diff --git a/bugwarrior/services/github.py b/bugwarrior/services/github.py
index 617b7cd43..c7a750696 100644
--- a/bugwarrior/services/github.py
+++ b/bugwarrior/services/github.py
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
 class GithubClient(ServiceClient):
     def __init__(self, auth):
         self.auth = auth
+        self.session = requests.Session()
+        if 'token' in self.auth:
+            authorization = 'token ' + self.auth['token']
+            self.session.headers = {'Authorization': authorization}
 
     def get_repos(self, username):
         user_repos = self._getter(
@@ -56,19 +60,14 @@ def _getter(self, url, subkey=None):
         """ Pagination utility.  Obnoxious. """
 
         kwargs = {}
-
-        if 'token' in self.auth:
-            kwargs['headers'] = {
-                'Authorization': 'token ' + self.auth['token']
-            }
-        elif 'basic' in self.auth:
+        if 'basic' in self.auth:
             kwargs['auth'] = self.auth['basic']
 
         results = []
         link = dict(next=url)
 
         while 'next' in link:
-            response = requests.get(link['next'], **kwargs)
+            response = self.session.get(link['next'], **kwargs)
             json_res = self.json_response(response)
 
             if subkey is not None:
diff --git a/bugwarrior/services/pagure.py b/bugwarrior/services/pagure.py
index 1e4c8d499..c04ac78ff 100644
--- a/bugwarrior/services/pagure.py
+++ b/bugwarrior/services/pagure.py
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ class PagureService(IssueService):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
         super(PagureService, self).__init__(*args, **kw)
 
-        self.auth = {}
+        self.session = requests.Session()
 
         self.tag = self.config_get_default('tag')
         self.repo = self.config_get_default('repo')
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ def get_issues(self, repo, keys):
         key3 = key1[:-1]  # Just the singular form of key1
 
         url = self.base_url + "/api/0/" + repo + "/" + key1
-        response = requests.get(url)
+        response = self.session.get(url)
 
         if not bool(response):
             error = response.json()
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ def filter_repos(self, repo):
     def issues(self):
         if self.tag:
             url = self.base_url + "/api/0/projects?tags=" + self.tag
-            response = requests.get(url)
+            response = self.session.get(url)
             if not bool(response):
                 raise IOError('Failed to talk to %r %r' % (url, response))