Kennedy explains how new natural disaster tax law could save Louisianians money this tax season
Mar 05 2025
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) explained how changes to the tax code could affect how some Louisianians claim deductions related to damage from Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Ida and Francine in a speech on the Senate floor.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“I realize, Mr. President of the Senate, that you would probably prefer to be condemned to hearing O.J. jokes for the rest of eternity than to hear me talk about federal income tax filing, but it is important for Americans and my people back in Louisiana because we have a new deduction for people who have uninsured losses from natural disasters. It’s really important in my state because many of my people have suffered damages, for which they did not receive insurance payments, from Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Ida and Francine.
“It is called the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act. What it does is the following: It changes the law. It now says that if you are a victim of a natural disaster like a hurricane and you have a loss that is not paid for by your insurance, you can now deduct off your income tax—dollar for dollar—any uninsured property damage in excess of $500.”
. . .
“I know folks are thinking, well, I already filed my income taxes for 2021 and 2022 and 2023. You can file an amended return. It is very simple to do. You just file an amended return that says: There has been a change in the law, and I am entitled to have this higher deduction, and therefore the federal government owes me money, and therefore please send me my check. So, I wanted to make sure that Americans knew about this new tax provision we passed.”
Background:
- In Dec. 2024, Congress passed the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, which allows Americans who suffered damage as a result of a federally declared disaster—including some hurricanes, tornados, and wildfires—to deduct from their taxes certain uninsured property damage in excess of $500.
- Louisianians who suffered uninsured property damage during Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Ida and Francine may be eligible for the new deduction. Those who already claimed losses from those storms between 2021 and 2023 may be able to amend their previously filed taxes to claim the new deduction.
- Individuals and couples that receive the standard tax deduction—which is 90% of Americans—will still receive the full standard deduction in addition to any deduction they may claim related to storm damage under this new law.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) detailed the three ways in which Congress can work with the Trump administration to address inflation in a speech on the Senate floor.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“I don’t want to dwell on the past, but President Biden’s administration was an inflation machine. . . . What the American people are wondering every single day as they sell blood plasma to go to the grocery store is: when am I going to get some relief from these high prices? And we do need to provide them relief. I want to talk about three ways that we are in the process of trying to reduce those prices that my Democratic colleagues caused.”
. . .
“Number one: reduce spending. You see it every single day from President Trump. He said he was going to audit federal spending, and that is exactly what he is doing.”
. . .
“Number two: deregulation. The federal government wants to regulate every breath we take. . . . It is just amazing, and each one of these regulations has a cost. The cost of all of our regulations today is in excess of $2 trillion—not billion, not million—$2 trillion.
“What does that mean? That means when a business produces a product or it delivers a service—and it has to comply with a meaningless, gnarly federal regulation which costs money—that extra expense is added to the cost of the product or the service. Duh. I mean, businesses have to stay in business. They can’t eat the cost so they pass it on, and that leads to higher prices.”
. . .
“The third way we are attacking these high prices is by trying to stimulate the economy to increase wages so that we actually can grow out of these high prices so that people will have more money to spend when they buy a car or go to the grocery store. We are not going to do that with tepid GDP growth. . . . We are going to do that through the tax code.
“We have about $4.5 trillion worth of tax cuts that we implemented back in 2017 that caused the economy to grow and wages to go up until COVID hit. Those tax cuts are expiring here very shortly, and we are going to extend them.”
. . .
“We are well aware that high prices are gutting the American people like a fish, but by reducing spending, by deregulating the economy, and by designing a tax code that looks like somebody designed it on purpose, we are going to get those high prices down.”
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today made the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
“President Trump has given us a blueprint. Now, it's going to be up to Congress to ensure that these changes last. I'm going to do everything within my power to help permanently get rid of this wasteful spending, renew the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, rebuild our military and secure our border for generations to come.
“It’s only been six weeks, but the changes in Washington and throughout the country have been breathtaking. For example, arrests at the border have plummeted to the lowest levels in more than five years.
“President Trump and his team have also uncovered billions of dollars in wasteful spending—I call it spending porn—including the government’s erroneous payments to deceased people.
