MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $8,588,163 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid.
“Hurricanes Laura and Ida devastated communities in south Louisiana. This $8.6 million will help Louisianians in Terrebonne Parish, Sulphur and Lake Charles recover from the heavy costs these storms caused,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $2,871,224 to the Terrebonne Parish School Board for repairs to the Bourg Elementary, Mulberry Elementary and West Park Buildings resulting from Hurricane Ida damage.
- $2,466,920 to the Terrebonne General Medical Center for management costs resulting from Hurricane Ida.
- $1,734,597 to demolish and replace facilities at Center Circle Park in Sulphur, La. that Hurricane Laura damaged.
- $1,515,422 to the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District to repair Hurricane Laura damage.
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today penned this op-ed in The Advocate praising the joint effort between Congress and the Trump administration to unleash Louisiana’s energy production through deregulation.
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“President Joe Biden spent four years trying to drag the U.S. into the dark ages with his anti-energy policies. Thanks to the wisdom of the American people, though, those days are over.
“American energy independence is back on the horizon under President Trump’s leadership. He just signed my resolution to repeal the first of many Biden-era rules that were crushing Louisiana’s energy producers. This is only the beginning of our shared effort to clean up the massive mess that the Biden administration left behind.”
. . .
“While President Trump’s team has made some tremendous progress in scaling back these anti-energy policies, they cannot do it all on their own. If the Biden administration implemented these changes as formal rules, the Trump administration must introduce its own formal rules to reverse the initial policies. This can take months.
“Congress, however, has a tool to help the Trump administration expedite rule changes. It’s called the Congressional Review Act (CRA), and it allows lawmakers to wipe bad rules off the books.
“I’ve already started putting this tool to work for the American people. I introduced a joint resolution of disapproval under the CRA to eliminate a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rule that required oil and gas producers in the Gulf of America to submit archaeological reports to the federal government before drilling or laying pipelines.”
. . .
“Small and independent operations make up roughly one-third of all oil production in the Gulf, and this rule would have cost them millions of dollars. Fortunately, my colleagues in Congress agreed that this rule was bogus. Last week, President Trump signed my CRA into law and rendered that rule void.
“President Biden made a disgusting mess of America’s energy sector by sticking bad regulations on producers like gum to a park bench. Louisianians can count on us to keep scraping away at these terrible regulations until each one is repealed and America has returned to a position of energy dominance.”
Read Kennedy’s full op-ed here.
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) commended the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for debarring and defunding EcoHealth Alliance and its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, for their role in facilitating gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, which likely caused the coronavirus pandemic.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“Many commentators and many news accounts say that what Dr. Daszak—with the money from American taxpayers that he had gotten from Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins—what they were doing was conducting gain-of-function research. . . . Gain-of-function research just means taking, in this context, an animal virus, a bat virus, altering it genetically so it would jump into a human—pretty dangerous stuff.
“Now Dr. Fauci has said that didn’t happen, Dr. Collins says that didn’t happen, and Dr. Daszak says that didn’t happen, but everybody else says it did. The FBI says it did. The CIA says it did. The top spy agency in Germany says it did. The Department of Energy says it did.
“So what happened? What happened? Well, we do know that the first two people that we know of in the world who got the coronavirus—the first two humans—were not people in the city of Wuhan; they were workers in the Wuhan lab. . . . We also know that when the virus became really contagious, other than these two people who were working in the Wuhan lab, it became contagious in Wuhan, China, a few miles away from the Wuhan lab—pretty curious.
“We also know that when word first broke of the coronavirus, Dr. Fauci learned about it. Do you know one of the first persons he called was Dr. Peter Daszak and said: What is going on?
“We also know that Dr. Daszak was trying to convince the American people and the people of the world that the virus started naturally—that it didn’t start from his gain-of-function research. We know that he rounded up a bunch of epidemiologists to write a fake article and start publishing it and others in a lot of professional scientific magazines to try to convince the world that the bat virus jumped to human beings naturally. We know that. That has all come out.”
. . .
“It took a while, and some will call this only partial justice, but we now have justice—at least for 5 years. I hope forever Dr. Peter Daszak and any company with which he is affiliated will no longer receive taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health because he was doing—according to many people smarter than me and many news reports—he was funding gain research in Wuhan. . . . Pretty scary stuff, and we know how it all turned out.
Background:
- On Jan. 17, 2025, HHS announced that it would be defunding and debarring EcoHealth Alliance Inc. and Dr. Daszak for at least five years due to their role in facilitating irresponsible gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
- HHS determined that Dr. Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance violated the terms of their gain-of-function grant to conduct experiments that modified novel bat coronaviruses to make them 10,000 times more infectious in mice.
- The FBI, CIA, Department of Energy and other government agencies around the world have concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated in the lab in Wuhan.
- Dr. Daszak, former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci coordinated with other public health officials to propel the theory that COVID-19 originated in nature.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
Kennedy, Shaheen champion bipartisan bill to support Louisiana rural small businesses’ access to capital
Mar 27 2025
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in reintroducing the Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act, which the Senate Small Business Committee today voted to advance to full Senate consideration.
