Enzi to take on Sessions for Budget gavel

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) will seek the Senate Budget gavel for the next Congress, his aide announced Friday, igniting a showdown with fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). 

{mosads}“Under the Republican Conference rules, he has seniority for the post and it is Senator Sessions that is challenging him, not the other way around,” Enzi’s press secretary Daniel Head said in a statement.

Enzi’s decision to throw himself into the budget race is bound to ignite a fierce battle over the gavel. Sessions had been positioning himself to be the panel’s chairman and delivered a keynote speech on his priorities at a budget conference the first day of the lame-duck session.

A request for comment from Sessions’ office was not immediately returned.

Enzi’s seniority could help him, however, during the committee elections that are expected to happen in January.

Until now, Enzi had been exploring a number of committee posts that included Budget. 

Sessions is currently the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, Head said, because Enzi didn’t “exert his seniority two years ago.”

“Senator Enzi and Senator Session were friends before this, are still friends, and will be after this. They will work it out,” Head said. 

Enzi plans to use his committee assignments in the GOP-controlled Congress next year to reduce the debt and balance the federal budget, repeal ObamaCare, reverse President Obama’s “illegal amnesty” and reform the tax code, his aide said.

“I know how to put government on a low-spending diet. I’ve used budget reconciliation instructions to save more than $15 billion from different programs. This is where experience counts. It’s time to get into the weeds and dig into the numbers, something that energizes me, an accountant and small businessman by trade,” Enzi said in a statement.