Senate Democrats block Kennedy bill to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and protect American communities
May 09 2023
Watch Kennedy’s speech here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today attempted to pass his Fairness in Fentanyl Sentencing Act to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and protect American communities. Kennedy’s bill would lower the threshold required for minimum sentencing in light of the drug’s potency relative to other substances.
Senate Democrats blocked Kennedy’s bill just days ahead of President Joe Biden’s ending Title 42. Today is National Fentanyl Awareness Day.
The end of Title 42 is expected to result in surges of illegal immigration at the southern border, which drug cartels exploit to bring more fentanyl into Louisiana communities.
Key excerpts from Kennedy’s speech are below:
“What you allow is what will continue. And today . . . the United States Congress allows fentanyl dealers to carry on their person, if they would like to, enough fentanyl to kill 20,000 Americans before they face a mandatory five-year minimum sentence if they’re caught. Until these traffickers deal themselves with real consequences, I think the carnage is going to continue.
“I have a bill. It’s called the Fairness in Fentanyl Sentencing Act of 2023, and it will change what I just talked about drastically. It will reduce the amount of fentanyl that a fentanyl dealer has to possess before facing the mandatory minimum of five years of prison. . . . When you’re dealing with fentanyl, the amounts really matter.
“Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin. . . . It only takes two milligrams to kill you. . . . The amount of fentanyl that you can put on the point of a pencil will kill you.”
. . .
“This bag has 400 grams in it. . . . You have to have 400 grams. . . to face a mandatory 10-year sentence. Four-hundred grams will kill 200,000 people dead as a doornail. Shreveport, Louisiana . . . is home to 184,000 people. So, a dealer could [have] 400 grams—an amount that could kill every man, woman, and child in Shreveport— . . . in order to get a mandatory 10-year sentence.”
. . .
“My bill helps our criminal code reflect the reality that fentanyl is not like other drugs—it’s not.”
. . .
“The cartel thugs who operate south of our border have found that fentanyl is a cheap way to cut corners and to make more money. They use fentanyl to make other drugs. They put fentanyl into cocaine. They put it into heroin, which makes the final concoction cheaper and more powerful. Today, everything from marijuana to Adderall can be laced with lethal amounts of fentanyl on the black market.”
. . .
“My state of Louisiana—like every other state in this country—has seen the carnage of fentanyl. We all have. In 2021, 94 percent of drug overdose deaths in New Orleans were related to what? Fentanyl.”
. . .
“Our coroner’s office in East Baton Rouge Parish investigated 300 overdose deaths. Eighty-eight percent of them, last year, were linked to fentanyl. In the average month, in St. Tammany Parish . . . . we lose 10 or 11 people, just about every month . . . to fentanyl overdoses.”
. . .
“These are sons. These are daughters. These are friends. These are coworkers. And every one of them has a family.”
. . .
“Our Customs and Border Protection officers are working as hard as they can to try to stop drugs from flowing into the country, but their hands are tied by our bad policies. More people have crossed the border in the last year than at any time in the history of ever. That’s a fact. More than 5 million people have entered this country illegally under President Biden, during the Biden administration. I only have 4.6 million people in Louisiana. . . .
“The problem is expected to get even worse. As we know, Title 42 expires [this] week, and more people will be coming in.”
. . .
“This is about fentanyl dealers who deal death every day in order to make money.”
Kennedy’s full speech is here.
Kennedy, Murphy introduce bipartisan bill to improve access to comprehensive training for future teachers
May 08 2023
WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced the Teacher, Principal and Leader Residency Access Act to improve access to training for college students who aspire to become teachers and leaders in America’s schools.
“The effects of teacher shortages are devastating: Schools are closing, and America’s kids aren’t getting the education they need to succeed after graduation. Kids deserve to learn from capable teachers, but many young educators don’t get practical experience before they enter the classroom. Louisiana’s future rests on education, and we can improve schools by giving educators access to the training they need,” said Kennedy.
“Nothing prepares you like on-the-job experience, but college and graduate students who want to work as student teachers aren’t currently eligible for federal work-study compensation. This legislation would get more aspiring educators into the classroom while they’re still pursuing their degree. Expanding access to teacher residency programs like the one we have in Connecticut will help tackle the educator shortage and improve student outcomes,” said Murphy.
