MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and all other Banking Committee Republicans in urging the Biden administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to withdraw its proposal to prohibit volume-based transaction pricing for National Market System (NMS) stocks. 

Volume-based pricing is a pricing method that decreases price per share of stock as the quantity of shares purchased increases. Volume-based pricing helps reduce costs for investors and promotes competition.

“Volume-based pricing is a long-standing practice that encourages a vibrant, competitive marketplace, benefiting a broad spectrum of market participants. Volume-based pricing is commonplace across various industries, promoting competition and rewarding entities for their contributions to the market. This practice has played a critical role in enhancing market liquidity, facilitating efficient price discovery, and maintaining the stability of financial markets,” the senators wrote.

“Despite these facts and without sufficient justification, the Proposal would explicitly prohibit volume-based pricing, suggesting it creates barriers for smaller brokers. However, these assumptions are inconsistent with the realities of existing market operations and competition. In fact, the Proposal’s adverse impact on smaller brokers and the broader broker-dealer ecosystem is likely to be significant. The Proposal would likely stifle smaller brokers’ competitive capabilities and result in market consolidation, reduced choice, and potentially increased costs for investors,” they continued.

“The Proposal’s overly simplified view fails to acknowledge the full extent of benefits that volume-based pricing brings to market dynamics and investors and ignores the superiority of market-based pricing mechanisms over central planning. Therefore, we request the Commission withdraw the rulemaking in order to preserve market liquidity and efficiency,” the senators concluded.

Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) also signed the letter. 

The full letter is available here.

MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) in urging the Biden administration’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to withdraw its Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) model because it prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals over medical necessity in the organ transplant process.

“Under the proposed model, released through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals are given payments based on an annual score determined by three factors: number of transplants, organ acceptance rates, and post-transplant outcomes. A successful kidney transplant counts as one point. A transplant given to a ‘low-income’ patient, however, counts as 1.2 points,” the senators wrote.

“This ‘health equity adjustment’ creates a perverse incentive to prioritize transplants, not by clinical necessity, but by arbitrary income levels. Allocating organs should adhere to the principle of equal treatment for all patients, ensuring that no individual is prioritized over another based on non-medical criteria. Further, public trust in the transplant system will be eroded if people believe allocation decisions are being made based on socio-political factors rather than medical necessity,” they continued.

The senators also expressed concerns that the Department’s claim of alleged racial bias lacks clear evidence. They noted that using income level as a stand-in for race in the transplant process is a violation of medical ethics.  

“Proposals such as the IOTA models do little to help real patients and instead satisfy the desires of political activists. We need a health care system that provides high-quality, affordable health care for families and individuals. Rather than address the systemic issues making healthcare unaffordable for millions of Americans, this Administration seems hellbent on virtue-signaling ‘equity’ over the real needs of patients,” the senators concluded.

Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) also signed the letter.

The full letter is available here. 

MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $8,040,658 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid.

“Hurricanes Laura and Ida left behind heavy damage and devastation when they hit Louisiana. This $8 million will help our state with important recovery efforts,” said Kennedy.

The FEMA aid will fund the following:

• $3,995,147 to Terrebonne Parish for the restoration of the North Wastewater Treatment Plant due to Hurricane Ida damage.

• $1,714,213 to the Office of Risk Management for repairs to numerous Department of Wildlife and Fisheries facilities that Hurricane Laura damaged. 

• $1,282,518 to Lafourche Parish for management costs resulting from Hurricane Ida.

• $1,048,780 to Louisiana Children’s Hospital for emergency protective measures taken during Hurricane Ida.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rule that restricts the production of chemicals that are essential to America’s economy and national security. 

“The EPA’s burdensome regulation of American chemical producers is just the latest example of the Biden administration’s determination to kill American jobs and manufacturing. Congress cannot allow unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to use flawed data to hamstring Louisiana’s chemical industry and hinder American manufacturers’ ability to access the chemicals they need to keep our economy humming,” said Kennedy.

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) cosponsored the resolution.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) has introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. 

“The Biden administration continues to put America last through their Green New Deal, job-killing energy policies. The implications of this rule undermine American jobs and domestic manufacturing. While it is important that we take a balanced approach when considering the environmental impacts of our energy resources, we cannot forcibly shut down companies that do not align with agenda-driven leftist policies. We must prioritize America first,” said Higgins.

“ACC and our members appreciate Senator Kennedy for his leadership to advance science-based rulemaking and to protect American innovation. While we appreciate some of the changes EPA made to the final rule, the Agency still relies on severely flawed science and outdated facility emissions data. This jeopardizes access to critical chemistries needed for our national priorities, including healthcare access, electric vehicles, and semiconductors. We urge Congress to pass this bicameral resolution and look forward to continuing to engage with EPA to develop science-based regulations that support American competitiveness,” said Chris Jahn, President and CEO of the American Chemistry Council.

Background: 

• The EPA recently released the final rule on “New Source Performance Standards for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry and Group I & II Polymers and Resins Industry.”

• The new rule will subject producers of ethylene oxide, neoprene and other important manufacturing materials to strict emissions limits that make it harder for manufacturers to produce affordable chemicals in the U.S. The new rule targets more than 200 American chemical plants, including several in Louisiana. 

• The Biden administration based the new emissions thresholds on information from the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Congress never authorized IRIS or gave the EPA authority to use its assessments in regulations.

• The EPA designed IRIS to compile peer-reviewed data about the chemicals’ potential health hazards that reflected a consensus among scientists. In recent years, however, IRIS has departed from this standard and prioritized widely criticized studies in order to allow the EPA to attack chemicals it dislikes.

• Producers use ethylene oxide, for example, to sterilize surgical equipment. In a recent assessment, IRIS set an acceptable limit of ethylene oxide at a level that is 19,000 times lower than what the human body produces naturally.  

• Several agencies have warned that IRIS bases its risk assessments on unsound data and that its standards will be impossible to implement in the real world. Those organizations include the EPA’s Human Studies Review Board, the federal Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Defenseand the Small Business Administration.

• Beyond setting impossibly low emissions levels, the EPA has also given American businesses just 90 days to comply with the new thresholds. One Louisiana neoprene producer said the tight EPA deadline will cause “irreparable harm” to the industry and force the facility to close. 

Text of the resolution is here.