Sessions: GOP Congress needs ‘financial discipline’

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is calling for the new Republican-controlled Congress to pass a budget that imposes “financial discipline” on every government agency.

“One of my top goals as a new Republican majority is to impose financial discipline on every single agency of this government and we have to be consistent about it,” said Sessions. The would-be next Budget Chairman was speaking at a bipartisan conference hosted by the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. 

{mosads}Sessions is currently the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, but Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) is weighing a possible challenge for the gavel.

With the majority control, Sessions said Republicans should use their advantage to pass an immigration policy that tightens the labor market, repeal ObamaCare and pass a budget.

“This time a Republican House and a Republican Senate are going to have to produce a budget. We’re committed to that. American people expect that. It will not be easy,” Sessions added. 

Sessions said the government should “apply [President] Coolidge’s spirit” to current times by reducing federal spending and consolidating programs. He noted there are 80 different federal welfare programs. 

“If we don’t return to sound budgeting, we’ll have a debt crisis,” he warned.

Sessions also slammed Democrats for keeping individual appropriations bills off the Senate floor in the current Congress. 

“It cannot continue.”

The deal reached by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) set budget caps for fiscal 2014 and 2015 but ends Sept. 30, 2015.

If Congress doesn’t pass a budget next year, the caps set by the Budget Control Act of 2011 would apply to fiscal 2016. If lawmakers approve appropriations higher than those caps, then automatic spending cuts will return.