Watch Kennedy’s comments here. 

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor:

“Let me start with the reconciliation bill, which President Trump and others called the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“I continue to go through the bill, and every time I do, I’m impressed. This is a breathtaking bill in the sense that it covers so many subjects. I think each of us could spend hours talking about this bill. I'll just hit the highlights. This is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation that this body will ever pass.

“We extended the 2017 tax cuts—no small feat in itself. Had we not done that, the American people would have suffered under a $4.3 trillion tax increase. So, we stopped that tax increase. And some of my friends and colleagues talk about, ‘Well, all you did was stop a tax increase on the billionaires.’ That is nonsense. That is nonsense on a stick.

“Unless your soup of the day is gin, you know that is a lie.

“Half of that tax increase would have hit working men and working women and working families in this country. The other half would have hit our small businesses. And, yes, some of our large businesses. We stopped that. We made some of those tax cuts permanent.

“We cut taxes on tips. In this bill, we cut taxes on overtime. We cut taxes on Social Security. We cut taxes on car loans. We expanded a tax credit for childcare to help moms and dads pay for the childcare so they can work. We increased the child tax credit. We increased the standard deduction—and that's going to take effect immediately. 

“We funded school choice. For years and years and years, I have tried—we all have tried, many of us have tried—to provide the American people, moms and dads, with school choice. This bill did it.

“I went to a public school. I'm proud of that, but competition makes all of us better. I can go to my overpriced Capitol Hill apartment or Capitol Hill grocery store and choose from six or seven types of mayonnaise. Why shouldn't we give parents, moms and dads, choices for their education? We're doing that with the school choice portion of this bill. 

“We increase money for the border, and we increased money for defense.

“Now, we also addressed the problem in Medicaid. And I’ve been very disappointed because some commentators have said that we're going to throw off from the Medicaid rolls, I read, anywhere from 10 to 12 million people. And the implication in some of these articles and some of these comments is that we're just going to look at the Medicaid rolls and go through and say, ‘You're gone. We can't afford you.’ And that's not what this bill does. 

“The first thing you have to realize is that actually Medicaid is not going to be cut at all under this bill. Under our bill that we just passed, our spending on Medicaid over the next 10 years is going to go up 20%. So, nobody is cutting Medicaid.

“There are some people, as a result of the new provisions that we have put into law, who will no longer be eligible for Medicaid and will no longer get Medicaid, but they weren't entitled to get it in the first place. So, when you say, ‘Well, you're throwing people off from Medicaid.’ They weren't entitled to it in the first place. 

“You're not entitled to Medicaid if you're making $200,000 a year, and you didn't tell the truth when you signed up for the Medicaid in your state, and your state didn't verify your statements.

“But let me give you one example. CMS just put out a report. . . . 2.8 million of those Americans who will lose Medicaid are double dippers. They signed up twice. We have 1.2 million people on the Medicaid rolls who are signed up in two states. And the American taxpayer is paying twice. . . . Most states use Managed Care, and they pay per Medicaid patient. So, if a state is paying—let's say, I’ll pick a number—$18,000 per Medicaid patient per year to the health care organization to provide their care, and that person is signed up in two states, they're double dipping, and it's costing the American taxpayer two $8,000 payments a year. That's cheating.

“So, from one perspective, ‘You're throwing these people off Medicaid.’ They weren't entitled to double-dip in the first place. CMS also came out with a report—by CMS, I mean the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid.

“CMS has also found that there are 1.6 million people who are on Medicaid today who are receiving both Medicaid and Obamacare.

“Well, what's Obamacare? I'll refresh everyone's memory. Medicaid is supposed to be for the poor and disabled. And Medicare is for the elderly. And a lot of other Americans have health insurance through their job. But there are certain numbers of Americans who don't have health insurance because they're not old enough for Medicare, and they're not poor enough for Medicaid, and maybe their employer doesn't offer health insurance. So, they can go to an exchange—we call them the Obamacare exchange—and buy health insurance. 

“Now, President Obama and some of my colleagues—I wasn't here then—but when we passed Obamacare, the Obamacare exchanges, the Affordable Care Act, we were told health insurance would be cheaper. And we were told it would be more accessible. It's been neither. We were also told, ‘If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.’ That wasn't true either. But the point is that we have a number of Americans who—if they don't qualify for Medicare, they don't qualify for Medicaid, they don't get insurance through their employer—they go to the Obamacare exchanges. 