The bill would direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to designate an Assistant Administrator for its Office of Rural Affairs and codify cooperation efforts between the SBA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve support for rural small businesses.
“Louisiana’s small businesses provide good paying jobs to folks throughout our state and support local economic growth. I’m thankful to my colleagues for advancing this bill to improve support for job creators, and I look forward to full Senate consideration,” said Kennedy.
“Small businesses are the backbone of rural communities but often face higher barriers to accessing federal programs and resources that would help them thrive. I’m pleased that my colleagues on the Small Business Committee cleared the way for our bipartisan bill to increase coordination between federal agencies—bringing us one step closer to delivering more support for rural small businesses across the country,” said Shaheen.
The Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act would direct SBA and USDA to convene working groups to:
- Identify areas of partnership between the two agencies’ loan programs, including both large programs like 7(a) and smaller microloan programs.
- Assess where SBA and USDA can coordinate in delivering resources through lenders, resource partners like Small Business Development Centers and others.
- Coordinate SBA’s Small Business Investment Company program and USDA’s Rural Business Investment Company program.
- Share best practices among the two agencies, rural economic development groups and others and evaluate how cooperatives can access SBA programs.
- Collaborate on technical assistance with procurement, exports and innovation.
The bill text is available here.
Kennedy champions No Dollars for Dictators Act to stop U.S. tax dollars from flowing to Russia, China, Iran
Mar 26 2025
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the No Dollars for Dictators Act of 2025 to prevent state sponsors of terrorism and perpetrators of genocide from receiving American tax dollars via special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without congressional approval.
“The Biden administration allowed China, Russia, Iran and Syria to collect billions of dollars from the IMF without ever consulting Congress. My bill would ensure that Congress has a say before the IMF doles out American tax dollars to countries that hate us,” said Kennedy.
Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Jim Justice (R-W. Va.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) cosponsored the bill.
“The Biden-Harris administration bypassed Congress and allocated unauthorized funds to oppressive nations like China, Russia, and Iran, which pose a clear threat to our security. The No Dollars for Dictators Act would prevent taxpayer money from supporting dictators under future administrations through the International Monetary Fund,” said Blackburn.
“Our enemies should not benefit from U.S. taxpayers, especially when they undermine our nation’s security. It’s time Congress steps in on behalf of the American people and puts an end to this reckless spending that supports dictators and terrorists,” said Justice.
“American taxpayers want their dollars to work in their best interests, not financially supporting dictators of dangerous and adversarial regimes like Communist China, Iran, Venezuela and more. Over the course of the Biden administration, the former president authorized billions of dollars to be funneled to these regimes through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without a single act of Congress. President Trump is rightly putting Americans first and ensuring their tax dollars are providing a return for them. The No Dollars for Dictators Act will protect U.S. tax dollars from fueling the evils of dictators or terrorists who seek to destroy our way of life,” said Scott.
Background:
- In 2021, President Biden approved the largest-ever allocation of special drawing rights at the IMF totaling $650 billion. He did this without consent from Congress. Large portions of that allocation flowed to dictators and countries that actively oppose American interests and violate human rights.
- China alone received $38 billion in special drawing rights. Russia received $16 billion. Iran, Syria and Venezuela also received billions. Syria and Iran are state sponsors of terrorism.
- While some have claimed that special drawing rights offer the U.S. a no-cost way to assist poor countries, this is demonstrably false. This IMF allocation requires the U.S. to issue debt to cover the loans issued through special drawing rights. The U.S. must pay interest on that debt, and that interest would exceed any interest that the U.S. may receive on the loans it issues.
- There is no requirement that countries that receive loans from the U.S. through special drawing rights ever repay the principal. As a result, the financial burden of these loans falls on the U.S. taxpayer.
Text of the No Dollars for Dictators Act is here.
Kennedy statement on Sen. J. Bennett Johnston
Mar 26 2025
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) released the following statement on the passing of former U.S. Senator for Louisiana J. Bennett Johnston:
“Senator J. Bennett Johnston was a Louisiana champion and a champion for Louisiana. He played big but spoke softly. Composure was his superpower. Bennett loved Louisiana, loved America and loved his family. He was a great senator. Louisiana weeps.
“Becky and I send our condolences to the Johnston family and our everlasting thanks to Bennett.”
Kennedy explains how Canada could fend off new American tariffs: “Reduce your tariffs to zero”
Mar 26 2025
Watch Kennedy’s comments here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) argued that Canada should consider dropping its tariffs against the U.S. to zero if it would like to avoid the reciprocal tariffs that the Trump administration is using to level the playing field for American producers in a speech on the Senate floor.
Key excerpts of the speech are below:
“I want to say this unequivocally: Canada is one of my favorite countries in the world. The American people and the people of Canada are friends, and I would like our economies to be friends—and I mean that. But lately, we have been having a gentle disagreement—some would say not so gentle—in terms of tariffs and trade and our economy.”
. . .
