Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul this week introduced the following amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These amendments are largely aimed at eliminating inefficiencies and wasted funds within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). As a fierce advocate for our nation’s armed forces, Sen. Paul believes these amendments will help ensure that DoD funds are spent on our most critical defense needs, as efficiently as possible. Below is the list of Sen. Paul's amendments with summaries. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Amendment No. 1543 – “Bonus for Cost Cutters” Allows U.S...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Rand Paul, and Congressman Ed Whitfield today met with Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz to discuss the immediate and long term future of the Paducah DOE site. The delegation, on behalf of the community, stressed the importance of DOE's commitment to cleanup and reindustrialization in Paducah in addition to securing a long term acquisition strategy and future for the site. “The Paducah DOE site is extremely important to the people of Paducah, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and to each of us,” stated...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mark Warner (D-VA) today introduced Amendment 1543 to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), known as Bonuses for Cost-Cutters. Building on the current federal law, the amendment would allow a U.S. government agency’s inspector general to pay a bonus of up to $10,000 when a federal employee identifies surplus or unneeded funds. “Federal employees, under the current law, have a perverse incentive to spend all of their agency’s annual budget before the end of the year. Through bonus incentives, my amendment will reduce the federal...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), U.S. Representatives Walter Jones (R-NC), Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY) and former U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) stood today with family members of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to announce new bipartisan legislation, S.1471, known as the Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Victims and Survivors Act of 2015. The legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), would require President Obama to declassify and make available to the public the redacted 28 pages...Read more

Washington, D.C. – Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced nine amendments to reform U.S. surveillance programs, enhance protections for American’s personal information and improve transparency regarding intelligence activities. Wyden and Paul called on Republican leaders to allow votes on amendments to strengthen privacy protections, rather than forcing votes on amendments that would water down the USA Freedom Act. The joint amendments would: · Amendment 1446: Require the government to get a warrant before collecting personal information from third parties · Amendment...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the fourth edition to ‘The Waste Report,’ which is an ongoing project highlighting egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government. In this latest edition, ‘The Waste Report’ exposes $8 million of waste spent by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on 7000 defective solar panels for a VA Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, that were never able to be turned on. ‘The Waste Report’ can be found HERE or below. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – $8 Million Defective Solar Panels In the latest example of a federal solar...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul made the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor tonight regarding the expiration of the PATRIOT Act. Below is the video and transcript of Sen. Paul's floor speech. CLICK HERE TO WATCH SEN. PAUL’S REMARKS ON THE EXPIRATION OF PATRIOT AC TRANSCRIPT Sen. Rand Paul : Tonight begins the process of ending bulk collection. The bill will ultimately pass but we always look for silver linings. I think the bill may be replacing one form of bulk collection with another, but the government after this bill passes will no longer collect your phone records. My...Read more

TREAT Act would increase access to evidence-based medication-assisted treatment WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and a bipartisan group of their colleagues introduced new legislation, S.1455, the Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment (TREAT Act) to expand specialized treatment for prescription drug and heroin addiction. The legislation would expand the ability of addiction medical specialists and other trained medical professionals to provide life-saving medication-assisted therapies such as buprenorphine (also called Suboxone) for...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul blocked attempts to extend the USA PATRIOT Act without amendments or debate on important reforms. Below is a copy of Sen. Paul’s video of his floor speech. CLICK HERE TO WATCH SEN. PAUL’S OPPOSITION TO THE USA PATRIOT ACT TRANSCRIPT Reserving the right to object, we have entered into a momentous debate. This is a debate about whether or not a warrant with a single name of a single company can be used to collect all the records, all of the phone records of all of the people in our country with a single warrant. Our forefathers would be aghast. One of...Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul yesterday successfully filibustered attempts to move to an extension of the USA PATRIOT Act. During the filibuster, Sen. Paul highlighted the need for an open and robust debate and amendment process in order to achieve comprehensive surveillance reform on domestic spying. The amendments, Sen. Paul will offer to the USA PATRIOT Act extension, are outlined below. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON AMENDMENTS TO USA PATRIOT ACT EXTENSION · Replace the PATRIOT Act extension with bipartisan comprehensive surveillance reform o Replaces the extension of expiring FISA...Read more