WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $6,763,833 in federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support recovery efforts in Louisiana communities impacted by Hurricanes Laura and Ida.
“Hurricanes Laura and Ida hit Louisiana hard, but our people never quit. They’ve shown real strength and grit, and this $6.8 million in funding will help Louisiana repair damaged facilities, strengthen emergency protections and ensure our communities are better prepared for future storms,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $5,711,994 to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Laura.
- $1,051,839 to the Office of Risk Management for permanent repairs as a result of Hurricane Ida.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that Louisiana will receive $1,247,642 in federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster recovery efforts in south Louisiana communities impacted by Hurricanes Francine and Ida.
“Natural disasters like Hurricanes Francine and Ida have severely damaged our communities, but Louisianians have proven time and time again to be tough and resilient. This $1.2 million in funding will help protect roadways and repair community centers in South Louisiana,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $1,094,102 to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Francine.
- $153,540 to Dryades YMCA to fund building repairs as a result of Hurricane Ida.
Kennedy explains why Congress is unlikely to pass new budgets: “Every single Democrat will vote no”
Jun 09 2026
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) explained why he believes Senate Democrats will refuse to pass a new budget in favor of another government shutdown before the midterm elections in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“I do not want America to be the world’s policeman. But I don’t want Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin and the Ayatollah in Iran to be, either. We have to meet this challenge. To do that, we have to spend more money on defense. I wish we didn’t, but we do.
“Now, there are only three ways to do that, as you know, Mr. President: Through our budget, the regular appropriation process, through what’s called a supplemental bill, which deals just with defense spending, and through the process of reconciliation. . . . We have the option of reconciliation, but time is running out. And I hear all the happy talk—I don’t mean that, really, in a pejorative sense, though it came out that way—I hear all the happy talk in the House, and I participate in that happy talk, saying, we need to do a third reconciliation bill. But if I’m honest with myself, I know we’re not.”
. . .
“I think that if we went to our Democratic colleagues today and said, ‘Okay, you win. We’re going to spend 25% more on defense, and we’ll spend 25% more on nondefense. Let’s vote.’ Every single Democrat will vote no. Every single Democrat will vote no in the Appropriations Committee and on the floor of this Senate. If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize. I may be wrong, but I doubt it because my colleague, Senator [Chuck] Schumer—as is his right—is telling the Democrats not to agree to a budget.
“And Senator Schumer, as is his right, is taking his orders from the Graham Platner wing of the Democratic Party. It is not all Democrats, but clearly the Graham Platner wing is in control of the Democratic Party, and many members of Democratic leadership are scared to death of them. And they’re going to do what the Graham Platner wing wants, which is to burn it down. They want chaos because they think it will help them win the midterm elections. And for that reason, I don’t think we’re going to have a budget.”
. . .
“In my opinion, it is totally irresponsible—in order to win a midterm election—to create that kind of chaos in this dangerous world. That, to me, is living proof that human evolution is a slow process. The American people deserve better.
“And if I’m wrong, I will come to this floor and say, ‘I was wrong. My Democratic colleagues are willing to negotiate. They don’t have a predetermined game plan. They’re not slaves to the loon wing of their party. They understand that the American people, both domestically and internationally, need help.’ I will be the first to say I’m wrong. And I may be wrong, but I doubt it. The American people deserve better. And if I am wrong, I hope they’ll prove me wrong.”
Watch Kennedy’s speech here.
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) urged his colleagues to get serious about funding the Department of Homeland Security before it runs out of money in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“I want to talk about the issue, and the issue is this: Are we going to fund the Department of Homeland Security, or are we not? Part of DHS, as we call it, as you know, Mr. President, is funded. But a very important part is not: the Border Patrol and ICE. We are paying them as best we can out of another pool of funds that is about to run out of money. Why are they not funded? Because my Democratic colleagues have refused.
“At one point my Democratic friends agreed to fund Border Patrol and ICE. And then they changed their minds, and they said: No, we are not going to do it, which forced Republicans, if we want to see that portion of DHS funded, to proceed under what we call reconciliation where we don’t need Democratic votes. I regret that that is the case, but we are doing what we have to do.
“Why are we having this controversy? I don’t get it completely. I don’t. Unless you are industrial-strength stupid, you know that illegal immigration is illegal. And that is what our Border Patrol agents and ICE agents do—they enforce the law.”
. . .
“If you disagree with the law—this is America. You are entitled to disagree with it. I get it. Try to change it. Go change it. But you can’t just ignore our immigration laws. They are not some second-tier statutes that you can ignore without consequence, that you can ignore when you think it is convenient. They are the law, and we have to enforce the law.
