ABC News has learned exclusively that Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, will not challenge Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for majority whip and has instead decided to run for reelection as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Additionally, the next presumptive Speaker of the House, John Boehner, confirmed in a statement that he has asked Sessions to lead new member development for the class of at least 84 incoming Republican freshmen lawmakers who propelled the GOP into the House majority in last week’s  congressional midterm elections.

“Our Republican Conference needs Pete Sessions’ steady hand of leadership next Congress, and I am very pleased that he has decided to seek another term as NRCC Chairman. Additionally, I’ve asked Pete to take the lead for New Member Development,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “Pete’s position on the Rules Committee gives him a unique vantage point to help our new members navigate policy issues and his many friendships across the Capitol will help in introducing our new colleagues to the Senate.”

So far, Sessions is running unopposed for the NRCC post, which is the fifth-ranking leadership position among House Republicans.

ABC News has also learned that Sessions will also be named to the 22-member GOP transition committee announced later this morning. That committee, which is chaired by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, will work through the lame duck session to review all House procedures and structures and implement many of the proposals laid out in the GOP’s “Pledge to America.”

Before last Tuesday’s election, some top Republican aides had privately suspected that a strong showing on election night for the GOP in the House of Representatives might inspire Sessions to consider running against McCarthy for the third-ranking post in the GOP House leadership.

But now that the election is over, Sessions says that the challenge to maintain the GOP majority has motivated him to continue leading at the NRCC through the 2012 election.

“The last two years, I have had the great honor of leading the effort to reclaim a Republican Majority in the House of Representatives. Now I have fulfilled my initial mission statement: to retire Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” Sessions said.

“Despite record victories as NRCC Chairman, my vision and work is not done,” he said. “I strongly believe in selling the fight, and I will be asking my colleagues to support me as NRCC chairman next Congress to strengthen our gains and advance an agenda for American prosperity.

“I look forward to leading our new Majority through the challenges of re-electing nearly 80 freshman Republican Members, navigating congressional redistricting, and maximizing a presidential election cycle,” Sessions said.

With eight House races still too close to call, Republicans have won a net-gain of at least 60 seats, the GOP’s greatest expansion in the House since the Eisenhower administration. As chairman at the NRCC, Sessions personally hit the campaign trail for more than 150 GOP candidates over the last election cycle.

During Sessions’ tenure leading the NRCC, the committee raised more than $117 million during the last election cycle, including a single-month record $16 million raised during October, which eclipsed the previous record of $15.4 million raised in October 2002 during soft-money days.

“Pete Sessions and I have been in the trenches together for many years, and I knew two years ago that our party required his vision, skill and leadership to end the Democrats’ monopoly on power in Washington and elect a new Majority that would listen to the people,” Boehner said. “I am very grateful for Pete’s tireless work as he has helped to guide House Republicans from the political wilderness to an historic victory for the American people.”

In addition to running for reelection as NRCC chairman, Sessions will lead new member development for the freshman class of House Republicans in the 112th session of Congress.

The Texas lawmaker was just reelected to his eighth term in the House and is the second-ranking Republican in seniority on the Rules Committee, where he has served for the past 12 years.

“I look forward to leading our new Majority through an expanded policy leadership role that will enable me to shape and promote the Republican agenda among Members and across America,” Sessions said.

If he is successful in his bid for reelection as chairman at the NRCC, Sessions would not only  design his own policy initiatives, but would essentially be empowered to lead new members from
both the political and policy sides in Congress.

“As a senior member of the Rules Committee — which deals with every bill and amendment that comes to the floor — Mr. Sessions will be in a unique position to assist new members with their legislative and policy initiatives, in addition to continuing to serve as a key voice on all matters at the leadership table,” according to a GOP leadership aide familiar with the arrangement.

The dual leadership role is an attractive deal for Sessions, who Boehner credits as “the architect” of the Republican takeover of the House.

“Pete earned unprecedented support from the Republican Conference by transforming the NRCC into a member-driven organization. He raised the money, oversaw recruitment of the candidates, and focused a strong message for our Members and candidates to play offense,” Boehner said. “As the architect for the new Republican Majority, Pete Sessions has my admiration and gratitude, and I look forward to his strong leadership in the years ahead.”

Go to full article at ABC News Online:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pete-sessions-running-majority-whip-seeks-reelection-nrcc/story?id=12082535&page=3

Fairfax, Va.– The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is endorsing Pete Sessions for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 32^nd Congressional District this November.

“The NRA-PVF is endorsing Pete Sessions because he is a staunch defender of the Second Amendment freedoms of law-abiding gun owners, hunters and sportsmen in Texas and across America,” said Chris W. Cox, chairman of NRA-PVF.

Pete Sessions has demonstrated his strong commitment to our Second Amendment rights by voting for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that ended bogus lawsuits against the firearms industry and cosponsoring legislation to force much-needed reform of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  He also cosponsored the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity amendment, which would extend federal protection of state right-to-carry licenses and permits across the country and the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act, which would repeal the D.C. gun ban/registration statute and restore the right of self-defense to law-abiding residents of our nation’s capital.

