Finally, a Bipartisan Bill to Fund the Government Passes
Dear Friend,
This week, after years of gridlock, large majorities of both parties in Congress came together to pass a bipartisan bill to fund the government through 2014. The bill includes a number of provisions that will help Memphis and the citizens of the Ninth District, like increased funding for Head Start programs, Section 8 rental assistance renewals, and the TIGER grant program which is currently helping fund the Main2Main project. Keep reading to learn more about the bill and about what else happened this week.
Working Across Party Lines to Improve Our Country
Observing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Day of Service with Pastor Kenneth T. Whalum, Jr.
Extending a Lifeline to the Unemployed
Ensuring the Right to Vote Is Not Infringed
Fighting for the National Institutes of Health
Celebrating the Success of the Tennessee Lottery Scholarship Program
Taking Advantage of the Affordable Care Act
Protecting Taxpayers from Waste, Fraud, and Theft
Sheryl Lipman Moves Another Step Closer to the Federal Bench
Helping Memphians Get Covered
Supporting Healthy Diets and Reducing Hunger
Funding the Arts
United States Naval Academy Summer Programs
2014 U.S. Capitol Historical Society Calendars Are Available
Grant Announcements
Working Across Party Lines to Improve Our Country
In any true compromise, no one gets everything they want—and that is true of the bipartisan government funding agreement that Congress passed this week. But this bipartisan agreement is a responsible compromise that reduces the threat of government by crisis, provides stability for our economy, alleviates some of the crippling effects of sequestration, and restores funding for our disabled veterans. Many, including me, don’t support every provision in the bill but taken as a whole it is the right and necessary thing to do for our country.
Observing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Day of Service with Pastor Kenneth T. Whalum, Jr.
Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I will be observing the Day of Service by collaborating with Pastor Kenneth T. Whalum, Jr. and Seedco Mid-South to host an education and volunteer training event for Memphians to learn more about the Affordable Care Act and how they can help their communities enroll and take advantage of the law’s many benefits. I hope you will join me at Pastor Whalum’s New Olivet Baptist Church (3084 Southern Avenue) from 10 a.m. to noon on Monday (January 20th) to get trained as a volunteer so that you can help make affordable healthcare a reality for more citizens of the Ninth District. All citizens should have access to good, affordable health care.
Extending a Lifeline to the Unemployed
The government funding agreement that was reached this week makes good progress towards helping Memphians and all of the American people, but there is still much more we can—and should—do. The agreement did nothing to help the 1.5 million Americans, including 21,000 Tennesseans, who have lost their unemployment insurance in recent weeks. We must immediately extend the unemployment insurance program and extend this critical lifeline for people who have fallen on hard times. Workers, families and children across this country cannot afford another day of delay. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to extend unemployment benefits.
Ensuring the Right to Vote Is Not Infringed
Yesterday, a bipartisan bill was introduced to fix the portions of the Voting Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court last year. The right to vote is one of the most sacred constitutional rights we have, and discrimination based on race has no place in our electoral process. I am glad that this bill has been proposed and I have asked to be a sponsor.
Fighting for the National Institutes of Health
While $1 billion in sequestration cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that this week’s funding agreement restored will help continue important research into cures for some of the worst diseases and illnesses known to man, I regret that the NIH was not funded at the level it should be. As the nation’s true “Department of Defense” against threats to health, the NIH deserves to be protected from all of sequestration’s cuts and its funding should be significantly increased. I will continue doing all that I can to adequately fund the NIH so that it can fund cures for diseases like cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and AIDS.
Celebrating the Success of the Tennessee Lottery Scholarship Program
Monday is the 10 year anniversary of the establishment of the Tennessee Education Lottery. For twenty years as a Tennessee State Senator, I worked to create the Tennessee Education Lottery and provide scholarships to help Tennessee students and their families pay for their college education without amassing burdensome debt It took two decades, but the lottery to fund the scholarship program was finally established in January of 2004. Ten years later, the lottery has raised over $2.8 billion for Tennessee students and has proven itself an absolute success. Still, lottery scholarships need to be fully funded as I always intended. It is my hope the legislature will see to it that fully funded scholarships are at the top of the list for spending lottery revenues. That’s what Tennesseans expect. Before Congress finished its work for the week, I spoke on the House floor about how critical it is that we provide our students with opportunities to improve their lives like the Tennessee Education Lottery. You can watch my speech here.
Taking Advantage of the Affordable Care Act
Among the many benefits of the Affordable Care Act is free preventive care for services like mammograms that can detect breast cancer. A recent New York Times story noted that Memphis is “the deadliest major American city for African-American women with breast cancer.” A primary reason for the high mortality rate is late diagnosis, when the disease is harder to treat and has much lower survival rates. If you are at risk, please take a moment in the coming weeks to take advantage of provisions of the Affordable Care Act and get screened for breast cancer—it can help save your life.
Protecting Taxpayers from Waste, Fraud, and Theft
This week’s appropriations agreement included a provision—similar to legislation I proposed last year—to limit the risk of taxpayer dollars being wasted or stolen in Afghanistan by cutting $80 million from the Afghan Infrastructure Fund. The provision signifies that Congress recognizes that it is time for us to bring our troops home, for the United States to focus on our own infrastructure here at home, and for Congress to do a better job ensuring that taxpayer money is spent wisely. I’m glad we have this opportunity to reduce the U.S. role in Afghanistan, cut our deficit, and limit the risk of waste, fraud, and theft overseas.
