Oversight
Senate Passes Thune-Sessions Sequestration Transparency Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Senate this evening passed by unanimous consent H.R. 5872, the Sequestration Transparency Act, which the House of Representatives passed last week by a vote of 414-2. This bill was originally introduced by Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). The legislation would require the O… Continue Reading
07.25.12
Sessions: Repealing Costly Health Law ‘Essential Step To Restore Fiscal Sustainability’
"Once the accounting tricks are removed-such as the delayed implementation of the major spending provisions-we know the law will cost more than two and half trillion dollars over its first full 10-year window." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about the Congressional Budget Office's new cost estimates for the President's health care law: "CBO has now told us that total spending on only the coverage … Continue Reading
07.19.12
Sessions Urges USDA To Swiftly Produce Requested Docs On Mexico SNAP Partnership
"In this time of fiscal crisis, and at a moment when the Obama Administration is scaling back the work requirements that were a centerpiece of welfare reform, the nation needs to review all of the nearly 80 welfare programs now administered by the federal government. We must build on the sound principles of the 1996 reform-not abandon them." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about the need for USDA to … Continue Reading
07.19.12
Sessions Asks USDA To Furnish Docs, Info On SNAP Recruitment Campaign With Mexico
"My Budget Committee staff recently asked USDA's Food and Nutrition Service to furnish materials relating to this partnership and the expenditure of taxpayer dollars, such as SNAP literature that is being distributed through Mexican consular offices. Despite these requests, that material has not been provided… It is a sound principle of immigration policy that those who come to America be able to take care of themselves financially. This 'partnership' and related consulate activity … Continue Reading
07.18.12
Thune, Sessions Praise Bipartisan House Passage Of Sequestration Transparency Act
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, today praised the House of Representatives' passage of the Sequestration Transparency Act (H.R.5872) in a nearly unanimous bipartisan vote of 414 to 2. The Sequestration Transparency Act would require the Obama Administration to provide taxpayers and Congress with its plan for implementing the required sequestration cuts for defe… Continue Reading
07.17.12
Sessions To Push Vote On Majority’s Stealth $14 Billion Increase In FY13 Spending Limits
"Chairman Conrad, to his credit, does not dispute… [that] the outlay total he filed is $14 billion higher… He simply asserts that it is within his discretion to unilaterally set a higher total… Remember, outlays are the spending figure which directly registers on the debt. $14 billion in higher outlays in 2013 means $14 billion more added to the debt in 2013. It's just that simple… This is a matter that ought to be considered by the full Senate and so I plan to purs… Continue Reading
07.16.12
CBO Issues Sessions-Requested Report On Dramatic Surge In Americans Receiving Disability Insurance
"It is clear there is a great need to distinguish between proper and improper disability claims, and to better incentivize and find acceptable work for those who are able… The administration of this program must be improved to avoid sinking our country deeper into debt, to ensure the program remains viable for those with disabilities, and to protect Social Security itself." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following stat… Continue Reading
07.16.12
Sessions Reproaches Admin For Withholding Legally Mandated Budget Update
"This makes a more significant statement than the President's recent speeches and interviews professing his vigilant stewardship of the nation. Combined with $5 trillion in debt accrued since 2009, and the refusal of his Senate Majority to produce a budget for three years in the midst of crisis, it reveals a troubling detachment from the financial future of our Republic." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement … Continue Reading
07.16.12
Sessions, Grassley Heighten Criticism Of Ninth Circuit’s Lavish Retreat
"While there can be value in judicial conferences, that value is substantially eroded when judges and employees are distracted with extracurricular activities unrelated to the matters of the court. There is no indication that attendees are required to attend even one official event while on the Island… In our initial letter, we requested specific documents pertaining to the total cost of the Conference but were given vague excuses instead… Perhaps not tracking spending is the reaso… Continue Reading
07.13.12
As USDA Nixes Controversial Food Stamp Ads, Sessions Demands Top-Down Review Of Program's Administration
"I have concluded these ads are only the symptom of a wider culture in USDA, apparent throughout their enrollment literature, which seeks maximum registration as the ultimate goal, regardless of need… The evidence is mounting that USDA [is] pushing, even intimidating, people who do not wish to receive assistance, including non-citizen immigrants, into enrolling for benefits they claim they do not need or wish to receive." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the … Continue Reading
07.13.12
