Oversight
Hatch, Sessions Request Complete Information From Treasury On Debt Limit, Contingency Planning
In letter to Secretary Geithner, lawmakers write, "Just over a year [since the debt limit was last raised], we've already exhausted 87 percent of the $2.1 trillion increase in federal borrowing authority, averaging more than $4 billion in borrowing a day… With more complete information about when the debt limit may next be reached, we hope to aid decision-makers and preempt any need for such a contingency plan in the future." WASHINGTON-In a letter today, U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-… Continue Reading
10.12.12
Sessions Comments On Treasury’s FY 2012 Year-End Report
"The report confirms that the United States has experienced its fourth straight deficit in excess of a trillion dollars… Disturbingly, the report from Secretary Geithner also repeats the fraudulent claim that the President's February budget achieves $4 trillion in deficit reduction. But, according to the President's own budget tables, his plan would increase debt nearly $11 trillion… Surely the Treasury Secretary knows these facts. Yet instead of telling the truth he misleads the c… Continue Reading
10.11.12
Serial Deception: White House Spending Claim Off By $6 Trillion
President Obama's FY 2013 budget proposal has two primary impacts on fiscal policy: a $1.8 trillion increase in taxes and a $1.4 trillion increase in spending above current growth projections-netting less than $400 billion in deficit reduction, or just one-tenth of the pledged $4 trillion. As a result, America's gross debt under the President's plan, as reported by his own Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will climb to $25.4 trillion in 2022-$10.6 trillion above where it stood at the end o… Continue Reading
10.10.12
Sessions To Vilsack: More Detail Needed On Food Stamp Partnership With Mexico; Controversial Promotions Must Cease
"Your letter asserts that 'we do not pressure any eligible person to accept benefits, nor is our goal to simply increase the number of program participants.' But the content of USDA's advertisements and promotion campaigns demonstrate otherwise… There is even a promotional guide suggesting those targeted for enrollment harm their communities by not accepting benefits… I would therefore ask that you at once eliminate all materials, training and recruitment efforts that contradict yo… Continue Reading
10.05.12
Sessions Comments On $1.1 Trillion Deficit For FY 2012
"The greatest obstacle to preventing a debt crisis is a president who won't tell the truth about his financial plan and a Senate Majority determined to avoid presenting one at all." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after a report from the Congressional Budget Office revealed that the FY 2012 budget deficit was $1.1 trillion, the fourth consecutive deficit of more than $1 trillion: "Never before has a… Continue Reading
10.04.12
‘Serial Misrepresentations’: President’s Budget Claims Disproven By Own Budget Document
"All we have to do is review the President's own budget document, as submitted to Congress, and look up the figures in the tables provided… The biggest obstacle we face in preventing [a debt] crisis is a president who refuses tell the truth about his plan and a Democrat Senate that refuses to produce any plan at all." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about President Obama's "serial misrepresent… Continue Reading
10.03.12
President’s Budget Claims Shredded By Journalists, Analysts, And Experts
"Obama claims more than $4 trillion in deficit savings over the coming decade. But it you peel away accounting tricks and debatable claims on spending cuts, it's more like $1.1 trillion. Republicans say it's even less because of creative bookkeeping used to mask spending on Medicare reimbursements to doctors." Associated Press, "Candidates' deficit plans don't add up as government adds $1.1 trillion in debt," October 1, 2012 "The repeated claim that Obama's budget reduces the deficit by $4 t… Continue Reading
10.02.12
Administration Shrouds Visa Data In Secrecy As Evidence Shows Welfare Law Not Being Enforced
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after the Department of Homeland Security refused to provide Congress with basic numerical info about the enforcement of welfare restrictions for those seeking admittance to the United States: "Basic annual data on visa applications is easily and readily producible. But yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security missed yet another deadline to provide this info as re… Continue Reading
09.27.12
President’s Core Budget Claim False
President Obama has staked his entire fiscal reputation on the claim that he has "a balanced plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion." As demonstrated recently, that $4 trillion claim, and the assertion that his plan would "pay down our debt," is scandalously false. But the heart of the "balanced" argument is that the purported deficit reduction in the President's budget comes from a 2.5-to-1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases. For example, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney recently … Continue Reading
09.26.12
GOP Senators To Napolitano: Why Won’t DHS Release Data On Visas And Welfare Reliance?