“But CMS found we've got 1.6 million people who are getting both health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges, which we subsidized, taxpayers do, and through Medicaid. That's called double dipping. It's illegal. And CBO [Congressional Budget Office] can put out all the reports that they want to, saying, ‘Oh, you're throwing all of these people off Medicaid.’ Technically, they're right, but they're not eligible to be on Medicaid.

“I just gave you an example: 2.8 million people who are double-dipping. It's illegal to double-dip. It's immoral to double-dip. It's unfair to taxpayers to double-dip. All our bill does is say, ‘You can't double-dip.’ Cheating is wrong.

“Is that throwing people off Medicaid? Technically, yes, but once again, as the other provisions in this bill also do, we're taking people off Medicaid who weren't eligible for it in the first place. As a result of these 2.8 million people, I think CMS—I’m looking for their figure—I think it costs the American taxpayers, because of these 2.8 million folks who are double dipping, $14 billion a year over a ten-year window, which is the horizon we used. That's $140 billion that we're going to save, and that savings is going to go back into Medicaid to make it even stronger.

“That's just one example of how much of the reporting on our bill is misleading.”

 Watch Kennedy’s speech here.  

WASHINGTON – Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate approved the Trump administration’s rescissions request to cut $9 billion in wasteful spending from the federal budget identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This package, H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act, which accounts for one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget, returns to the U.S. House of Representatives for final consideration. 

“President Trump ran on a platform of reducing the size of government and cutting unnecessary, wasteful spending. Thanks to his bold leadership and the support of the DOGE team, your hard-earned taxpayer dollars will no longer be wasted on this outrageous spending porn. American taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill to fund woke foreign aid or activist media. Their taxpayer money should be spent on initiatives that improve their lives, put more money in their pockets, and protect our great country. I’m eager for the House to pass this bill and send it to President Trump’s desk for his signature,” said Kennedy. 

Background:

• The Trump administration’s initial rescissions package totals more than $9 billion in unnecessary spending.

• This package codifies spending cuts identified by DOGE, including $1.1 billion of cuts from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides funding to NPR and PBS, both politically biased and activist media systems, at taxpayers’ expense and $7.9 billion in radical and wasteful foreign aid spending at the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), among other programs. 

Some examples of the wasteful spending porn that the Rescissions Act will cut:

• $18 million to improve gender diversity in the Mexican street lighting industry. 

• $6 million for media organizations and civic life for Palestinians.

• $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ populations in the Western Balkans.

• $3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street.

• $2.5 million to teach children how to make environmentally friendly “reproductive health” decisions.

• $2.4 million to make aid more considerate of “sexual orientation and gender identity.” 

• $1 million for voter ID in Haiti.

• $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda.

• $500,000 for biodiversity in Peru.

Legislative Process:

• The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 requires the Executive Branch to spend the money Congress allocates each year, even though Congress allocated that money when President Biden was in office and Democrats controlled the Senate.

• Under the Impoundment Control Act, a new administration can attempt to permanently halt previously appropriated spending by submitting a rescissions request for congressional approval. 

• President Trump did just that. In his initial rescission request, made in May 2025, he asked Congress to rescind roughly $8.3 billion from wasteful foreign aid programs and $1.1 billion from public broadcasting.

• The U.S. House of Representatives approved these initial cuts on June 12, 2025. The Impoundment Control Act only gives Congress 45 days to approve a rescissions request.

The full text of H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act, is available here.

Watch Kennedy’s comments here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor: 

“I think most people—most adults anyway—understand that, in life, what you say doesn't really matter. It's what you do that demonstrates what you believe, and that's certainly true in politics, and that's certainly true in Washington, D.C. . . .

“Now, President Trump—whether you voted for him or not, whether you like him or not—ran on a platform of reducing the size of government, and the people elected him. And since day one, the president has been—if you paid attention to the news—he's been working very hard to reduce government spending. And he's reduced a lot. He started out with a [Department of Government Efficiency] program with Mr. Elon Musk. Mr. Musk, of course, has left. But the quest to reduce government spending, wasteful government spending, which I call spending porn, continues.

