Media

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) made the following statement after learning that Congresswoman and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not seek re-election:

“My first vote in Congress, in January 2007, was to elect Nancy Pelosi the first woman Speaker of the House, and it was one of the votes I’m most proud to have cast. Nancy called me the ‘conscience’ of my freshman class of lawmakers elected in 2006. She is the reason we have the Affordable Care Act, which I dubbed Pelosicare. I wish her well in retirement.”

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), until recently the ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee, responded to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s decision to reduce air traffic by 10 percent in 40 major markets, including Memphis International Airport, with the following statement:

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) expressed guarded optimism that rulings by federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island will keep Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits flowing, at least in the short term. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had planned to withhold payments for the program, arguing it could no longer fund it because of the government shutdown, despite previously pointing to the available contingency funds as a way to maintain the program.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Representative on Political Prisoners, and Congressman Joe Wilson (SC-2), Co-Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, will introduce on Friday a House resolution supporting the designation of October 30 – today – as the International Day of Political Prisoners.

The resolution reads:

On the occasion of the International Day of Political Prisoners, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Azadeh Rojhan (Sweden, SOC) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on Political Prisoners, Steve Cohen (United States), made the following statement:

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) today wrote to Governor Bill Lee urging him to use state emergency reserve funds to extend benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) if they would otherwise lapse because of the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The letter reads: