-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with me today is one of my colleagues from my office, Ms. Candice Humble. She is a member of my communications team. She is not responsible for anything I say.

I am losing her. She is not leaving government; she is going to work for the White House. Today is her last day, and I asked her to come down so that I could thank Candice publicly for all of her extraordinary work and for giving so much to the people in Louisiana and to the American people. Iran

Mr. President, about 90 percent of my personal and political philosophy is, don't hurt someone unless they are trying to hurt you first, don't take other people's stuff, and leave me alone--let me live my life, exercising the free will and responsibility that God gave-- which leads me to my first topic: Iran.

I am not talking about the people of Iran. I am talking about the political and religious leadership of the Government of Iran. I am talking about the Ayatollah and his followers.

In America, we separate government from religion. Not in Iran, thanks to the Ayatollah. The government tells you what religion to practice. The government is the religion.

Now, everybody has the right to believe what they want. I will tell you what the Ayatollah believes. He is Muslim, but his strain of Islam says that if you do not agree with his interpretation of God, then you deserve to die. You do. And he acts on that belief.

Now, let me say again, the Ayatollah is entitled to believe what he wants. I was raised a Presbyterian. My parents founded two Presbyterian churches. When Becky and I got married, Becky was a Methodist, and I was a Presbyterian. We compromised: I became a Methodist. I am entitled to believe what I want. But the Ayatollah not only thinks that I am going to Hell because I don't agree with his religion; he wants to kill me. He wants to kill Americans and Israelis and anybody who does not believe in his jihad and drink our blood out of a boot. And he has acted on that. I don't need to tell the Presiding Officer. I don't need to tell the Presiding Officer. He has acted on that, and that is not acceptable.

Now, a lot of the people in Iran--the good people in Iran--don't agree with the Ayatollah. If they disagree with him too loudly, he just kills them.

The Ayatollah--it has actually been the case for the last--I don't know--10, 15, 20 years--the Ayatollah has decided he wants a nuclear warhead. Why should we care? I hear from some of my fellow Americans all the time: Why do we need to be involved in Iran? Why should we care?

Well, No. 1, we are not trying to start a war in Iran; the President is trying to end a war in Iran. If the Ayatollah gets a nuclear weapon, he will use it. He could use it against America. He could use it against Israel. I don't know who he will use it against, and I hope I am wrong, but he will use it.

Do you know what else will happen as soon as he gets a nuclear weapon? Saudi Arabia is going to get a nuclear weapon, and the UAE is going to get a nuclear weapon, and Japan is going to get a nuclear weapon, and South Korea, and I could go on and on and on. The more nuclear weapons you have in the world, the more likely you are to have a nuclear war.

But that is not the only thing the Ayatollah has done since he became the Ayatollah. He exports terrorism. He was the person behind Hamas and Hezbollah that have killed so many people throughout the world--not just in the Middle East but across the world--including but not limited to Americans. That is why we ought to care.

The Ayatollah also has conventional ballistic missiles and is building more as we speak. Now, those missiles can't reach America yet, but they are working on one. And they can sure reach our military bases in the Middle East, and they can sure reach Israel. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. That is why we should care.

Finally, the Ayatollah, if you disagree with him--and we have seen it happen on TV. We don't know how many people he has hung in the last 6 months. We don't know how many people he has tortured. I have seen estimates as high as 50,000.

So that is what this business with Iran is all about. We are not trying to be the world's policeman; we are trying to stop the Ayatollah from being the world's policeman. He is getting a lot of support from President Xi Jinping in China and Vladimir Putin in Russia and Kim Jong Un in North Korea. So that is where we find ourselves trying to stop this war.

To the Ayatollah, I would say: Ayatollah, you are entitled to believe what you want. You can hate me. You can believe that. I know you hate me and what I stand for. You know how I sleep at night knowing that you hate me? With the fan on. That is your right. But you can't act on that belief. Put down the nuclear weapons. Put down the nuclear enrichment. Stop exporting terrorism through Hamas and Hezbollah. End your missile program. Stop killing and torturing your people.

That is all we want, and he is doing that as we speak. He is at war; we are trying to stop it.

