WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed for The Farmerville Gazette. Below is the full text of the article, which explains how Pres. Biden’s energy policy is financially burdensome for Louisianians:

Most Louisianians get up every day, go to work, obey the law, pay their taxes, and try to save a little money for retirement while living in the greatest country in all of human history. But Louisianians are struggling under the Biden administration’s war on American energy.

President Biden took office on January 20 of last year, which means that America is now 17 months into “Build Back Better.” From where Louisianians sit, though, nothing has been built, nothing is back, and nothing is better. Inflation and gas prices are still soaring, and wages haven’t caught up. At the start of the president’s term, Louisianians paid about $2 for a gallon of gas. Today, the price is roughly $4.45. That means moms are forking out close to $90 to fill up their minivans. It’s not just gasoline that’s breaking household budgets. A dozen eggs now costs more than $2.50. Ground beef is way above $5 per pound, and chicken is over $4 per pound. The list goes on, and it’s connected to energy prices. Much of our food, clothing, pharmaceuticals, and other basic goods arrive in our stores by air, truck, or tanker — all of which run on fossil fuel. As a result, Biden’s constant attacks on the oil and gas industry aren’t just forcing oil prices higher — they’re stoking inflation across Louisiana’s economy.

President Biden has canceled leases on federal lands in the Gulf of Mexico when Louisianians could be drilling there and helping recover America’s energy independence. President Biden has also created new strict regulations on oil and gas producers that could make it nearly impossible to open new pipelines in America.

What’s even more curious to me is that, despite the Biden administration’s claims that it is kneecapping America’s oil production for so-called environmental reasons, the White House insists that the U.S. must purchase foreign oil from countries that bring that fuel to our shores in tankers. Those tankers use 2,000 gallons of fuel and emit eight tons of carbon dioxide into the environment every hour. This White House is beyond tone deaf.

Now, President Biden has said he has no control over the price of oil or gasoline. But it’s clear that you can’t have regulatory control over the drilling, transport, storage, refining, trading and taxation of oil — as the president does — and claim to have no control over the price of gas. That’s just not true, and people of Louisiana know it.

Here’s what most people in our state see: The Biden administration has crashed their 401k’s and increased their bills by $5,200 a year. Louisianians understand that that is a rotten deal built on bad liberal policies.

President Biden’s energy agenda depends on “wind, solar and wishful thinking” and is causing much of these prices to skyrocket. Whether they’re at the grocery store or gas pump, the people of Louisiana are struggling under a president whose policies ignore Middle America. Louisianians deserve better. Americans deserve better. So, I’ll keep fighting for better.

The op-ed is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to extend the August 2023 deadline for the city of New Orleans to use the $2 billion of FEMA public assistance it received in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The money focuses on repairing roads and pipes damaged by the historic storm.

“Hurricane Katrina devastated our state, and Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida have only slowed recovery and dealt their own blows. South Louisiana’s communities and economy need this $2 billion in FEMA aid to keep rebuilding what Katrina damaged, and I hope the agency gives the state an extension quickly,” said Kennedy.

The lawmakers cited the need for an extension.

“When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast in August 2005 with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, it killed 1,833 people. It took some 43 days after Katrina made landfall for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pump the last of the floodwaters out of the city. Even a month later, up to 600,000 households were still displaced, and by the fall of 2006, less than half of the residents had returned,” they wrote.

“In the more recent years, New Orleans’ rebuilding has been challenged by the COVID pandemic and the unprecedented 2020 hurricane season that included Hurricanes Ida, Zeta, Barry, and Laura. . . . New Orleans’ need for an extension has been expected by FEMA for some time,” the lawmakers explained. 

The letter is available here.

WASHINGTON—Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), which has jurisdiction over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), today raised concerns with Chairman Gary Gensler about privacy and national security threats that the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) poses.

“The most obvious and necessary step the SEC can take to is to eliminate the collection of all PII under the CAT. Collecting and storing PII serves no regulatory purpose, it’s unconstitutional, and the SEC’s ability to monitor potential risks in the equity market will not be diminished without PII,”explained the senators. 

The CAT is set to begin collecting the personal and financial information (PII) of every investor that trades on U.S. stock exchanges this July. It will be one of the largest databases of PII ever created.

“Collecting the sensitive personal and financial information of individuals without any suspicion of wrongdoing is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Forcing broker-dealers to provide this information under threat of significant penalties compounds this unlawful government surveillance,” they continued. 

In October 2019, the Senate Banking Committee also learned that about 3,000 individuals will have full access to the PII collected by the CAT. The lawmakers note that this raises the possibility that employees of the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority or contractors working with the CAT could steal or misappropriate investor PII.

Background:

In April 2021, Kennedy introduced the Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act to prohibit the SEC from requiring that PII be collected under CAT reporting requirements.

FSGG ranking member Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) also signed the letter.

The full letter is available here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has cosponsored the bipartisan Rural Hospital Support Act introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Bob Casey (D-Penn.). The legislation would prevent rural hospitals from closing by extending and modernizing critical federal programs to keep them financially stable.

The bill would permanently extend the Medicare-dependent Hospital and Low-Volume Hospital designations that are set to expire on October 1 of this year. Additionally, it would update the year that hospitals can base their operating costs from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2016. Louisiana has as many as 48 small, rural hospitals that could benefit from this legislation.

“Rural Louisiana depends on our rural hospitals. The Rural Hospital Support Act would help provide reliable care and peace of mind to rural Louisianians and control costs for taxpayers,” said Kennedy.

“These programs bring a lot of value for rural residents and taxpayers. Small, rural hospitals offer good-quality health care at a cost that compares well with urban hospitals’ cost. Congress should extend the programs that help keep the doors open for rural Medicare beneficiaries,” said Grassley.

“Every American deserves reliable access to health care. Rural hospitals can be the difference between life and death in many parts of the U.S. Often, a rural hospital means not only safe, dependable access to health care and emergency health needs, but economic safety and stability for an entire community. This legislation takes an important step to maintain that lifeline, especially for older adults and lower income Americans. I will continue to work to bring federal funding to rural communities and make sure older Americans have the health care support they need no matter where they live,” said Casey.

The Rural Hospital Support Act is supported by the Louisiana Hospital Association, Beauregard Memorial Hospital (DeRidder, LA), LaSalle General Hospital (Jena, LA), Natchitoches Regional Medical Center (Natchitoches, LA), Abbeville General Hospital (Abbeville, LA), Franklin Medical Center (Winnsboro, LA), the Alliance for Rural Hospital Access, American Hospital Association and the National Rural Health Association

Text of the legislation is available here.