WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) filed the Jurists United to Stop Trafficking Imitation Child Exploitation Act of 2019 (the JUSTICE Act of 2019) Thursday to prohibit the importation of child sex dolls that appeal to sexual predators. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) is filing a companion bill in the House.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry worked with Sen. Kennedy on the legislation after receiving reports of law enforcement officials finding the dolls during their investigations involving the sexual abuse of children. Some dolls can be programmed to mimic the reactions of rape victims, allowing predators to practice sick behavior. Last year, Amazon discovered the dolls for sale by third party vendors on its website.
Under the JUSTICE Act of 2019, violators will face up to five years in prison for a first offense. Repeat offenders could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
“As sick as it is, these anatomically correct dolls are made to look like young children. They’re disgusting. They are clearly a training kit for pedophiles,” said Sen. Kennedy. “The United Kingdom has banned the importation of these dolls, but the United States currently has no law prohibiting them. We need to act swiftly to ban them.”
“I want to applaud Senator Kennedy for introducing this important, common-sense legislation,” said Rep. Duncan. “The JUSTICE Act will provide an important tool for law enforcement as they crack down on sex traffickers. I look forward to working with Senator Kennedy, my friend Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, and hopefully House Democrats as we push this common-sense bill through to the President’s desk.”
“Protecting children is critical to a successful society. As someone on the front lines in the battle against child predators, I appreciate this legislation and know it will help make our communities safer. I hope Congress swiftly passes this much-needed public safety measure by Senator Kennedy and Representative Duncan,” said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
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U.S. Senate Passes Sens. Kennedy (R-La.) and Booker’s (D-N.J.) Small Business Disaster Relief Bill
Aug 02 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) bill, the Rebuilding Small Businesses After Disasters Act. This legislation would help ensure families continue to have access to certain Small Business Administration (SBA) loans soon after a disaster.
This legislation would prevent specific SBA disaster loans from decreasing from $25,000 to $14,000. In 2015, a provision in the Recovery Improvements for Small Entities After Disaster Act temporarily increased loan limits for physical disaster loans. This legislation will extend the provision for another three years.
“Disasters like Hurricane Katrina leave properties in ruin,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Extending this provision will provide families with the resources they need to rebuild their businesses and their homes immediately after a disaster. It puts the appropriate financial resources into the pockets of our homeowners and business owners.”
“Even though nearly a decade has passed since Superstorm Sandy ravaged New Jersey and much of the East Coast, New Jersey families and communities remember all too well the massive devastation it caused,” said Sen. Booker. “This bipartisan bill ensures that disaster victims in New Jersey and across the country will continue to have access to the assistance they need as they rebuild their homes, small businesses and local economies.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) issued the following statement after voting against the Senate’s budget legislation:
“The United States is already $22 trillion in debt, and that number keeps climbing every second,” said Sen. Kennedy. “I could not in good conscience vote to support this irresponsible spending habit.”
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U.S. Sen. John Kennedy Files Legislation To Help People Claim $25 Billion In Unredeemed Savings Bonds
Aug 01 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) filed the Unclaimed Savings Bond Act (USB Act) today that will give states access to records on billions of dollars in matured, unredeemed savings bonds sitting in the U.S. Treasury. The records will allow states to reunite the bonds with bondholders by putting names and addresses into their Unclaimed Property databases. More than $25 billion in matured, unredeemed savings bonds are in the U.S. Treasury.
The legislation builds upon Sen. Kennedy’s work involving unredeemed savings bonds. As state treasurer, he fought to get bonds dating from the 1940s and 1950s redeemed to the state so heirs could claim them. Cosponsors include U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.).
“A lot of savings bonds were purchased over the years and lost. That doesn’t mean they can’t be redeemed. The federal government has the names, addresses and serial numbers for the bonds. The federal government just would rather use that money than release the information needed to redeem the bonds,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Your grandmother didn’t want the money to sit in the Treasury when she bought that savings bond for you. By allowing states access to the records, we can make it easy for people to search for unredeemed savings bonds.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) today urged the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to use their new authorities to lower the pharmaceutical industries’ excessive production of opioids.
Kennedy and Durbin’s bill, the Opioid Quota Reform Act of 2018, was signed into law as part of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This legislation granted the DEA new authority over opioid production by requiring opioid quotas to be adjusted to reflect diversion, overdose deaths and public health.
