WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the Congressional Budget Office’s re-estimate of President Obama’s FY 2014 budget submission: “The new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office confirms, once again, that President Obama’s financial vision of the country is dangerously unsustainable. According to CBO […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the May baseline update from the Congressional Budget Office: “CBO’s baseline update, while providing some favorable change in deficit estimates, shows that the nation still faces a serious long-term problem. After temporary improvement, deficits begin a relentless […]
“At a time when our nation’s major entitlements are already nearing bankruptcy, we cannot afford to add another $6.3 trillion in long-term net costs to already over-burdened state, local, and federal governments… This bill may be good for the special interests who helped write it. But it’s bad for workers, bad for taxpayers, and fails […]
“I hope the Gang’s members will propose or support amendments to address the legislation’s enormous federal costs and to ensure that illegal immigrants will not become dependent on already-burdened state and local benefit programs.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding a number of […]
“The legislation would enable millions of illegal immigrants to access federal and state welfare and entitlement programs, with the most significant costs occurring outside the 10-year budget window when they would be eligible for green cards and ultimately citizenship. No lawmaker should vote on this legislation until we have a complete and thorough estimation of […]
“It is essential that we have answers to these questions before any legislation is unveiled so that the public can be informed and provide input… As we discovered through several oversight requests from the Agriculture, Budget, and Judiciary Committees, existing federal immigration law designed to protect taxpayers is not enforced by this administration. One of […]
“This proposal goes to extraordinary lengths to shield the federal bureaucracy from any reform, even as millions of Americans are trapped in failed government programs. It grows the government at the expense of the economy. It enriches the bureaucracy at the expense of the people. And it threatens to permanently depress the American economy under […]
“If the American people take nothing else away from this debate, it should be that the party running this Senate, spending your dollars, refuses to ever balance the federal budget… [Their plan’s] surging debt and taxes will crush American workers, close American factories, and depress American wages… This budget effectively shows no concern for Americans […]
“Now that the Senate majority has written a plan we can finally begin this conversation: Do we balance the budget and grow the economy for all Americans? Or do we continue to enrich the bureaucracy at the expense of the people?” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the […]
“This will dramatically accelerate the insolvency of our entitlement programs and is unfair to American workers and taxpayers.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement tonight following a 43–56 vote on his amendment to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot access free and taxpayer-funded health care if they […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement after Senate Democrats voted against his motion to recommit the Murray budget to committee with instructions to find a way to balance the budget in 10 years. Only Sen. Joe Manchin joined with Republicans in support of balancing the federal […]
“As you may know, the Senate [is scheduled to] vote on the budget resolution. To assist Senators in their work on the budget, and as well as work on future government funding measures, it would be helpful to have certain additional details about the food stamp program as well as the 14 other nutrition-support programs […]
“This is the kind of meeting we should have been having all along—public, open process… [but] I remain deeply disappointed that the majority’s proposal not only fails to change our debt course, but actually increases spending over the next 10 years—including $162 billion of increased spending next year alone… What is particularly troubling is that […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after his initial review of the Murray budget which, if enacted, would be the first Senate Democratic budget in four years: “Four years have passed since the last time Senate’s Democrat majority attempted to pass a budget. Four […]
“Is it really possible that after four years, the majority has failed to identify any reforms? That all we have is just a tax-and-spend budget that makes no alteration to our dangerous debt course? Does the majority believe the government is perfect and requires no reform? … Is the Budget Committee of the United States […]
“We need to grow the economy—not the government… Government has never been bigger or more out of control. They say there is no problem with waste, fraud, and abuse; they say the problem is you; they say you are not sending them enough money; they say they have wisely spent every penny. So, you must […]
“We are deeply troubled by the prospects of subsidizing another costly, wasteful, and risky high-speed rail project, particularly when our nation is facing a debt crisis that threatens the well-being of the current and future generations of Americans… We would urge the Administration to reject the XpressWest loan application and to direct its available RRIF […]
“The Director must lead an effort to make government leaner and more efficient, and must be committed to providing honest and accurate information on the dangerous financial condition of our country.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding President Obama’s nomination of Sylvia Burwell […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding newly released data from the State Department demonstrating that only 0.0033 percent of net applications for admission to the United States were denied on “public charge” grounds in 2011, despite the federal law prohibiting admission of any […]
“[Federal] workers know firsthand how much waste and inefficiency exists in the government. Our Budget Committee office will look for a way to solicit federal employees to send suggestions for how to save money in their departments, agencies, and divisions. What is better? To furlough someone or to empower them to make their office more […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered remarks today at a Budget Committee hearing scheduled by the majority to make the case for additional federal “investments.” Sessions’ remarks, as prepared, follow: “Thank you, Chairman Murray. This hearing deals with an important subject: Government spending and long term economic growth. […]
“This was the strategy: offer a plan that does nothing to alter our dangerous debt course while pretending the opposite. Then, once you’ve done that, attack anyone who dares to reduce the size of the bureaucracy. Attack anyone who suggests Washington is too powerful… It is time that we pointed out that the establishment they […]
“Normally, and necessarily, the OMB director is the single office that drives efficiency and demands accountability on behalf of the President and the American people. In that aspect of his job, and in this time of surging debt, I rate Mr. Lew’s performance as an F… [It] was decided [that] Mr. Lew would go before […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement today regarding the long-delayed response from the Department of Homeland Security about the Administration’s apparent waiving of federal law with respect to welfare restrictions for immigrants. The response indicated that, in 2012, not a single immigrant was identified by the federal […]
“Since President Johnson’s Great Society, the federal government has spent $15 trillion dollars in the war on poverty. Yet the poverty rate has remained largely unchanged… Welfare is now the single largest item in the federal budget. It is larger than Medicare, larger than defense, larger than Social Security… Today, like in 1996, opponents of […]
“It has been four years since the Democrat-led Senate has produced a budget as the law requires… I am glad that the Senate majority has relented and is going to do a budget this year, else I wonder what our Committee might find itself having to do—whether we would even need the Committee. So we […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the Committee’s oversight of Jack Lew’s role in the Administration’s defiance of Medicare law, as well as other controversies surrounding his nomination: “Jack Lew must never be Treasury Secretary. As director of the Office of Management and […]
“The Secretary of the Treasury is the premier financial post in government and our financial ambassador to the world. How can we place in that post a man who has consistently placed his own partisan interests above the financial well-being of our constituents?” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, […]
“We therefore request the following submissions be sent to Congress so that we may properly consider Mr. Lew’s nomination: 1. A detailed legislative proposal responsive to the latest Medicare funding warning to bring the administration into compliance with federal law; 2. All documents, electronic or otherwise, received, reviewed or authored by Mr. Lew regarding responding […]
“Paul Ryan is leading. Speaker Boehner is leading. House Republicans are leading. But Senate Democrats, who control this chamber—who asked for this job—are refusing to allow a budget to move forward. They are refusing to share with the American people the contents of the plan they crafted behind closed doors—a plan they claim exists. “I […]