Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions claimed a big victory in the Senate this week as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray finally agreed to comply with federal law and offer a budget for the first time in almost four years. Murray declared Senate Democrats are “ready to get to work.” …Everyone else declared, “it’s about time.”
This is a significant win for Sessions because he has been out front beating the drum on this issue for quite a while now. He has worked tirelessly to expose Senator Reid’s strategy of never producing a budget in order to shield his members from public scrutiny. “Sen. Jeff Sessions…has conducted a virtual crusade on the issue, loudly and consistently and unsuccessfully demanding that Reid obey the law and pass a budget,” Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York wrote in early January. York later described the turn of events as “a big win for Jeff Sessions.”
“I have repeatedly and emphatically called for an end to the Senate Democrats’ brazen legal defiance in this time of national fiscal emergency,” Senator Sessions said in a statement. “To compel Senate action I have introduced legislation, blocked recess, and encouraged the use of the debt ceiling as leverage. Now, with their pay threatened, and long-simmering public anger growing, Senate Democrats have suddenly seen the light. Even just a few days ago, they were not willing to commit to doing a budget.”
Sessions says he believes the way forward is for the House and the Senate to both lay out long-term financial plans and present them to the American people. In the past, Democrats refused to do so for political reasons, believing it better to attack the House while having no plan to present, explain, or defend.
The legal deadline for the Budget Committee to complete its work on a budget resolution is April 1. There’s a lot of work to be done between now and then. But for now, Senator Sessions deserves a lot of credit for leading the fight in the Senate on behalf of conservatives not just in Alabama, but across the country.
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