Sessions: President Set To Ignore Law By Not Providing Congress With Budget Update
"President Obama indicated recently that the biggest mistake of his first term was not spending more time delivering his message. Respectfully, I think a much bigger mistake was adding $5 trillion to the debt and then producing a budget plan this year that would add another $11 trillion to the debt through 2022. Making matters worse, the law requires the President to submit a budget update to Congress-known as the Mid-Session Review-before July 16th. It appears the deadline will be breached&hell… Continue Reading
07.12.12
Sessions Calls USDA’s Food Stamp Tactics Into Question
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to the continued emergence of reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has undertaken an aggressive outreach campaign to swell the food stamp rolls even when an individual does not need or wish to receive financial assistance: "It has become increasingly clear that, in recent years, the mission of the food stamp program has been converted from targete… Continue Reading
07.06.12
How Debt Destroys Jobs—And Why We Need A Budget
1,164 days have elapsed since Senate Democrats last offered a budget plan for the nation. Since that time, we've spent $11 trillion and added $4.7 trillion to the debt. The unemployment rate has now been above 8 percent for 41 consecutive months. 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.[1] For example… Continue Reading
06.28.12
SBC Analysis Of President Obama’s Health Law
"The task now before the country is to fully repeal this onerous and unworkable law. If it is not repealed, it will cause Americans' personal health costs-and our nation's debt-to rise disastrously. It will massively expand the power and reach of the federal bureaucracy and its intrusion into our lives and livelihoods. This bill is bad for health care, damaging to our economy, and contrary to our free market heritage" - Sen. Jeff Sessions Health Law Spends $2.6 Trillion Over First Full Ten … Continue Reading
06.28.12
Sessions: Health Law ‘Financially Devastating To Our Republic’; Must Be Repealed
"The health care law is utterly unaffordable-[adding] $17 trillion in unfunded long-term obligations… It is unthinkable our nation would add this new, colossal debt burden at a time when we are already borrowing forty cents out of every dollar we spend. This 2,700-page health law… will be financially devastating to our Republic… If it is not repealed, it will cause Americans' personal health costs-and our nation's debt-to rise disastrously. It will massively expand the power… Continue Reading
06.21.12
Following Farm Bill’s Senate Passage, Sessions Reiterates Need For Welfare Reform
"Under this proposal, food stamp spending will average $77 billion each year for the next ten years. The average in the seven years prior to the recession was $28 billion. Is it the official view of the White House, and the Senate majority, that our economy will experience no improvement for a decade? … "Those supporting these record increases voted down an amendment that would have simply ensured food stamps are provided only to those who meet the program's existing eligibility requirem… Continue Reading
06.19.12
Sessions Comments On Senate Majority’s Rejection Of Modest Reforms To $800 Billion Food Stamp Budget
"Those administering the program seem determined to place the largest number of people possible on welfare support. Is not a better goal to see how many Americans we can help achieve financial independence?" WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement today following votes on two of his food stamp reform amendments: "It is disappointing that the Senate majority rejected modest attempts to reform the single largest growing major … Continue Reading
06.19.12
Food Stamp Reforms Will Help Both The Recipient And The Treasury
Modest reforms to the food stamp program will not only reduce fraud and waste-producing substantial savings for the taxpayer-but will help more Americans achieve the shared goal of financial independence. Background: When food stamps were first expanded nationally in the 1970s, just 1 in 50 Americans participated; today the figure is almost 1 in 7. The program has doubled in size since 2008 and quadrupled since 2001. Food stamps are one of nearly 80 means-tested federal welfare programs, in… Continue Reading
06.19.12
Sessions, Thune Urge Conrad To Schedule Mark-Up Of Sequestration Transparency Act
"Having information about how the sequester would be implemented, and the specific items of spending that would be reduced, is critical to Congress in evaluating the impact of the sequester. Congress has tried repeatedly to obtain this information from the Office on Management and Budget, and it has not been provided. As a result, this legislation is needed for Congress to do its job with full information." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee… Continue Reading
06.18.12
Sessions, Grassley Criticize ‘Unapologetic’ Response From Ninth Circuit About Maui Judicial Conference
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement today in response to a letter from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals defending the planned million-dollar judicial conference at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa in the Hawaiian tropics: "We have received a reply from the Ninth Circuit regarding its fourth planned Hawaii conference … Continue Reading
