Congressman Pete Sessions’ Top Ten Bad Votes

The Top Ten Bad Votes of Rep. Pete Sessions

1. Pete Sessions Voted for the Wall Street Bailout (T.A.R.P.)     

Rep. Sessions voted for the over $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, leaving taxpayers to pay for the big banks’ bad decisions. He voted for both the original bailout plan (2008, Roll Call Vote 674), which failed, and then a second time to pass it (RCV 681).

2. Pete Sessions Voted for the Ineffective “Super Committee” Debt Hike

(2011, RCV 690) Rep. Sessions voted for the Budget Control Act, which allowed President Obama to raise the debt ceiling by over $2 trillion.  In return, taxpayers got stuck with the “super-committee”, which failed to come up with any agreement on targeted spending cuts and gave us sequestration instead.

3. Pete Sessions Voted for the Fiscal Cliff Tax Hike     

(2012, RCV 659) Rep. Sessions voted for the infamous New Year’s Day 2013 “fiscal cliff” deal that raised taxes on 77 percent of U.S. households, with extra tax hikes on higher income earners. 

4. Pete Sessions Voted against Reining in the NSA      

(2013, RCV 412) Rep. Sessions voted against the Amash Amendment to rein in the NSA. The amendment would have defunded the NSA’s ability to conduct blanket data collection on Americans without a warrant. 

5. Pete Sessions has Consistently Voted for the PATRIOT Act

Rep. Sessions first voted to pass the intrusive and anti-4th Amendment USA PATRIOT Act in 2001 amidst the fearful environment of 9/11. However, after several years passed and significant privacy concerns about the act began to gain steam, Sessions nevertheless voted to make most of the Patriot Act permanent (2005 RCV 627), and to reauthorize the rest in 2006 (RCV 20) and again in 2011 (RCV 376).

6. Pete Sessions Voted for Medicare Part D 

(2003, RCV 669) Rep. Sessions voted to pass Medicare Part D, a massive entitlement expansion that conservatives rightly predicted would tremendously expand the deficit and add trillions of dollars in long term unfunded liabilities to the federal deficit.

7. Pete Sessions Has Voted to Raise the Debt Ceiling Eight Times

Since entering office in 1997, Rep. Sessions has voted to raise the debt ceiling eight times.  Raising the debt limit only encourages reckless spending in Washington. Congress needs to cut spending and balance the budget—not continue to increase our national debt without any spending reforms or reductions.

8. Pete Sessions Voted for Big Agriculture’s Corporate Welfare Bill

(2013, RCV 286) Rep. Sessions voted for the initial 2013 Farm Bill, which created a brand new crop insurance entitlement program while achieving no measurable reforms to the rampant corporate welfare contained within the bill. Worse, as Chairman of the House Rules Committee, Rep. Sessions engineered a floor procedure that prevented almost any of the best conservative amendments to the Farm Bill from even coming to a vote on the House floor.

9. Pete Sessions Voted for Massive Pork-Barrel Spending    

(2005, RCV 453) Rep. Sessions voted for SAFETEA-LU, the infamous 2005 transportation spending bill that contained over 6,000 earmarks (including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska). This massive pork spending bill became the defining symbol of the out-of-control government spending that led to the Republicans losing the House in 2006.

10.  Pete Sessions Voted for Gas Mileage Standards and Massive Subsidies for Green Energy

(2007, RCV 1177) Rep. Sessions voted for the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which raised mandatory fuel mileage standards, provided for extensive subsidies to all manner of green energy projects and alternative fuels, and created new green building and appliance standards. This is also the bill that effectively banned the production of the incandescent light bulb in the U.S.