Clarifying Jurisdiction with Respect to Certain Bureau of Reclamation Pumped Storage Development

Floor Speech

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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, may we have order.

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Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mr. President.

I am laughing because it was Senator Hoeven over there probably talking about you and me, Mr. President, and I just couldn't let that go unchallenged. Tribute to Paloma Chacon

Mr. President, with me today is one of my able colleagues from my Senate office, Ms. Paloma Chacon. Behind my back, some of my staffers call Paloma ``Kennedy's brain.'' They think I don't know that they are saying that, but it is probably true, and I want to thank her for her good judgment, counsel, and advice. New Orleans Mass Shooting

Mr. President, what I want to talk about briefly tonight breaks my heart, but it also makes me mad. But it does break my heart.

On Thursday, November 21, we had another mass shooting in New Orleans--this time in the French Quarter. It happened at the corner of Iberville and Royal Streets, across from Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse. Three masked men pulled up in a car and started firing. Bystanders testified they fired about 40 rounds. One person was killed. Three others were injured.

Some people, particularly back home, are probably thinking: OK. What else is new? Another mass shooting in Louisiana and in New Orleans. But this one was preventable.

One of the shooters, who was arrested--his name is Nicholas Miorana. Mr. Miorana is 28 years old. He has spent most of his adult life in prison. He is, based on his record, a career criminal. He served 7 years in prison for armed robbery. He got out. Shortly thereafter, in 2023, Miorana was arrested for a bunch of things: domestic battery, child endangerment, a series of gun charges, including being a felon with a firearm.

What happened next is disgusting.

In January of 2024, our district attorney offered Mr. Miorana a really sweet deal. Forget about the child endangerment. Forget about the domestic battery. Forget about all the gun charges.

The DA said: You can plead guilty.

He said this to Mr. Miorana: You can plead guilty to attempted possession of a firearm by a felon--attempted possession of a firearm by a felon.

What? Attempted possession?

I don't mean to be metaphysical here or teleological, but you either possess a firearm or you don't. I don't understand the ``attempted'' possession of a firearm. Maybe it was because, had Mr. Miorana been offered a deal--take it or leave it--for possession of a firearm as opposed to attempted possession of a firearm, which I didn't even know exists, it would have carried a 5-year sentence. Obviously, Mr. Miorana took the deal, and he appeared before Judge Leon Roche in our criminal court in New Orleans. Mr. Roche gave him probation.

Eight months later, while he was on probation, Mr. Miorana violated his probation, and his probation officer sought to revoke his probation. Then, 1 month later--nobody did anything about revoking his probation. So, 1 month later, Miorana was arrested for domestic abuse battery. He went back before Judge Roche. Judge Roche didn't revoke his probation. He just gave him house arrest and told him he had to wear an ankle monitor. That was in September of 2024. Then, a little bit later, Judge Roche decided to lighten even those conditions. He allowed Mr. Miorana to be free every day from 9 to 6--every day from 9 to 6-- supposedly, to go to work.

Beginning on October 8, Mr. Miorana violated the judge's orders every single day--every single day for 45 days. How do we know this? He had on an ankle monitor, and the monitor company reported to the district attorney and to Judge Roche that Mr. Miorana was violating the terms of his house arrest and ankle monitoring--45 days.

Do you know what the district attorney did? Do you know what Judge Roche did? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I have already told you how this story ends. Allegedly--I have to say ``allegedly''--he has been arrested for it anyway. Mr. Miorana and three of his buddies put on a mask, got in a Honda, killed somebody in the French Quarter, and shot three others. Mr. Miorana was caught. Do you know how he was caught? He had on an ankle monitor. He was caught within hours. This was a system failure.

I love New Orleans. I used to live in New Orleans. I earned a living in New Orleans. I met my wife in New Orleans. My son lived the first couple of years of his life in New Orleans. I love New Orleans.

What did Tennessee Williams say? ``America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everything else,'' Tennessee Williams said, ``is Cleveland.''

Now, before my friends in Cleveland get mad at me, I didn't say it; Tennessee Williams said it. But I think what Mr. Williams was trying to convey is what an extraordinary, unique, city New Orleans is. Every other State in America would kill to have a New Orleans. Twenty million people from all over the world come to visit the city in America which is perhaps the most European city and the most diverse city in our country. And I love New Orleans. But New Orleans deserves better.

