WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced $24,078,966 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants for Louisiana disaster aid.
“Hurricane Laura battered southwest Louisiana. I’m grateful to see Lake Charles and other communities receive this $24.1 million to rebuild,” said Kennedy.
The FEMA aid will fund the following:
- $12,825,813 to the Cameron School Board Office to replace the South Cameron High School gymnasium due to damage from Hurricane Laura.
- $6,162,038 to the Office of Risk Management to restore McNeese State University’s Quadrant D building due to damage from Hurricane Laura.
- $3,944,438 to the Office of Risk Management for repairs to the main campus of McNeese State University resulting from Hurricane Laura.
- $1,146,677 to Lake Charles, La. to repair damages to Buddy Prejean Park resulting from Hurricane Laura.
Biden vetoes Kennedy resolution to reverse CFPB rule requiring banks to collect race, ethnicity, sex data
Dec 20 2023
MADISONVILLE, La. – President Joe Biden has vetoed Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval, which would have prohibited the Biden administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from enforcing its Dodd Frank Section 1071 small business data collection rule.
“Being a small business owner in America is stressful enough without worrying about your personal information being exposed as you grow your business. I’m very disappointed that President Biden chose to veto this simple resolution that could have protected the private information of small business owners from this invasive woke CFPB rule,” said Kennedy.
The Senate passed Kennedy’s resolution in October. The House of Representatives passed the resolution in December, sending it to the president’s desk.
Section 1071 requires covered financial institutions to collect and report certain personal information on small business loan applicants and report that to the CFPB. This information includes an applicant’s race, ethnicity and sex and whether the business is minority-owned, woman-owned or LGBT-owned. The CFPB may then make certain parts of that information public, including data that could be used to publicly identify the small business credit applicant.
In August, Kennedy led a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, urging the bureau to pause its 1071 data collection rule while the courts determine the validity of the Section 1071 rule.
Background
On March 30, 2023, the CFPB promulgated the final rule implementing Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which amends the ECOA. The rule was published in the Federal Register on May 31, 2023.
To comply with the Biden CFPB rule, financial institutions will have to collect information about applicants, including the applicant’s census tract, North American Industry Classification System code and years in business—among other information.
- The rule applies to financial institutions that originated at least 100 small business loans in each of the two preceding calendar years.
- A small business is defined as a company with $5 million or less in revenue from the previous fiscal year.
Among the many concerns about the CFPB’s collecting and storing such personal information is that the agency recently experienced a data breach including the personally identifiable information of 256,000 consumers and failed to properly inform them for two months.
The implementation of this rule may also reduce the availability and accessibility of small business credit by increasing the compliance costs of lenders.
Text of Kennedy’s resolution is available here.
Video of Kennedy’s comments at the resolution’s Senate passage is here.
MADISONVILLE, La. – President Joe Biden signed Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement (SALE) Act into law. The legislation will require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to release previously auctioned spectrum to expand 5G broadband access to rural communities.
“Louisiana’s job providers depend on wireless communications as they support rural economies. My 5G SALE Act will provide crucial broadband access by giving the FCC the authority to finish transferring previously auctioned spectrum to companies that offer 5G coverage. I’m grateful to see my bill signed into law so that more Americans have the tools they need to do their jobs and grow their businesses,” said Kennedy.
The Senate passed Kennedy’s legislation this September, and the House of Representatives passed Kennedy’s legislation earlier this December.
The 5G SALE Act will temporarily grant the FCC auction authority it needs to complete spectrum transfers, which will allow broadband services to provide greater 5G network coverage to Americans in rural areas.
Background:
In 2022, the FCC auctioned off roughly 8,000 licenses to grant companies access to America’s broadband spectrum. These licenses are the only way companies can legally use the radio waves that deliver 5G to customers. These wavelengths are therefore highly valuable.
During the period between when companies paid for their licenses and when the FCC should have parceled the licenses out, Congress failed to reauthorize the FCC’s ability to auction off licenses altogether. The FCC left each company that bought spectrum in that auction waiting to receive its transfer. Despite payments being complete, the FCC said it no longer had the authority to grant those licenses.
Kennedy’s legislation granted the FCC a one-time, temporary authority to issue licenses purchased in auctions that were held before March 9, 2023 (when the FCC’s Congressional authorization ended).
Prior to the bill’s passage, Kennedy questioned FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing about the commission’s lapsed authority to transfer spectrum licenses already sold at auction.
