MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Small Business Committee, joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in introducing the Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act. 

The legislation would direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to designate an Assistant Administrator for its Office of Rural Affairs and codify cooperative 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 glad to introduce this bipartisan bill alongside Sen. Shaheen to continue our investments in rural America,” said Kennedy.

“Rural small business owners rely on the SBA and USDA for critical resources to run and grow their businesses. This bipartisan legislation strengthens existing programs and ensures dedicated attention to the needs of rural small business owners. In New Hampshire, our rural small businesses often overcome incredible challenges in order to grow and create jobs. I am proud to work across the aisle and take another step forward to help rural small businesses prosper,” said Shaheen.

The Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act would direct SBA and USDA to convene working groups to:

• Identify synergies among 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, exporting and innovation.

The bill text is available here. 

MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $16,293,374 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid.

“Southeast Louisiana faces threats of all kinds, including hurricanes like Ida and saltwater intrusion in the Mississippi River. This $16.3 million will help Lafourche, Plaquemines and Terrebonne Parishes cover recovery costs for schools, water treatment facilities and other infrastructure that severe weather affected,” said Kennedy.

The FEMA aid will fund the following:

• $7,837,817 to the Lafourche Parish School Board for the restoration of South Lafourche High School due to Hurricane Ida damage.

• $2,098,957 to Plaquemines Parish for the use of reservoir barges for the Port Sulphur Water Treatment facility due to the 2023-2024 Mississippi River saltwater intrusion.

• $1,999,477 to Plaquemines Parish for the use of a reservoir barge for the Pointe à la Hache Water Treatment facility due to the 2023-2024 Mississippi River saltwater intrusion. 

• $1,557,798 to Plaquemines Parish for the use of a reservoir barge for the Belle Chasse Water Treatment facility due to the 2023-2024 Mississippi River saltwater intrusion.

• $1,552,721 to the Terrebonne Parish School Board for the restoration of Dularge Elementary School, the H.L. Bourgeois athletic fields, the South Terrebonne High School football stadium, baseball field and tennis courts, the Terrebonne Annex Building and the Terrebonne Maintenance and Auxiliary Complex due to Hurricane Ida damage. 

• $1,246,604 to Plaquemines Parish for the use of reservoir barges for the Dalcour Water Treatment facility due to the 2023-2024 Mississippi River saltwater intrusion.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and all other Republican colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee in writing a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) provide a copy of the audio recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We, like our colleagues on the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Accountability Committees, believe the tapes are necessary to assist with the Committee’s constitutional oversight of the Department of Justice. Further, we urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to comply with the valid subpoena by the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Accountability Committees as the law requires. It is unacceptable that you, the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, are continuing to defy a lawful command of Congress and that you have been held in contempt of Congress,” the senators wrote.

“Earlier this year, Special Counsel Hur issued a shocking report concluding that criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling highly classified information for decades and ‘willfully retain[ing] and disclos[ing] classified information after his vice presidency’ were not warranted, in part, because a jury would perceive him as an ‘elderly man with a poor memory.’ Congress must be able to test the veracity of the Special Counsel’s conclusion, as well as the accuracy of the transcript, against recordings capturing the President’s performance in the two-day interview. The only way that this can be done is with the recording itself,” they continued.

The senators explained that the information within the recordings of the president’s conversation with Hur is critical to Congress’s exercising legislative, oversight and impeachment powers, and, specifically, to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s oversight of the DOJ. 

“The need to produce this recording is also particularly acute considering President Biden’s recent public performances, which have surely emboldened our enemies abroad as much as they have alarmed Americans at home. The American people deserve to be fully informed as to their President’s faculties, and there is every reason to believe that the President and his Administration have not been forthcoming on this issue. The threats to the United States are at an all-time high, red lights are blinking everywhere, and America cannot afford weak leadership,” said the lawmakers. 

The full letter is available here. 

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today released the following statement upon attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech was exceptional. Unfortunately, mere months after the October 7 massacre, some people in Washington still seem confused about why America supports Israel. Too many people—many of whom descended on the Capitol today—still apparently believe in diversity, equity, inclusion and the right to kill Jews. That bloodlust has never been—and will never be—what most Americans believe. 

“Louisiana still understands that the debased people who slaughtered more than 300 young people at a peaceful music festival are the bad guys. The odious men who raped women next to the bodies of their dead friends don't deserve to be on this planet. The evil we saw unfold when Hamas butchered Israeli civilians is indefensible. And we all saw it.

“Hamas terrorists brutalized thousands of people, including Americans. Hamas is still holding eight Americans in Gaza. We believe five of our fellow citizens being held there are still alive. President Biden and Vice President Harris need to bring them home, and every day until then they need to condemn the Hamas terrorists who have murdered, kidnapped and abused our fellow Americans.

“Israel has both the right and the responsibility to defend itself. This world will be a safer place for Americans and Israelis alike when Hamas ceases to exist.

“Let's not forget that Hamas are the wicked people who are using civilians as human shields. Hamas are the bloodthirsty people who dug up their people’s water pipes to turn them into rocket launchers.

“The truth is that the Palestinian people, the people of Gaza and the Israeli people all suffer because of Hamas. The truth is that Hamas brutalized Israeli citizens and then ran home to hide behind their women and children, using them as human shields.

“The only way to stop the cycle is to eliminate Hamas. Hamas doesn't want a permanent cease fire. After all, they had that on October 6. Hamas wants America, Israel and every decent person on earth to let them catch their breath so that they can reload and take aim again at innocent Americans and Israelis.

“Hamas is working with Iran, and Iran is hellbent on developing a nuclear weapon and pointing it at America and our allies. Iran is the author of chaotic, senseless suffering across the Middle East, and Tehran wants nothing more than to annihilate Israel and take its terrorism global. America needs to keep supporting Israel as it destroys Hamas and working with Israel to defeat Tehran’s terrorism and its evil aspirations definitively. I’m thankful that Prime Minister Netanyahu came to join us in that effort today.”