The U.S. is currently facing a shortage of teachers. Due to this, in 2017–18, more than 100,000 classrooms in the United States were staffed by instructors who were unqualified to teach. This legislation would expand the federal work-study programs at institutions of higher education to include work-study programs that compensate students serving in a teacher or school leader residency program.
The bill would provide access to training for low-income college students because programs that provide these types of work-based experiences are often out of reach for students from low-income families.
The Federal Work Study (FWS) Program funds part-time employment for undergraduate, graduate and professional students who require financial aid. The Teacher, Principal and Leader Residency Access Act would expand the FWS Program to cover residencies for students who want to become teachers or school leaders. It would also prioritize helping low-income students access the FWS Program.
Full text of the legislation is available here.
Watch Kennedy’s full remarks here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, questioned Roy Wright, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Insurance Institute for Businesses and Home Safety about the skyrocketing price of flood insurance for Louisiana homeowners.
Wright previously served as the chief executive of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and launched Risk Rating 2.0. FEMA has refused to show Congress the algorithm it has used to implement Risk Rating 2.0.
Key excerpts of the exchange are below:
Kennedy: “Now, what’s the point of flood insurance if nobody can afford it? And, what's the point of having a federal agency paid for with people's taxpayer dollars, if they won't explain to the people what they're doing? Are you still for Risk Rating 2.0?
Wright: “Senator, I am five years removed from making decisions in FEMA. And yes, I was the person who launched risk rating 2.0., and, so, we've had these conversations, and I'm happy to continue to do so.”
Kennedy: “This isn’t personal to you, but it's—I don't know what your involvement was—but the people that implemented this and rolled it out in this manner ought to hide their head in a bag.”
Wright: “So, I do think that FEMA should be transparent about what they're doing. I also know that these insurance calculations are more like calculus than they are arithmetic, but the risks are growing. The cost of wind insurance in southern Louisiana is just as high or higher, and so, I think there's an affordability need for sure, but we've got to look at this. Yes, FEMA should be showing the pieces. We need to make sure people understand it. I think people need to know which mitigation actions—”
Kennedy: They’re not. They’re not. Nor do the people at FEMA seem to care.”
. . .
Kennedy: “If the IRS came to you and said—I don't know how much money you make, I don't want to know—if the IRS came to you and said, ‘We’re going to do your taxes for you this year, Mr. Wright. You owe $4 million in income taxes, but we can't tell you how we came up with the figure,’ you think that'd be fair?”
Wright: “That would not be a fair action.”
Kennedy recently introduced two bills to ensure fairer flood insurance premiums for Louisianians. The Risk Rating 2.0 Transparency Act would require FEMA to publish an explanation of how the agency is determining flood insurance prices under Risk Rating 2.0. The Flood Insurance Affordability Act would cap annual flood insurance premium increases.
Full video of Kennedy’s remarks is here.
More information on the impact Risk Rating 2.0 has had on Louisianians is here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and nine Republican members of the Senate sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to reverse course and keep the Title 42 removal authority in place.
“We shudder to think about how much worse the situation at the border would have been over the past three years had it not been for the deterrent effect of Title 42,” the lawmakers said.
“Over the past three years, the Title 42 order has been a lifeline to the men and women of Border Patrol, who have been working heroically 24 hours a day to secure our southern border amid the worst border crisis in our lifetimes. Even with Title 42 in place, illegal crossings at the border have been at all-time highs,” wrote the senators.
The senators noted that, since the initial order was issued in March 2020, the authority has been used 2.7 million times, including 1.5 million times in just the last 18 months. Of the 2.3 million encounters in fiscal year 2022, more than 40 percent were processed under Title 42.
The senators also took issue with and criticized the proposed rule the Biden Administration has issued, titled “The Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” to address the issue when Title 42 expires.
“Nothing in this [Biden] rule prevents aliens from making frivolous asylum claims. Instead, under the terms of the rule, aliens are encouraged to schedule a time to present at a port of entry through the CBP One mobile application, after which time many, if not most, will subsequently claim asylum. . . . Whether done through the CBP One mobile app or not, this gaming of our asylum system is a major pull factor that is causing the border crisis in the first place, and until your administration has a serious plan to address that, the authority Title 42 gives will still be necessary,” they explained.