Full text of the 5G SALE Act is available here.
MADISONVILLE, La. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) released the following statement upon the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to exclude former president Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot:
“The Colorado Supreme Court has mis-stepped and overstepped. Its ruling reeks of politics and bad faith. It takes agency away from voters and misinterprets the Fourteenth Amendment. The Colorado court claims that it wants to protect democracy, but it clearly doesn’t want people to be able to vote for President Trump.”
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in introducing the Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act. The bill would require the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to lead its member agencies in responding to artificial intelligence (AI) manipulation of financial markets.
“AI is moving quickly, and our laws should do the same to prevent AI manipulation from rattling our financial markets. Our bill would help ensure that AI threats do not put Americans’ investments and retirement dreams at risk,” said Kennedy.
“AI has tremendous potential but also enormous disruptive power across a variety of fields and industries—perhaps none more so than our financial markets. The time to address those vulnerabilities is now,” said Warner.
The Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act would:
- Mandate that FSOC coordinate financial regulators’ response to AI threats to the financial system, including “deepfakes.”
- Require FSOC to produce a report identifying gaps in existing regulations and make specific recommendations to address those gaps.
- Initiate FSOC proceedings to see that its member agencies implement these changes once Congress has reviewed and commented on the report.
- Strengthen penalties when actors use AI to violate Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules.
- Modernize the “intent standard” in order to hold AI deployers accountable when their AI violates SEC rules.
Full text of the Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act is available here.
View Kennedy’s full remarks here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today looked back on another year shared with Louisianians and sent a special Christmas message to everyone in the state.
“God has blessed me in so many ways, but getting to call Louisiana ‘home’ is one of the blessings I love most,” said Kennedy, alongside Alphonse the alligator, who is also a native Louisianian.
“There is no question that no state can outmatch Louisiana during the holidays. None. Zero. Nada. Our people are merrier, our meals are tastier, our music is more joyful, and no one knows—no one—how to have more fun with the ones they love than the good people of Louisiana. Even when times are tough—and I know they’re tough right now for many Louisiana families—Louisianians always find a way to pull together and give thanks for the blessings in their lives,” he continued.
“Our people make everything good about Louisiana better.”
“So, I, along with my wife, Becky, my son, Preston, and our two beloved dogs, Lily Grace and Charlie, want to wish you and your family peace and hope and joy during this Christmas season,” said Kennedy.
“God bless you all, and Merry Christmas—from both me and Alphonse!”
Kennedy’s full remarks are available here.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, penned this op-ed in The Hill calling for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Martin Gruenberg to resign. Kennedy details the widespread allegations of sexual harassment at the FDIC, and he argues that Gruenberg must resign to allow a new leader to restore professionalism at the agency.
Key excerpts from Kennedy’s op-ed include:
“Reports of the conduct at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) read like a screenplay for ‘Animal House,’ the 1980s John Belushi movie about campus debauchery at the fictional Faber College. ‘Animal House’ is funny as hell. What’s not funny is finding out that some of the same behavior—and worse—may have been happening for years at one of the agencies charged with supervising America’s banking system.
“According to employees who spoke with the Wall Street Journal, the FDIC functioned as a real-life Faber College where excessive drinking, public urination and sexual harassment were common but professional consequences for this bad behavior were rare. Employees described booze-filled training conferences where trainees regularly ‘puked off the roof’ or drank so much they wound up in the hospital. (There’s no evidence of FDIC toga parties—yet.)”
. . .
“Since joining the FDIC’s board in 2005, Chairman Martin Gruenberg has had a front-row seat to it all. He was chair or acting chair of the FDIC for nine of the past 18 years while his agency apparently tolerated a culture of debauchery and harassment. Gruenberg either knew about the abuse women faced at the FDIC and failed to address it or was negligently blind to it.
“Either way, Gruenberg should resign.”
. . .
“If Gruenberg wants to show his employees and the American people—for the first time in his nearly two decades of leadership—that he is doing something to end abuse, he should resign and allow a real leader to restore professionalism to the FDIC. Right now, it's #MeToo—except for the connected at the FDIC.”
Read Kennedy’s full op-ed here.
Read Kennedy’s letter to Chair Gruenberg here.
Senate passes Kennedy initiative to bring accountability to Ukraine aid as part of national defense bill
Dec 18 2023
WASHINGTON – The Senate has passed Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) initiative to establish a Special Inspector General (IG) for Ukraine as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
The Special IG would oversee the humanitarian, economic and security assistance funding that the U.S. Congress has provided to the country and would make sure that the funds are appropriately spent so that American taxpayers can be confident that their tax dollars do not end up in the wrong hands.
