Sessions: Democrats aren't passing a budget 'out of the goodness of their hearts'

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said he looks forward to returning to regular order and passing a budget out of committee this year.

Sessions applauded Chairwoman Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) announcement Wednesday that she would move a budget resolution through the Budget Committee and to the Senate floor for the first time in four years. But Sessions suggested that Democrats aren't going to pass a budget "out of the goodness of their hearts."

Sessions said Murray’s decision came after the House decided to take up a bill raising the debt ceiling for three months on the condition that Congress members not get paid if they failed to pass a budget by April 15.

“My colleagues would like to suggest somehow that they’ve decided to do this out of the goodness of their hearts,” Sessions said on the floor Wednesday. “But I think the American people have had a belly full of this.”

Murray denied that her motivation to pass a budget came from the House proposal.

Sessions pointed out that the Senate has gone more than 1,000 days without passing a budget, saying that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) didn’t want to force members of his party to take politically “tough votes.” Sessions said passing a budget through committee and allowing amendments on the floor would include the public in the process rather than passing last-minute private deals to avoid consequences.

“We’ve got to have it be part of the public debate,” Sessions said. “The American people will understand better the challenges we face and senators will better understand the challenges we face.

“We can do it, we can get this country on a sound path. It is not impossible, but anyone who thinks it’s easy is wrong. … Everyone is going to have to swallow a little bit.”

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