“In addition to cutting spending and securing the border, President Trump has also replaced hundreds of harmful executive orders from President Biden and issued new ones that will unleash American energy production and support economic growth.
“I think most Louisianians are thrilled to see some common sense return to Washington, D.C. I've said it many times: Common sense is illegal in Washington, D.C., so it's nice to have some of it for a change.”
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $2,718,333 in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant for permanent repairs to Delgado and Elaine Nunez Community Colleges and Southeastern Louisiana University.
“Hurricane Ida dealt a tough blow to south Louisiana. This $2.7 million will help Louisianians cover the costs for repairs to Delgado Community College, Elaine Nunez Community College and Southeastern Louisiana University,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $2,718,333 to the Office of Risk Management for permanent repairs to Delgado Community College, Elaine Nunez Community College and Southeastern Louisiana University as the direct result of Hurricane Ida.
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today joined Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and colleagues in sending a letter to the acting chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mark Uyeda, urging him to conduct a comprehensive review of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT).
The SEC requires brokers to submit investors’ personally identifiable information (PII) to its CAT database. Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s SEC issued an order that exempts certain PII consisting of investors’ names, addresses and years of birth from CAT reporting.
“The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) has been a highly controversial endeavor that has raised many concerns from Members of Congress . . . We are pleased that you and fellow Commissioner Peirce have repeatedly acknowledged these longstanding concerns and applaud the Commission for its recent steps to protect the financial privacy of American investors,” the lawmakers wrote.
“However, there is more work to be done. The prohibition on collecting investor PII must be formally codified (rather than via rescindable exemptive relief) and already-collected PII must be expunged. Cybersecurity measures for the remaining data must be enhanced. And the CAT’s bloated out-of-control budget must be addressed,” they continued.
“Given these continuing concerns, the Commission should launch a comprehensive review that covers all aspects of the CAT. In doing so, the Commission should take additional steps to pause the CAT’s most controversial elements—not only the collection of customer PII, but also the problematic funding structure that a majority of the current Commission voted against. Further, it would appear appropriate for the Commission to pause and reconsider its position with respect to ongoing litigation related to the CAT, as it has done for other cases commenced during the Biden administration,” the lawmakers concluded.
Background:
- Earlier this month, Kennedy introduced the Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act.
- Kennedy’s bill would prohibit the SEC from requiring market participants to submit investors’ personally identifiable information to the CAT.
- The bill would also require the SEC to delete personally identifiable information once the agency resolves the investigation or issue that required that information.
Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Reps. French Hill (R-Ark.), Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) also joined the letter.
The full letter is available here.
Senate passes Kennedy-backed resolution to repeal Biden-era methane fee for U.S. energy producers
Feb 27 2025
WASHINGTON – The Senate today passed a joint resolution of disapproval under Congressional Review Act procedures that Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) helped introduce. Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) led the resolution, which would overturn the Biden administration’s proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to implement a fee on methane emissions.
Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. The resolution now moves to the president’s desk.
“For four years, the Biden administration waged war on oil and gas drilling—and hardworking Americans paid the price because of that. Today, the Senate voted to roll back another misguided policy and unleash U.S. energy production,” said Kennedy.
The EPA’s methane fee rule would effectively create a new tax on key parts of the American oil and gas industry, including both onshore and offshore natural gas production and liquefied natural gas import, export and storage.
On Jan. 17, 2025, the rule went into effect. Earlier this month, Kennedy helped introduce the resolution in the Senate.
Text of the resolution is available here.
Kennedy renews calls to protect Diego Garcia military base ahead of UK PM Starmer’s visit to Washington
Feb 26 2025
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) urged United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to move forward with his plan to hand over the Chagos Islands, including the U.S.-U.K. military base on Diego Garcia, to Mauritius in a speech on the Senate floor. Starmer will travel to Washington this week to meet with President Trump.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“Now, there is one other thing you need to know. Mauritius is very close to China. Mauritius has a very lucrative trade agreement with China, and you’ll not be surprised to learn that, after all of this has been developing, China all of a sudden is Mauritius’s best friend. Do you know why? Because if Prime Minister Starmer does this, Mauritius is going to own the base. They are going to own the base.”
