WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released the following statements today after the Government Accountability Office issued a legal opinion at their request regarding the risk corridor program in Obamacare: “GAO has confirmed beyond dispute […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the passage of a short-term, stopgap funding bill: “Once again, we were asked to vote for a massive, catch-all bill to fund the entire government without an opportunity to meaningfully review it, and we were blocked by […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding a response he recently received from the Department of Health and Human Services to his oversight letter on welfare payments being withdrawn at marijuana dispensaries: “The federal government current spends roughly $750 billion each year on means-tested […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the August jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Today’s jobs report came in far below expectations. Twice as many people left the labor force last month as found jobs, and there are now 92.3 million […]
The Budget OutlookAccording to CBO’s updated budget projections released today, the federal government is on track to spend $3.5 trillion in the fiscal year ending September 30. Tax collections will total $3.0 trillion, resulting in a deficit of $506 billion. This estimate is $14 billion above CBO’s April estimate of $492 billion, and is the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after the release of the July jobs report: “Our economy continues to perform at an unacceptable level: 4 in 10 U.S. adults are either unemployed or not in the workforce at all. Unemployment for Americans without a high […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks on the Senate floor today ahead of the vote on HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget: “Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the nomination of Shaun Donovan to be […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent a letter today to the Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the payment of improper claims in the Medicare fee for service program. The text of Sessions’ letter follows: “Dear Administrator Tavenner: The Medicare Integrity Program (“MIP”) at […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the final GDP estimates for the first quarter of 2014: “Growth last year was 1.9%—less than half of the White House predicted in 2009. And in 2012, the White House predicted growth this year would be 4.0%. […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after voting in committee against the nomination of HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to be the next director of the Office of Management and Budget: “During this time of growing financial danger, the Office of Management and Budget should […]
WASHINGTON—The Department of Health and Human Services this week responded to a recent letter from Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) regarding the department’s legal authority to issue payments under the President’s health care law’s risk corridor program. Now, HHS argues that the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: “Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Cartwright, and members of the Committee: thank you for inviting me here today to discuss a specific concern that our Budget Committee […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the letter he and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) sent to new Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell: “It is plain that under current law, the Obama Administration does not have the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today regarding the nomination of Shaun Donovan to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget: “Secretary Donovan, thank you for joining us here today. You will get a fair hearing, and I will carefully consider your […]
In letter to Secretary Burwell: “Under current law, payments made under the risk corridor program would constitute an unlawful transfer of potentially billions of taxpayer dollars…” WASHINGTON—Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) today released a letter to newly-installed Health and Human Services Secretary […]
“There are still 3.2 million fewer full-time employed persons than there were in 2007. Since President Obama came into office in 2009, 7.2 million people have left the workforce entirely. One out of every six men aged 25–54 is not working.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the […]
“Ms. Burwell does not have the background one associates with a position of this magnitude. Nor does she possess the specific experience and skills critically needed today. The OMB office she now holds has 500 employees. HHS has 72,000… [Additionally,] her time as Director of the Office of Management and Budget was controversial. The budget […]
There are currently 61.1 million American men in their prime working years, age 25–54. A staggering 1 in 8 such men are not in the labor force at all, meaning they are neither working nor looking for work. This is an all-time high dating back to when records were first kept in 1955. An additional […]
“The Office of Management and Budget should be one of the least political departments of government. But the President has made it into one of the most political… What we need in this position is someone who will demonstrate political independence and finally tell the American people the bitter truth about how badly their finances […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today at a hearing on the weak state of the American economy and the challenges facing women and families: “Chairman Murray, thank you for holding this important hearing today. There is no question that the state of our […]
“Not only did the Fed not avert the 2007 crisis, but its policies helped to foster it. And while the big firms were bailed out and the big spenders in Washington quickly frittered away a trillion dollars of borrowed stimulus, the American worker soldiered on in a weak economy. We can’t pump our way to […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered the following prepared remarks today at a hearing discussing the state of the economy with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen: “Thank you, Chairman Yellen, for appearing before our committee today. I look forward to our discussion. Like the foundation of a home, […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the deemed budget allocations that Chairman Patty Murray was required to file in the Congressional Record as a condition of the Ryan-Murray spending deal: “I’m disappointed that Senate Democrats have chosen to make yet another end-run around […]
“Congress and the President agreed to certain spending limits, but now you are simply proposing to spend well above that… This is not acceptable. If you and the Administration want to spend more money on education, you must make it a priority, reducing spending somewhere else… More federal money is not a substitute for the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the April jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “For every one job added, almost three people left the workforce. In fact, all of the decrease in the unemployment rate is attributed to the 988,000 more […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent a letter today to the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration regarding high rates of approval for Social Security Disability claims, including the fact that the inability to communicate in English is being treated as a determinative factor in getting approved […]
The recession officially ended in June 2009, but by nearly every measure, the period since has seen the slowest economic recovery since the end of World War II. Job creation is historically low for this point in a recovery, investment is poor despite record low interest rates, and labor supply is sluggish. Every day that […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the President’s budget would increase the 2015 deficit to $509 billion, up 3.5 percent from the $492 billion deficit CBO estimates for 2014. Over 10 years, CBO projects that the President’s policies would result in deficits of $6.6 trillion and total federal debt of $26.1 trillion. The President’s […]