Senate Majority leader Harry Reid logged over 30 hours speaking at the mic on the Senate floor in 2013. Senators Cruz and Paul gained widespread notoriety for marathon filibusters. But none of them had anything on Alabama’s very own Sen. Jeff Sessions.
According to analysis done by the Los Angeles Times, Sessions logged more speaking time than anyone in the Senate in 2013 — over 33 hours.
“That’s an impressive distinction considering that Reid opens and closes the Senate most days that it is in session, often making extended opening remarks, while Sessions is a member of the minority party without a formal leadership position,” wrote Michael Memoli of the L.A. Times. “Sessions, though, is the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and spoke often during the year’s various fiscal debates. He also was one of the most outspoken opponents of the comprehensive immigration reform bill debated in the first half of the year, and took to the floor often to state his case.”
Sen. Ted Cruz logged “only” 20 total hours at the mic, even though he held the floor for 21 consecutive hours during his ObamaCare-related quasi-filibuster in September. The discrepancy is due to Cruz occasionally deferring to his colleagues without yielding the floor.
Sen. Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster deriding U.S. drone policy while speaking out against Obama’s CIA director nominee didn’t even allow the Kentucky senator to crack the top 5 of the Senate’s top talkers.
Sessions emerged has the key opponent of the so-called “Gang of Eight” immigration reform legislation back in the spring of 2013. According to statistics provided by Sessions’ staff, in one month, from May 28, the day the immigration reform bill was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, through the time it passed in the U.S. Senate on June 27, Sessions spoke 30 different times on immigration for a grand total of just under 13 hours to lay out the case.
Sessions came in well ahead of Reid (30), Cruz (20), Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois (20) and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn (19) to take the 2013 Senate talking championship.
(Jeff Poor contributed to this report)
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