Transcripts For CSPAN2 Louisiana Senate Debate 20161019 : vi

CSPAN2 Louisiana Senate Debate October 19, 2016

As a part of its coverage the Louisiana Public broadcasting sat down with some students from Louisiana Tech to see what issues are on their mind and they have a list of concerns they hoped the next senator would address. Its important they focus on the next president for the Supreme Court. One thing thats important i am a military brat myself and the Mental Health of our veterans i want a senator that focuses on the state i hope to live in and its important we figured out how to make education competitive but still affordab affordable. Despite their varied interests they share a common desire for the next senator to work with members of the opposing party they have to be open to compromise. I feel like in the past its been either left or right, black or white. I feel like with this push of younger people i want somebody that will be open to compromise and be firm and have their beliefs but also want the best for the country and the state of louisiana. As we learned in the video they see the issues in shades of gray but according to the poll conducted by the opinion research, 50 of those surveyed would rather the next senator stand up for their position rather than compromise with others even if it slows down the legislative action but the package for the flood relief for louisiana has the last moment would you be the type to stick to your guns were compromise and what is your past experience we will begin with mr. Campbell. Cambelle ive been hard to compromise on things i believe in. I have some great things for louisiana. When i was in the legislature, he didnt want to sue the tobacco companies. We get money to every classroom in louisiana and you have to know how to compromise and work with people. He had a very fe very few friene senate. I want to go to make friends. I know how to compromise and get things done. Ive been doing it for years. Regardless whos president and in control, thats been my record and Public Service, Veterans Club x. T delete the clinics i worked very hard for those that have to travel miles. I had to take on the leadership and i was able to get it done. I believe you have to get results. This almost fell apart on the day that we voted to get it done and my actions working along with the senator a bipartisan way, we were able to salvage the deal at the end to make sure and we got flood relief. So i know compromised principles but i get results. Thank you mr. Fleming. Im always happy to compromise with people on pieces of legislation that i will never compromise my values, the constitution or my principles. It is one thing to get things done and another to get the right things done. The congressman has gotten some things done like voting to raise the debt limit five times. He voted for cash for clunkers for heaven sakes. We need to stand up for americans. We have a 20 trilliondollar national debt. When will we stop compromising on that. We need to begin cutting spending and we all need to gather together to reform washington and that is exactly what im going to do. I try not to be rude but i speak my mind. I stand up to politicians or powerful from both parties and i thought it was in the taxpayerss interest in having said that, im proud of my legislatures to so 60 and let me take the 1. 2 billion put it into a trust fund they didnt spend a penny. I convinced the Louisiana Legislature to allow me to use the Unclaimed Property Program to help finish our 49 and make a meaningful star store, 49 south. I convinced the Louisiana Legislature to allow me to invest. It wasnt easy. I had to explain to them what i was doing. Its been one of the best investments ever made a so im proud of my legislative record. I was in the buddhist teacher at the time we got the money. You didnt vote on that. You were not in the legislature and you didnt convince them to save that money. Dont tell these people that you convinced the legislature. You had no vote. You were the treasurer, you might have been for it but you didnt vote for it because you had no vote so dont tell people you put a billion dollars away. You didnt have one vote. Moderator when will allow 3 we will notallow 30 seconds t. We had a bill i dont even know if yo you are still in the legislature we raised 1. 2 billion. We convinced not a single legislature to touch a penny of that and let me put it into a trust fund. Beware they are, youre right, but i convinced them along with some other really good people to allow us to sell it. It was pretty easy to convince them to sell it. What was toug tough is to get to put all 1. 2 billion in the trust fund. Moderator i imagine Fact Checking will be all over the place on this one. Right now what we are going to do is go to the last one. Fayard im going to let everyone else on the stage play and fingers and i will answer the question. On the flood package would you be willing to compromise. Let me make a pledge to all of you listening tonight and in the audience im going to put louisiana Families First day im always going to do what is right and in the best interest of the state and what is in the best interest right now is making sure that if the 64 parishes that have benefit by flooding in 2016 people get back on their feet and in their homes and we have to compromise. I am one that had to make a deal. You cant bully your way to the top. You have to stand for value. Im not going to compromise whether it is prolife, carrying about the American Worker but i will tell you that im also not going to make the claim of the politics so people are not in their homes in louisiana or albany. I will do what is right for our families. Moderator the next question comes from elizabeth. The stafford act is the statute that guide the nations response to federal disasters. In the recent disasters that have come under increased scrutiny for the restrictions placed. There is also concerns over what some see as loosening the criteria for the federal disaster declaration that end up costing the country millions. Do you believe that it needs to be reformed and if so, how would you change it . Boustany we took one step after the hurricanes katrina and rita and instead of appropriating separate money at the time that we did that, we created a separate Disaster Relief fund and having an endless way the stafford act needs to be reformed because fema isnt flexible. Ive dealt with this over at the time of the different hurricanes and the recent flood. They rotate people in and out so they have to start all over and have the time they dont know whats going on. They get misinformation and theyve misled local governments and cost them lots of money and weve had to go back to fight to rectify that problem. Yes, the stafford act needs to be reformed and we need more flexibility. It must be more respond to the local governments and stakeholders they serve. That is a fundamental issue that needs to be taken care of. Watching how people got to do their homes and their memorabilia and everything out on the streets it was a sad situation and i worked with my colleagues in the louisiana delegation to have proper funding that would go forward with that and we started with approximately 500 million to work to be done and i support that. Theres another area people in louisiana are affected and that is to flood the premiums theyve gone skyrocketing in the last few years. I helped lead the effort to make sure we got relief from homeowners so they could have be forced out of their homes. Congressman boustany didnt vote for that so its important we get behind the measures that are necessary. Kennedy if i make it to have in the first thing im going to ask is why bad things happen to good people because i dont understand. We have a lot of really bad things happen to a lot of good people. The march flooding in louisiana at the august flooding was just devastating. Our people need help and the stafford act can provide it. But the most important change, we need to require fema to listen. We need to require them to involve our state officials, local officials and taxpayers when they are making these decisions about where you can build and cant and how high you have to elevate your home and whether you should have to add all. Thats the biggest thing lacking you have these bureaucrats from afar in washington, d. C. You have to get a permission slip from them to do anything. With Hurricane Katrina i was working for the federal court at the time and my judge got assigned all of the results of the litigation if we dont exclusively with katrina under the Hotel Motel Program and they were trying to push people out of their house and there was a lot of litigation that came out of that and i learned the gap in the wall at that time and there has been some improvement but not enough. Renters are not addressed at all and we know that given the downturn in the housing crisis since 2008 and before, people are struggling to stay in homes and have ownership so we need to make some reforms on that and focus on the National Flood Insurance Program and reauthorize it for all the reasons mentioned and we need to cut administrative costs. I went into my house one time and it was kneedeep in water. I said i know all about it. Its a terrible situation because it causes all kinds of chaos and if you dont have the money, its really bad. Flood insurance doesnt cover living expenses. So we need every kind of program and innovation we can get. I am the only one up here that will admit we have manmade global warming. Louisiana isnt the same and isnt going to be the same so we need every program. We have people in baton rouge who flooded, never needed flood insurance, never happened in 500 years so our state and country is changing. We have manmade global warming. Moderator i was wondering if you could grade the federal response on a scale of 15 with one being unacceptable and five being terrific. Boustany i think its a three. Its gotten better and weve seen progress and improvement but we still have a long way to go. We see the problems with fema and the rapid rotation of person coming through and the problems with the fact there is information put out there so you need to straighten that part o out. It was ridiculous but the slowness of the response according to the mayor it was five or six days before they saw anybody from the federal government. I appreciate your questions but if you are not back in your home, it is a one. Its not good enough and we have to keep fighting. Cambelle 2. 5. [laughter] moderator okay. The next question. The oil and gas relationship is rocky at best. If they are complaining about regulatory onslaught most of the policies are either coming from the white house or federal agencies, not the u. S. House. Theres restrictions on offshore and onshore drilling and plans about a Financial Insurance and wellcontrolled role. As the next senator would you use such actions as a Regulatory Overreach or use of authority . Fleming im very protective of the energy. I serve on the Natural Resources committee in fact i am the subcommittee chairman and we deal with these issues and all these things and you are absolutely right the federal government is strangling the Energy Industry and theyve shut down the coal industry. They say that natural gas is a transitional fuel so i guess what they want us to do is live on windmills and solar panels. We need to let all these forms of energy compete in the marketplace and get away from the subsidies and nonsense to get away from those that are destroying the industry and jobs. Moderator mr. Kennedy. Kennedy mr. Obama thinks he can tax, spend and regulate americans into prosperity. And apparently Congress Agrees with him because for eight years they talked to him but havent done anything about it. Heres three things i will try to do in the senate. I will pass a ball that says if a bureaucracy opposes a regulation that has a 15 milliondollar impact, Congress Gets to vote on it. Number two i want to pass a law that says the bureaucracy wants to propose a rule that they have to play to three rules they will get rid of. Number three, im going to require a National Regulatory budget where we list all 67,000 of the regulation in the industry to comply with and forth, im going to try to pass a bill that would require every rule or regulation to have a sunset provision. I didnt talk to you in particular but you can use your time later. We feed and fuel the nation and its imperative the next senator takes this call and we have a working coach and we also have to balance clean air and water and transition to the energy of the future. We dont want to be behind. We need an approach for the state is beautiful and has plenty of resources and can take the lead here. I would also say we lost five gallant and 510 and its a Regulatory Overreach for the moratorium you have to have a champion that understands. It requires compromise from time to time and maintaining. Of course regulation can be too liberal. Lets talk about the industry. Im the only one up here that will say they ought to pay for it. There isnt one soul listening to the broadcast out of somebody tearing up your yard without paying for it. They write a big check. I want the state to be treated fairly and kept clean and i want the companies to pay their fair share. Boustany i am the only one up here taking substantive steps in a positive way that it in the results. I stopped the attempt to tax this industry. I also got legislation passed to stop the rule that is a Regulatory Overreach i got it passed the house. We need a senator that will get this done. I passed legislatio pass legisle new liability cap thats hurting them badly and killing jobs. The senate needs to act and get this done and thats what i will do in the senate. Im the only one up here that took the most important step in the last 50 years and that is devoted to lift the ban on the crude oil exports. Im proud of the vote. Why did we give the ability to sell and tell the producers they cant sell anywhere but here in the u. S. We have reached the point in that they view the candidates will pose questions to other candidates. These were determined by a prior drawing the candidates may ask a question for up to 30 seconds into the candidate being asked will have a minute to respond and defend the rebuttal will come from the cluster for 30 seconds. Its completed. Mr. Boustany you are first and you have a question. Jerking my time in Public Service ive been a staunch defender of the industry we just talked about. I stopped president obama when he wanted to put a tax on every barrel of oil and buy liquefied gas exports to lift the ban on the exports and passed bills in the house to stop the unnecessary regulation that i just mentioned and deal with the growing problem. So i want you to clarify your position on the legacy lawsuit issue. I am the only practicing lawyer on the stage, so im involved often in large cases where companies and plaintiffs go after each other sometimes Company Versus company. I would counsel everybody the way that i could counsel my client. Litigation is the means to him and end its important you manage expectations whether it is lawsuit it can be timeconsuming and costly expensive and there are no guarantees. Often times it seems when you have the approach the money isnt directed necessarily where it needs to go, but its going to take from a United States senator i will be honest we need to hold together a coalition of partners that will help restore the coast and that means taking care of the penalties making sure they are directed through the master plan based on siam. I appreciate your answer but im still baffled by one of my opponents that would suggest raising the billiondollar tax on this industry and that is the wrong approach. I believe the voters in louisiana are looking for someone whose principals have a track record of getting things done on behalf of the state every day thats been my service and i will continue to be a champion. Next a question for mr. Boustany. Cambelle i want to ask a question as a doctor not a politician. You are a physician and i know you have a compassion for people. You look after their health and that includes Mental Health. In louisiana we need help with Mental Health. My question is simple. One of our opponent has an ad where he jokes about suicide. Mental health is a big challenge for our state and nothing to joke about. Its important to my family. The question is do you think mr. Kennedy should apologize for joking about suicide . Stick i appreciate your views. Mental health isnt a matter for anyone. Many across the country have been affected one way or another. We all know someone that has a serious illness. I think its in my time and service to cosponsor bills and most recently a large reform bill we have to put it up there and take his easle seriously ano agree that he should apologize for making it a joking matter. As a dad i am really touchy about the supersize suicide ande feelings for people with mental illness. The whole family suffers, no disease like it and we have a lot of people that need help. I didnt like it at all. I was excited to hear about somebody drinking poison. I thought it was out of line. You have a question for mr. Kennedy. You are going to have to work 30 seconds. Your question for mr. Kennedy. Fayard Bobby Jindal Rubin and our finances but this year there was a bipartisan effort including the governor and the legislature to try to fix it and one was refinancing that would immediately provide a cash the h savings of 82 million to help health care and higher education. As the chairman of the commission, you have to vote on this measure. It passed 131. One. Keywords are one deciding vote so this means you either continue to support the constructive policies were despite being the top financial person in the state, you dont know what youre doing. Governor general to the number of things for louisiana but financing wasnt one of them. I was the first person to stand up and say that his decisions were going to lead us. And t

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