"Your failure to respond to our oversight request is deeply troubling, and suggests that your Department is attempting to conceal information from the American people." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, was joined today by U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Pat Roberts (R-KS), Ranking Members of the Senate Judiciary, Finance, and Agriculture Committees, respectively, in releasing the following letter to Homeland Sec… Continue Reading
09.20.12
Thune, Sessions Call On OMB To Provide Missing Sequestration Details
WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, today sent the following letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Jeffrey Zients. The letter requests that OMB provide an updated timeline to the American people and Congress for when to expect the release of the missing sequestration report details that were required by law. The sequestration report released… Continue Reading
09.14.12
Report Confirms Dramatic, Disproportionate Cuts Threaten National Defense
WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, today issued the following statement regarding the late release of an Obama Administration report detailing its plans for implementing sequestration that will take effect on January 2, 2013. This sequestration report from the President was due on September 6th, and was required as a result of the Sequestration Transparency Act legislat… Continue Reading
09.07.12
Medicare Funding Crisis Nears, But President Bucks Law Mandating Rescue
The law requires action by the President when Medicare's finances are determined to be on an unsustainable course. In any year when the program's Trustees issue a Medicare funding warning-defined as when more than 45 percent of Medicare outlays are expected to be paid for out of the Treasury's general fund, which suggests impending insolvency-the President is required to submit to Congress a proposed legislative solution within 15 days of his next budget. This legal requirement is known as the "… Continue Reading
09.06.12
The $4 Trillion Deceit
The President and his surrogates have continued to insist that his budget, voted down unanimously in the Senate and House this year after failing to garner a single Senate vote last year, contains $4 trillion in deficit reduction.[1] They have asserted that this purported deficit reduction comes from a 2.5-to-1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases.[2] These claims are provably and outrageously false. It is not a matter of nuance, perspective, or context, but sober, objective, and indisputable… Continue Reading
09.04.12
U.S. Debt To Top $16T Today; Sessions Comments On ‘Grim Landmark’
"By failing to outline any serious plan for the financial future of this country, Democrats who run the Senate and the White House have no basis on which to ask to be kept in their majority." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as the U.S. gross national debt was set to surpass $16 trillion for the first time in the country's history: "This is a grim landmark for the United States. The gross debt of our … Continue Reading
08.21.12
Clinton, Napolitano Fail To Comply With Welfare Oversight From Senate Committees
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released a statement today as State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano failed to meet the deadline to respond to an oversight letter from the senior Republicans on the Budget, Judiciary, Finance, and Agriculture Committees. In their letter, Ranking Members Sessions, Grassley, Hatch, and Roberts asked the Secretaries to explain why the legal requirement that… Continue Reading
08.10.12
Sessions And Ryan: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
"Not only have [Senate Democrats] failed to adopt a budget but, with America under threat of financial calamity, they have refused to even present a plan for public scrutiny." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, released the following joint statement today ahead of the 1,200th day since Senate Democrats have last adopted a budget plan: "Tomorrow marks another disappointing r… Continue Reading
08.07.12
Thune-Sessions Sequestration Transparency Bill Signed Into Law
WASHINGTON-A bill authored by U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, that would require transparency from the Obama Administration on its plan for implementing nearly $1 trillion in required sequestration cuts was signed into law by the President today, August 7, 2012. The Sequestration Transparency Act (H.R.5872), the counterpart bill to the legislation originally introduced by Senat… Continue Reading
08.06.12
Sessions: Senate In Recess As It Approaches 1,200th Day Since Passing A Budget As Law Requires
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement today ahead of the 1,200th day since the Senate Democrat majority last offered a budget plan to the American people: "The Senate has adjourned for recess as we're approaching 1,200 days since this Democrat majority has passed a budget. We're adding $4 billion a day to the national debt. We're facing a fourth straight deficit in excess of $1 trillion. Despite repeated w… Continue Reading
08.06.12
Ranking Members On Budget, Finance, Judiciary, And Ag Write DHS And State Depts Over Welfare Rules For Immigrants
"Congress intended that immigrants who come to the United States should not become dependent on our expanding welfare system… the INA specifically states: 'An alien who… is likely at any time to become a public charge is inadmissible.' … We were thus shocked to discover that both the State Department and DHS exclude reliance on almost all governmental welfare programs when evaluating whether an alien is likely to become a public charge… Indeed, under your [agencie… Continue Reading
