Homeland Security
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today voted for and the House passed H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act, whose Dream Act portion of the bill establishes a process for eligible immigrants brought to the United States as children to apply for legal permanent residency. The Promise Act portion of the bill provides a path to legal permanent residency for individuals who held or were eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) on January 1, 2017. The vote was 237 to 187.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a Member of the bicameral U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (known as The Helsinki Commission), today made the following statement commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
"NATO remains the most important and critical security link between the United States and Europe. NATO allies and partners in both Central and Eastern Europe have stood alongside the United States in joint peace operations in the Western Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) chaired the first hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties today for a hearing on the National Emergencies Act of 1976 and President Trump's declaration of an emergency on the U.S.-Mexican border. See his opening statement here.
Afterward, Congressman Cohen said:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee lawmakers are responding to President Trump's decision to declare a national emergency at the border. This move will allow for more federal money for the wall at the U.S. Mexico border.
Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) said he does not believe that the President's declaration is supported by the facts. He went on to say that "Apprehensions at the border have been declining for the last 18years and the drugs that enter our country mainly come through established ports of entry, not remote border crossings."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, today condemned President Trump's declaration of a state of emergency on the U.S.-Mexican border and made the following statement:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) tonight voted for, and the House passed, a spending package that will likely avert another government shutdown. The package, which includes $1.375 billion for barriers and bollard fencing but none for the President's requested border wall, will fund the departments and agencies covered by the Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, State-Foreign Operations, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills through September 30.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) watched President Trump's second State of the Union message to Congress on television at his office in the Rayburn House Office Building and released the following statement:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) reacted to news late this afternoon that President Trump has agreed to re-open agencies closed in the Trump Shutdown without the $5.7 billion border wall he had been demanding as a condition for ending payless paydays for 800,000 federal employees. The shutdown has lasted a record-breaking 35 days.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) voted for, and the House passed, 231 to 180, a bill to re-open the Department of Homeland Security through February 28 to provide time for the White House and Congressional Democrats to negotiate border security issues.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
"This is the 11th vote I've cast to re-open agencies of the federal government closed by the Trump Shutdown. It is time for the Senate to act and the President to sign these measures into law and get federal employees back to work."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today voted for, and the House passed, a ninth and tenth bill to re-open the federal government agencies closed by the Trump Shutdown. The first bill, H. J. Res. 28, would provide stopgap funding through February 28, 2019. The second bill, H.R. 648, would provide funding for shuttered federal departments, other than the Department of Homeland Security, through the federal fiscal year which ends September 30, 2019. Both were based on compromises that had previously gained bipartisan support.