WASHINGTON – The bill that ended the federal government shutdown and expanded the federal government’s borrowing limit also put in place a budget conference committee tasked with finding common ground between the House and Senate for a new federal budget.
The four congressional members who will be leading the conference committee are Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. and Alabama’s own Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile.
Sessions is the ranking Republicans of the Senate Budget Committee, so his position on the conference committee comes as no surprise. After learning of the appointment, Sessions emphasized the need for the committee to do something about the federal government’s runaway spending and debt.
“I am honored to have been chosen to serve on the Budget Conference Committee,” Sessions said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. “I believe the members of the Committee will seek to act in the nation’s long-term interest, and I hope we can find some common ground. Our nation’s spending and debt has surged beyond control. In the last five years, Washington spent more than $15 trillion and added more than $6 trillion to the debt. Never has so great a sum been spent for so little in return. The result? Wages are lower than they were in 1999 and fewer people are working today than were in 2007. The idea that we can tax, borrow, and spend our way to prosperity is simply false.
The Mobile Republican said the ideological divide between he and his Democrat counterparts will pose a significant challenge, but expressed optimism about the opportunity they have to improve the country’s financial situation.
“It will not be easy to reverse these deep and damaging trends, as Republicans and Democrats have serious philosophical disagreements over the proper role of government,” Sessions added. “But good faith efforts can surely make improvements, and perhaps even make very significant improvements in the long-term financial situation of our country. That should be our goal.”
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