Published: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 9:00 AM
Updated: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 10:27 AM
By Mary Orndorff -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions in March was the only senator to vote against a 5 percent reduction to senators' office budgets, saying at the time that it was a meager and symbolic gesture and that he would voluntarily spend 15 percent less.
A new report from the financial clerk of the Senate, provided by Sessions' office, shows he was successful.
With the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Sessions spent $2,585,865, which is 15 percent less than his $3,039,522 allotment.
Unspent operating funds are returned to the U.S. Treasury.
Sessions originally started the fiscal year with $3,205,942 based on last year's level, but extended debates meant that the 2011 budget was not settled until half way through the year. At that point, the Senate voted 98-1 to cut their own budgets by 5 percent and there was a subsequent 0.2 percent reduction. So Sessions in the end spent 19.5 percent less than originally budgeted.
Payroll is the bulk of the cost in running a Senate office, or more than $2.3 million in Sessions' case.***
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http://blog.al.com/sweethome/2011/10/alabamas_us_sen_jeff_sessions.htmlWell, HAL le LU jah! Praise the Lord and pass the smelling salts ! Evil elf Jeff Sessions just saved us hard-pressed taxpayers a whopping half million (well, not quite)! Of course, cutting payroll probably meant somebody lost a job or two, but hey, whaddya want, perfection? Just think, if 3,076,923 Senators cut their budgets by the same amount, it would ***completely eliminate*** this year's deficit!!!