Sessions signed the pro-gun congressional amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of our individual right to keep and bear arms in the historic Heller case and the congressional amicus brief stating that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right that applies to all Americans, no matter where they live, in the McDonald case. In addition, he voted for legislation to prohibit gun confiscation from law-abiding Americans during states of emergency and to allow concealed-carry permit holders to carry and transport firearms for self-defense in national parks and wildlife refuges.

“Pete Sessions is a strong voice in fighting ongoing efforts by anti-gun politicians to dismantle the Second Amendment.  That’s why he has received an ‘A+’ rating and endorsement from the NRA-PVF,” Cox concluded. “We ask all gun owners and hunters in Texas’ 32^nd District to vote Pete Sessions for Congress on November 2^nd.”

-nra – pvf-

Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues to uphold the Second Amendment and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services.

POLITICO
By: Rep. Pete Sessions
May 17, 2010 05:03 AM EDT

Late on the night of March 21, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama were celebrating the end of a nearly yearlong quest to pass a government takeover health care bill that the American people had already rejected.

While the champagne corks popped in the speaker’s office, the mood among rank-and-file Democrats was far more somber. Party leaders were rejoicing, but Democratic members, who’d had their arms twisted into voting for the bill, were more likely contemplating their next career move.

Starting last summer, Washington heard warnings from across America. From town halls to marches on the Capitol — not to mention in poll after poll — concerned citizens warned Democrats to back down from their reckless health care agenda.

Instead, the majority spent months negotiating backroom deals and devising underhanded legislative tricks as it attempted to sneak its agenda through Congress and deflect political heat from vulnerable members. While the legislation ultimately passed, however, there remains a target on every Democrat who voted for this government-run catastrophe.

Is the health care bill the lone horse that Republicans will ride to the majority in November?

Unfortunately for Democrats, the answer is no.

The speaker and her loyal followers have much more to answer for than the recent health care monstrosity. From the failed $1 trillion stimulus and job-killing national energy tax to nearly double-digit unemployment and record deficits, Democrats will be on the hook for plenty in November.

While Americans are hurting for jobs and looking for an end to our economic troubles, Democrats have been systematically forcing an agenda through Congress that is not only wildly unpopular with the American people, it also stands in the way of economic recovery.

Vulnerable Democrats, who hoped to avert blame by getting a permission slip from Speaker Pelosi to vote no, will not be able to walk free. Even alleged moderate and conservative Democrats paved the way for their party’s job-killing agenda by casting their first vote in the 111th Congress for Speaker Pelosi — enabling her to implement the agenda of a party and a president sinking in popularity by the day.

There is no avoiding the responsibility that every Democrat member of Congress shares for their party’s disastrous policies.

The health care bill will be the cornerstone of Republican efforts to remind voters that the Democrat majority has refused to take its foot off the gas pedal of more spending, bigger government and higher taxes.

Every major piece of legislation that Democrats pushed through this Congress continues to flat-line with the public, and the arrogant approach to health care struck a discordant note with the American people.

When her party attempted to recoil from the backlash to the first health care vote late last year, Pelosi attempted to abuse the rules of Congress to sneak the bill through.

When that effort fell flat, she called on her members to ignore the will of their constituents and cast a vote that will cost many their political future.

Despite the sales pitches and empty promises coming from the White House and Capitol Hill, it’s clear that the health care bill is a political liability for Washington Democrats. There is no escaping the fact that Democrats are racking up debt, raising taxes and slowing economic recovery with reckless partisanship.

Republicans will be working nonstop through November to hold Democrats accountable for their blatant disregard of the will of the people. Like the American people, we demand accountability and fiscal sanity in Washington.

Over the next six months, Republicans will continue offering responsible ideas for job creation, reminding voters what a Democrat majority means for the future of America.

“In the following list, House members are assigned separate scores for their roll-call votes on key economic, social and foreign-policy issues during 2009. The members are rated in each of the three issue categories on both liberal and conservative scales, with the scores on each scale given as percentiles. An economic score of 78 on the liberal scale, for example, means that the member was more liberal than 78 percent of his or her House colleagues on the key votes in the issue area during 2009.”

Click here for the 2009 Vote Ratings list.

-From the National Journal Magazine, 3/2/2010

[. . . ] Congress allocated nearly $10 billion to shore up Amtrak over the next five years, plus $1.3 billion in “stimulus” funding intended to make up for decades of deferred maintenance. Even these sizable amounts fall short of the rail giant’s claimed need for $20 billion to clear a backlog of essential projects.

Proudly wearing the conductor’s hat, Congress is having too much fun to worry about numbers. Legislators routinely reject the most common-sense of reforms, including an amendment by Rep. Pete Sessions, Texas Republican, that would have kept taxpayer dollars from footing the bill on Amtrak’s least profitable route. A real business subject to market pressures would not hesitate to optimize operations. Amtrak, on the other hand, demonstrates what happens when there is no incentive for efficiency. [. . . ] (Editorial Board, “Budget Buster Express,” Washington Times, 02/07/10)

Click here to view the full article.