I am not about to give the President any advice. He has intelligence that I don't have, and I respect the fact that he is being very deliberate and careful in making a decision. If we make a deal with Iran, let's make sure we have a protocol to enforce it because, in my experience in watching the Ayatollah through the years, I wouldn't trust this man if he were 3 days dead. I wouldn't trust him if he were 3 days dead. Anybody whose religion tells them that in order to be saved, they have to go kill hundreds of millions of people--you can believe it if you want, but as far as I am concerned, it is time to get a new religion.

That is what we are doing in Iran. Let me say it again. We are not trying to start a war. This war began a long time ago. We are trying to end it. Our President presiding today knows exactly what I talked about. He served honorably--at great physical, mental, and emotional expense--in the Middle East. That is what we are trying to stop. New Orleans

Mr. President, topic No. 2: New Orleans. I love New Orleans. I am not from New Orleans. I used to live there. I met my wife there. I used to live uptown. I used to practice law in New Orleans. I taught a little while in law school in Baton Rouge, but my first teaching job was going to be in New Orleans before I moved to Baton Rouge. I love New Orleans--one of the most unique cities in the entire world.

So what I am about to say, I say from my heart with love and affection and as a former resident and frequent visitor. Here is my message to the political leadership in New Orleans: Get your act together. Get your act together.

I don't go to New Orleans that I don't hear from my people down there: We need affordable housing. We need affordable housing. We need affordable housing.

Let me tell you something. We spend a lot of money on affordable housing in America, billions every year--the American taxpayer. Not State money. Not local money. This is American taxpayer money. We take that money and send it to States and local governments to build affordable housing for people who can't afford a home, because the American people are so generous.

We do that through what are called housing agencies. Every State that I am aware of has a housing agency, and many local governments have a housing agency. The State housing agencies and the local housing agencies take the Federal money and use it--given to them out of the goodness of the American taxpayers' heart--to create affordable housing.

We have been doing that for years in New Orleans. There is a local housing authority. We call it HANO, the Housing Authority of New Orleans. It is run by a board of commissioners appointed by the mayor. Last year, I think we gave them $70 million. By ``we,'' I mean the American taxpayer. They have been around since 1937.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans has a spectacular and impressive record of graft, corruption, mismanagement, incompetence, theft. Do you think I am kidding? I came with receipts. It got so bad from 2006 to 2009 that Housing and Urban Development in 2009 had to take them over-- the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

From 2006 to 2009, the chief financial officer of HANO stole $900,000 of taxpayer money. A few years later, the guy running HANO's section 8 voucher department just took a voucher for himself and paid his own rent. The skillethead got caught. Boy, that really gave us confidence.

In 2007, the Feds had to step in and investigate--I think in some cases, they prosecuted--a vendor kickback scheme. In 2014, the director of the Housing Authority of New Orleans was investigated for giving out $1 million in no-bid contracts. Guess who they went to. The director's friends. An audit in 2010 found--our auditors couldn't find $7.2 million.

I could go on. I could give you a list as long as King Kong's elbow.

Now I am going to tell you about the most recent episode that has made me want to stick my head in the oven. We have a housing project in New Orleans called the Guste Homes complex. It is in a part of our city called Central City. It is pretty big. It is not particularly well run, but it is pretty big. It has a 12-story building that houses apartments, and I think they have some townhomes as well.

We provide housing--``we,'' once again, being the American taxpayer-- to the elderly and the disabled. They can live there.

And the Guste Homes complex--I call it Guste Homes--is run by HANO, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, the board of commissioners appointed by our mayor.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans has an administrator--and I am not denigrating her. I don't know anything about her. I am just telling you what is going on. But the board and the administrator of the Housing Authority of New Orleans don't run Guste. They are supposed to. They went and hired a management company to run Guste. And the management company, its overhead is about $8 million a year. I am not kidding you. That is money that doesn't go to provide housing to people; it goes into their pocket.

I was looking up one of their consultants. They hired a consultant--I don't think she works there anymore--a Mrs. Sherri--I am going to mispronounce this name--Sengsouvanna. Never met her. I do know that from 2003 to 2024, HANO gave her $660,000 as a consultant. I looked her up.

