When Sen. Jeff Sessions stepped aside to make way for Wyoming's Mike Enzi to lead the Budget Committee, many wondered if there were bigger plans ahead for Alabama's junior senator. It appears there is.
Sen. Sessions is set to take over the Senate panel that oversees immigration, reports indicate. The move was first reported in Politico and while the senator's office can't confirm the move ahead of the official announcement, the change is a perfect fit for Sessions who has emerged as the leading opponent of the White House's immigration plans.
Sessions is set to take over chairmanship of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security. Vice-chair will be Sen. David Vitter, R-La. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, was the top Republican member of the committee under the Democrats but he's moving to take over the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. That clears the way for Sessions' to sit in the chairman's seat.
So what does this move mean?
It means the GOP is sending a strong message to the White House. It shows Republicans aren't playing when it comes to immigration and President Obama's plan to allow as many as 5 million people currently in the country illegally to remain. Republicans have vowed to fight that plan and, by moving Sessions to the key immigration role, have thrown down the gauntlet that its standing firm.
Consider this statement, issued by Sessions after last night's State of the Union:
"On immigration, the President remains wedded to a lawless policy that serves only the interest of an international elite while reducing jobs and benefits for everyday Americans. All net employment gains since the recession in 2007 have gone to foreign workers, and yet the President has violated federal law in order to provide work permits to 5 million illegal immigrants--allowing them to take any of the few good jobs that exist. In effect, the President delivered an address tonight to a Congress whose authority he does not recognize and to a public whose votes he has nullified with an imperial edict. Congress must use every tool at its disposal to stop this unlawful edict, end the immigration lawlessness, and reverse our slide towards congressional irrelevance."
Sounds like fighting words to me.