“When you have got your neighboring country and good friend that is eight times smaller than you are [economically] and, in terms of population, is 10 times smaller than you are, and your neighbor is selling $63 billion more in goods to you than you are selling to them, that seems kind of unfair. And the president, as we all know, has made that point very vociferously.
“In response, the Canadian government, the new Prime Minister [Mark] Carney, he has pretty much bowed up. When Pres. Trump said: ‘Well, the tariffs are uneven, so I am going to raise American tariffs.’ Carney has bowed up and said: ‘Well, Pres. Trump, you don’t believe in free trade. You are not a free trader. If you raise your tariffs, then I am going to raise mine even more.’ And that is how you get into a trade war.”
. . .
“Let’s avoid a trade war. Let’s let those good Canadian companies compete with good American companies in selling goods into the U.S., and let’s let those good American companies compete with those good Canadian companies in terms of selling goods into Canada, and may the best, cheapest product win.
“That is my respectful challenge to P.M. Carney tonight. If you think Pres. Trump is being unfair and is not a free trader, then reduce your tariffs to zero, and ask Pres. Trump to reduce our tariffs to zero on Canada, and let’s go back to being friends again.”
Background:
- On April 2, 2025, Pres. Trump plans to announce a new round of tariffs on American trade partners. The Trump administration is planning to implement reciprocal tariffs, meaning that the U.S. will levy the same tariff that other nations levy against American products.
- Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said he is optimistic that the U.S. will not have to implement some of these tariffs because other countries, including Canada, will see the reciprocal nature of the tariffs and negotiate them down.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.
Kennedy helps introduce bipartisan bill to help injured combat veterans receive full military benefits
Mar 25 2025
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and colleagues in reintroducing the bipartisan Major Richard Star Act. The bill would allow combat-injured veterans with fewer than 20 years of military service to receive full retirement benefits—without reduction—concurrent with their disability compensation.
“Our veterans made heroic scarifies to protect our nation. I’m proud to help introduce the Major Richard Star Act to make sure that Louisiana’s and America’s brave veterans are able to receive retirement benefits and disability compensation,” said Kennedy.
Currently, only veterans with over 20 years of military service and a 50% or more disabled rating can qualify to receive Department of Defense retirement and Department of Veterans Affairs disability payments concurrently.
Major Richard Star was a decorated war veteran after whom this legislation is named. Major Star retired due to combat related injuries and passed away from cancer in 2021.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) also cosponsored the bill.
The full bill text is available here.
“Too often, federal insurers give American farmers short shrift when regional disasters damage their crops. The Quality Loss Adjustment Improvement for Farmers Act would make sure that fickle government policies don’t control the fate of Louisiana farms,” said Kennedy.
The Quality Loss Adjustment Improvement for Farmers Act would give the FCIC more latitude to review the methodology it uses to determine discounts for farmers who experience crop loss. It would give stakeholders input into the process of setting those discounts and require a report to be issued following the review.
The bill would also allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) to establish a regional discount consideration that accounts for extreme weather events and natural disasters.
Background:
- The FCIC, which the RMA manages, provides federal crop insurance policies to approved insurance providers to sell coverage to America’s farmers and ranchers.
- The discounts provided to farmers who experience crop loss generally do not reflect the real damages farmers incur. This often leaves farmers without the flexibility they need to keep their farms afloat in the long run.
- The FCIC does not take regional disasters into account when it calculates discounts.
Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) reintroduced the legislation in the House of Representatives.
“Sudden crop losses due to severe weather have a heavy impact on the farmers at the heart of our nation’s food supply. By proposing much-needed flexibility and more specialized support to federal crop insurance programs, I’m fighting to ensure Louisiana farmers have the support they need when disaster strikes,” said Letlow.
Full text of the Quality Loss Adjustment Improvement for Farmers Act is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in The Hill arguing that Congress should pass the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act to ensure that federal law holds foreign executives to the same insider trading standards as American executives.
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“The American people are tired of watching the U.S. receive the short end of the stick in our global business deals. They don’t understand why some have let other countries lie, steal and cheat in our marketplaces, and they reelected President Trump to help us unstack the deck.
“During his first term, President Trump worked to level the playing field for American companies and investors. He signed my bill, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, into law to allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist Chinese companies from American stock exchanges if they refuse to open their books to our regulators.
“It’s common sense. Chinese companies that want to profit from American investors should be held to the same transparency standards as American companies. In the years since President Trump signed this bill into law, Chinese companies have begun to comply with American disclosure requirements. Regulators have already issued millions of dollars in sanctions and penalties against Chinese companies and individuals who were cooking their books or otherwise violating our laws to the detriment of American investors.
“Now we have an opportunity to build upon this work by stopping the executives of foreign companies from gaming our markets through insider trading.”
. . .
“A foreign passport should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card for insider trading in the American stock exchange. There is absolutely no reason why American executives should face a higher standard of transparency than their foreign counterparts.
“Let’s build on the momentum of Trump’s first term to protect American investors from foreign executives who don’t respect our markets. I urge my congressional colleagues to join me in eliminating this double standard.”
Read Kennedy’s full op-ed here.