“Our border remains under assault. The resources of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) remain under tremendous strain. The introduction of 13,000 encounters every day to this crisis would be the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already raging fire,” the senators concluded.
Full text of the letter is available here.
Watch Kennedy’s full statement here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, questioned the Department of Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk. The official could not or would not provide clear answers.
Key excerpts from Kennedy’s exchange with Turk are below.
Kennedy: “Give me your best estimate, just an estimate, of how soon you think the United States of America will be carbon neutral?”
Turk: “So, I think, according to the climate scientists around the world, and certainly the cutting-edge scientists that we need to rely on here in the U.S., we've got to get carbon neutral by 2050, and I'm very comfortable with that target, and I think that's the appropriate target—"
Kennedy: “By 2050?”
Turk: “Which is only 27 years. That is not a long time away.
Kennedy: “And, how much will that cost?”
Turk: “So, the cost that I focus on even more is all the costs that are going to happen if we don’t get our act together.”
Kennedy: “No—the total cost: How much will it cost to get us carbon neutral?”
. . .
Kennedy: “How about $50 trillion? Is that right?”
Turk: “It's going to cost trillions of dollars. There's no doubt about it.”
. . .
Kennedy: “If we spent $50 trillion to become carbon neutral by 2050 in the United States of America, how much is that going to reduce world temperatures?”
. . .
Kennedy: “You don't know do you? You just want us to spend $50 trillion, and you don't have the slightest idea whether it's going to reduce world temperatures. Now I'm all for carbon neutrality, but you're the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy, and you're advocating we spend trillions of dollars to seek carbon neutrality and you can't—and this isn't your money or my money, this is taxpayer money—and you can’t tell me how much it’s going to lower world temperatures or you won’t tell me? You know, but you won’t.”
Full video of Kennedy’s remarks is here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today introduced the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) Reform Act, which would expand the concealed-carry rights of qualified law enforcement officers.
“America’s police officers protect communities whether they’re on-duty or off. The LEOSA Reform Act would make Louisianians and all Americans safer by expanding concealed-carry rights for off-duty and retired cops in public places. Brave officers should be able to protect and serve their communities without absurd red tape,” said Kennedy.
The LEOSA Reform Act builds on the original LEOSA of 2004, which gives qualified officers—whether active, retired or no longer working in law enforcement—the right to carry concealed firearms in any U.S. state or territory, regardless of state or local laws. The original legislation, however, contains numerous exceptions, including bans on concealed-carry rights on certain state, local and federal government property.
The LEOSA Reform Act would expand the original bill by allowing qualified officers to carry their concealed firearms in the following locations:
- State, local and private property otherwise open to the public,
- National parks, and
- Certain federal public access facilities and
- School zones.
The bill would also allow qualified officers to carry magazines that are not prohibited by federal law and to carry their concealed firearms in gun-free school zones. It would alleviate other undue burdens on concealed-carry rights.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have co-sponsored the LEOSA Reform Act.
Full bill text is here here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, spoke on the Senate floor about the need for more plutonium pits in the U.S. to bolster America’s national security and promote peace among nations.
Key excerpts of Kennedy’s statement are below:
“Here’s where the United States finds itself today: The United States must now counter nuclear superpowers in both China and Russia while also deterring the itchy trigger fingers of unstable dictators like Kim Jong Un and the Ayatollah in Iran. We should be innovating and preparing our nuclear arsenal for this new global dynamic, but instead, our nuclear stockpile remains stuck in the Cold War.
“Simply put: America’s nuclear stockpile is old and shrinking. And while modernizing our nuclear arsenal should be a top priority, our effort to restart nuclear weapon production has been riddled with delays and poor planning. And we don’t have time to waste.”
. . .
“Today, we are so far behind in our nuclear revitalization that we cannot even produce plutonium pits—an essential component of every nuclear weapon.”
. . .
