Financial Services and Banking
In light of the Great Recession of 2008, during which Memphis and the nation suffered an unprecedented foreclosure crisis in large part due to unfair, under-regulated and predatory mortgage lending practices, Congressman Cohen strongly supports efforts to prevent future foreclosure crises and dangerous housing market practices.
During the years preceding the mortgage crisis, too many mortgages were made to consumers without regard to the consumer's ability to repay the loans. Loose underwriting practices by some creditors contributed to a mortgage crisis that led to the nation's most serious recession since the Great Depression.
Congressman Cohen voted for the Dodd-Frank Act, signed into law in 2010 by President Barack Obama, to reform the U.S. financial industry in order to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 market crash, and continues to oppose efforts to reverse the protections put into the law as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act.
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MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Co-Chairman of the Helsinki Commission; Congressman Tom Malinowski (NJ-07), Co-Chairman of the Congressional Counter-Kleptocracy Caucus, and Congresswoman María Salazar (F-27) today wrote to President Biden asking him to sanction Russian oligarch Roman Abramovic and his ties to a New York-based financial consulting firm.
WASHINGTON -- Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Representative Steve Cohen and Ranking Member Representative Joe Wilson (SC-02) along with Counter-Kleptocracy Caucus Co-Chairs Representative Tom Malinowski (NJ-07) and Representative John Curtis (UT-03) and fellow Commission members, Representatives Richard Hudson (NC-08), Gwen Moore (WI-04), Ruben Gallego (AZ-07), and Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), as well as Representatives María Salazar (FL-27) and French Hill (AR-02) have sent a letter to House leadership asking that they consider immediat
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Co-Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, and the original co-sponsors of the Guaranteeing Oversight and Litigation on Doping (GOLD) Act, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Roger Wicker, Congressmen Joe Wilson, Richard Hudson, Michael C. Burgess, M.D., Tom Malinowski and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, released a joint statement on the ongoing doping scandal involving the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Co-Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, today questioned expert witnesses at a commission hearing entitled "Confronting Kremlin and Communist Corruption."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Co-Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, along with Ranking Member Joe Wilson of South Carolina, today introduced a Congressional Resolution to end recognition of Vladimir Putin as president of Russia after May 7, 2024, if the autocrat remains in power.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today spoke in favor of and voted to advance to the full House of Representatives, the Nondebtor Release Prohibition Act. The measure would, in part, prevent companies from avoiding the financial consequences of their actions by transferring liabilities to other legal entities and then filing for bankruptcy to avoid losses.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today voted for, and the House passed, a temporary increase to the debt limit so that the United States can meet its obligation to creditors through at least early December. The vote followed Senate action last week. The measure now goes to the president to be signed into law.
The party-line vote on passage was 219 to 206.
WASHINGTON – Congressmen Steve Cohen (TN-09), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), and Eric Swalwell (CA-15) today introduced the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act. This legislation would restore fairness in student lending by treating privately issued student loans the same as other types of private debt are treated in bankruptcy. Until 2005, this type of student loan debt was dischargeable in bankruptcy, but a change to the bankruptcy code that year removed that consumer protection.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the U.S. Treasury Department has awarded three Memphis-based community development financial institutions $2,838,265 to address economic challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic. The funding is part of the $1.25 billion going to 863 community development financial institutions announced Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) voted for, and the House passed, the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act with amendments that the Congressman offered and cosponsored to extend the bill's protections for consumers from predatory debt collection practices.