Ranking Member Press
Senate Democrats Vote To Give Free Healthcare And Obamacare To Illegal Immigrants As Part Of Immigration Reform
"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 are granted legal status as part of any immigration bill: "The core legal and economic principle of immigration is that… Continue Reading
03.21.13
Sessions Comments After Senate Democrats Stunningly Oppose Balancing The Budget Through Any Means Whatsoever
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 budget. Sessions' comment follows: "Tonight the American people witnessed a remarkable and alarming event: the Senate's Democrat majority declared the… Continue Reading
03.18.13
Sessions Replies To Vilsack On Foreign SNAP Promotions, Seeks Cost Info Ahead Of Budget Votes
"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 administered by USDA… According to the standards you referenced, immigrants can access 85 percent of the welfare state and still not be deemed public charges. You may also b… Continue Reading
03.14.13
Ranking Member Sessions Remarks On Conclusion Of FY14 Senate Budget Mark-Up
"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 the majority shields from accountability government programs that are failing those who need our help the most… The Murray budget… Continue Reading
03.13.13
After Reviewing Murray Budget, Sessions Conveys ‘Deep Disappointment’
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 years of trillion-dollar deficits. Yet, to my amazement and deep disappointment, the majority has come forward today with a proposal that does n… Continue Reading
03.13.13
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At Committee Meeting To Produce First Senate Democrat Budget In Four Years
"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 Senate really prepared to say we cannot balance the federal budget? If that is so, it is a sad day in America… I fear the majority's plan will enrich the bureaucrac… Continue Reading
03.09.13
Sessions Delivers Weekly Republican Address
"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 just send them more. And, if you don't? Well, they won't stop spending, they'll just borrow more. These destructive policies cannot continue. We are at the breaking point." WASHINGTON, D.C.-In… Continue Reading
03.08.13
Sessions, Ryan Call For Halt On Taxpayer Funding For Risky High-Speed Rail Project
"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 funds to more worthy transportation infrastructure projects that could truly provide a reasonable rate of return to the taxpayers of … Continue Reading
03.04.13
Sessions Comments On Nomination Of New OMB Director
"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 to head the Office of Management and Budget: "We will fairly and thoughtfully evaluate this nomination. Whoever h… Continue Reading
03.01.13
Sessions: Data In New State Dept. Letter Further Proves Immigrant Welfare Prohibition Being Ignored
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 individual deemed likely to be a public charge: "The data just provided by the State Department, like that recently provi… Continue Reading
03.01.13
Sessions: Fed Workers Should Have Opportunity To Find Budget Savings
"[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 efficient?" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as the sequester was… Continue Reading
02.28.13
Sessions Delivers Opening Remarks At Budget Committee Hearing On Government Spending
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. It provides an important opportunity to address the economic harm caused by excessive federal spending and … Continue Reading
02.27.13
Sessions Delivers Closing Remarks On Lew Nomination
"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 are shielding from cuts-the big-government apparatus they are defending-is hurting people every day. Their policies, their endless support of the bureaucracy, has cr… Continue Reading
02.27.13
Sessions Opens Debate On Opposition To Jack Lew Nomination
"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 the American people and Congress and just declare that the budget did put the nation on a sound financial course… To anybody that has the slightest concern for the meani… Continue Reading
02.14.13
Sessions: DHS Letter Confirms Public Charge Immigration Law Not Being Enforced
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 government as being a public charge: "The law that excludes immigrants from entry if they are likely to … Continue Reading
02.13.13
At Budget Hearing, Sessions Presents Moral Case For Welfare Reform
"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 reform label any attempts to change the way these programs operate as cruel, uncaring, and dangerous. But what is actually cruel and uncarin… Continue Reading
02.12.13
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At First Budget Hearing Of 2013
"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 look forward to meeting the Committee deadline of April 1st to publically produce a resolution and then April 15th on the Senate floor… While we talk of cuts and frugality, total spending i… Continue Reading
02.05.13
Sessions: White House Must End Its Violation Of Federal Medicare Law
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 Budget, he submitted to Congress two spend-and-debt budget plans which not only received zero votes but which would have… Continue Reading
02.04.13
Sessions Comments On Jack Lew’s Role In Violating Federal Law
"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, issued the following statement today after Committee Republicans launched an inquiry into Jack Lew's role in violating the "Medicare trigger" law:… Continue Reading
02.04.13
Committee GOP Launches Inquiry On Jack Lew’s Complicity In Violating Federal Law
"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 to Medicare funding warnings during his most recent tenure at the Office of Management and Budget." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Je… Continue Reading
