Jeff Sessions

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, unless there are any Senators who wish to speak in opposition to this amendment, I know we are all in very strong support of veterans. This amendment would make it easier to pass legislation, but that legislation would be required to be deficit neutral. I think we have to know that nothing comes from nothing. If we start new programs, they have to be paid for. But we certainly support the goal of this amendment. I suggest we could take it by voice vote.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I believe this is a good list, and I support this list. I would advise that a number of Senators have amendments that they have waited patiently on and that they are entitled to get votes on, so we need to move forward. The more effectively we can do so, the sooner we can finish. There are some very serious matters that have not yet been put on this list that will need to be voted on. With that, I withdraw my objection.

Mr. SESSIONS. We look forward to working hard as we go forward and take up new amendments. It is unfortunate that we are coming to the end of the week as we have. We still would have a week when we come back-- the week of April 8--but I know the majority leader wants to finish. So we are going to try to cooperate, and I know he will cooperate with us as we seek to get as many amendments done and as many people satisfied with the issues they are concerned about as is possible.

Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the Senator and his cosponsors for their work on this amendment. I note it would double the budget number for the weatherization program. Also, the Recovery Act of a few years ago, the stimulus bill, provided $5 billion for the weatherization program. While I am dubious about the wisdom of the doubling of this program, it is offset. Therefore, I would accept a voice vote.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I believe Senator Coburn wished to speak on this amendment.

Mr. SESSIONS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 247

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I understand there have been discussions about this, and it is on the agreed list for a voice vote. I would have no objection unless others do.

Mr. SESSIONS. This is a budget-neutral reserve fund, and it essentially says, using that language, if the authorizing committee can pay for this bill, it will not be subject to a budget point of order. It should be offset to avoid that. This is certainly a worthy goal. We would like to see if this can be done. It would be a challenge for the authorizers because nothing comes from nothing. It could well end up cutting other veterans benefits. But I think this is a worthy goal. I think the Senator would suggest we take it by a voice vote.

Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I hope all of us begin to think a little bit here. We have a lot of votes that have gone forward. Each one seems to be an attempt to spend more money. It sets deficit-neutral reserve funds that require offsets. In my view, we are really thinking too much with a mindset that we have money, and I believe we are in denial about the financial condition of our country. Truly, we should be looking to have more amendments that save some money and use that money to pay down the debt rather than fund some new spending program. This country is on an unsustainable debt path. We have to get off of it, and it cannot be done all by tax increases. Trust me, we have to have some spending reductions. Our spending rate of growth is more than two times the rate of economic growth, and that really--

Mr. SESSIONS. I suggest a voice vote. I appreciate my colleague's work on this amendment.

Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I thank Senator Cardin for his hard work. He is correct that oral care for children is important. It does require that it be paid for if a new program is advanced. I suggest a voice vote.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I agree that the Senator's amendment restates current law. I have no objection to that. I would accept that. But the question is and what has been suggested in the paper from what I have seen is that if a person is in our country illegally and they are rewarded with some legal status, do they then immediately become eligible for Federal health care benefits? It is a different situation than somebody who came legally and has legal status. So I would say I would accept a voice vote on this.

Mr. SESSIONS. My amendment will deal with the next question.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, under current law, if a person is here unlawfully and becomes ``lawfulized,'' in some fashion, they then become qualified for this program. That is what we are talking about. So the question is, Should they then become qualified for ObamaCare or Medicaid? I think the answer is no. I think that is what people have said they believe. My amendment would simply say that if you are here illegally, did not enter legally, and you get a lawful status in the United States, you then do not qualify for the Federal programs of ObamaCare and Medicaid.

Mr. SESSIONS. How much time?

Mr. SESSIONS. Twenty seconds.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, there may be someone else here, but I have prosecuted banks before and big institutions and put some people in jail. But we have--this is serious. I don't think the deficit reserve fund is the way to go about it, frankly, but it is an issue worthy of discussion. It should be brought up in the authorizing committee--the Judiciary Committee--and considered. And I am very inclined to believe we have had too little prosecution in these cases. But I think the right thing to do is to take this by voice vote. People can decide how they want to vote on it.