Sheryl Lipman Moves Another Step Closer to the Federal Bench
On Wednesday, President Obama’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Ms. Sheryl Lipman, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with reviewing nominations to the federal bench. It was my pleasure to recommend Ms. Lipman to the President based on the agreement of a diverse and bipartisan screening committee that I formed to conduct interviews of nine potential candidates for the position.
Sheryl Lipman has proven herself a stellar attorney and I am confident that she will be a superb judge. Her breadth of experience, strong work ethic, and unimpeachable integrity easily made her the overwhelming first choice of the screening committee of local attorneys.
I am glad the President took my recommendation and nominated such a skilled Memphis attorney to the federal bench, and I am glad that the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent her nomination to the full Senate for final confirmation. When confirmed, she will serve the Western District of Tennessee with distinction and the people of Memphis well.
All Memphians should have quality health insurance and the President’s landmark Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare—is making affordable, higher-quality coverage available to people who have not had access to it in the past. Luckily, many who have been unable to afford quality coverage in the past are now eligible to enroll in Tennessee’s Health Insurance Marketplace. Open enrollment for coverage in 2014 will continue until March 31st. And if you do not have health insurance coverage, you may also be eligible to save money on your health care premiums in the Marketplace.
If you are on Medicare or your employer is offering qualified health insurance that you are enrolled in, you’re already covered and won’t need to enter the Marketplace for your health coverage. If you aren’t sure whether or not you should use the Marketplace to get insurance, call the Marketplace Hotline at 1 (800) 318-2596, visit www.HealthCare.gov, or call Tennessee’s navigator, Seedco, at (901) 528-8341. You can also call my office or the Marketplace Hotline to find out if TennCare (Tennessee’s Medicaid program) is a coverage option for you. If you are one of the millions of Americans who need health insurance, you can sign up for coverage for 2014 until the open enrollment period closes on March 31st, 2014. Visit www.healthcare.gov today to look at your options.
The Affordable Care Act is already working for families across the Ninth District. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 147,000 individuals in the district now have health insurance that covers preventive services without co-pays, $3.1 million in insurance premiums have been returned to consumers, and more than 5,000 seniors on Medicare paid a total of $5.9 million less for their prescription medications as we continue to close the ‘donut hole.’ Also, health insurance companies can no longer discriminate against patients with pre-existing conditions and young adults up to age 26 can now stay on their parents’ insurance plan.
Many of the Marketplace website issues that have been in the news have been resolved. However, the Marketplace website is only one tool that you can use to sign up for coverage. If you are having trouble accessing the website, please do not hesitate to call the Marketplace Hotline at 1 (800) 318-2596 or visit the Affordable Care Act Navigators at Seedco's Mid-South office at 22 North Front Street (Suite 900) for in-person help. Seedco can also be reached by phone at (901) 528-8341, and they will be hosting an informational session at Christ Missionary Baptist Church (480 S. Parkway East) from 6 to 8 PM on Tuesday evening. If you have any other questions, you should feel free to call my office at (901) 544-4131.
Supporting Healthy Diets and Reducing Hunger
I am proud to be able to tell you that I received a 100% on Food Policy Action’s scorecard for my record of supporting healthy diets, fighting hunger, improving public-health and reducing food-borne illnesses, and improving access to and affordability of food. As the only Tennessee federal legislator to receive a 100% score, it is an honor to be recognized for my work on these important issues. You can take a look at my scorecard here.
With federal and state funding being cut from programs across the board, it is good to see that specialty license plates are continuing to provide significant funding for Tennessee arts programs—more than any other state in the nation. Roughly two-thirds of state funding for the arts in Tennessee comes through the sale of specialty plates. Arts plates were created by legislation that I passed while in the Tennessee Senate and I spent many years working to ensure that the funding was not siphoned away from the Tennessee Arts Commission that has always worked so hard to promote the plates. In difficult economic times, arts funding is even more important. Artistic development pays great dividends in students’ academic success from language to science and math. I have continued support of arts legislation in Congress and I applaud the fine work of the Tennessee Arts Commission.
United States Naval Academy Summer Programs
Each year, the United States Naval Academy invites more than 3,000 students to Annapolis, Maryland, to participate in its summer programs. The Academy’s summer STEM program, which is now accepting applications here, gives rising 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders the opportunity to learn from some of the best college professors in the country and work in world-class lab facilities. The Academy’s Summer Seminars gives rising 12th graders the opportunity to find out if they have what it takes to be midshipmen by allowing them to experience the rigorous academics, physical challenges, and student life at the Naval Academy. More information about the Summer Seminar and how to apply is available here.
2014 U.S. Capitol Historical Society Calendars Are Available
My office currently has a limited number of 2014 U.S. Capitol Historical Society calendars available. If you would like to receive a calendar, please complete this short form on my website . Due to the rules of the House of Representatives, I am only able to mail calendars to residents of Tennessee’s Ninth District. Please feel free to share this email with other citizens of the Ninth District who may be interested in receiving one but who do not receive my eNewsletter.
I regularly release a list of grant announcements from federal agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation, and others. These federal funding opportunities are available to faith-based and neighborhood associations, nonprofits and other community organizations in the 9th District. The announcements are updated regularly on my website.
As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress