragmentation, and other inefficiencies that cost taxpayers billions of dollars every year in waste and degraded service-all while President Obama's budget surges federal spending across the board and adds $13 trillion to the debt. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued its first annual report on government duplication today. The report identifies 34 broad areas of duplication as well as 47 additional areas of potential savings. In all, GAO … Continue Reading