“And more to the point, we have to clean up the mess that President Biden and some of my Democratic colleagues in the [Graham] Platner wing, the [Rep. Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez wing, the [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani wing—whatever you want to call those Democrats who created it. And more even to that point, we have to have Border Patrol and ICE officers to do it. We have to.”
. . .
“We need to vote to fund Border Patrol and ICE. These men and women are running out of money. . . . And I am ready to saddle up and ride. I am ready to get to it. I am tired of all the rhetoric and the tangential issues. I am tired of all that. Let’s get after it. Let’s do the right thing.”
Watch Kennedy’s speech here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today joined Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in introducing the Open Courts Act, bipartisan legislation to modernize the federal judiciary’s outdated records systems, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) and the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF).
PACER serves as the public portal for accessing federal court records and filings, but the system is outdated, difficult to use, vulnerable to cyberattacks and expensive to maintain. It also requires Americans to pay fees to access many public court records.
Right now, each U.S. District Court, U.S Courts of Appeals and U.S. Bankruptcy Court maintains its own e-filing and public records system, a recipe for inefficiency and vulnerability. The Open Courts Act would centralize CM/ECF and PACER into one system that makes public court records easier to access, strengthens cybersecurity measures and lowers long-term operating costs.
“Americans should not have to sell plasma or wrestle with clunky government websites just to read public court records. PACER is old, very expensive and extremely burdensome to use. The Open Courts Act would drag this outdated system into the 21st century, protect court records from hackers and give taxpayers a better deal. Government services ought to serve the American people – not make them want to put their head through a wall,” said Kennedy.
“For far too long, unnecessary paywalls have kept the American people from freely accessing public court records. The Open Courts Act will deliver a long-overdue upgrade to PACER, saving taxpayers more than $60 million dollars in operating costs every year. Federal courts will then be able to remove burdensome paywalls and provide the public, including researchers and journalists, with free access to public court documents,” Wyden said.
Background:
The Open Courts Act would
- Require the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to develop a modern replacement for PACER, eventually resulting in more than $60 million being saved every year.
- Remove the paywall for accessing public court records.
- Strengthen cybersecurity protections for the federal court records system.
- Lower long-term operating costs by replacing PACER with a more efficient system.
- Fund the new system and program without relying on annual congressional appropriations.
Full text of the Open Courts Act is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking and Judiciary Committees, joined Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and 10 other colleagues in filing an amicus brief in American Securities Association and Citadel Securities LLC v. SEC, a case in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT).
The SEC’s CAT is a vast surveillance tool that tracks and collects all customer and order information for equity securities and listed options, including data that might be considered personal identifiable information.
Congress did not authorize the CAT, leaving investors to pay higher costs for one of the largest regulatory surveillance systems in the world.
“Americans invest in the stock market to save for retirement, send their kids to college and build a little security. They did not sign up for Washington to track every trade. The Biden-era SEC pushed the Consolidated Audit Trail without clear authority from Congress, put Americans’ private financial data at risk, and tried to make investors pay for it. The SEC should use its current review to end this unconstitutional plan, protect Americans from hackers and keep Washington out of Main Street’s pockets,” said Kennedy.
“The SEC gave itself a surveillance database on the backs of American investors and never bothered to ask Congress. That’s not how the Constitution works. It’s time to end it,” said Cotton.
Background:
- In Nov. 2023, Kennedy penned an op-ed highlighting concerns regarding the SEC’s move to store investors’ personally identifiable information through the CAT.
- In July 2023 and again in February 2025, Kennedy introduced the Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act to protect information that could reveal the identity of American investors.
Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) signed the brief alongside eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The full amicus brief is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in Newsweek explaining how the United Kingdom’s plan to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia, to Mauritius could harm the American military’s ability to deter China.
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“While President Trump was meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, America’s most important asset in deterring China is under attack from an unlikely source: leftists at the United Nations and their British sympathizers.
“Officials in the United Kingdom are considering handing over the keys of the Chagos Islands, including the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the island of Diego Garcia, to Mauritius, an African island nation that lacks any ability to deter China.”
. . .
“Mauritius has already shown that it will act in China’s interest. Two weeks ago, Mauritius revoked flight permits for Taiwan’s presidential aircraft to cross its airspace on a planned trip to visit allies, apparently at China’s behest.
“There is no military asset as important as Diego Garcia when it comes to America’s ability to deter China, protect Taiwan, and otherwise maintain our interests in the Indo-Pacific. It would be weapons-grade stupid to sit by as the U.K. signs it away to a nation in Xi Jinping’s pocket.
“I have a bill that would require Congress to approve any deal ceding sovereignty of Diego Garcia to Mauritius. Until that passes, the Trump administration must maintain its pressure on the U.K. to protect Diego Garcia and our ability to project strength against China.”
