WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $27,764,717 in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant for Louisiana.

“New Orleans is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina’s damage, and Calcasieu Parish is rebuilding from Hurricane Laura. I am grateful this $27.8 million will benefit Louisianians in both communities,” said Kennedy.

The FEMA aid will fund the following:

• $20,990,022 to the Calcasieu Parish School Board for damages from Hurricane Laura.
• $4,683,479 to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board for Hurricane Katrina.
• $2,091,216 to the city of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $16,537,874 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid. 

“I am grateful to see that this $16.5 million will go towards Vermilion, Calcasieu and Iberville Parishes, and to our state, for disaster recovery and flood prevention efforts,” said Kennedy.

The FEMA aid will fund the following:

• $11,211,864 to the Louisiana Department of Military for emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Laura.
• $2,355,493 for the elevation of eight properties and the acquisition of three properties in Vermilion Parish to mitigate flood risk.
• $1,501,399 to the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury for emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Laura. 
• $1,469,118 to Iberville Parish for emergency protective measures required as a result of severe storms, tornadoes and flooding.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has received a response from the U.S. State Department saying that the department has “directly engaged Finnish officials on” the cases of Dr. Päivi Räsänen and Rev. Dr. Juhana Pohjola. The Finnish Christians continue to be the targets of prosecution from Finland’s government for expressing their sincere religious views in a non-violent manner.

“Religious freedom remains under threat in Finland even though the court acquitted Dr. Räsänen and Rev. Dr. Pohjola more than a year ago. I appreciate the State Department’s attention to this pressing issue and urge it to continue to advocate for religious liberty and for Finland to abandon its efforts to prosecute faith. People shouldn’t be subjected to criminal prosecution for expressing their sincere religious views in a non-violent manner, yet the Finnish government is attempting for a second time to convict these people of faith,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy voiced concerns over this prosecution with the U.S. State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large in the Office of International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain, and U.S. Ambassador to Finland, Douglas Hickey, and has urged the U.S. State Department to engage the Finnish government over its refusal to accept the acquittal of Räsänen and Pohjola.

According to the State Department, the Finnish government’s appeals process will likely not result in a hearing until August 2023, but the U.S. embassy will continue to engage on the issue with officials and religious communities in Finland.

“As we have communicated to our counterparts, promoting respect for and protecting freedom of religion or belief remains an important U.S. foreign policy priority. The U.S. Embassy in Helsinki has closely monitored these cases and has raised them in discussions with Finnish government counterparts, as well as with religious and civil society leaders,”the State Department told Kennedy.

Background:

Räsänen and Pohjola were unanimously absolved of criminal liability for expressing their religious beliefs on March 30, 2022, and the court ordered Finnish prosecutors to pay nearly $67,000 in legal fees. The Finnish government, however, appealed the acquittal.

Kennedy originally wrote to the State Department in March 2022 to raise concerns about Finland’s prosecution of non-violent expressions of faith. The prosecution of Räsänen and Pohjola occurs while Europe continues to witness anti-Christian hate crimes and hostility toward Christian-led organizations throughout the continent.

Kennedy’s March 2022 letter is available here, and his December 2022 letter is available here.

The State Department’s May 2023 response is available here.

View Kennedy’s speech here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today spoke on the Senate floor in support of efforts to improve education for Louisiana’s children. Louisiana House Bill (H.B.) 12 would protect students from being promoted to the fourth grade if their reading deficiencies have not been remedied by the end of the third grade. 

“Over half of my children, my young people, in Louisiana are not reading at their grade level, and, at some point, as a child is socially promoted in school and progresses, it almost becomes impossible for a child to learn if the child can’t read,” said Kennedy.

“We’ve got to be courageous enough to try new things that we think will work,” he added.

“Here’s what H.B. 12 would do: It would say, ‘Look, we’re not blaming anyone, but if you are a child in the third grade in Louisiana and you can’t read—according to objective standard—at an acceptable level, then you’re going to stay in the third grade . . . We think you can learn, and you can’t learn if you can’t read.’ Now, that doesn’t mean that the child just repeats the third grade with no help. We will assign that child special tutors. We will assign that child special attention. . . . Our kids deserve the chance. Every child can learn,” concluded Kennedy.

Louisiana spends $2,000 per student more than Florida and $2,600 more than Mississippi, but both states outperform Louisiana in grade four in terms of reading and math, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). 

According to reporting, Mississippi and Florida represent “the two biggest NAEP improvement stories of the last twenty years” and demonstrated notable gains on reading scores after enacting a measure similar to H.B. 12.

The Louisiana State House passed H.B. 12 by a vote of 88-15 on May 16, 2023. The Louisiana State Senate is now considering the bill.

View Kennedy’s full speech here.