Here is the way she describes herself:

I am an author, a grief mentor, and an entrepreneur who has built a career around helping others navigate loss and find spiritual healing.

Six hundred and sixty grand to her as a consultant; isn't that special?

Well, now, the management company and HANO, they stopped paying the water bill for the people who live in the housing. They have run up a water bill for $1.5 million. They say they don't have the money, and the water company predictably says: Well, hey, we are going to have to cut off your water.

What are we going to do with these 310 folks--elderly, disabled--that the American taxpayer gave money to for their housing?

And now HANO is saying, you know, don't pay the water bill. The water bill is wrong.

I don't know who is right and who is wrong, but I will tell you what else HANO was saying. HANO was saying the Guste project is a mess. Even though we have hired consultants out the wazoo and given them money, we have got a big vacancy rate--no kidding. They don't have running water. We have got a big vacancy, and there is too much deferred maintenance so we want to start over, and, by the way, we want the Federal Government to give us $60 million.

When donkeys fly.

Now, we have got a new mayor in New Orleans. I am delighted we got some new council people. They have got to do their job. I don't want to hear that we are not responsible for HANO. The mayor appoints them. Get rid of the thieves. Get rid of incompetence. Don't come back and ask for more money to fix your mistakes from the American taxpayer. The good people of New Orleans deserve that. They deserve better. Do better. The people living in this complex deserve better.

I have had enough. I have just had enough. Fix it. And if you say: Well, New Orleans--I know, it is a sanctuary city and they have their political beliefs and, by God, they are entitled to them. That is America. You can believe what you want. OK. And they may disagree with the current administration in Washington. That is fine too. This is America, and that has really got nothing to do with this.

But you need to clean up your own act first. I don't know how. I can't tell you how to do it, but the American people gave at the office. I can't tell you how to do it. Maybe you are going to have to borrow the money. Maybe you are going to have to actually raise taxes on the people of New Orleans; I hope not. But at some point--at some point--the money has got to come from somewhere.

Get your act together before you come back to me or anybody else in Washington, going: You got $60 million dollars lying around? Not only can we not pay the water bill, we want to tear the whole thing down and build a new one and have somebody else pay for it.

Gag me with a spoon.

Anyway, I am going to miss Candice. Thank you for your good work, Candice.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, since we have a little time, I know we have got the vote coming up, and I am certainly not going to delay that. I like my life too much. But I want to spend a few minutes talking about the Department of Commerce.

I had this discussion the other day with our Secretary of Commerce Mr. Harry Lutnick, for whom I have great respect. One of the Agencies in the Department of Commerce is an Agency called the Census Bureau. And I know that sounds like they count people--and they do--but they have a multitude of responsibilities. One of their responsibilities is to define the poverty level in America, tell us who is poor.

According to the Census Bureau, if you are single in America and you make $16,000 or less, you are poor; you are below the poverty level. If you are a family of two and you make $20,000 or less, you are at or below the poverty level; a family of three, $27,000; family of four, $32,000.

We take that seriously in America. Other countries let you die in a ditch. We don't do that in America. It is one of the reasons we spend $1.4 trillion a year helping our neighbors who are poor. In our country, if you are hungry, we will feed you; if you are homeless, we will house you; if you are too poor to be sick, we will pay for your doctor. That separates us from just about every other country in the world.

I have been all over this world. I know the Presiding Officer has too. In other countries, they will just let you die in a ditch. We don't do that in America. Mr. President, $1.4 trillion is how much we spend every year. That is taxpayer money. It didn't just fall from Heaven--we thank Heaven for it--it came out of people's pockets.

If you go talk to the Census Bureau--I pointed this out to Secretary Lutnick--if you go ask the Census Bureau how many poor people we have in America, they will tell you 11 percent--1 out of 10 Americans. It has been that way since 1974. We have been spending $1.4 trillion a year, and the poverty level hasn't budged. Eleven percent, they will tell you, and they will shout it from the rooftops.

