The Issues
Sessions is among the Senate’s more conservative members, though in the 110th Congress he voted with his party 88 percent of the time. In 2007, National Journal ranked him one of the top 10 most conservative senators.
The former U.S. attorney opposes abortion rights and strict gun control, and he is a strong proponent of free trade. Sessions comes down on the more conservative side of the immigration debate, one of the few issues on which he disagreed with President George W. Bush. He was one of the more vocal opponents of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 that would have created a guest-worker program for foreign workers, which he helped kill.
The Alabaman also assembled a questionnaire on immigration that he sent to the 2008 presidential candidates and unsuccessfully fought to reauthorize for five more years E-verify, a program that allows employers to check the immigration status of employees.
In his first term, Sessions helped steer millions of dollars to forensic science labs around the country and led a fight to reduce the disparity in sentencing guidelines between those caught with powder versus crack cocaine. He encountered roadblocks on some of his biggest legislative efforts. In 1997, he tried to pass language limiting legal fees for attorneys in that year’s tobacco settlement. In 1999, a juvenile-justice bill he pushed died in debate over gun control.
In his second term, Sessions supported President Bush’s plan to partially privatize Social Security and successfully inserted a provision into the 2003 Medicare/prescription drug bill providing higher Medicare reimbursement to rural hospitals. Despite the devastation inflicted on Alabama by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Sessions was skeptical of the amount of money the government was spending on the cleanup. “It will be added straight to our debt, and our children and grandchildren will pay it plus the interest that accumulates,” he said.
Judicial
After Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) switched parties in April 2009, Sessions was elevated to the key role of ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which presides over court - including Supreme Court - justice nominations. As such, he will have a big influence on whether President Obama's pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter is easily confirmed. In response to questions about whether he would automatically oppose a gay justice, Sessions said he would not.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from his first term, the Republican criticized many of President Clinton’s appointments and emerged as one of the biggest defenders of nominations for federal judgeships by President George W. Bush. "The average Alabamian does not have time to study the file of a judge," Sessions said. "They're paying me to do that."
He was an early supporter of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) proposal to use the nuclear option (a process for shutting down a Senate filibuster with a simple majority) to end Democrat filibusters of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees. When the Senate ‘Gang of 14’ reached a compromise to avoid a showdown, Sessions opposed the group and derisively referred to its members as the “masters of the universe.”
Sessions has warned that President Obama’s nominees could face Republican roadblocks and filibuster. "It appears he is more committed to the appointment of activist judges than even President Clinton," he said.
The Economy
In late 2008, Sessions opposed the government’s $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. He voted against the bailout, calling it "unprecedented governmental intervention in the economy."He also opposed President Obama’s February 2009 $787 billion stimulus, calling it the “largest spending bill in the history of the republic.” Sessions said he would support changes that lowered the price tag of the stimulus and advocated converting direct aid to states to loans. "It would be very dangerous for the states to see this money as free money," he said.
Sessions favors lower taxes and limited government spending. He believes low taxes lead to economic growth. In 2001, he introduced the American Family Economic Security and Stimulus Act, which would have provided economic assistance to working American displaced by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and increased tax credits for low- income Americans. In 2005, he introduced legislation eliminating the estate tax. Both bills died in committee.
"War on Terror"
From his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sessions enjoys major influence on military issues. He also sits on the subcommittees on Strategic Forces, Airland and Seapower.
An early supporter of the Iraq war, Sessions has remained a strong supporter of the military effort there. In 2005, the Republican spoke at a pro-war rally in Washington, D.C., where he criticized anti-war protestors. "The group who spoke here the other day did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world," he said.
Sessions opposed Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2005 legislation to outlaw the use of harsh interrogation techniques on high-value detainees that have been described as torture. He backed Vice President Dick Cheney, who advocated for CIA exemptions to the proposed ban on the questioning of terror detainees.
After President Obama announced the closing of Guantanamo Bay by the end of 2009, Sessions argued that a 2005 law prohibits the release of the detainees into the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that some detainees might be released into the U.S. in order to try them in civilian courts.
In April 2009, Sessions supported of President Obama’s efforts to draw down troops in Iraq and increase the number of soldiers in Afghanistan.
