Government Reform

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) tonight voted to make Juneteenth – June 19 – a national holiday, recognizing the anniversary of that date in 1865 when enslaved residents of Texas learned of their emancipation at the end of the Civil War. The House vote was 415 to 14. After the Senate's passage of the resolution on Tuesday, the measure now moves to President Biden's desk to be signed into law.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09), Barbara Lee (CA-13) and Bobby L. Rush (IL-01) will hold a virtual forum on the FBI's notorious COINTELPRO program recently featured in the Academy Award-winning film "Judas and the Black Messiah," which dramatizes the FBI-orchestrated assassination of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969. The forum will be on Monday, May 10, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) joined a bipartisan, bicameral letter to Administrator Isabella Guzman encouraging the Small Business Administration (SBA) to implement the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) emergency relief program Congress established to keep small businesses such as local music venues, movie theaters, museums and zoos across the country open and operating.

The letter reads in part:

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, welcomed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – "Secretary Pete" -- to his first committee hearing today and raised issues involving the Byhalia Connection Pipeline, the adequacy of Federal Aviation Administration passenger seat safety testing, Memphis' high pedestrian fatality rate and truck safety.

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a hearing on "the Need to Expand Eligibility Under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act." The hearing explored the impact of downwind and other radiation exposure from nuclear bomb testing and uranium mining and other uranium workers during the Second World War and during the Cold War, and the need to compensate the many victims not currently eligible under RECA.

During his opening statement, Congressman Cohen said:

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, applauds the Committee for passing his bill, H.R. 390, to redesignate the Federal Building located at 167 North Main Street in Memphis as the "Odell Horton Federal Building," . The bill was passed by a voice vote and is now eligible for consideration by the full House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), joined by Congresswomen Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), today introduced the Fair Debt Collection Improvement Act that would prohibit debt collectors from collecting or attempting to collect debt from consumers after a statute of limitation has expired.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today voted for, and the House passed, the Dream and Promise Act, providing a path to citizenship for young people brought to this country as children. Before the vote, Congressman Cohen spoke from the House floor during debate on the measure.

In those remarks, he said, in part:

"These Dreamers are trained in America. They've been educated in America. They're talented. They're smart.