WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in The Hill on Sunday defending the blue slip nomination process for district court judges.

Kennedy also highlighted the success of district court nominee Darrel Papillion, a Louisiana nominee who received blue slips from both Republican senators and sailed through the Judiciary Committee vote last week, earning bipartisan support.

Below are key excerpts:

“[T]he blue slip isn’t about dunking on the opposition. The blue slip is one of the only ways that citizens have a say—through their elected senators—in who gets to call the legal balls and strikes in their communities.”

. . .

“Trust in our judicial system depends on these judges’ being highly qualified. That means knowing legal procedure and constitutional rights inside and out. These judges must also have the appropriate judicial temperament to ensure every citizen receives a fair trial. Republican and Democratic senators alike should be loath to leave this responsibility to unelected bureaucrats in the White House Counsel’s Office who don’t know or understand the people we represent.

“While I believe my colleagues on both sides of the aisle take the responsibility of confirmation seriously, the majority party can get tunnel vision when trying to rush through the president’s nominees. I’ve served during Republican and Democrat White Houses, and I know that presidents from both parties have nominated some duds. The stakes for green-lighting a questionable candidate may seem low, but bad judges have real consequences. No one wants to find themself fighting for their freedom before a judge who thinks the U.S. Constitution is the name of a ship.

“Senators can’t afford to overlook unqualified nominees because we are accountable first and foremost to the people of our state—the same people who suffer at the hands of biased or untalented appointees. If a bad judge lands on a district court in Louisiana, that judge can oversee a lifetime appointment’s worth of injustices. And that can do irreparable damage to the people who sent me to be their voice.”

. . .

“The blue slip process encourages bipartisan cooperation. Our deference to the people of our respective states forces any White House to prioritize the qualifications and judicial temperament of nominees rather than bending the knee to activists or privileging people with political connections. The blue slip process makes our court system fairer and stronger. And that’s good for our democracy.”

Read Kennedy’s full op-ed here.  

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced the Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act of 2023 to recover stolen COVID unemployment money and return it to taxpayers. The legislation encourages states to implement guardrails that would protect against future fraud.

“The pandemic may be over, but the financial damage is still hurting honest Americans. The greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history is the billions of COVID unemployment money that fraudsters stole. This bill will help recover that money and return it to taxpayers,” said Kennedy.

According to testimony provided by the Department of Labor (DOL) Inspector General, improper payments in pandemic unemployment programs have left taxpayers on the hook for at least $191 billion that people took illegally. 

The bill would fight fraud by: 

• Incentivizing states to recover fraudulent unemployment payments by allowing them to retain 25 percent of the funds they recover from federal COVID unemployment programs. Workforce agencies currently have little incentive to go after fraud and must pay the up-front costs of hiring investigators and paying to prosecute fraud.

• Allowing states to retain five percent of state unemployment overpayments that they recover and dedicating those funds to preventing future fraud by:

• Hiring investigators and prosecutors to go after criminals to recover fraud payments.

• Modernizing state systems’ ability to verify identity and income for unemployment.

• Supporting additional program integrity activities to deter, detect and prevent improper payments.

• Preventing further fraud by requiring states to match unemployment claims and verify employment, in addition to preventing incarcerated people from receiving unemployment benefits and stopping payments to deceased people.

• Prohibiting the Biden administration from allowing states to waive suspicious overpayments by requiring the DOL to amend guidance that lets states off the hook for over-looking large volumes of suspicious unemployment claims. 

• Requiring the DOL to report on fraudulent overpayments and the amount of money states recover from fraudsters.

• Extending the statute of limitations for criminal charges or civil actions for prosecuting fraud from five to 10 years.  

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) today in introducing a bill to require the U.S. State Department to release a public, unclassified version of the July 13, 2021, internal dissent channel cable that reportedly warned of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s ability to capture Kabul. 

The bill would also require the State Department to provide Congress with a classified version of the dissent cable, removing any personally identifiable information of the senders.

“The American people deserve to know what led to the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and how the Biden administration could have avoided that disaster. The toll in terms of human suffering has been enormous. The need for accountability is urgent,” said Kennedy.

“As the Biden administration continues to pass the buck and stonewall accountability measures for its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, this legislation would finally provide the American people and Congress with answers about the dire warnings that the administration ignored. The administration’s after-action reports confirmed the tragic error of withdrawing troops based on a date advertised to the Taliban instead of the security conditions on the ground. They also lacked any assessment of the failed decision-making that led to the chaos in Kabul, eroded the security situation in Afghanistan, and undercut U.S. credibility globally,” said Thune.

“More than a year and a half after the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the State Department continues to refuse to provide Congress with a copy of the July 13, 2021, dissent cable warning of the rapidly deteriorating situation. Not only have repeated requests for this document been ignored, but the administration has buried lessons learned in a classified after-action report that may prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again. The American people deserve transparency. I will continue working with Senator Thune and our colleagues to obtain a copy of the dissent cable and to hold this administration accountable,” said Risch.

The July 13 dissent cable reportedly warned the Biden administration of the mounting deterioration of Afghanistan’s security and the need to immediately begin evacuations. Regrettably, it was apparently met with inaction, evidenced by the National Security Council Deputies Committee’s decision to delay its first meeting to discuss evacuating Afghanistan until a full month after the dissent cable was sent. 

According to the State Department, the dissent channel “is a serious policy channel reserved only for consideration of responsible dissenting and alternative views on substantive foreign policy issues that cannot be communicated in a full and timely manner through regular operating channels or procedures,” which underscores the urgent nature of the warnings U.S. diplomats sent. 

Dissent cables are distributed among senior State Department officials, and the State Department Policy Planning Staff are responsible for “acknowledging receipt of a Dissent message within 2 working days and for providing a substantive reply, normally within 30-60 working days.” The State Department cable addressed by this legislation was first reported on Aug. 19, 2021. 

On March 27, 2023, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) signed a subpoena addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the dissent cable. As of today, Secretary Blinken had not complied with the subpoena.

On April 6, 2023, the Biden administration released an after-action report, including an unclassified summary, detailing its own assessment of the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) today introduced the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Animal Trafficking (FIGHT) Act to enhance the enforcement opportunities against dogfighting and cockfighting. While this cruelty is illegal, it remains widespread.

“When it comes to dog and cock fights, these abusers are organized and dangerous—to people as well as innocent animals. It’s illegal to hurt God’s creatures for sport, and our bill would give law enforcement more tools to end this widespread abuse,” said Kennedy.

"Animal fighting is cruel, illegal, and unacceptable. It’s time we take stronger action to stop these heinous abuses against animals and protect them from being exploited for entertainment and profit. This bill will tighten enforcement to put a stop to illegal animal fighting,” said Booker.

Despite being illegal, cockfighting and dogfighting are still common across the country. Cockfights are often hubs of violence because of the illegal activity that accompanies them. Cockfighting also spreads diseases like avian influenza, so people who handle bloodied birds risk getting infected by them.

The FIGHT Act would amend Section 26 of the Animal Welfare Act to enhance the enforcement opportunities under the law. The bill would: 

• Ban simulcasting and gambling on animal fights in the U.S., no matter where the broadcast signals for dogfights or the cockfights originate.

• Halt the shipment of mature roosters (chickens only) shipped through the U.S. mail. (This legislation does not address shipping baby chicks, which are used in accepted animal agricultural operations. Shipping dogs through the mail is already illegal.) 

• Create a citizen suit provision to allow private right of action against illegal animal fighters and ease the resource burden on federal agencies. 

• Enhance forfeiture provisions to include real property used in the commission of an animal fighting crime.

Reps. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) have introduced the House version of the bill. 

More than 100 organizations endorse the FIGHT Act, including Animal Wellness Action, the American Gaming Association and the Rural Sheriffs and Small Law Enforcement Association.