Republican Sen. Sessions to oppose Lew for Treasury

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, is preparing to oppose White House chief of staff Jack Lew as President Barack Obama's next nominee for Treasury secretary.

"Jack Lew must never be secretary of Treasury," Sessions will announce in a prepared statement on Thursday, The Hill first reported on Wednesday. The statement will also say that Lew, in his 2012 testimony before the committee, "misrepresented" Obama's budget when he said it did not add to the nation's debt, and casts Lew as the architect of two failed budgets.

The president will officially nominate Lew at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to replace outgoing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Sessions is the first Republican to announce clear opposition to Lew's appointment.