Homeland Security

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today extended his condolences to the friends, family and colleagues of veteran U.S. Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, who defended the Capitol during Wednesday's insurrectionist attack and later died off-duty. This follows the Congressman's statement Friday expressing his appreciation for the service of Officer Brian Sicknick, who was killed in the line of duty during Wednesday's attack by Trump loyalists.

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), who was in the House Gallery on Wednesday when the U.S. Capitol was overrun by insurrectionists, made the following statement on the death of veteran U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick:

"I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Officer Sicknick, who died defending the U.S. Capitol complex and those of us who work there from mob violence. I strongly support Speaker Pelosi's decision to lower the flags at the Capitol to half-staff in his honor.

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."