Between 1993 and 2015, the DEA allowed production quotas on various painkillers to increase at a startling rate. Since then, billions of opioids have been prescribed and sold around the nation fueling the current opioid epidemic.
“Recent reporting from the Washington Post revealed that the pharmaceutical industry flooded every corner of the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills between 2006 and 2012 — egregious volumes of painkiller production that was undertaken with DEA approval and awareness,” the Senators wrote. “While we appreciate the initial steps taken in recent years to reduce the aggregate production quotas for schedule II opioids, we remain concerned that they are still far too high. Approximately thirteen billion opioid doses were put on the market in 2017 — enough for every adult American to have at least a three-week prescription of painkillers.”
The full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Acting Administrator Dhillon:
As our nation confronts the worst drug overdose epidemic in its history, we write to urge the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle the opioid crisis by utilizing new authorities that Congress provided to establish more sensible opioid production quotas for 2020. Section 3282 of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (P.L. 115-271) strengthened DEA’s statutory quota-setting authority by enhancing transparency and requiring opioid quotas to be adjusted to reflect diversion, overdose deaths, and public health. As the bipartisan authors of that section, we strongly encourage you to use this new authority to rein in the pharmaceutical industry’s incessant demand for excessive levels of opioid production.
We have previously shared our deep concern that, between 1993 and 2015, DEA allowed aggregate production quotas for oxycodone to increase 39-fold, hydrocodone to increase 12-fold, hydromorphone to increase 23-fold, and fentanyl to increase 25-fold. Recent reporting from the Washington Post revealed that the pharmaceutical industry flooded every corner of the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pills between 2006 and 2012—egregious volumes of painkiller production that was undertaken with DEA approval and awareness.
While we appreciate the initial steps taken in recent years to reduce the aggregate production quotas for schedule II opioids, we remain concerned that they are still far too high. Approximately thirteen billion opioid doses were put on the market in 2017—enough for every adult American to have at least a three-week prescription of painkillers. As powerful painkillers are aggressively marketed and prescribed at high rates, this sheer volume of available opioids heightens the risk for illicit diversion and abuse. For example, four in five new heroin users first began their addiction with prescription painkillers.
We have written on several occasions urging DEA to exercise its statutory quota authority to serve as the gatekeeper for how many opioids are allowed to be sold legally each year in the United States. As DEA proposes and finalizes the schedule II opioid production quotas for 2020, we urge you to apply DEA’s new authorities to prevent and limit opioid diversion due to excessively high production levels. Thank you for your commitment to addressing the opioid epidemic. We look forward to our continued engagement on this issue.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) announced today that the Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded a $7.1 million grant to the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport to improve runway safety.
“The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport is one of the largest airports in Louisiana, and this grant will equip the airport to continue to safely and efficiently serve the folks traveling through Baton Rouge,” said Sen. Kennedy.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton expressing security concerns about the collection of personally identifiable information (PII) for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database. U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) joined Sen. Kennedy in sending this letter.
The CAT is a data management platform that tracks all trade information from broker-deals, trading venues, retail investments and stock exchanges. The CAT collects personally indefinable information (PII) of every American with money in the stock market, which makes the database an attractive target for foreign cyber-attacks.
“Put simply, the costs of storing the PII of millions of Americans in the CAT and exposing it to Chinese hackers far outweighs any benefit to the SEC in overseeing the equity markets,” wrote the senators. “A hack of this database that leads to identity theft would also diminish the SEC’s reputation and its credibility in the eyes of the public – especially given this opportunity to reverse course.”
The full text of the letter is below:
July 24, 2019
Dear Chairman Clayton:
We write to you regarding the national security risk China poses to all American investors because of the planned collection of their personally identifiable information (PII) by the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database. The CAT is a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) creation that requires broker-dealers, trading venues and stock exchanges to report all trade information and retail investor information to a single database. Given the aggressive nature of the Chinese Communist Party’s cyber agenda and the risk this presents to the American people, we are asking the Commission to prohibit the collection of any retail investor PII by the CAT. While we support the SEC using the CAT to conduct market surveillance using non-retail investor information, we are worried that including the PII of every American with money in the stock market will create an easy target for China’s cyber-attack initiatives.
Nine years have passed since the CAT was conceived, and Americans views on data collection have changed dramatically. Americans have become increasingly concerned about the risks cyberthreats pose to their sensitive personal and financial information and are very worried about identity theft. Massive breaches at government agencies and numerous U.S. companies by China over the last decade have demonstrated that no entity is immune from their attacks.
