Celebrating $393.7 Million Investment in a New Interstate 55 Mississippi River Bridge
Dear Friend,
This week, I joined with civic leaders and transportation officials from Tennessee, Arkansas and Washington, D.C. to celebrate the announcement that the Mid-South is getting a new Interstate 55 bridge across the Mississippi River at Memphis. I expressed profound disappointment and outrage at the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and condemned the divisive rhetoric that animates dangerous people with access to guns. I also recognized the major investments that are making our region an economic engine, applauded the President’s imminent signing of the DNA Analysis Background Act into law, and offered a health tip reminding constituents of the availability of the 988 crisis intervention telephone line. Keep reading and follow me on Twitter (X), Facebook and Instagram to see what I am doing as it happens.
Celebrating $393.7 Million Federal Investment in a New I-55 Mississippi River Bridge
Condemning Senseless Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump
Recognizing Memphis and the Mid-South’s Growing Economic Heft
Applauding DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act Becoming Law
Celebrating $393.7 Million Investment in a New Interstate 55 Mississippi River Bridge
Thursday was a big day for Memphis and the Mid-South as I joined Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt, officials from both Tennessee and Arkansas state governments, and other civic leaders to celebrate the kick-off of a new Interstate 55 bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis. There are a lot of people who like to talk about infrastructure, and I am proud to have voted for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IJJA), which provided funding for this project, but I am saddened that no Tennessee or Arkansas Republican Congressperson joined me in voting for it. I worked alongside leaders in Memphis, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the Arkansas Department of Transportation, who all drafted the initial plan, and brought it to the final planning stage. I led the effort to advocate for this grant and spoke directly with Secretary Buttigieg and the Federal Highway Administration in support of the proposal. This is my proudest achievement in Congress and is the largest single infrastructure investment ever made in Memphis or the state of TN, and it’s going to mean safer, smoother traffic flow for millions of people and will help facilitate billions in economic activity each year.
Condemning Senseless Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump
I condemn in the most vehement terms the attempted assassination of Republican Presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump last Saturday evening in Butler, Pennsylvania. This kind of violence has no place in our political discourse, and efforts must be made to tone down the strident rhetoric that motivates this kind of mayhem. I am relieved to see Trump was not seriously injured but grieve for the victims injured and the volunteer firefighter killed in the crowd.
Recognizing Memphis and the Mid-South’s Growing Economic Heft
As I said Thursday at the dedication of the new Interstate 55 bridge, the eyes of the nation are on us as a regional economic powerhouse. Memphis has long been a river and railroad crossroad and home to FedEx’s logistics hub but soon we’ll see the realization of several other major investments in our region, many in part to investments made by the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. Ford Motor Company’s BlueOval City, a $5.6 billion mega campus, will create approximately 6,000 new jobs in Haywood County. Cummins, Daimler Truck, and PACCAR’s $2 billion battery-making joint venture, Accelera soon will create more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs near Memphis just over the state line in Mississippi. Several companies are locating in northeast Arkansas, the new epicenter of American steelmaking, including U.S. Steel’s new 6.3-million-ton mega mill, which will bring 900 new jobs to the area. And, of course, the much-discussed xAI Gigafactory of Compute, the largest supercomputer ever built, is set to become operational next month in the former Electrolux factory in South Memphis. Our economic engine is purring.
Applauding DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act Becoming Law
President Biden is set to sign into law the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, a bill I led with Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO). This is the second Democratic bill to come out of the Judiciary Committee to be signed by the President this Congress, both of which I was the lead Democratic sponsor on. This legislation will authorize the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program at the U.S. Department of Justice through 2029, providing resources to local law enforcement agencies to test rape kits. The backlog of untested rape kits is a national scandal, and this extension of the law will help remedy an unconscionable failure and solve sexual assault cases.
Many Americans don’t know where to turn in a mental health crisis. Tuesday of this week marked the second anniversary of the 988 system, a 24/7 crisis telephone helpline created by Congress and signed into law in 2020. Unfortunately, recent polling indicates 76 percent of the population has never heard of the 988 system. Please keep this number in mind and share it with others so that people needing help can know someone is there for them.
“Nature has given woman the same powers, and subjected her to the same earth, breathes the same air, subsists on the same food, physical, moral, mental and spiritual. She has, therefore, an equal right with man, in all efforts to obtain and maintain a perfect existence.” – Abolitionist Frederick Douglass at the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s convention organized by women, which got under way at Seneca Falls, New York, on this day in 1848
“When , in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed.” – Opening lines of the Declaration of Sentiments, adopted at the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention organized by women, which got under way on this day in 1848.
As always, I remain,
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress