Watch Kennedy’s full remarks here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, today defended America’s unborn children at a hearing Democrats held to advocate for expanding abortion access.
Some of Kennedy’s key remarks include:
“For the first time in decades, pro-abortion and anti-abortion Americans are now able to meet on equal terms, without judicial interference, to determine the laws as they see them being best for them, governing the issue of abortion. No longer will Americans have to live under a court-imposed definition. The American people get to decide. Now, that has upset some of my colleagues here in Washington.
“It was and is the genesis of a very organized effort that you see playing out today to undermine [the] United States Supreme Court as an institution. I remember it like it was yesterday. . . . My colleague and my friend, Senator Schumer, stood on the steps of the United States Supreme Court. And this is what he said. I quote, ‘I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh . . . . You have released the whirlwind . . . and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.’”
. . .
“Some of my colleagues have endorsed a bill. It's S.701. It's called the Women's Health Protection Act. This would allow the right to terminate a pregnancy after viability—basically terminate a pregnancy at any time, for any reason. The day before a baby is born, a mother could decide to terminate that pregnancy for whatever reason. She doesn't have to give a reason. Maybe she’s changed her mind about having a baby. Maybe she’s not happy with the baby’s gender. But it would be legal.
“I think every one of my Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee has co-sponsored that legislation. I respectfully disagree with them.”
. . .
“Some of my colleagues want to tell the American people from on high exactly what the rules ought to be about abortion in America—and they're so angry. They're so angry at the United States Supreme Court for returning this issue to the American people that they're willing to destroy that court.”
Kennedy also asked Democrats’ witnesses why they refused to agree to limits on late-term abortions after they claimed that such abortions are rare. Those witnesses dodged the question. In reality, there are 10,000 late-term abortions in the U.S. each year.
View Kennedy’s opening remarks here.
Watch Kennedy’s exchange with witnesses here.
Kennedy announces $1.3 million in Hurricane Ida aid for Southeastern Louisiana University
Jun 10 2024
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $1,265,307 in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant for Louisiana disaster aid.
“Hurricane Ida struck Southeastern Louisiana University, leaving behind bad damage. This $1.3 million will help restore students’ music center,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $1,265,307 in federal funding to the Office of Risk Management for permanent repairs to the Ralph R. Pottle Music Building at the Southeastern Louisiana University as a result of Hurricane Ida.
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and 44 other Republican senators introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to prevent the Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing a rule that would allow unaccompanied children at the border to be placed in the custody of unvetted sponsors.
“Pres. Biden’s failed policies led to a record number of unaccompanied children at the border, and now, his HHS has decided to make the problem worse. Congress should vote to throw out this rule and block the Biden administration’s unsafe open borders agenda,” said Kennedy.
The rule, titled the “Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule,” would allow the HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to place unaccompanied children in a sponsor’s custody without properly scrutinizing a sponsor’s claims. The Biden administration’s ORR does not consider a sponsor’s criminal record, illegal drug use or history of abuse or neglect in determining whether migrant children will be safe in a particular sponsor’s care.
“The Biden administration ignored warnings from Congress and the Inspector General that its policies put children at risk and instead moved to finalize its current rule. Biden’s Health and Human Services Department has lost tens of thousands of vulnerable kids and handed over many others to abusers and criminals. This exploitation is one of the most heartbreaking tragedies the Biden Border Crisis has created. Since the Biden administration has refused to lift a finger to fix this problem, it’s now up to Congress to put a stop to it,” said Grassley.
Background
- In Feb. 2022, Kennedy introduced legislation to stop the federal government from funding groups that engage in human trafficking and smuggling illegal aliens.
- In March 2024, Kennedy joined Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) in introducing the Laken Riley Act to require the Biden administration’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants who commit theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting offenses.
- In Dec. 2023, Kennedy joined Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and 37 Republican colleagues in urging ORR Director Robin Dunn Marcos and Acting Assistant Secretary for the Administration of Children and Families Jeff Hild to overhaul the HHS rule.
Full text of the resolution is available here.
Kennedy, Capito, colleagues introduce resolution to block Biden admin’s Clean Power Plan 2.0
Jun 06 2024
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and 42 other colleagues in introducing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval to block the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing its plan to regulate emissions from power plants that run on coal and natural gas.
On April 25, the Biden administration’s EPA finalized its Clean Power Plan 2.0 rules, which would require existing coal-fired and new gas-fired plants to install carbon capture equipment. The Biden administration proposed its rules with the unrealistic goal of reducing coal-fired and gas-fired plant emissions by 90% by 2032.
“The Biden administration’s Clean Power Plan 2.0 is yet another attempt to force a radical climate agenda on Louisianians and Americans. The plan is not only an overreach by the EPA, but it also will drive up costs at a time when inflation is sky-high. Congress should block it immediately,” said Kennedy.
In 2022, the Supreme Court determined in West Virginia v. EPA that the EPA lacked authority to regulate emissions through the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.
“With this Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval, every member of Congress will have the opportunity to protect America’s energy future, heed the warnings of our nation’s electric grid operators, and adhere to the precedent set by the Supreme Court. This vote is an important one because the Biden administration’s Clean Power Plan 2.0 makes it clear it will stand with climate activists, regardless of the harm that is sure to be done to families, workers, and communities across West Virginia and the rest of the country. I appreciate so many of my Senate and House colleagues for joining this bipartisan effort to reject another unrealistic, overreaching regulation, and I look forward to the vote,” said Capito.
Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Thom Tillis (R-N.C), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) also cosponsored the resolution.
Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives.
The full resolution is available here.
Watch Kennedy’s full remarks here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined colleagues to explain the why the Biden administration’s new executive order will not secure the southern border.
Key remarks from Kennedy are below.
“President Biden is in trouble politically. He's polling right up there with fungal infections. Part of the reason for that is that he gave in to the loon wing of his party, and he dissolved the southern border. Now—five months before an election—he has to appear to be willing to do something about it. Hence, this executive order.”
. . .
“For three years, we have watched President Biden push on a door that has been clearly marked ‘pull.’ He’s mismanaged Congress, Covid, the national debt, the economy, inflation, crime, Afghanistan, Iran, the war in Gaza, the war in Ukraine and now, of course, the border. And every time I think the president has hit rock bottom, he has managed to find a shovel and continue to dig. Hence, this executive order. And I think that's what the American people see.”
. . .
“The president's border policies have allowed 8 million people to come into our country illegally. . . . For three years, President Biden told us all, ‘There is no crisis at the southern border,’ for reasons clearly stated on the teleprompter. And his plan to deal with the crisis at the border was to pretend that there wasn't a crisis at the border.”
. . .
“When the American people figured that out . . . the Biden administration shifted strategy. It then said, ‘Well, we know there’s a crisis at the border, but we don't have any authority to fix it.’
“That didn’t work either, because the American people aren’t cell-deep stupid. So now, he has decided to tell you that he has been born again. He has had an epiphany. He is now a border hawk, and that’s what he wants you to report. Look, you can cut the hypocrisy with a knife.”
. . .
“This is one of the most cynical things that I have ever seen. . . . an attempt to do [this] five months before an election. It is insulting. It is cheap. It is contemptuous. The American people see that.”
View Kennedy’s full remarks here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, met with Judge John Gleeson, a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, to discuss the unprecedented recent breakdown in bipartisan decision-making at the Commission.
In the meeting, Kennedy shared his concerns about the partisan path that the Commission has taken in recent years. In a sharp break from its traditional bipartisan practices, the Commission has forced through several major policy changes to federal sentencing rules on a party-line basis.
Gleeson acknowledged the concerns raised about the Commission’s recent practices and confirmed that the Commission will return to making changes on a bipartisan basis.
“We’re talking about public safety and the rule of law here, and I’m very, very glad to hear that the Commission is returning to its history of making changes only when there’s bipartisan agreement. I look forward to seeing the fruits of this commitment,” said Kennedy.
Background:
This April, Kennedy introduced the Consensus in Sentencing Act to require the U.S. Sentencing Commission to achieve bipartisan agreement to make major policy changes.
The legislation would amend 28 U.S.C. § 994(a) to require that amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines receive five votes from the Commission’s seven voting members.
Full text of the Consensus in Sentencing Act is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $2,247,179 in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant for Louisiana disaster aid.
“Louisiana’s state parks are a big part of what makes our state so special. This $2.2 million will help the Fairview-Riverside State Park in St. Tammany Parish recover from the damage Hurricane Ida caused to its dock, pier and fishing facilities,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $2,247,179 to the Office of Risk Management for the replacement of the Fairview-Riverside State Park’s dock, pier and fish cleaning station due to Hurricane Ida damage.
