Sessions: Spending cuts needed to offset cost of Obama's $2 billion immigration bailout

WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration is expected to put forward on Tuesday a request for $2 billion in funding to cover the costs of the immigration crisis on the southern border. The Administration will cast the request as an emergency appropriation that would not require Congress to find any spending or tax offsets to cover the costs. However, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) suggested today that he and other Republicans may push for spending cuts to pay for the unexpected expenditure.

“Two billion dollars, make no mistake about it, is a lot of money,” Sessions said on the Senate floor.

The Obama Administration has not yet offered any specifics about its pending request. So far this year, over 50,000 illegal immigrant children have come across the U.S. border and are now being housed in various states around the country awaiting deportation hearings.

“[W]e’ve got to take care of the children,” Sessions said. “We can’t leave them in a certain circumstance where they’re not fed or taken care of. We’ll have to find some money I guess to do that.”

But before it even gets to that point, Sessions said he believes Congress must challenge the president’s “lawlessness” on the issue of immigration.

“[House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte] has made a strong statement. He says we simply can’t provide money until we have some clarity that we’re going to be taking action in this country that will keep this from happening in the future. He’s certainly correct in that we certainly need to do that,” Sessions said.

The Obama Administration at one point signaled that they were considering housing some of the children in the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Ala., but backtracked after receiving intense pushback from Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Saks) and the public at large.

Sessions also ripped into Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson for not using more forceful language to deter illegals from venturing across the border.

“This is the top law enforcement officer with regard to immigration in America, and he could not say, ‘do not come to America unlawfully, it violates our laws, we cannot accept that, if you do so you will be deported, and if you bring children, you both are going to be deported,’” Sessions said. “Why couldn’t he say that? He couldn’t say it because they’ve had no serious policy to effectuate that law, which is current law, since he’s been in office and before. And they just don’t want to say it. It’s just stunning to me that you can’t have clarity and leadership in the top people in our government.”

(Below: a one-minute clip of Sessions’ remarks on the Senate floor)