“While Americans have supported Ukraine’s work to beat back Russia, our aid is not an act of charity. It’s bolstering our own national security, and American taxpayers deserve to know that our resources are helping Ukraine defeat Putin effectively. The Senate voted to guarantee that oversight by establishing an inspector general to ensure that this aid makes our homeland safer,” said Kennedy.
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) cosponsored the original legislation.
Kennedy’s initiative authorizes $8 million to carry out the important duties of this Special IG for Ukraine.
In order to prevent an indefinite expanse of the federal bureaucracy, the provision also includes a termination clause that would end the Special IG role once U.S. taxpayer spending for Ukraine drops below $100 million per year.
Kennedy’s op-ed calling for a special inspector general for Ukraine aid is here.
The NDAA conference report is available here.
Kennedy, Brown introduce Close the Shadow Banking Loophole Act to ensure fair banking system
Dec 15 2023
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in introducing the Close the Shadow Banking Loophole Act to close loopholes that would allow commercial companies to offer banking services without oversight from the Federal Reserve.
“American consumers deserve confidence that our financial system is stable and accountable to protect consumers. Allowing companies to run their own big full-service banks without effective oversight puts individual Americans and the U.S. financial system at risk. I’m working to close the shadow banking loopholes that have left consumers vulnerable,” said Kennedy.
“Letting Big Tech and commercial companies operate banks without proper oversight will only open doors for predatory lending, invasions of consumer privacy, and broader financial instability. To protect consumers’ pocketbooks and ensure a strong banking system for Main Street, we need to ensure all banking institutions play by the same rules,” said Brown.
The Close the Shadow Banking Loophole Act would:
- Require a company that owns or controls an industrial loan company (ILC) to be subject to the same consolidated supervision by the Federal Reserve as any other bank holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act.
- Provide a carve-out for existing ILCs and allow the FDIC time to consider pending ILC applications.
- Prohibit the federal banking agencies from approving a change in control of an existing ILC unless its acquirer is subject to consolidated supervision by the Federal Reserve.
ILCs were established as small loan companies in 1910 to lend money to industrial workers. Over time, ILC powers have expanded, and non-bank companies can offer financial services without the same regulations and oversight as traditional banks.
This loophole prevents federal regulators from examining the non-bank commercial holding company to determine the risks its non-bank operations pose to both the stability of the ILC and the financial system.
Non-bank commercial companies that seek to operate like banks through an ILC raise systemic financial stability, competition and consumer protection concerns. This bill would protect consumers and ensure the safety and soundness of the financial system by closing the ILC loophole.
The full bill text is available here.
Democrats block Kennedy’s bill to protect American consumers from illegal shrimp imports using IRS funding
Dec 14 2023
View Kennedy’s full remarks here.
WASHINGTON – Democrats today blocked Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-La.) legislation to bolster Louisiana’s shrimp, red snapper and seafood industry and protect American consumers from illegal imports.
Kennedy’s bill would increase funding to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) by $36 million using unobligated Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funds. The funding would allow the SIMP to conduct audits on seafood under its purview to prevent foreign seafood imports that misrepresent themselves from entering U.S. markets.
“Big seafood exporters, such as India and Ecuador, are flooding America’s markets with illegal shrimp and selling it for cheaper than quality Gulf shrimp caught right here at home. In order to serve American consumers and protect jobs, the U.S. must conduct better inspections on imports—and that is what my bill would help do,” said Kennedy.
Shrimp consumption in the U.S is on the rise, more than doubling from 2.3 pounds per person in 1990 to 5.9 pounds per person in 2021. However, domestic shrimp profits have decreased in recent years, particularly for shrimp sourced in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic regions. Illegal imports are to blame.
Background:
- According to the FDA, approximately 94% of seafood sold in the U.S. is imported, and only a small amount is inspected.
- SIMP establishes reporting requirements for imports of certain seafood species, including shrimp, to combat illegal and unregulated seafood from entering U.S. commerce.
- The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and Customs and Border Protection conduct random seafood audits under SIMP. However, only 1% of seafood imports under its purview are audited.
- More than one-third of the shrimp imports that SIMP audits do not comply with U.S. regulations.
Kennedy’s full remarks are available here.
Full text of the bill is available here.
