Media
U.S. Sens. Kennedy, Cramer Introduce No Red and Blue Banks Act To Protect Second Amendment
Apr 10 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) today introduced the No Red and Blue Banks Act to prohibit the award of federal contracts to banks that discriminate against lawful businesses through social policy considerations. In particular, the legislation will ensure that corporate banks like Citigroup and Bank of America will not be awarded lucrative federal government contracts after trampling on business owners’ Second Amendment rights.
Last year, Citigroup and Bank of America announced policies that will restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens. Citigroup wants to tell businesses what kind of firearms and accessories they can stock in their stores and who can buy them. Bank of America will no longer loan money to businesses that manufacture semi-automatic rifles.
“Banks that violate law-abiding citizens’ constitutional rights have no business profiting off the federal government. They’re threatening the sanctity of the Constitution and the Second Amendment,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Citigroup and Bank of America are trying to make banking a red versus blue issue. Anti-gun policies force business owners to abandon their Second Amendment rights in order to find banking services. That’s a slap in the face to every American who helped bail out Citigroup and Bank of America during the financial crisis.”
“Banks should not be the arbiters of constitutionality,” said Senator Cramer. “This legislation ensures financial institutions cannot do business with the federal government if they do not respect the constitutional rights of their customers. The federal government should not be rewarding banks who target supporters of the Constitution.”
Sens. Kennedy and Cramer also filed the Freedom Financing Act to ban financial institutions from refusing to do business with customers who may not share the same political values as the banks.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned Attorney General William Barr in the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations subcommittee hearing today about the risks of submitting the full Mueller report to Congress without redacting confidential grand jury information.
If a full un-redacted report is released to members of Congress, Attorney General Barr agreed that there is a significant risk that confidential grand jury information can be leaked to the public.
“I think it was inevitable that some people were going to be disappointed in the results that Mr. Mueller reached,” said Sen. Kennedy. “You can only be young once. You can always be immature. There will be some that will be so disappointed in the result that they’re going to attack the process in bad faith. I would strongly encourage you to ignore that. Just call them like you see them. Follow the law.”
“We depend on the secrecy of the grand jury for our whole system of justice,” said Attorney General Barr. “People have to be assured that when they go into the grand jury that these are going to be confidential sessions.”
Click here or the photo below to watch Sen. Kennedy’s questioning.
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Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) Calls For President Trump To Hold Immigration Summit With World Leaders
Apr 09 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor today about the need for immigration reform, including constructing a border wall, reforming U.S. asylum laws and calling an immigration summit to address the crisis at the southern border.
“Now, we’re a nation of immigrants, and I’m proud of that,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Americans cannot be called anti-immigrant. Every year we welcome a million people across the world to become Americans (and) to come into our country. They do it legally. They follow the law. They’re properly vetted. They get in line. They wait patiently, and we welcome them in.”
Floor speech highlights:
Immigration summit: “I think we should start with a presidential summit. Not a representative of the presidents, but a presidential summit of the president of the United States, the president of Mexico, President Lopez Obrador, and the presidents of the Northern Triangle countries, and let’s see what we can do to solve this problem.”
Border wall: “We do have a problem at the border. ‘Problem’ is an understatement. In March, we had 100,000 people come into our country illegally. One hundred thousand. That’s the most in 10 years. If that continues, we’re going to set a record this year for people entering our country illegally.”
“We’ve got to solve this problem ourselves. The first thing we have to do is build a wall. I’m not talking about a wall from sea to shining sea. We have 1,900 miles of border. I’m talking about barriers strategically placed. You cannot seal a 1,900-mile piece of real estate without a barrier. It can’t be done.”
Illegal immigration: “Illegal immigration is illegal. Even if you think it’s a good idea, and I don’t. If you care about the rule of law, which is one of the bedrock principles in America, then you would want to stop the illegal immigration.”
Asylum law reform: “The second thing we need to do, Madame President, as you well know, is to pass asylum laws that look like somebody designed the things on purpose. Because what we have now, doesn’t fit that description.”
“This United States Senate should be debating America’s asylum laws right this second. I’m not saying the other things we’re doing - we are in the personnel business - aren’t important, but there’s not a single issue right now that’s more important. Congress needs to do its job! The Senate ought to be debating this issue right now.”
Click here or the photo below to watch Sen. Kennedy’s full floor speech.
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Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) Announces $3 Million Grant to Purchase Shipping Vessels for Louisiana Ports
Apr 09 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) announced a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to acquire specialized shipping vessels to transport containers to and from the ports in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
As Louisiana’s chemical industry expands, there is an increased demand for inland transportation. These barges are essential for safely and efficiently transporting goods between ports.
“Louisiana’s ports serve as a gateway for goods entering and leaving the country. As Louisiana’s chemical industry expands, our ports need modern equipment to meet that demand,” said Sen. Kennedy. “This grant will give the ports in Baton Rouge and New Orleans the proper vessels to support commerce along the Mississippi River and the Gulf.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), met with U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, M.D., and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought today to discuss a solution to the duplication of benefits issue facing thousands of Louisiana families affected by the 2016 floods.
Today, Sen. Kennedy insisted that Vought and Carson agree on a realistic deadline to address this issue directly. Vought and Carson agreed to have answer back to the senators by April 16.