“During the Cold War, Mr. President, the United States could produce more than 1,000 plutonium pits per year—and without plutonium pits you can’t have a nuclear weapon—but the United States has not regularly manufactured plutonium pits since 1989. In fact, the United States has not produced a single warhead-ready plutonium pit since 2012.”
. . .
“Our ability to deter unstable nuclear powers and maintain a peaceful world relies on our ability to continue innovating in ways only freedom-loving Americans can. But these vital projects rely on our plutonium pit production. And failing to produce pits at full capacity is just not acceptable.”
Kennedy’s full statement is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $2,319,097 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid.
“Hurricane Laura was an incredibly tough storm, and I am grateful to see that that this $2.3 million will support the recovery efforts in Lake Charles,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $2,319,097 to the city of Lake Charles for management costs from Hurricane Laura.
Watch Kennedy’s full statement here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), today bid Michael Wong a farewell from the Senate floor. Wong served Louisiana as a staff member in the U.S. Congress for over 16 years, and most recently, as State Director for Kennedy.
Key excerpts of Kennedy’s statement are below:
“I say it's a sad day for me because Michael is stepping down from government. It's a happy day because he's going to pursue some very exciting opportunities in the private sector.
“Michael has been working for the American people and the people of Louisiana for 16 years.”
. . .
“Michael has been my state director every single day that I've been a United States Senator, and let me tell you it's a tough job, and it's one of the most important jobs, as you know, Mr. President.
“We are here in Washington. Our people are back home. A state director has got to make sure that their needs are being addressed back home, their concerns are heard.”
. . .
“In Michael's case, he's also a valuable source of policy advice. I'm going to miss that every day. Michael has one of the best, maybe the best, political minds in Louisiana.”
. . .
“I've talked about his policy expertise. I've talked about his political acumen. I've talked about the fact that he cares about people, and, as an aside, a wise person once told me, ‘People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care’—Michael understands that.
“I mentioned Michael's beautiful family. He's also always made time for his kids and for Jamie, and I know there have been times when it's been difficult. But let me tell you one particular attribute, among many, with respect to which I most respect Michael: He'll do the right thing.”
. . .
“I'm going to miss Michael. I’m going to miss him every single day. I mean, he's not dying or anything. He's going to be around, okay? And, I know that, and I'm still going to call him and say, ‘What do you think about this? What's going on?’”
“But I wanted to rise today, Mr. President, and thank Michael Wong and thank Jamie, and thank Thomas and thank Julia for their years of service to the people of Louisiana. And, I wish them godspeed.”
Kennedy’s full statement is available here.
WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) today introduced the Targeting Child Predators Act of 2023 to help stop children from being exploited online. Current law gives suspected predators opportunity to evade prosecution when Internet Service Providers alert them to potential law enforcement investigations.
“Children are uniquely vulnerable to wicked people who hide in the internet’s shadows. Law enforcement needs modern resources to stop and punish child predators, and this bill delivers a critical tool for the good guys,” said Kennedy.
When investigating the exploitation of children online, law enforcement can typically match an IP address to a suspected predator. Officials may then use this evidence to obtain a subpoena to collect the name of the person attached to the IP address from an Internet Service Provider.
Internet Service Providers routinely comply with such subpoenas, but often immediately inform the users—in these cases, suspected child predators—of the request. Suspects who discover that law enforcement is investigating them regularly erase their internet footprints, which can make prosecuting online child predators nearly impossible.
The Targeting Child Predators Act would allow law enforcement to obtain a subpoena that forbids the Internet Service Provider from notifying the targeted user that his or her information has been requested. This prohibition would be valid for 180 days in order to give law enforcement sufficient time to determine whether to prosecute the individual in question.
The legislation applies only in cases of suspected child exploitation. Additionally, law enforcement must certify that, if the Internet Service Provider disclosed the information request to the targeted suspect, that disclosure could enable suspects to:
- endanger the life or physical safety of an individual,
- flee from prosecution,
- destroy or tamper with evidence,
- intimidate a potential witness, or
- otherwise seriously jeopardize an investigation.
The Targeting Child Predators Act does not expand what type of evidence law enforcement can collect. The bill allows for judicial review of the subpoenas.
This bill is supported by the National Sheriffs Association.
This bill text is available here.
