Sen. John Kennedy

Maddy summaryThis bill amends U.S. immigration law to classify certain driving under the influence (DUI) offenses as "aggravated felonies." It specifically targets convictions for DUI causing death or serious injury, regardless of whether the local conviction was labeled a misdemeanor or felony. Non-citizens convicted of such offenses - whether in state, federal, tribal, or local courts - would become inadmissible to the United States. The change applies to all relevant convictions, even if they occurred before the bill's enactment. This policy directly affects non-citizens with these specific DUI convictions, making them subject to immigration penalties like deportation or denial of entry.

Maddy summaryThe ENFORCE Act strengthens federal laws against child exploitation by clarifying what constitutes producing child pornography and removing time limits for prosecuting certain crimes involving child sexual abuse material. It adds these offenses to sex offender registration requirements, prohibits reproducing abusive images during legal proceedings, and creates a presumption for detainment before trial for violations. The bill directly affects federal prosecutors, courts handling these cases, sex offenders subject to registration, and victims whose images are involved. Key changes include ensuring evidence remains under court control and allowing victims access to depictions in the same manner as victims of child pornography cases.

Maddy summaryThis bill repeals an outdated requirement from the 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act that restricted how FEMA could award emergency contracts without bidding. It directly affects FEMA's contracting process during disasters, allowing the agency to enter contracts without soliciting bids under urgent circumstances. The bill requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit annual reports detailing the number, cost, and purpose of these emergency contracts, as well as how the repeal prevented waste, fraud, and saved taxpayer money. These reports must cover contracts entered during specific periods and include details about the states and disasters involved. The law aims to streamline emergency contracting while adding transparency through mandatory reporting.

FDA Modernization Act 3.0 This bill requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to publish an interim final rule implementing a provision of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 that authorized the use of certain alternatives to animal testing to support investigational use of a new drug.  The rule must replace references to animal tests, data, studies, models, and research with references to nonclinical tests, data, studies, models, and research throughout the FDA’s regulations governing investigational new drug applications, and may make other changes to the regulations as appropriate.  The rule must be published within one year of the bill’s enactment, and must take immediate effect as an interim final rule.

Essential Caregivers Act of 2025   This bill prohibits certain health care facilities from limiting the access of essential caregivers to residents of those facilities, including during designated emergency periods.   Specifically, the bill generally prohibits Medicare skilled nursing facilities, Medicaid nursing facilities, Medicaid intermediate care facilities, and associated inpatient rehabilitation facilities from restricting the access of essential caregivers to residents of the facilities, including during emergency periods in which visitation rights are otherwise restricted. During emergency periods, facilities may restrict access for an initial period of up to seven days and for one additional maximum seven-day period (if the additional period is approved by the state health department). Facilities may restrict access for a total of 7 days (or 14 days with the approval of the state health department) during an emergency period. Essential caregivers must agree to comply with any safety protocols set by the facility, which may be no more stringent for caregivers compared to those for staff. Caregivers who fail to comply with these requirements may be denied access, subject to an appeals process.

Maddy summaryThis bill amends the federal charter for the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association, updating its governance structure and operational rules. Key changes include redefining the board of directors as the governing body, shifting membership eligibility to be governed by bylaws, and adding strict restrictions: prohibiting political activities, stock issuance, dividends, and asset distributions to members during the charter's life. The bill also requires assets to be distributed per bylaws upon dissolution and eliminates the requirement for the foundation to maintain its principal office in Washington, D.C. As a procedural charter amendment, it directly affects the Foundation’s internal operations without creating new government programs or policies.

Maddy summaryThis bill, S 3453 ("No Bounties on Badges Act"), authorizes the Attorney General to offer rewards for information leading to arrests, convictions, or prevention of attacks against U.S. federal law enforcement officers. It specifically creates a program allowing rewards for tips about acts harming or killing officers, conspiracies to do so, or efforts to prevent such attacks. The law directly affects federal law enforcement officers (the targets of potential violence) and individuals who provide actionable information to authorities. It amends existing law to add this reward mechanism under Title 18, U.S. Code, section 3071, without restricting other bounty programs.

Maddy summaryThis bill removes the requirement to test methamphetamine purity for sentencing under federal law. It amends the Controlled Substances Act to eliminate purity thresholds in sentencing guidelines for methamphetamine offenses, as current methamphetamine is consistently over 80% pure (95.1% in 2024), making purity testing unnecessary. The bill directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to review and update sentencing guidelines for methamphetamine cases to maintain deterrent severity while focusing on factors like victim impact or weapon use. It directly affects federal prosecutors, courts, and defendants in methamphetamine trafficking cases by streamlining prosecutions and reducing laboratory burdens.

Stop Sextortion Act This bill criminalizes threats to distribute child sexual abuse material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. This practice is commonly referred to as sextortion . The bill also increases criminal penalties for related offenses that involve the use of child sexual abuse material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. Specifically, the bill establishes new federal criminal offenses for threatening to distribute child pornography or a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct with intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. An offense, or an attempt or conspiracy to commit the offense, is subject to criminal penalties. Additionally, the bill increases the maximum prison term for various offenses involving the sexual exploitation of children if those offenses involve the use of child pornography or a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct with intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress.

Maddy summaryThe Back the Blue Act of 2025 creates new federal criminal offenses for killing or assaulting law enforcement officers, judges, and certain public safety personnel (including firefighters and first responders) while they are on duty or because of their official status. It increases penalties for these crimes, including minimum 10-year prison terms for killing officers and longer sentences for assaults causing serious injury, with the death penalty possible for killings. The bill also adds a "flight to avoid prosecution" provision for those fleeing to evade charges for killing officers, expands law enforcement officers' rights to carry firearms in certain circumstances, and limits federal habeas corpus relief for individuals convicted of killing law enforcement officers. This legislation directly affects law enforcement officers, judges, and public safety personnel, as well as individuals who commit violence against them.