WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $1,265,547 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid. 

“Hurricane Ida’s storm surge, rains and winds badly damaged facilities in our state. This $1.3 million will help Louisianians cover the cost of office contents that Ida destroyed,” said Kennedy.

The FEMA aid will fund the following:

• $1,265,547 to the Office of Risk Management to replace office contents that Hurricane Ida damaged.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $32,386,791 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid. 

“Louisiana is working hard to rebuild from the catastrophic damage that Hurricanes Laura and Ida left behind. This $32.4 million will help our communities recover from the costs they sustained during these disasters,” said Kennedy. 

The FEMA aid will fund the following:

• $13,358,873 to St. John the Baptist Parish for debris removal operations resulting from Hurricane Ida.

• $6,209,552 to the Terrebonne Parish School Board for management costs resulting from Hurricane Ida. 

• $5,286,570 to the Terrebonne Parish School Board for permanent repairs resulting from Hurricane Ida. 

• $1,725,740 to the West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital for permanent work resulting from Hurricane Laura.

• $1,562,360 to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for debris removal operations resulting from Hurricane Laura.

• $1,515,422 to the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District to replace equipment due to Hurricane Laura damage.

• $1,415,716 to the Jefferson Parish School Board for permanent repairs to the Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School campus resulting from Hurricane Ida.

• $1,312,558 to the Orleans Levee District Non-Flood Protection Asset Management Authority for permanent repairs resulting from Hurricane Ida damage.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today joined Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and colleagues in introducing the Judicial Relief Clarification Act, a bill that would address judicial overreach by prohibiting federal courts from granting relief to anyone except the parties before them. 

“Some courts in this country have chosen to weaponize universal injunctions to stop the Trump administration from delivering on its promises to the American people. This bill will make sure that judges can only rule on the cases before them, rather than imposing their will on the entire country,” said Kennedy.

“For a number of years, but particularly in the last few months, we’ve increasingly seen sweeping orders from individual district judges that dictate national policy. Our Founders saw an important role for the judiciary, but the Constitution limits judges to exercising power over ‘cases’ or ‘controversies.’ Judges are not policymakers, and allowing them to assume this role is very dangerous. The Judicial Relief Clarification Act clarifies the scope of judicial power and resolves illegitimate judicial infringement upon the executive branch. It’s a commonsense bill that’s needed to provide long-term constitutional clarity and curb district courts’ growing tendency to overstep by issuing sweeping, nationwide orders,” said Grassley. 

Background: 

• A universal injunction is a court order that prohibits the government from implementing a law or policy against anyone, including those not involved in the case.

• Federal courts issued universal injunctions against the Trump administration at least 86 times during its first term in office. The current Trump administration is already facing a flood of universal injunctions—many of which originated in liberal states such as New York and California.

• By contrast, the Biden administration faced 28 universal injunctions in four years. The Obama administration only faced 12.

• In addition to dealing with universal injunctions, the bill amends the Administrative Procedure Act to prohibit courts from using the Act to grant universal relief to non-parties who are challenging an agency action—a practice that closely resembles universal injunctions. 

• Courts have also weaponized Temporary Restraining Orders (TRO), which similarly halt the federal government from implementing laws or policies. TROs are not appealable, meaning district judges can use TROs to avoid appellate review of their decisions. To address this, the bill would make TROs against federal or state governments immediately appealable. 

• By limiting the ability of district courts to grant relief to non-parties, the Judicial Relief Clarification Act would restore federal district courts to their constitutional role under Article III of deciding only the cases before them. 

Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) also cosponsored the bill. 

The full text of the bill is available here.

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.