View Kennedy’s remarks here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today released the following statement on how to grow the U.S. economy to help Louisianians and all Americans after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris caused record-high inflation.

Kennedy’s key remarks are below.

“We've got to grow our way out of these high prices.”

. . .

“That’s another way of saying that we have got to stimulate our economy so that income and wages go up and so people will have more money to be able to afford the products that now are priced higher because of President Biden and Vice President Harris's inflation.”

. . . 

“The idea was that if we let people keep more of their money, they would invest it and stimulate the economy and grow it, and we'd all be better off—and it worked,” Kennedy said, explaining the impetus behind the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 

. . . 

“Over the first three years of President Trump's term, our economy grew between 8 and 9% after we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. After we passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the median household income—that means basically the average household income in America—increased over two years by $5,000.”

. . . 

“If you want to increase wealth, you've got to increase output. How do you increase output? By reducing taxes and reducing regulation. When you tax something, you get less of it. When you regulate something, you get less of it. When you tax and regulate less, you get more of it.”

. . . 

“We're going to beat these high prices by getting America growing again and getting wages growing again.” 

View Kennedy’s full remarks here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and a bipartisan group of colleagues in urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to conduct oversight of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) use of facial recognition technology.

“We urge you to conduct thorough oversight of the Transportation Security Administration’s (“TSA”) use of facial recognition technology for passenger verification from both an authorities and privacy perspective. This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology’s precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy,” the senators wrote.

“TSA reportedly plans to introduce next-generation credential authentication technology (CAT) equipped with facial recognition at over 430 airports nationwide. Yet the agency already deploys non-facial recognition devices, known as CAT-1 scanners, which are capable of determining if identification documents are fraudulent. TSA has not provided Congress with evidence that facial recognition technology is necessary to catch fraudulent documents, decrease wait times at security checkpoints, or stop terrorists from boarding airplanes,” they continued. 

“Additionally, despite promising lawmakers and the public that this technology is not mandatory, TSA has stated its intent to expand this technology beyond the security checkpoint and make it mandatory in the future. In April 2023, TSA Administrator Pekoske admitted at the South by Southwest Conference that ‘we will get to the point where we will require biometrics across the board.’ If that happens, this program could become one of the largest federal surveillance databases overnight without authorization from Congress,” the senators concluded.

The senators are also asking the DHS to provide Congress with an evaluation report of the facial recognition technology before it becomes the default form of passenger verification at security checkpoints.

Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) also signed the letter.

The full letter is available here.

MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and colleagues in writing President Joe Biden to reject the United Nations (U.N.) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee’s global plastics pollution agreement, which would harm Louisiana and America’s manufacturing development. 

“We write to express great concern that just as talks at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) enter their final phase, the administration has changed the U.S. negotiating positions to address plastic pollution. It is unfortunate the administration appears to have succumbed to pressure from extremist environmental activists and now supports constraints on manufacturing and the development of target lists that identify chemicals and plastic products to be banned around the world in the potential treaty. We will not support a treaty that proposes global lists to restrict the production or use of chemicals, plastics, or plastic products or that requires new domestic authority,” the senators wrote.

“Throughout the negotiating process, the United States positioned itself to broker an agreement that not only seizes upon a historic opportunity to end plastic pollution in the environment, but one that also bolsters American manufacturing by supporting innovative new product designs and recycling technologies. Such an agreement could usher in a beneficial ‘circular economy’ for plastics. This last-minute change in U.S. policy could sabotage years of positive collaboration and progress in brokering a treaty that ends plastic pollution, unlocks innovation, and, importantly, that could be ratified by the U.S. Senate,” they continued. 

The senators also explained that the agreement would commit the U.S. to domestic policy changes that could affect federal and state laws, and, for that reason, should be submitted to the Senate for advice and consent under Article II of the Constitution.

“Any agreement that includes provisions harmful to American manufacturing and jobs, or that unnecessarily drives up the costs to American consumers of food, electronics, vehicles, and other critical products, will not receive Senate ratification . . . With the final round of negotiations taking place later this year, we recommend you focus on securing a treaty that the U.S. can actually join, one that will result in a lasting solution to end plastic pollution, and one that would strengthen our innovative economy,” they concluded. 

Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also signed the letter.

The full letter is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined colleagues in urging Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to coordinate with the victims of the Stanford Trust Ponzi scheme.

More than 1,000 Louisianians from Baton Rouge, Covington and Lafayette lost large sums from their life savings due to Allen Stanford’s fraud, which involved Stanford’s selling roughly $7 billion worth of illegitimate certificates of deposit from his offshore bank. In 2020, Kennedy led an amicus brief on behalf of victims.

Kennedy has also urged Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler to ensure that any potential attorney fees and settlements for victims are fair and reasonable. 

“We write to you on behalf of the Louisianans and Texans who were defrauded and have yet to be made whole by Allen Stanford and the Stanford International Bank. In 2019, members of Congress wrote a letter urging that Société Générale provide restitution to the victims of Allen Stanford for its involvement in facilitating the Ponzi scheme. Société Générale held $210 million in frozen assets connected to the Stanford Ponzi scheme, which it refused to release to Stanford’s victims. The undersigned were emphatic that this money belonged to the victims and should be returned to them immediately. There was a follow-up letter a year later expressing our frustration at the lack of progress and the bank’s refusal to engage with the victims of the Ponzi scheme,” the senators wrote.

“Separately, members of Congress reached out to Toronto-Dominion Bank regarding its involvement with the Stanford Ponzi scheme. The undersigned highlighted troubling details relating to the bank’s relationship with Allen Stanford and indicated that such lapses in compliance oversight could facilitate money laundering and other fraudulent activities. The undersigned demanded that Toronto-Dominion Bank engage with Stanford’s victims to seek a swift resolution to the matter,” they continued.

“The Stanford Financial Receiver raised similar concerns and asked the Department of Justice to investigate Toronto-Dominion Bank for its involvement with the Stanford Ponzi scheme. We have been informed that the Stanford Financial Receiver received no acknowledgement regarding its requests. If true, this appears to be a break with the Department’s prior practice to maintain open lines of communication and coordinate with victims’ groups,” the senators concluded.

The senators are seeking answers from the DOJ regarding what communications it has had with the Stanford Financial Receiver and whether or not the Department considered seeking a restitution penalty as part of the settlement with Toronto-Dominion Bank regarding its Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering violations.

The full letter is available here.