Watch Kennedy’s comments here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today urged his colleagues to consider passing funding for the Department of Homeland Security and the SAVE America Act through reconciliation in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor.

Key excerpts of the speech are below.

“It is a fact that the Karen wing of the Democratic Party is in ascendency, and it is firmly in control. And any Democrat, we all know this, that agrees to any kind of compromise with respect to ICE is going to be punished the rest of their natural lives. They can’t do it, and they’re not going to.

“Now, we can keep having meetings and discussing it. We’ve been doing it for weeks. Most of these meetings could easily be accomplished with an email. And I’ve been part of the discussions in our conference. I’m convinced that listening to the same thing over and over and over again is lowering my IQ when we know that nothing is going to resolve this because my Democratic friends politically can’t agree to a compromise about ICE.

“So, here’s what I think we ought to do: I think that we should accept the Democrats’ offer to open up TSA and to open up FEMA and to open up the Coast Guard and to open up and fund CISA, and let’s get that done. Let’s shorten these [TSA] lines, and then the day after we do that, Republicans need to file a reconciliation bill—the same way we passed the One Big Beautiful Bill—and on our own, we need to come up with a budget for ICE. It’s the only way to solve this problem.”

. . . 

“I would include the SAVE Act as part of that reconciliation bill, as well. We wouldn’t need 60 votes. We wouldn’t need 55 votes. We’d only need 51 votes. We passed the One Big Beautiful Bill with 50 votes and the vice president breaking the tie. . . . I would go get a really smart lawyer and ask them to help us craft a SAVE Act that can survive a Byrd bath. I would do those two things in reconciliation or at least open up ICE through reconciliation.”

Watch Kennedy’s speech here.  

Watch Kennedy’s comments here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today reaffirmed his support for the SAVE America Act and called for the use of another reconciliation bill to pass the legislation in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor.

Key excerpts of the speech are below.

“Mr. President, I would like to talk for a few minutes about the SAVE [America] Act. I’m a cosponsor. I support it unconditionally. The SAVE [America] Act, as you well know, Mr. President, is really pretty simple. It’s about our sanctity of voting in America.

“It says, ‘If you want to register to vote in America, you have to prove that you're a citizen of America,’ and once you're registered, it says, ‘When you're voting in a federal election, in all instances, you have to prove you are who you say you are in order to vote.’ Very simple."

. . . 

“It’s about trying to get the American people to trust our elections every year in light of the fact that President Biden and his team, with the concurrence of many of my colleagues in this chamber, admitted millions and millions and millions of people into our country illegally.”

. . .

“It’s meant to say to the American people, ‘Look, we in Congress hear you. We want you to trust our elections.’”

. . . 

“If this bill is as important as we say it is, we should try it through reconciliation. I haven’t convinced Senator Thune of that. I haven’t convinced all of my colleagues on either side of the aisle, but I plan on continuing to chase them like they stole Thanksgiving and Christmas put together.”

Watch Kennedy’s speech here.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate passed Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) Build Now Act, as part of a major housing package, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Kennedy’s bill would incentivize new home construction by tying federal funds to cities’ rates of home construction. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act contains several pieces of housing legislation authored by members other than Kennedy. Following full U.S. Senate passage, the bill will require the U.S. House of Representatives’ approval before reaching the president’s desk. 

“The Senate’s passage of my Build Now Act marks a significant step toward making the American Dream of homeownership achievable again for young families. For too long, red tape has stalled home construction and driven up housing prices. My bill rewards communities that actually build homes rather than block them. I look forward to seeing it become law and get our communities building again,” said Kennedy.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Kennedy in introducing the Build Now Act.

“Americans are suffering under sky-high housing prices caused by a worsening housing shortage. The Senate passed landmark legislation to lower housing costs, including a bill that I introduced with Senator Kennedy to reward communities that are taking bold action to build more housing. It’s time for the House to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act,” said Warren. 

Currently, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) provides annual grants to states, cities, and counties irrespective of their rate of homebuilding.

The Build Now Act would:

• Require HUD to remove 10% of CDBG funding from cities that are below the national median housing growth improvement rate, which measures whether homebuilding in a city meets the national median rate of homebuilding. 

• Direct HUD to proportionally reallocate those CDBG funds to cities that exceeded the national median housing growth rate. Under the Build Now Act, cities with the highest growth rates would receive larger shares of funds as they are reallocated. 

• Exempt metropolitan areas from CDBG readjustments where the median home value is below the national median or for cities that issued an emergency disaster declaration in the last year.

Kennedy has long championed the cause of making homeownership easier for families: 

• In January 2025, Kennedy questioned then-HUD Secretary nominee Scott Turner about the failures of previous affordable housing policies. During this hearing, he suggested an approach that would incentivize localities to allow more new home construction without affording excessive power to the federal government.

• At a hearing one week later, Kennedy outlined a potential “carrot-and-stick” system that would spur new home construction while allowing local governments to determine their exact means of doing so. 

• In February 2025, Kennedy questioned then-Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency nominee Bill Pulte on the consequences of Americans borrowing large amounts of money to buy homes, noting that “we’ve got a house of cards here.”

• In a July 2025 Banking Committee markup of the then-ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, Kennedy discussed his proposal, stating, “Senator Warren and I have a provision in this bill that would, I think, help generate housing in America. The most stunning statistic to me is the fact that the median age of a … first-time homeowner in America today is 38. Wow. That’s almost 40 [years old] before you can afford a home. … We’ve got a problem.”

• In January 2026, Kennedy delivered a speech from the U.S. Senate floor urging passage of the Build Now Act, noting that “[t]his bill will lower the cost of housing in America, and it will do it under basic principles of free enterprise.”

Full text of Kennedy’s Build Now Act is available here. 

Full text of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, of which Kennedy’s Build Now Act is a part, is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, encouraged Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to permit Louisiana to use a pesticide required to combat rice delphacid infestations. 

Rice delphacids, invasive insects that originated in South and Central America, feed directly on rice plants and open the door to diseases like the rice hoja blanca virus.

Rice delphacids have had a profound impact on Texas rice production since 2015, and in 2025, they were spotted in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

As a result, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry requested in December 2025 that the EPA approve the use of the pesticide buprofezin on an emergency basis to fight infestations.

“I write to express my concern regarding the emerging threat to Louisiana rice production posed by the rice delphacid. This invasive insect, originating in Central and South America, established itself in Texas in 2015 and has since been detected in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The pest damages rice by direct feeding, causing ‘hopperburn,’ and may also serve as a vector for rice hoja blanca virus, which can significantly reduce yields,” Kennedy began his letter to Zeldin.

“The economic timing of this threat is particularly concerning. In late 2025, the price of rice per hundred pounds fell to its lowest level in nearly a decade. At the same time, producers continue to face elevated input costs,” he explained.

“As you know, Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to consider applications for emergency exemptions for unregistered uses of pesticides to address emergency conditions. Access to timely and effective control measures is critical to ensuring producers can move forward with planting decisions and secure necessary financing,” the senator added. 

“For these reasons, I respectfully encourage the timely consideration of the Section 18 request submitted by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry in December 2025. Ensuring that producers across the rice belt have the tools necessary to combat this growing threat is essential to protecting both farm viability and regional agricultural stability. I appreciate your attention to this important matter,” Kennedy concluded. 

View Kennedy’s full letter here.