Read Kennedy’s op-ed here.
Kennedy in The Washington Times: The Senate finally walks the walk on government shutdowns
May 22 2026
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in The Washington Times explaining why his resolution to withhold pay from senators during government shutdowns could prevent future funding lapses—and how Congress could make shutdowns even more painful for lawmakers in the future.
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“Government shutdowns cause nothing but pain for most Americans. Our national park rangers, FBI agents, and CDC scientists work without pay. Airports begin to resemble the game room at a psych ward. And our economy loses an estimated $15 billion per week in GDP.
“For some politicians, though, government shutdowns can be a win-win. They can throw the country into chaos to further their political agenda, and they never miss a single paycheck along the way.
“In turn, government shutdowns have become the default solution for members of Congress who refuse to work together to overcome political differences.”
. . .
“That’s why I’ve been working to change the rules of the Senate to block members from receiving paychecks during a shutdown. . . . And after months of pressure, my colleagues finally saw the light. Last week, my resolution passed the Senate through a voice vote.
“I’m not saying this is going to stop all shutdowns. To start, my resolution only affects Senators. The House of Representatives will have to come up with its own rule if it wants its members to feel the financial sting of a government shutdown.”
. . .
“If I were king for a day, my resolution would take effect immediately, no Senator would be able to leave Washington during a government shutdown, and we wouldn’t get back pay, either. But I can’t get the votes. This current resolution, however, is an important first step in ensuring that every senator has some skin in the game when they vote to shut down the government. It’s called shared sacrifice.
“Every Senate Democrat voted to pass my resolution. I hope this is a sign that my colleagues will no longer resort to shutting down the country as their default response to our disagreements—but I regret to say I won’t be holding my breath.”
Read Kennedy’s op-ed here.
Kennedy, Warner introduce bipartisan legislation to modernize the Federal Reserve Discount Window
May 21 2026
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today joined Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in introducing the Discount Window Preparedness Act, a bipartisan bill to reduce stigma around the Federal Reserve discount window and improve its effectiveness as a liquidity tool for commercial and community banks.
First established in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve, the discount window provides short-term loans to depository institutions to support liquidity and strengthen the stability of America’s banking system.
“Borrowing at the Fed’s discount window has become stigmatized to a point where Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were ill-prepared when attempting to gain access to it in times of need. The Federal Reserve’s discount window exists to be the lender of last resort, but banks need to be ready to use it before the wheels come off. The Discount Window Preparedness Act would help modernize the discount window, protect depositors, and keep credit flowing to our families and small businesses,” said Kennedy.
“The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in 2023 marked two of the largest bank failures in U.S. history. Those failures highlighted the need to reform the Federal Reserve’s discount window for the 21st century economy, where bank runs can occur over hours, rather than days. Our bipartisan legislation will implement key reforms to make sure that banks can actually use the discount window, reduce the unnecessary stigma associated with that use, and improve the window’s operations to meet the challenges of the digital age. We need to modernize the window and return this important liquidity tool to its intended role,” said Warner.
Background:
The Discount Window Preparedness Act would:
- Mandate test usage of the discount window for insured depository institutions with $10 billion or more in assets, with testing frequency based on institution size.
- Require regulators to reflect a bank’s ability to use the discount window in liquidity evaluations.
- Require the Federal Reserve Board to modernize discount window operations.
- Require the Federal Reserve to harmonize its collateral process with the Federal Home Loan Bank System.
The full text of the Discount Window Preparedness Act is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the Protecting Americans from Treatment-related Credit Harm (PATCH) Act, a bill that would prevent credit reporting agencies from including medical debt on consumer credit reports.
“Fair-minded Americans know medical debt is different from a mortgage or a car loan. Patients don’t choose to get sick, and they don’t get to shop around for the best price from the back of an ambulance, either. Medical debt is gutting the American people like a fish, and my bill will make sure this unfair debt doesn’t appear on any American’s credit report,” said Kennedy.
Background:
- One in three American households is currently facing some type of medical debt. The reporting of medical debt can result in lower credit scores for many patients. In turn, those patients face higher interest rates and more difficulty finding housing, employment, and affordable insurance.
- Americans with medical debt are just as likely to repay their loans in full as borrowers without medical debt. Medical debt, on the other hand, is far less accurate than other forms of debt. Roughly 80% of medical bills contain errors, and medical debt is disputed at three times the rate of credit card debt.
- The PATCH Act would allow credit reporting agencies to collect general information about medical debt, but it would forbid agencies from disclosing that debt on a consumer’s credit report.
Full text of the PATCH Act is available here.
