Homeland Security
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today introduced the Baseball Diplomacy Act to eliminate barriers to Cuban athletes entering the U.S. on non-immigrant visas only for the duration of the baseball season. The measure would allow players to retain their Cuban citizenship and return to Cuba with their earnings, rather than having to renounce their citizenship and abandon their families to play baseball in the United States.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
MEMPHIS – Congressman Cohen (TN-09) today announced that Shelby County Schools have received a $1,847,530 grant from the Department of Homeland Security and its Federal Emergency Management Agency to construct a safe room at Belle Forest High School. The grant will go toward the design and construction of a tornado safe room on the campus of Belle Forest High School. When school is in session, the safe room will be able to protect 1,187 students and 118 staff members of the school, for a total of 1,305 occupants.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today introduced legislation and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced a companion bill in the Senate to address the epidemic of childhood obesity in America. The measure, the Reducing Obesity in Youth Act, has implications for the future health of these children and has a bearing on future national health care costs and national security.
Today, one in three American teens and children are overweight or obese, placing them at risk of a host of cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
MEMPHIS – Congressmen Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Don Beyer (VA-08) today wrote to President Trump and urged him to abandon plans to liquidate the unarmed surveillance airplanes used to assure compliance under the 2002 Treaty on Open Skies. The Trump Administration announced that the U.S. would unilaterally withdraw from the agreement last week. Cohen and Beyer maintain the decision should be made by the next Administration and note that the Trump Administration did not comply with a required 120-day notice to Congress of plans to withdraw from the treaty.
The letter reads in part:
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, today announced a Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grant of $2 million to the City of Memphis. Over the past decade, Congressman Cohen has been a leader in efforts to increase spending under the initiative, and Memphis has receive substantial resources under the program. At its peak, the rape kit backlog reached 12,000 untested kits in Memphis alone with an estimated 400,000 sitting in evidence rooms nationwide.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) remembered the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and made the following statement:
"We all remember what we were doing when we first heard and saw the horrors of 9/11. I was at Ground Zero weeks after the attacks and saw the wreckage of the Twin Towers. The losses suffered by the FDNY and NYPD have been in my thoughts ever since. Nineteen years on, we highly resolve never to forget those we have lost and promise to take care of all survivors and their loved ones."
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the City of Memphis will receive a $38,011 Fire Prevention and Safety grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The grant is intended to reach high-risk groups and reduce injuries caused by fires.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
"This funding is a smart investment in fire prevention, and I know Memphis will use it wisely. Firefighters save lives and property and are the indispensable heroes always prepared to keep our community safe."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the City of Memphis will receive a grant of $200,505 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Program.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
"This funding is especially welcome during this pandemic when local resources are stretched thin. The Memphis Fire Department is doing an excellent job under these trying circumstances and I'm pleased this grant will help."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) tonight applauded the inclusion of his priorities in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a measure providing for our national defense in the fiscal year that begins October 1. The measure, which passed the House 295 to 125 and for which Congressman Cohen voted, includes language that authorizes a $2 million multi-drone/multi-sensor intelligence program that will be housed at the University of Memphis.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, today introduced the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Second Screening Act. The bill would permit passengers being screened at TSA checkpoints to opt for a second electronic screening, rather than an automatic physical pat-down, when they believe they have produced a false positive result because of inadvertent movement or mistakenly having a foreign object in a pocket.