“Every Republican in the U.S. Senate has voiced approval of what the president has done. Every Republican—every one of my colleagues, myself included—has said to the president, ‘Atta boy, Mr. President. Go get them. Keep issuing those executive orders. Reduce the spending. We're spending too much money. We've got a $37 trillion debt. Keep going, Mr. President.’

“And the president has, but he's been doing it through executive order. There's only so much you can do through executive order. . . .  And now my colleagues and I have an opportunity to really support the president.

“I don't know if this bill is going to pass. . . . But I want to put this in context: After all of us on my side of the aisle telling the world that we need to reduce spending, if we vote against this rescission package and refuse to reduce spending by one-tenth of one percent of the budget, we ought to hide our heads in a bag. . . . 

“I'm going to read you some of the appropriations that the president is asking us to eliminate from the current budget, and you be the judge. Let the American people decide. 

“The president is asking us to eliminate $5.1 million of taxpayer money in the American budget and the federal budget that is there to ‘strengthen the resilience of queer global movements.’ . . . $3 million for circumcision, vasectomies and condoms in Zambia. I didn't make this stuff up. It's in the budget. . . . $3.6 million for pastry cooking classes, cybercafes and dance focus groups for male prostitutes in Haiti.

“How many Americans, Mr. President, do you think we should be spending their money to fund male prostitutes in Haiti? But there it is in our budget, bigger than Dallas. And the president is saying cut it out. $6.2 million for Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. $500,000 to buy Rwanda electric buses. 

“I love Rwanda. If they want electric buses, they have got a budget. $300,000 for a pride parade in Lesotho. $300,000 for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex advocacy in Uganda. $500,000 for biodiversity in Peru. 

“I could keep going. I could go the rest of the day and the night. Now I know what you're thinking: How in God's name, on God's green earth did this spending porn get in the federal budget? Why would Congress put it there? I'm going to tell you why: We didn't.

“When we pass a budget, we pass budgets based on programs or agendas or line items. . . . Congress didn't vote to spend $3 million on sexual reproductive health in Venezuela. We voted for a program that the bureaucrats took and spent on sexual health and reproductive health in Venezuela.

“That's not an excuse, but I get that question all the time. Why did Congress vote to do this? We didn't. The bureaucracy did. It's a giant rogue beast. But the point is: Trump caught it, and his people caught it, and the president is saying, ‘Get rid of it.’

“We'd be better off taking all of this money that I just talked about and spending it on scratch tickets and blackjack. At least taxpayers might have a chance of getting a return. That's how out of control this is. But if you listen to some of my colleagues, ‘Oh my God. If we cut this spending porn, civilization is going to melt.’

“Now, there's one other thing in our budget that the president is asking us to cut: He's asking us to cut a little over $1 billion for what I will call public broadcasting. . . . The president and CEO of NPR thinks that America is ‘addicted to white supremacy.’ She has denounced the use of the words ‘boy’ and ‘girl.’ She said that is ‘erasing language’ for nonbinary people. She contends that the U.S. was founded on the basis of ‘black plunder and white democracy’ That’s who’s running the show over there. . . .

“NPR and PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are entitled to publish and broadcast what they publish, but not on the taxpayer's dime. . . . We don't fund CNN. We don't fund Fox News. We don't fund newspapers. Why are we funding PBS and NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting?

“And all the president is saying, ‘I don't want you to do that anymore, Congress. I don't want you to fund any form of media. PBS, for example, is right to publish what they want, but Congress shouldn't give them taxpayer money to do it. Let them go raise money in the private sector.’ And the president's right. 

“The president is absolutely right, and that's all this rescission bill is going to do, Mr. President. It's going to bring a little bit of sanity back to our appropriations process. . . . What you do is what you believe, and everything else is just cottage cheese. . . . I listened to all of my Republican colleagues encourage the president and say, ‘That's great. We’ve got to reduce spending.’

“Well, here's your chance. It's gut-check time. You either believe in reducing spending, or you don't. You either support spending porn or you don't. We're going to find out who does and who doesn't here in about three or four hours.”

Watch Kennedy’s speech here.  

Watch Kennedy’s comments here. 