I wish this hadn't happened. I wish there weren't more people in this world like Mr. Miorana. But there are some people in this world who just habitually, consistently hurt other people, and they take other people's stuff. I wish they wouldn't, but they do. I don't know why they do. If I make it to Heaven, I am going to ask. But they do, and they have got to be separated from society. And our judges and our district attorneys are not doing anybody--anybody--in New Orleans a favor by not putting those folks into jail. It breaks my heart. It also makes me mad. Turkiye

Mr. President, the second thing I want to just mention briefly, and I say this gently--respectfully, but gently--to President Erdogan, the distinguished President of Turkiye: Leave the Kurds alone. Leave the Kurds alone.

The Kurds, as you know, are wonderful people. There are probably 30 to 40 million Kurds throughout the world. Some we are blessed to have here in the United States. They live mostly in Turkiye, Iran, northern Iraq, and Syria. The Kurds are a distinct ethnic group. They are sort of a stateless country because they are spread all over the world.

The Kurds are America's friends. It hadn't been that many years ago since ISIS was rising high. ISIS had established a caliphate in the Middle East. That is a fancy word for a country. They established their own country in the Middle East, and America and other countries beat them back. We destroyed ISIS. They are still there, but we destroyed their caliphate.

The people most responsible for helping us, most responsible for destroying ISIS, were the Kurds. We lost less than 20 American lives in destroying ISIS in the Middle East. Our friends the Kurds lost over 10,000--10,000--fighting alongside of us. Over 30,000 Kurds were wounded. Without the Kurds, ISIS would still be there.

Now, Mr. Erdogan, the President of Turkiye, does not like the Kurds. I am not going to go into why. He is entitled to his opinion. But, right now, Mr. Erdogan has troops and tanks and weapons marshaled on the border between Turkiye and Syria.

As we know, the people in Syria finally had enough, and they overthrew Mr. Assad, their President. Predictably, Assad, who we think stole billions of dollars from the good people of Syria, is now, predictably, living in Russia. We are going to try to find his money.

Mr. Assad, like his father, is a butcher. He killed tens and tens of thousands of Syrians, and many of them he hurt the entire time they were dying.

To keep power and his money--a lot of which he made by dealing drugs--he used chemical weapons against his own people. And now the people in Syria are free of him.

Everybody else, stay out of Syria. President Trump has already talked about it. It doesn't mean we can't offer our advice, but we all need to stay out of Syria.

The defeat of Mr. Assad in Syria would not have happened but for Israel. We know that. You don't have to be a graduate of Cal Tech to know that. Israel destroyed Hezbollah, which was working with Iran, which was working with Russia to keep Assad in power.

Russia and Iran and Hezbollah were on the side of the butcher. But Russia is tied up in Ukraine. Hezbollah was holding down the fort while Russia was tied up in Ukraine. And Israel ignored the advice of many and just went out and destroyed Hezbollah.

Thank you, Israel.

But that is why the people of Syria today are free, and they are entitled to self-determination.

Mr. Erdogan in Turkiye, I worry, is going to invade Syria. I am not accusing him of anything, but I worry that he is because we have intelligence that he has many soldiers and many tanks and much equipment and many weapons right now stationed on the border between Turkiye and Syria. And our Kurd friends are afraid that Mr. Erdogan, because of his hatred for the Kurds, is going to attack now. The Kurds live very peacefully in northeast Syria.

My message today is: President Erdogan, I don't want to mess in the affairs of your country, but don't do it. Leave the Kurds alone. Leave the people of Syria alone.

Turkiye has problems now. Turkiye is supposed to be our friend. Turkiye is a member of NATO. Lately, they haven't been acting like our friend. Turkiye has its own problems. If we think interest rates are high in America, they are close to 50 percent in Turkiye. Some people think they are in a recession. Their inflation is between 40 and 50 percent.

If you invade Syria and touch a hair on the head of the Kurds, I am going to ask this U.S. Congress to do something, and our sanctions are not going to help the economy of Turkiye. I don't want to do that. Leave the Kurds alone.

My work here is done. I will show myself to the door, and I will suggest the absence of a quorum.

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