Peter Anderson Sessions was born on March 22,1955 and is an American politician from Texas who is the US representative for Texas's 17th congressional district.
51 Facts About Pete Sessions
2.
Pete Sessions chaired the House Rules Committee from 2013 to 2019 and is a former chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
3.
Pete Sessions was defeated for reelection by Democrat Colin Allred in 2018.
4.
On October 3,2019, Sessions announced that he was running for Congress again in 2020.
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Pete Sessions was elected to the 17th district congressional seat on November 3,2020.
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Pete Sessions is the son of former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation William S Sessions.
7.
Pete Sessions grew up in Waco and in the suburbs of Washington, DC In 1978, he graduated from Southwestern University, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
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Pete Sessions worked for Southwestern Bell for 16 years and rose to the rank of district manager for marketing in Dallas.
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In 1991, Pete Sessions finished sixth in a special election for the House of Representatives.
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Pete Sessions toured the district with a livestock trailer full of horse manure, claiming that the Clinton Administration's health care plan stank more than the manure.
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Pete Sessions subsequently became vice president for public policy at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based conservative public policy research institute.
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In 2004, Pete Sessions defeated 13-term Democratic incumbent Martin Frost, who had moved to the 32nd after redistricting in 2003 eliminated Frost's former district.
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In 2010, Pete Sessions faced Dallas businessman and attorney Grier Raggio and Libertarian John Jay Myers.
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Pete Sessions was endorsed by the Dallas Morning News and was reelected.
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In 2016, Pete Sessions polled 49,632 votes to gain renomination in the Republican primary, which had a much greater turnout than in 2014.
16.
Pete Sessions lost his bid for reelection in 2018 to Democrat Colin Allred, an American politician, lawyer, and former professional NFL football player.
17.
In October 2019, Pete Sessions announced his candidacy for the 2020 election in Texas's 17th congressional district, about 100 miles from his former district.
18.
The district includes his boyhood home Waco, and Pete Sessions bought a house there soon after announcing his candidacy.
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Pete Sessions then defeated healthcare executive Renee Swann in a runoff, securing the Republican nomination and all but assuring his return to Congress.
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In November 1997, Pete Sessions was one of 18 House Republicans to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.
21.
On October 8,1998, Pete Sessions voted for legislation to open an impeachment inquiry.
22.
Pete Sessions voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.
23.
In 2014, Pete Sessions was originally a candidate for the post of House majority leader, to replace Eric Cantor, but withdrew from the internal House Republican Conference election, leaving the field clear for Kevin McCarthy of California.
24.
In 2012, Pete Sessions was named chair of the House Rules Committee for the 113th Congress by Speaker of the House John Boehner.
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In late 2001 and early 2002, Pete Sessions cosigned letters to two Cabinet members asking them to shut down casinos operated by several Native American tribes.
26.
In 2008, Pete Sessions added a $1.6 million earmark for dirigible research to an appropriations bill.
27.
Former Pete Sessions aide and convicted felon Adrian Plesha was a lobbyist for the firm.
28.
Pete Sessions opposed allowing states to determine their own policies regarding the legality of cannabis and the regulation of legal cannabis markets.
29.
Pete Sessions supported the 1033 program, under which the US military transfers surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies; the program is controversial because of its association with militarization of police.
30.
In 2012, Pete Sessions voted against disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
31.
In 2017, Pete Sessions sponsored a bill to delay for nine years the full implementation of 2015 ozone standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration; the bill passed the House, largely on party lines.
32.
Pete Sessions supported the North Texas Invasive Species Barrier Act of 2014, a bill that would exempt the North Texas Municipal Water District from prosecution under the Lacey Act for transferring water containing invasive species from Oklahoma to Texas.
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Pete Sessions drew controversy in 2016 when he asserted that the site of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the scene of a terrorist mass shooting, was not a gay club.
34.
Pete Sessions favors repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
35.
Pete Sessions supported the March 2017 version of the American Health Care Act, the House Republicans' replacement for the ACA.
36.
In 2017, Pete Sessions suggested that Congress could appropriate funds for part of construction of a US-Mexico border wall demanded by Trump as part of "a Republican-only bill" to continue funding the government.
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Pete Sessions came under scrutiny for his personal ties to disgraced banker Allen Stanford, who in 2012 was convicted of orchestrating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
38.
Pete Sessions received over $44,000 in political contributions from Stanford and his associates.
39.
Pete Sessions took multiple trips to Fire Island and to the Caribbean to attend Stanford-sponsored events; these trips included private travel on Stanford's fleet of jets and accommodations.
40.
In 2014, VICE News obtained records from Stanford's internal files that indicated that in 2007 and 2008, before the scandal came to light, Pete Sessions had intervened on Stanford's behalf with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, allowing Stanford to bypass certain Cuban embargo restrictions.
41.
In July 2018, Pete Sessions argued that it was unnecessary to increase federal funding for election security.
42.
In January 2012, it was reported that Pete Sessions received a so-called "VIP" or "Friends of Angelo" loan in 2007 from troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, which was granted at a lower interest rate than was available to the public.
43.
Pete Sessions received a $1 million loan from Countrywide at below-market rates, which he never declared in financial disclosures.
44.
Pete Sessions was cleared of any wrongdoing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform when its investigation found he did not receive any preferential treatment or a below-market interest rate on his mortgage from Countrywide.
45.
In 2022, Pete Sessions was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.
46.
In 2008, Pete Sessions introduced legislation that created a commemorative silver dollar coin celebrating the centennial of the Boy Scouts of America.
47.
On October 10,2019, the Texas Tribune, among other news outlets, reported that Sessions was identifiable as "Congressman-1" in an indictment by the Southern District of New York charging Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman with illegal campaign contributions aimed at removing former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L Yovanovitch.
48.
In 2018, after meeting with Parnas and Fruman, Pete Sessions authored a letter in his capacity as House Rules Committee chair calling for Yovanovitch's removal.
49.
Pete Sessions denied that he took any action as a result of his meetings with Parnas and Fruman.
50.
In February 1984, Pete Sessions married Juanita "Nete" Diaz; the couple had two sons.
51.
Pete Sessions is not related to former Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.