When they get a letter from another Agency saying ``We need some help to research how many poor people we have in America today,'' they will tell you ``Eleven percent. Eleven percent.'' They are lying. It is a bald-faced lie. Do you know why? Because they don't count--they refuse to count all of the public benefits the American people give to the poor. According to the Census Bureau, the only thing that counts is if you get cash from the Federal Government. We call that welfare. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. We have another program I think that pays cash; it is called WIC.

But according to the Census Bureau, that is the way you define if somebody is in poverty. You look at how much money they make, and on top of that, we consider cash transfer payments from the Federal Government, and when you do that, 11 percent are poor. What planet and what solar system did these people parachute in?

Do you know what they don't count? I will tell you what they don't count. They don't count earned income tax credits. If I make a low enough income myself--let's say I make $15,000 a year. I have to pay tax on that, file a tax return, but if I do, I get an income tax credit. It is called--it is refundable. That means the IRS sends me a check. The American people pay for that, but the Census Bureau says that doesn't count in determining the poor.

Do you know what else they don't count? They don't count food stamps. Huh? Real strong drugs is the only possible explanation for them to not even count food stamps.

Do you know what else they don't count? Housing subsidies, section 8 vouchers, getting to live in a place for free.

Do you know what else they don't count? Utility bill subsidies. They don't count Medicaid. They don't count free school meals.

Do you know why? Because if they counted it, do you know how many Americans would be living in poverty? One percent. And that is an actual fact.

I am going to give you an example. Let's suppose you are a mom with two kids, and you are poor. You work, and you make $11,000 a year, OK? In determining whether that mom is poor, the Census Bureau counts her income and counts any payments she gets, as I said, from welfare. But that mom with two children making $11,000 a year is going to get back from the Federal Government $4,100 in refundable earned income tax credits.

Remember what I just talked about? The Census Bureau says: Oh, that doesn't matter; not real money.

That mom is going to get back $3,400 in a check in child tax credits. That mom is going to receive $9,200 in food stamps. That mom is going to receive $9,500--or at least she will be eligible to receive it--in housing subsidies. That mom is going to receive $900 in utility bill subsidies, $16,000 in Medicaid for her and her two children, and $31 a year for free school lunches at school for her two kids. Let's suppose that on top of that, she gets $6,600 a year in welfare payments.

Remember, the Census Bureau says that all this stuff doesn't count. The only thing that counts is that the lady works and makes $11,000 a year, and she gets $6,600 in welfare payments, so her income is only $17,600, and she is below the poverty line.

Wrong. You don't have to be Euclid to be able to figure out that if you add up the TANF money and the $11,000 that she earns and the refundable child tax credit and the refundable earned income tax credit and the food stamps and the housing subsidies and the utility bill subsidies and the Medicaid and the free school lunches that I have just talked about--do you know what her income is? It is $64,100 tax free. Yet the Census Bureau says she is below the poverty line.

Now, look, I am not here to begrudge this lady, this hypothetical person. I am going to say it again: The American people are the most generous people in the world. We help our neighbors. But the American people put up this money, and they ought to get credit. And when the Census Bureau, which has been telling us since 1974--they have been lying to us. They have been lying to us. They learned to lie over there before they learned to talk.

They need to redefine the poverty level in America and the definition of ``poverty.'' It is the Census Bureau's job, and that is what I talked to the good Secretary Howard Lutnick about. I talked to him in committee, and he said he would work on it. I thank him for that, and I am going to chase him like he stole Christmas until he does. I am going to chase him like he stole Christmas and Thanksgiving. He can do it with a rule or regulation. I have introduced a bill.

Again, the purpose of this is not to take any money away from anybody; the purpose of this is to tell the American people the truth-- that they are the most generous people in the world and they should be proud of that.

This mother, this poor mom of two--she is not just getting around $17,000 a year; she is getting almost $65,000 a year tax free, but the American people get no credit. And do you know why? Because there are so many people in the bureaucracy--they want us to think everybody is poor so they can go back and back and back to the taxpayer.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary Lutnick, with all the respect I can muster, please fix this. Please fix this. And I am going to keep bringing it up until you do.

I will pass a bill if I can, but it is going to be kind of tough. The short way home here is to have the Secretary--I don't mean disrespect-- to have the Secretary do his job.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask that the scheduled rollcall begin immediately.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source