. . .
“I don’t care what Prime Minister Starmer promises you. The only reason he is doing this is because he feels guilty because the United Nations has said that the United Kingdom should be ashamed of its history and ashamed that it at one time owned colonies.
“People of the United Kingdom can feel what they want. That is none of my business. But we have got an American military base there, and it is very important to defend the Indian Ocean against China. . . . I am sorry he feels guilty. He needs to go buy an emotional support pony, but he doesn’t need to give away an American military base.”
Background
- The U.K. had previously announced on Oct. 3, 2024, that it had reached a deal with Mauritius to cede the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. This deal between the U.K. and Mauritius would jeopardize the security of a key U.S.-U.K. military base on Deigo Garcia by potentially exposing the island to Chinese espionage efforts, according to a report from the Policy Exchange.
- Negotiations between the U.K. and Mauritius followed a years-long pressure campaign from the United Nations to get England out of the Chagos Islands. The Biden administration also reportedly pressured the U.K. to enter the deal with Mauritius before the American and Mauritian elections took place—an idea Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially endorsed.
- On Oct. 23, 2024, Kennedy wrote to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken seeking answers about the Biden administration’s involvement in the deal between the U.K. and Mauritius.
- Kennedy also penned this op-ed in Oct. 2024 arguing that the Biden administration owes the American people an explanation for its decision to allow this deal between the U.K. and Mauritius to move forward.
- On Jan. 15, 2025, Starmer announced that he wanted President Trump and his administration to weigh in on any deal struck between the U.K. and Mauritius regarding the transfer of the Chagos Islands, including the transfer of the U.S.-U.K. shared military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
- Kennedy published this op-ed in Jan. 2025 welcoming the U.K.’s change of heart after Starmer announced that he would include the Trump administration in the ongoing negotiations with Mauritius.
- As a congressman, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has criticized the Oct. 2024 deal, saying, “Should the U.K. cede control of the Chagos to Mauritius, I have no doubt that China will take advantage of the resulting vacuum.”
- As a senator, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has similarly condemned the deal and said it “poses a serious threat to our national security interests in the Indian Ocean and threatens critical U.S. military posture in the region.”
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
Kennedy condemns Biden admin for doling out $2B to Abrams-backed climate change organization
Feb 26 2025
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), in a speech on the Senate floor, questioned how a six-month-old nonprofit with $100 in the bank and ties to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was able to secure a $2 billion climate change grant from President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“I try to see the world from other people’s bell towers as much as I can, but I cannot come up, not for the life of me, with a single rational justification as to why the EPA under the Biden administration thought it was appropriate to give Power Forward and Rewiring America—two brand new nonprofits with no business experience, no accomplishments according to the IRS forms, and only 100 bucks in the bank—to give them $2 billion of taxpayer money, especially to the exclusion of every other qualified applicant for that money, if there were any other qualified applicants.”
. . .
“The average Louisianian, because of President Biden’s inflation, had to spend an extra $890 a month—extra—for food and clothing and car notes, and they didn’t get an $890-a-month raise.
“President Biden and my Democratic colleagues told us that the Inflation Reduction Act—I remember when it was passed. They said: ‘If you spend $1.2 trillion on the Inflation Reduction Act, it will be a lifeline to every family in America.’ That is not what it looks like to me. It is starting to look like to me that it was really a slush fund—a slush fund for Washington insiders.”
. . .
“Now, this is just the beginning of the type of spending porn that President Trump and Mr. [Elon] Musk are uncovering that people are screaming about. I am going to repeat what I started with: There is nothing wrong with wanting to know what they do and did with our money, and that is all President Trump and Mr. Musk are doing.”
Background
- In April 2024, President Biden’s EPA announced the award of a $2 billion federal grant to Power Forward Communities through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Green House Gas Reduction Fund. The grant was to help homes transition from gas appliances to electric.
- Power Forward Communities formed in Oct. 2023 as a coalition of nonprofits, including Habitat for Humanity International, United Way Worldwide, and Rewiring America. According to its tax filings, Power Forward Communities had just $100 in revenues in 2023.