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in National Review on the importance of protecting athletic opportunities for women and girls. Kennedy’s op-ed, which argues that it is unfair and unsafe to allow biological men to compete against biological women, initially ran in Louisiana’s Gannett-owned USA Today Network papers.
USA Today, however, removed the piece a few days after publication without notifying Kennedy’s team or its readers. USA Today later said that it had pulled the piece due to its “loaded language,” as reported by Fox News. USA Today said Kennedy could not use the phrase “biological male” in his op-ed about the physical differences between men and women.
Key excerpts of the op-ed, now published in National Review, are below:
“Many fair-minded people reject the idea that women and girls who work hard to develop their athletic talents must sacrifice their opportunities, privacy and safety to promote gender activism. I’m one of them.
“Louisiana is full of fair-minded people. We recognize that it’s common sense for boys and girls to compete in separate leagues. That’s why a bipartisan coalition in the Louisiana legislature passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act to prevent biological boys from competing against biological girls in our elementary and high schools and from sharing their locker rooms.
“Protecting women and girls in sports doesn’t need to be a partisan issue. Congress should follow Louisiana’s leadership and do more to protect girls, their sports, their scholarships, and their futures from a social experiment that is already proving to be unwise.”
Background:
- The Shreveport Times and seven other USA Today publications in Louisiana initially published Kennedy’s op-ed on May 11 and removed the piece a few days later without notifying Kennedy’s office. The USA Today network also failed to notify readers of the decision to remove Kennedy’s op-ed and instead published a “404” error message.
- Kennedy’s office reached out to the Shreveport Times about the “404” message on May 14. On May 20, USA Today told Kennedy’s office that it had removed the op-ed because of “loaded language,” including the phrase “biological male.”
- In a statement to Fox News, Kennedy condemned Gannett’s censorship, saying, “[The] USA Today Network apparently does not like the way I express myself. They think they are the speech police. Drunk on certainty and virtue, they think they are our moral teacher. This attitude is why so many Americans have lost confidence in the media. The media is not going to win that trust back until they return to neutrality instead of advocacy. Most people don’t support allowing biological men to participate in women’s sports because they think that will bastardize sports, skew the results, and hurt women. Other people disagree. Gannett should simply report the two sides and not try to silence the position it disagrees with.”
Read Kennedy’s full op-ed in National Review here.
Watch Kennedy’s speech on protecting women’s sports here.
Kennedy, Britt, Graham, colleagues call for Judiciary Committee consideration of Bipartisan Laken Riley Act
May 28 2024
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) along with all other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee in urging Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to schedule a mark-up of the bipartisan Laken Riley Act.
The House of Representatives passed the companion bill on March 7, 2024, in a bipartisan vote of 251-70 with 37 Democrats voting in favor of the legislation. Sen. Durbin has blocked the Senate from passing the bill twice in recent months.
“As you are aware, during the Biden Administration and due to its policies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reported over 7.8 million encounters with illegal aliens at the southern border. That staggering number of encounters is larger than the individual populations of 37 states and larger than the number of people who live in any city throughout the United States other than New York City. . . . One of these encounters was with Jose Ibarra, the alleged killer of Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley,” the senators wrote.
“This bipartisan bill is a common-sense measure that would help to avoid future tragedies resulting from the failure to enforce and follow immigration law, and we look forward to the Judiciary Committee’s consideration of it,” they continued.
“The Laken Riley Act is but one of numerous pieces of legislation that Senate Republicans have introduced to better protect the American people from the consequences of the ongoing crisis at the southern border and to stop—not merely manage—the flow of illegal aliens to the southern border and into the United States. So far during this Congress, the Judiciary Committee has failed to take meaningful action on any of those bills. We hope that will change in the near future, and we request that you start with the Laken Riley Act,” the senators concluded.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also signed the letter.
The full letter is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $12,622,007 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid.
“Hurricanes Laura and Ida struck Louisiana hard, and our communities are still rebuilding. This $12.6 million will go towards Jefferson Parish School System and Lake Charles for their recovery efforts as well as to the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for the winter storms that our state faced,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $6,189,686 to the Jefferson Parish Public School System for management costs as a result of Hurricane Ida.
- $3,359,250 to the Jefferson Parish Public School System for emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Ida.
- $1,733,224 to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for management costs as a result of Severe Winter Storms.
- $1,339,847 to the city of Lake Charles for permanent restoration of eight fire station buildings as a result of Hurricane Laura.
