GREENE COUNTY – Having visited Abbeyville, Phenix City, Eufala, Selma, and Toxey, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions visited Eutaw yesterday as part of his annual trip around his district.

“We’re out of session and we had a week off so I am using this time to in every county in Alabama,” Sessions said. “We do this tour every year.”

Sessions spoke to a small crowd of Greene County residents about everything from the state’s unemployment rate to the new Medicare prescription plan.

“Our biggest trouble in Alabama is the unevenness,” he said. “When a factory closes in this area, you don’t always get one back as quickly. But we’ve got our fingers crossed for the Kia plant.”

Sessions said the potential plant is in the hands of the Mississippi and Alabama governors, so the state must continue to wait for an answer.

“My fundamental belief is that businesses can make money here if the economics stay at the growth rate they are,” Sessions said. “It’s more expensive and harder to do business in bigger cities like Atlanta than it is in a small city where the resident’s welcome you and the people are willing to work.”

According to Sessions, Alabama has many opportunities to expand and do better economically.

Sessions also addressed problems the U.S. government is currently facing with illegal immigrants.

“We can’t keep granting illegal amnesty. We need to do it legally,” he said. “If we do this thing right, we can be the land of immigrants that we’ve always been. We just need to make sure it’s legal.”

On another foreign matter, Sessions said the governmental training for Iraqi police and military “is on record” after he spent time in Iraq this past summer.

As far as an end to the war, the senator can’t make a call.

“We just have to play the ball as it lies. I can’t predict it,” he said. “But I do expect a lot of ups and downs for the next 50 years or more.”

Sessions also told citizens 60 percent of the country’s gas comes from imports and that he is working to keep that money in the U.S.

“Our wealth is going out of our country and we never see it again,” he said. “We absolutely need to have more nuclear power. It doesn’t use oil or gas and it doesn’t pollute the atmosphere. I actually had a button that said ‘Go nuclear.'”

After a resident addressed concern for the lack of benefits for veterans who have recently returned from war, Sessions agreed that more could and should be done for the soldiers.

“If someone gives their life for our country, they shouldn’t have to worry about their families not being taken care of,” he said.

Upon concluding his lecture, Sessions and his staff distributed pamphlets concerning the new Medicare Rx program.

“With this new program, you can literally save hundreds of dollars a month,” he said. “I don’t want to see anybody in our state hurting when they could be benefiting. I encourage you to look at this program yourself.”

Sessions said he will look into the ideas Greene County residents suggested to better the area.

“There’s not a stop I make and I don’t learn something new,” Sessions said. “I do this to get a better understanding of what the people of Alabama care about.”

Sessions said he hopes Alabamians would contact his office with any concerns or ideas to benefit the state.

“Consider our staff, your staff,” he said. “We hope you call.”