Intelligence officials recently highlighted, in stark terms, the threat that cybercriminals pose. In its January 2019 “Worldwide Threat Assessment,” the U.S. intelligence community noted that state actors “increasingly use cyber operations to threaten both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways – to steal information, to influence our citizens, or to disrupt critical infrastructure.” The report called out China in particular, stating that it “remains the most active strategic competitor responsible for cyber espionage against the U.S. Government, corporations, and allies.” Another report described China’s cyber command as “fully institutionalized” within the Communist Party, employing more than 100,000 soldiers charged with carrying out operations against the U.S. government, its companies, and its people.
China’s attacks on American interests illustrate how active their cyber soldiers have become. Just last year, China stole a National Security Agency hacking tool, EternalBlue, to use against “the U.S. where it is most vulnerable.” The Chinese are widely believed to be behind the hacking of over 20 million personnel records at the Office of Personnel Management in 2015, the theft of the PII of thousands of U.S. Navy personnel, the recent attacks shutting down essential services in American cities around the country, and several breaches of private sector company databases in recent years. Intelligence officials have warned that China’s cyber activity has risen in recent months and the Chinese cyber division is targeting critical infrastructure in the financial sector, among others. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that one goal of China’s attacks is to use the sensitive information of susceptible Americans to recruit them to act as double agents against the U.S.
These brazen efforts are part of China’s long-term strategy to undermine America’s economic and military standing in the world. A single database that includes the PII of every American investor would be a target too tempting to ignore. Chinese hackers could use this information to manipulate or disrupt our equity markets, trade stocks based upon material nonpublic information, steal entire portfolios and sell them on the dark web, or blackmail American citizens. We cannot allow any of those outcomes.
Put simply, the costs of storing the PII of millions of Americans in the CAT and exposing it to Chinese hackers far outweighs any benefit to the SEC in overseeing the equity markets. A hack of this database that leads to identity theft would also diminish the SEC’s reputation and its credibility in the eyes of the public – especially given this opportunity to reverse course.
We call on the SEC to put the security of the American people first and end its policy of putting the PII of every American saver and retiree into the largest single database of market-sensitive information in history.
We believe you will agree that the national security risks posed by China and other foreign adversaries are too great to ignore, and we believe the SEC should take the steps necessary to safeguard our markets and protect millions of American investors from the threats posed by cybercriminals.
Sincerely,
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Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Cut Costs of Prescription Drugs
Jul 25 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) introduced the bipartisan Phair Relief Act on Wednesday to lower drug costs for seniors and improve financial certainty for community pharmacies.
Under the Medicare Part D program, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) act as middlemen between pharmacies and insurers, negotiating price concessions from pharmacies. PBMs should pass on these savings to patients to lower the cost of drugs, but this is seldom the case. PBMs that abuse these practices harm both local community pharmacies and seniors.
One of these abuses is the routine of PBMs requiring clawback fees from pharmacies. These fees are known as direct or indirect remuneration (DIR) fees. When pharmacies are asked for unexpected, retroactive fees months after dispensing a drug to a patient, it makes it challenging for pharmacies to financially plan ahead. DIR fees increase seniors’ out-of-pocket costs at the point of sale for their medications and contribute to an unsustainable environment that forces many community pharmacies to shutter their doors.
This legislation will put a five-year freeze on these DIR clawbacks, and it will establish enhanced oversight over these fees. The legislation also establishes standardized quality metrics that PBMs would have to use to assess any fees after the five-year freeze ends.
When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) proposed a similar policy in a proposed rule last fall, they estimated that requiring PBMs to account for these retroactive DIR fees at the point of sale would save seniors between $7.1 and $9.2 billion over 10 years on their out-of-pocket drug costs.
Click here for the full text of the legislation.
“The high cost of prescription drugs is one of the biggest problems that Americans face today. This legislation will help change that,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Middlemen negotiators like PBMs should not be receiving the benefits of lower drug costs. The customers at the pharmacy counter should be the primary beneficiaries of price cuts. This legislation promotes transparency and accountability in the pharmaceutical drug industry by prioritizing patient care instead of middlemen profits.”
“Montanans’ drug costs are too high,” said Sen. Tester. “This bipartisan bill will help bring them down by giving community pharmacists needed relief from burdensome fees—that’ll be passed on to their customers as lower costs. And it goes a step further by shining a light on how pharmacies are reimbursed for claims – requiring transparency and standardized reporting so folks can get the full picture of how much their prescriptions cost and why.”
