WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined 20 of his Republican colleagues in urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to lower energy costs for American consumers by amending the department’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to include 10 lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one in the Cook Inlet.

The letter comes as Americans and Europeans alike face rising energy costs due to record-high inflation and the Biden administration’s war on domestic energy production.

“American families are struggling to keep up with rising costs due to inflation, high energy prices, and persistent supply chain issues. In addition, local businesses that are part of the ecosystem of U.S. energy production are being confronted with decisions that impact their employees and employees’ families due to uncertainty about future natural resource development. . . . It is our obligation to do everything within our power to help ease these burdens and remove this uncertainty for both Americans and our allies,” the senators wrote.

“Finalizing the five-year program with a commitment to semi-annual area-wide sales will also be a big step for American energy security and demonstrate to the American people the administration is serious about actions that can contribute to lower energy costs,” the lawmakers concluded.

The senators urged the Interior Department to:

1. Conduct the three congressionally mandated offshore lease sales that Pres. Biden canceled. 

      2. Offer quarterly lease sales across federal lands.

Full text of the letter is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today applauded the Senate’s passage of the bipartisan Small Business Broadband and Emerging Information Technology Enhancement Act, which he cosponsored.  

The legislation addresses the lack of broadband internet and other emerging information technology resources in rural areas by improving Small Business Administration (SBA) programs. 

“Small businesses represent 97% of Louisiana employers, and they need broadband to create and sustain more jobs. It’s time for the House to pass this bill and expand broadband access for Louisiana job creators,” said Kennedy.

The Small Business Broadband and Emerging Information Technology Enhancement Act would:

• Direct the SBA Office of Investment and Innovation to designate a senior employee to serve as the broadband and emerging information technology (BEIT) coordinator.

• Provide SBA employees with BEIT training to help small businesses use such technologies.

• Report on the SBA’s work related to broadband and other emerging information technologies.

• Require the SBA Chief Counsel for Advocacy to evaluate the impact of broadband speed and price on small businesses.

• Authorize small business development centers to help businesses access and use BEIT.

The bill text is available here. 

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee today passed Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) with strong bipartisan support. The JCPA would support small, local, independent and conservative news publications that struggle to survive under the weight of Big Tech’s market dominance and censorship efforts.

“Tech Goliaths like Facebook and Google are strangling smaller conservative publications by keeping them from making a profit on online platforms. The manipulation is squashing free speech. This bill bars Big Tech firms from throttling, filtering, suppressing or curating online content while providing local news outlets with a fair playing field to negotiate against these censorship giants,” said Kennedy. 

The JCPA removes legal obstacles so that small and mid-sized news organizations can negotiate jointly for compensation from digital platforms, including Facebook and Google, that access their content without allowing them to profit from their journalism. The legislation also prohibits Big Tech from censoring these publishers and allows the news outlets to demand arbitration if they reach an impasse in negotiations with digital platforms.

This bill would cover Louisiana’s major newspapers and many conservative outlets, giving them a level playing field in negotiations with Big Tech platforms that often prevent them from making a profit from their work online or sharing their work with broader audiences. It would not cover large legacy media companies like the Washington Post or New York Times.

News outlets in support of the JCPA include The Washington Examiner, National Review, Newsmax, Townhall Media, The Washington Times and others.

WASHINGTON – The Senate today passed the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Congress had previously passed legislation based on Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, which requires a 15-year phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) at the national level.

“Americans should reap the rewards of American innovation. This amendment will give American manufacturers the ability to continue exporting sustainable coolants and the products that depend on them. Not only does this create tens of thousands of jobs here at home, it protects our markets from becoming a dumping ground for China’s outdated products. Today, the Senate defended U.S. innovation and countered the economic rise of China and other bad actors at a time when American workers and consumers need all the commonsense support they can get,” said Kennedy.

Background: 

HFCs are the coolants that work in America’s homes and refrigerators. American companies have been at the forefront of developing HFC alternatives for years, and the Kigali Amendment helps promote U.S. leadership in the innovation and manufacturing of these products. 

The AIM Act became law with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2020 because transitioning away from HFCs drives more investments in American-made technologies that are better for the environment, cheaper for consumers and good for the economy. 

The AIM Act and ratification of Kigali is expected to create 150,000 direct and indirect U.S. jobs, including 33,000 new manufacturing jobs, in places like Louisiana.  This will also help protect the more than 1.3 million jobs in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration sector. 

Using these next generation coolants is also expected to save American businesses and consumers billions of dollars in energy costs over the next 10 years. This would cut costs for Americans during historic inflation pressures.

More than 130 countries already ratified the Kigali Amendment, which obliges its signers to gradually phase down their HFC usage in the coming decades. China and India are already subject to this phasedown. Without the U.S. ratification of the Kigali Amendment, the international deal signed by a majority of our trading partners would impose trade restrictions between countries that participate in the HFC phasedown agreement and those that do not.

Failing to ratify the Kigali Amendment would have unnecessarily limited the U.S. to fewer trading partners and given its competitors—and adversaries like China—a leg up at the expense of hardworking Americans. 

Formalizing America’s support for the Kigali Amendment will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost U.S. exports, strengthen America’s manufacturing industry, lower consumer prices and create more jobs for U.S. workers.