“I told Secretary Carson and Mr. Vought that they need to come back to us in two weeks with an answer to this duplication of benefits problem,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Congress has done its job and now we’re stuck pressuring the bureaucracy of HUD and the OMB. We have waited long enough for a solution, and my patience is running thin. If they come back to us in two weeks with an answer we don’t like, I plan to appeal to their boss, the President of the United States.”
Sens. Kennedy and Cassidy met with Secretary Carson on March 14 to discuss fixing this issue. On March 1, the senators sent a letter to Secretary Carson urging him to immediately address the duplication of benefits issue. On Feb. 27, Kennedy and Cassidy placed holds on two U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nominees in order to put pressure on HUD and to reiterate the importance of the problem.
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U.S. Sen. Kennedy Files Legislation To End China’s Unguarded Access To America’s College Campuses
Mar 28 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) filed a package of bills today that will protect national security by ending China’s unfettered access to American college campuses.
The main bill, the Confucius Act, addresses concerns about Confucius Institutes, which receive direct funding from the Chinese government to promote Chinese studies on American college campuses. The bill reduces China’s influence on U.S. colleges and universities by granting full managerial authority of Confucius Institutes’ teaching plans, activities, research grants and employees to the universities. This is a necessary step after the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations warned earlier this year that the institutes pose a serious threat to academic freedom by pushing China’s history of censorship and control.
Confucius Institutes partner with more than 100 campuses across the U.S., including Xavier University in New Orleans. The FBI has acknowledged that it is warily watching Confucius Institutes, and several universities have severed ties with the institutes.
Sen. Kennedy also filed the Protecting American Technology Act of 2019 to safeguard the information and technology produced on college campuses by requiring a deemed export license to be in place before foreign nationals can conduct scientific research in university labs. This will prevent controlled technologies from leaking to America’s competitors.
“The FBI has warned us that China is exploiting our open research and development environment. In other words, China cheats. Confucius Institutes supposedly promote Chinese studies on U.S. college campuses. They’re funded by the Chinese government, and they’re controversial for a good reason,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Confucius Institutes are designed to promote China’s Communist agenda. They threaten our national security and our academic freedom.”
Also in the package is the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which will address one of the SEC’s most significant issues in overseeing the financial reporting of U.S.-listed, China-based companies. The bill will require companies to provide proof they are not implicitly state-owned and prohibit them from being on the exchange if they refuse inspection of their records for three consecutive years.
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U.S. Sen. Kennedy: Dismissal Of Charges Against Smollett Is Another Example of Hollywood Privilege
Mar 27 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) issued the following statement today on the decision by prosecutors in Chicago, Ill., to drop charges against actor Jussie Smollett. Smollett is accused of wasting law enforcement time and money by orchestrating a fake hate crime against himself. A grand jury charged him with 16 counts of disorderly conduct. He faced more than 64 years in prison.
“The dismissal of all charges against Jussie Smollett is just another example of Hollywood privilege. There shouldn’t be one set of rules for ordinary people and another set of rules for Hollywood actors with political connections. What Mr. Smollett is accused of doing is disgusting. If you or I did what he did, we would be put under the jail. Ordinary Americans who get up every day, go to work, obey the law, pay their taxes and try to teach their kids morals get cracker crumbs. Privileged actors who hire someone to fake a hate crime, file a false police report and get indicted on 16 charges get cake. That’s embarrassing,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Since Chicago prosecutors refuse to do their job, the U.S. attorney should review the case for violations of federal crimes. I don’t buy that Mr. Smollett should be excused for his crime because it was nonviolent. That’s not criminal justice reform. Justice exists when people receive their just desserts. Committing a crime should have consequences. This was not justice.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today announced that his bill to help disaster victims rebuild and recover cleared the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The legislation now moves to the Senate floor.
The bill, S.862, the Rebuilding Small Businesses After Disasters Act, will allow the Small Business Administration (SBA) to permanently increase the ceiling on loans for disaster victims from $14,000 to $25,000. The new limit would apply to physical damage loans under a SBA disaster declaration.
Last year, President Trump signed into law legislation by Sen. Kennedy that temporarily raised the loan limit. S.862 would make that increase permanent.
Sen. Kennedy is the lead sponsor of the bill. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are cosponsors.
“When disaster strikes, Louisianans want to get back into their homes and businesses as soon as possible. They want to replace the wet sheetrock and get the blue tarps off their roofs,” said Sen. Kennedy. “We don’t want to impede their road to recovery.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) announced a $10.5 million FEMA grant for the Mirabeau Water Garden in New Orleans to help mitigate flooding in New Orleans.
The grant will fund storm water management projects and flood protection systems. The site will have the capacity to store storm water and reduce flooding in the surrounding neighborhoods.
“The folks in New Orleans are no strangers to flooding and the complications that creates,” said Sen. Kennedy. “This grant will fund a public works project that will reduce flooding and damage to people’s homes.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) issued the following statement on the conclusion of the Mueller Report.
“I have read AG Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report very carefully,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Here’s the bottom line: After 22 months and 2800 subpoenas, Mr. Mueller and his team of 19 lawyers and 40 FBI Agents found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians and declined to prosecute anyone for obstruction of justice. It’s time to move on.”
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