- Rewiring America similarly formed in 2023. Abrams joined the nonprofit in March 2023 as senior counsel. The organization stated in its tax filings that 2023 was a “startup year for the organization.” Rewiring America’s only listed accomplishment was that it had “joined a coalition of other national organizations to apply for a grant from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.”
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has pledged to claw back more than $20 billion in improper Inflation Reduction Act grants, including the $2 billion to Power Forward Communities.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today reintroduced the Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act to increase penalties for hospitals that hide the true costs of their items and services from patients.
“It’s unfair for hospitals to keep the costs of their services hidden from patients. My Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act would make sure that health care providers make their prices publicly available and understandable for Americans seeking care,” said Kennedy.
The Trump administration’s Hospital Price Transparency Rule, which went into effect in January 2021, requires hospitals to establish and make public a list of the prices that they charge for items and services. Hospitals must also display charges in a consumer-friendly manner. A November 2024 study of 2,000 hospitals found that only 421—or 21%—were fully compliant.
Currently, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires non-compliant hospitals with 30 or fewer beds to pay a penalty of $300 per day, those with 31 to 550 beds to pay between $310 and $5,500 per day and those with more than 550 beds to pay $5,500 per day.
The Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act would:
- Double the current government penalties on non-compliant hospitals. Penalties would increase to $600 per day for hospitals with 30 or fewer beds, $620 to $11,000 per day for hospitals with 31 to 550 beds and $11,000 per day for hospitals with more than 550 beds.
- Require all hospitals to comply with the higher penalties within six months of the law’s passage.
- Prohibit hospitals from shielding information on their websites using webpage coding.
- Give non-compliant hospitals 60 days after notice of non-compliance to pay their monetary penalty.
- Require CMS to publish the names of hospitals that have not complied.
Kennedy first introduced the bill in 2022.
Text of the Hospital Transparency Compliance Enforcement Act is available here.
Senate passes Kennedy resolution to repeal Biden admin rule targeting offshore oil and gas production
Feb 25 2025
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today led the Senate in passing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval to reverse the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) rule that targeted oil and gas production in the outer continental shelf. Kennedy’s resolution passed with bipartisan support and now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Kennedy explained in a speech on the Senate floor that the Biden administration’s rule places an immense burden on small oil and natural gas producers by forcing them to map the ocean floor in search of shipwrecks before they could begin production.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“We've surveyed the entire Gulf of America in the 87 years since we started drilling there. We have surveyed 311,652 square nautical miles—the surface area of Texas and California put together. That's how we found 4,000 shipwrecks, and it's cost hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars. So, we know what's there.”
“Well, in Sept. 2024, the Department of Interior—in a midnight regulation in an effort to try to further hurt fossil fuels—passed a new rule, and they said, ‘Look, we know we’ve surveyed the entire Gulf . . . but every time you drill a new well, we want you to survey again.’ Why? I mean, what's the benefit?”
. . .
“So, I’m going to try to kill the regulation today under what—as you know, Mr. President—is called the Congressional Review Act. . . . I realize that common sense, as I’ve said before, is illegal in Washington. This is not a normal place, but I hope folks who still have common sense will vote to get rid of this foolish rule.”
Background:
- On Sept. 3, 2024, the Biden administration published a rule requiring all new oil and gas leaseholders on the outer continental shelf to submit an archaeological report to the BOEM before drilling or laying pipelines. The rule burdens lessees with conducting costly surveys for marine archaeological resources, such as shipwrecks or “cultural resources.”
- This rule replaces BOEM’s long-standing policy of requiring oil and gas operators to conduct archaeological surveys only when there was a “reason to believe” that an archaeological resource may be present.
- The Biden administration admitted that this rule would harm small oil and gas producers most, writing, “100 percent of the increased Gulf of [America] compliance cost . . . would be borne by operators that are small entities.” Small and independent operators account for one-third of all oil production in the Gulf of America.
- On Feb. 4, 2025, Kennedy introduced his CRA joint resolution of disapproval to repeal the rule. This is one of more than 225 harmful regulations that the Biden administration levied against the oil and natural gas industry.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