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor: 

“Now, regardless of how you feel about the war in Ukraine, I think most fair-minded people can agree on two things. Number one: Vladimir Putin, who runs Russia—not the people of Russia, but their leadership—is a thug. He’s a pirate. He has blood under his fingernails. He can’t be trusted.

“The second thing that I think most fair-minded Americans can agree on is that we would all like to see the war ended. . . . I think Ukraine is willing to negotiate a reasonable settlement, but it takes two to tango, and we are not going to have a settlement until President Putin decides it is in his best interest to stop the war. “Not in Russia’s best interest because I don’t think he cares about his people. I think the war will stop when Putin thinks it is in his best interest. 

“And I don’t think he is going to think it is in his best interest until he feels the pressure, Mr. President, because dealing with Putin is like dealing with most tyrants: It is like hand-feeding a shark. You can’t reason with them. You have to make them feel the pain. 

“A lot of people think of Russia and think of Putin as this gigantic country with a lot of wealth and power, and that is not really the case. Yes, they have nuclear weapons, but, actually, the Russian economy is pretty small. . . . The Russian economy is only about $2 trillion. New York state, in America, has a bigger economy than Russia, and I think we need to keep that in mind.

“Russia’s economy is also not terribly diversified. It is mostly oil. . . .  Number one: The price of oil is down. We know that. Number two: Russia is spending all of its money fighting the war with Ukraine, which has hurt other parts of its economy.

“The point I am trying to make, Mr. President, is: When you are dealing with a tyrant like Putin and you are trying to bring him to the negotiating table, what you have to do is get him down and choke him. And the way to get President Putin down and choke him is through his cash flow. Putin—and, remember, I am not talking about the good people in Russia. I am talking about their leadership. I am talking about Vladimir Putin, the thug. 

“Putin is only able to prosecute his war through cash flow generated by his sale of oil. That is the only way. Without that cash flow from oil, he can’t continue. We need to cut off his money. We need to cut off his sale of oil.

“Now, we already have sanctions on Russia, and Europe has sanctions on Russia, but Russia has figured out how to evade those sanctions and continue to sell its oil. For example, India is buying a lot of Russia’s oil. China is buying a lot of Russia’s oil, but we can stop that.

“We have a bill—87 of us have signed on— that would apply what is called secondary sanctions on Russia. Our bill would not only sanction Russia and its sale of oil, but it would sanction everybody who buys Russian oil, a big difference.

“It would say to those who want to buy Russian oil: If you want to buy Russian oil, have at it—knock yourself out—but you are not going to be able to do business with America, and you are not going to be able to use the American dollar, which is the world’s currency, to do business in America. It will put Putin on his knees within three months, and he won’t have any choice but to come to the bargaining table.

“Now, President Trump has been very patient. President Biden wasn’t patient; he was giving. I remember when President Biden said to Putin: Well, you know, we don’t want you to go into Ukraine, but if it is just a little excursion, it might be okay. I remember that. What do you think Putin did? Do you remember hand-feeding a shark? He went right into Ukraine.

“President Trump, on the other hand, has really tried to be rational and negotiate with Putin and say: Look, we need to have an amicable solution to satisfy both sides. Ukraine is willing. Putin has done nothing but embarrass our president and our country.

“The time has come to put Russia on its knees. I hate to see it for the Russian people, but the time has come to put Putin on his knees. Get him down and choke him. The only way you are going to do that is to cut off his cash flow. And the only way you are going to cut off his cash flow is to cut off his oil sales because that is at least a third—and probably 40%—of his money.

“We have no choice. Otherwise, this war could go on forever.

“Now, we have the bill locked, loaded, and ready to go. We are waiting for President Trump to give us the high sign because we want to stay together. The president is the one who is trying to negotiate the peace, but I hope President Trump will seriously consider letting us pull the trigger because it is the only thing—it is the only thing—that is going to get Vladimir Putin to the table.

“I wish the world weren’t like that. There are just some people—I don’t know why. If I make it to heaven, I am going to ask. But there are some people in this world, they are not sick; they are not misunderstood; they are not mixed up. It is not really that their mom or daddy didn’t love them enough. They are just bad people. They are. And some of them run countries, and one of them is Vladimir Putin. So, let’s go do what we have to do.”

Watch Kennedy’s speech here.