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About the Committee
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The Ranking Member

SessionsJeff Sessions, Alabama

Jeff Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama on December 24, 1946, and grew up in Hybart , the son of a country store owner. After attending school in nearby Camden, Sessions worked his way through Huntingdon College in Montgomery, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Alabama in 1973. Sessions served in the United States Army Reserve from 1973 to1986, ultimately attaining the rank of Captain

Sessions' interest in the law led to a distinguished legal career, first as a practicing attorney in Russellville, Alabama, and then in Mobile, which he now calls home.

Following a two-year stint as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama (1975 -1977), Sessions was nominated by President Reagan in 1981 and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the United States Attorney for Alabama's Southern District, a position he held for 12 years. Sessions was elected Alabama Attorney General in 1995, serving as the state's chief legal officer until 1997, when he entered the United States Senate.

Senator Sessions authored the Honoring Every Requirement of Exemplary Service (HEROES) Act, which was signed into law in May 2005. This legislation increased the payment received by the families of fallen combat soldiers from $12,000 to $100,000 and also increased the maximum servicemen's life insurance benefit from $250,000 to $400,000.

Sessions played a leading role in ensuring that the Medicare Prescription Drug law included a rural health care component that reduced the disparity in Medicare payments that has devastated Alabama hospitals. As a result, Medicare payments to Alabama hospitals will increase by nearly $1 billion over a 10-year period. Sessions authored a key provision in the 2001 tax cut bill to make interest earned on tuition savings and prepaid tuition plans tax free. That provision will mean a big financial boost for families of the 50,000 Alabama children enrolled in the affordable Alabama Prepaid College Tuition Plan.

Senator Sessions joined in leading efforts to make funding more equal in the Ryan White CARE Act. The South has been hardest hit with HIV/AIDS in recent years, but the funding formula kept most of the money going to big cities. The new legislation will bring much-needed funding to rural areas, making health care available for low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Continuing his interest in fighting crime, Sessions was the author of the Paul Coverdell National Forensic Sciences Improvement Law of 2000, which authorized badly needed funds for state and local crime labs to reduce the backlog of ballistics, blood, and DNA tests.

Sessions has served as a lay leader and as a Sunday school teacher at his family's church, Ashland Place United Methodist Church, in Mobile. He served as the Chairman of his church's Administrative Board and has been selected as a delegate to the annual Alabama Methodist Conference.

Sessions and his wife, Mary Blackshear Sessions, originally of Gadsden, Alabama, have three children, Mary Abigail Reinhardt, Ruth Sessions Walk, and Sam. Together they welcomed the arrival of their first granddaughter, Jane Ritchie, in the summer of 2007.

noteworthy

Did You Know?  The U.S. Courts of Appeals were the first federal courts designed exclusively to hear cases on appeal from trial courts.  In an effort to relieve the caseload burden in the Supreme Court, and to handle a dramatic increase in federal filings, Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1891, establishing nine courts of appeals, one for each judicial circuit.

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