Mr. SESSIONS. I think we can accept this by a voice vote. I would note that the House has nonreserved funds. The Senate now has about 50 we have adopted already. We have reserve funds adopted for education, clean energy, infrastructure, farm payments, food stamps, health care, pensions, housing, tooth decay, and now homeowners. So these create 50 ways to pass taxes more easily. It turns the budget discipline, if we don't watch it, into mush and makes it difficult to maintain the integrity of the Budget Act and avoids really in some ways the hard work of setting priorities. So I think we should do this by voice vote, but I did want to call the attention of my colleagues to the fact that reserve funds too readily used can undermine the integrity of the budget process.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I thank Chairman Murray for her leadership and for her fairness in helping us move a lot of amendments fairly and equitably tonight. We are in a situation where--no need to debate it into the night--I wish we had not been in a position where the majority leader was determined to finish this weekend. I wish we could have started earlier in the week or to come back on April 8, but that is not possible. We have gone 4 years without a budget, and Members have been constricted in the filing of amendments this year more than any other time in probably the history of the Senate. One has to ask or beg permission to be allowed to have an amendment. Senator Ayotte is one of those. Senator Moran and others had amendments. So they are frustrated, and they want their votes. So I would just say, let's keep going. Let's keep in good humor. Let's try to get as many of these votes in as possible. I have had several Members suggest that we might vote from our chairs and not leave the Chamber and cut these rollcall votes down to a much shorter period of time. Maybe we could discuss that. But I think the list needs to be continued to be produced. A number of Senators haven't had amendments, and they really feel as though they have a right to. And this may be their only opportunity, the way things are going this year, to even get a vote on something they care about. So that is my observation.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, will the Senator from Washington yield for a question?

Mr. SESSIONS. If the Senator will yield for a question with regard to the possibility of us starting one of the votes that will probably be a rollcall vote, and let's get started on that while we work out the further details.

Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I thank the leader. I think it has real potential. There still would be some votes that could go by voice vote, we would hope. But if we do this pressure in this way I think it would speed up things. I thank the leader for that suggestion. I have heard it from our side for a while. I think it is a good idea.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I have so enjoyed working with the chairman. She has done a great job. She has managed this group as we needed to be managed. I am disappointed in the budget. It does not do the job for our times. I thank the Chair and look forward to the vote.

Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I also would like to thank the staff. My group is here. And I say to Senator Murray, your team is fabulous. We work hard on bills that come through the Senate, and there are a lot of challenges. But few are bigger than this, with all these amendments--hundreds of them that came through--and it was a real challenge. I congratulate the staff, I congratulate the Senator's team, and I hope we can continue to have good relations as we go forward and work together. I would mention Marcus Peacock, my staff director, who was fabulous. He enjoyed every minute of this. I asked him how he was doing, and he said: I am going to be sorry tomorrow when it is over. But maybe that is a sign of sickness. I do not know. I want to express my appreciation to my staff: Dan Kowalski, Bill Beach, Greg D'Angelo, Gene Emmans, George Everly, Matt Giroux, Brittany Godwin, Tori Gorman, Graham Hixon, Andrew Herther, Chris Jackson, Cari Kelly, Joseph McCormack, Greg McNeill, Carlton Milsap, Marcus Peacock, Kim Proctor, John Selden, William Smith, Paul Winfree, Stephen Miller, Andrew Logan, Garrett Murch, and Katie Moses. I think that is everybody. Tori Gorman has been back there in the center of that zoo and did a great job for us trying to work on these amendments. So, again, I would like to thank Senator Murray for her leadership, helping us get through this difficult time, and it is good to say that as of this time, 5 a.m., there has not been a day without a budget being passed in the Senate. (Laughter.)

Jeff Sessions

Speeches

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