“Prescription drugs cost too much,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Getting rid of loopholes and incentives lowers drug costs for patients and for taxpayers.”
“For many West Virginians, prescription medicine can be the difference between wellness and illness or even life and death, and in rural states like ours, pharmacists are the most trusted and frequently seen health care providers. That’s why I’ve focused many of my efforts on the important role pharmacists can play in lowering drug costs,” said Senator Capito. “This bipartisan legislation will not only help lower prescription drug prices for seniors, but it will also make it easier for local pharmacists to serve their communities. It’s a commonsense next step in our broader efforts to lower prescription drug costs and improve the health and well-being of West Virginians and all Americans.”
“Pharmacy middle-men shouldn’t be pocketing secret kickbacks instead of passing discounts onto customers. By requiring more transparency, we can hold the industry accountable to Ohio taxpayers and patients,” said Brown.
“The high cost of prescription drugs has been straining Montana’s hardworking families and seniors for far too long,” said Sen. Daines. “This bipartisan bill will shine a light on the complex drug pricing system and lower prescription drug costs for Montanans by ensuring savings are going to consumers instead of lining the pockets of pharmacy middlemen. This critical legislation will also assist seniors on a fixed income who rely on low out-of-pocket costs and access to their community pharmacy to gain access to needed medications.”
“The Phair Relief Act gives us the chance to resolve in law many of the issues we’ve debated during Senate Finance Committee hearings regarding PBMs and their interactions with pharmacies and patients,” said Sen. Lankford. “Drug price variance and a lack of relief from ever-increasing prices continues to frustrate patients from my state, but local pharmacies have been limited by PBM fees, rules, and cost issues. I am proud to join my colleagues in offering a proposal today that puts forward a broad set of common-sense reforms that will help solve some of those issues and set us on a path to address rising drug prices in our nation. I look forward to the bill’s full consideration.”
“If we don’t finalize DIR reform, another year could pass before seniors see drug prices lowered at the pharmacy counter,” said Sen. Manchin. “That’s why I’m joining my colleagues in introducing the Phair Relief Act – a bipartisan bill that will provide real cost savings to Medicare beneficiaries and reduce seniors’ out of pocket costs for prescription drugs. The Phair Relief Act will save seniors around the country $7.1 and $9.2 billion. Passing this legislation is crucial to help our seniors make ends meet and provide relief in our increasingly expensive healthcare system.”
The following organizations have offered their support for this legislation: the National Community Pharmacy Association (NCPA), National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) and American Pharmacists Association (APhA).
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) announced today that the Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded a $5.4 million grant for the construction of a new terminal building at the Lafayette Regional Airport.
Since Sen. Kennedy took office in 2017, the DOT has awarded more than $50 million in grants for projects at the Lafayette Regional Airport.
“The number of people flying in and out of Lafayette is increasing every day. This grant will equip the airport to meet the growing demand for air travel in Acadiana,” said Sen. Kennedy.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Tuesday introduced the Commercial Fishing and Aquaculture Protection Act of 2019, which would establish a permanent disaster assistance program for commercial fishing and aquaculture operations.
Fisheries and other seafood producers in Louisiana frequently face significant losses due to hurricanes, flooding or changes in water salinity. This legislation would help alleviate those losses by providing revenue-based relief, similar to the well-established USDA disaster programs for farmers.
“The commercial fishing industry is part of our culture and a vital part of our economy in Louisiana,” said Sen. Kennedy. “The shrimp and oyster seasons produced significantly lower yields on average this year due to disastrous freshwater intrusions in the Gulf. We need to give our fishing industry a break. This legislation will establish a program to help fishermen cope with disaster conditions like these.”
“Farmers and ranchers who experience serious losses have access to well-established USDA programs to help them survive down years. Commercial fishermen, including aquaculture operations, do not have that option,” said Sen. Hyde-Smith. “The disastrous law salinity conditions in the Gulf this year show us that it is time to do more for this important economic sector. Fisheries and aquaculture are not just important to Mississippi and other southeastern states, but every region with a coast. Our domestic seafood industry starts with the fisherman—the harvester or producer, and without them we would be forced to depend on lower quality foreign imports.”
Earlier this month, Sen. Kennedy joined the Louisiana Congressional delegation in sending a letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross urging him to provide disaster aid for Louisiana’s seafood industry.
A copy of the legislation is available here.
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