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Dear friends:
Last month the city of Mandeville lost one of its finest. Mandeville Police Capt. Vincent “Vinny” Liberto was killed in the line of duty keeping us safe. St. Tammany is my home parish, and I know the city of Mandeville is hurting from the loss of one of their own. We often go about our day unaware of the officers who are always on call protecting us. I want to say thank you to all our law enforcement offices. God bless you and your families.
Here are a few of things I’ve been working on during September:
Returning $26 billion to you
I’ve been working hard to reunite you with $26 billion in unredeemed savings bonds that are locked up at the U.S. Treasury. After a lot of discussion, Treasury agreed to create an online tool that will allow you to search for bonds dated after 1974. This is the first step toward reuniting the money with the rightful owners. As chairman of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Subcommittee, I also advanced an FSGG appropriations bill that provides the money needed to digitize the older, more fragile records on savings bonds. We’re going to do right by the American people and return the money that grandmothers invested in their grandchildren by buying savings bonds.
Disaster Declaration for Louisiana Fisheries
Earlier this year, high water in the Mississippi River resulted in the Bonnet Carre Spillway being opened for a record-setting 123 days. As a result, freshwater diverted from the Mississippi River wreaked havoc on the fishing industry in Lake Pontchartrain. I joined the Louisiana delegation in urging U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to approve a disaster declaration for the seafood industry. Hundreds of Louisiana families rely on the industry to make a living, and too often natural disasters can wipe out a family’s livelihood. The Commerce Department approved a fisheries disaster and will allocate disaster funds to fisheries that are eligible.
Securing Funding for Seafood Inspections
Louisiana produces the best seafood in the world, but our market is flooded with foreign seafood full of dangerous antibiotics. Bad seafood reaches our dinner tables because the U.S. can’t inspect enough of what comes into this country. I’m working to fix that problem and promote healthy, Louisiana seafood. As part of the agriculture appropriations bill, we secured an additional $1 million for the Food and Drug Administration to conduct safety inspections of foreign seafood. We need to make sure the seafood we are eating is safe to eat.
Opposing a Nationalized Election System
Some members of Congress are pushing for an election system that would put the federal government instead of statesin charge of the elections. What makes our elections safe is the multitude of layers that would have to be hacked. States received $380 million before the 2018 midterm elections to shore up the security of their systems. Even though they only spent a fraction of the money ahead of the elections, there were no successful security breaches. We are a self-reliant, tax-adverse union of states. States have always run their own elections, and it’s worked. Click here to watch my speech on why we should not adopt a nationalized election system.
Senator Sightings
I met with Col. Stephen Murphy, the new commander of the New Orleans U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Col. Murphy gave me an update on the work that the Army Corps of Engineers is doing in New Orleans.
It’s always an honor to meet with Louisiana veterans. William Ward, of Monroe, is 99 years young and stormed the beach at Normandy.
I had a great visit with first responders and plant managers in Gonzales. They’re working together to protect the community.
It’s always great catching up with my people in Louisiana. I had a great time meeting with folks from Union Parish.
Grant Roundup
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