Highlighting the Devastating Project 2025 Agenda Being Enacted by Trump-Musk
Dear Friend,
This week, I returned to Washington and called attention to the many provisions of the Project 2025 GOP blueprint for Donald Trump’s second term that are being implemented in the chaotic frenzy of his first two months in office. I also spoke from the House floor and then voted against a disastrous Republican budget resolution, introduced a bill to prohibit Trump – or any future president – from holding a military parade for his birthday, watched Trump whipsaw the financial markets with his erratic tariff announcements, touted the major improvements made at the Memphis International Airport by federal infrastructure investments, introduced a bill to help protect debtors from unscrupulous collectors, visited with and congratulated our Congressional App Challenge winners, reminded constituents who want to fly after May 7 to get a Real ID, announced significant federal grants to Memphis Health Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, invited talented high school artists to participate in the Congressional Art Competition, and offered a baseball-themed Friday Flashback, a Bill Day cartoon, and a health tip. Keep reading and follow me on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram to see what I am doing as it happens.
Highlighting Devastating Project 2025 Agenda Being Enacted by Trump-Musk
Voting Against a Drastic Republican Budget Plan
Introducing the HAPPY BIRTHDAY Budget Act
Watching Trump Disrupt Markets with Erratic Tariff Announcements and Reversals
Touting IIJA Investments in Memphis International Airport
Introducing the Fair Debt Collection Improvement Act
Congratulating Our Congressional App Challenge Winners
Calling Attention to Real ID May 7 Deadline
Announcing $2.6 Million Grant to the Memphis Health Center
Applauding $897,000 NIH Grant to St. Jude
Inviting Participation in Congressional Art Competition
Highlighting Devastating Project 2025 Agenda Being Enacted by Trump-Musk
This week, I pointed out that Project 2025, the GOP blueprint for a second Trump Administration that Trump claimed to know nothing about while he was campaigning last year, is being rapidly implemented by Trump-Musk-DOGE. At a Highways and Transit Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, I noted that Project 2025 proposed ending federal support for public transit, which would be devastating to millions of people who rely on it. Trump-Musk are already implementing a variety of Project 2025 proposals, from cuts to the Social Security workforce so it won’t work for beneficiaries, to setting the groundwork for cuts in Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, to the elimination of expertise at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) so weather forecasting can be privatized and at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while exempting polluters from the Clean Air Act. They are stripping the Department of Education to the bone and furloughing thousands from other departments and agencies Congress created that they claim are bloated, inefficient, or unneeded. No one voted for this destruction of a working federal government, but many will suffer the consequences unless the public expresses its discontent so that we can swiftly reverse it. See my speech during a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on immigration in which I said Congress has surrendered its Constitutional prerogatives to Trump here.
Voting Against a Drastic Republican Budget Plan
On Wednesday night, I participated in the House floor debate on the Republican-sponsored budget resolution that proposes huge reductions in spending, likely on social safety net programs. I called it what it is — a tax cut giveaway for billionaires, paid for by hardworking Americans. When Republicans couldn’t pass the measure Wednesday night, they tried again Thursday morning and, unfortunately, it passed 216 to 214. See my release and my floor speech here.
Introducing the HAPPY BIRTHDAY Budget Act
On Wednesday, I introduced the Halting All Parades for Presidents’ Yearly Birthdays; It Risks Taxpayer Harm, Damages, And Your (HAPPY BIRTHDAY) Budget Act. The measure, drafted after press accounts of White House plans to hold a parade from the Pentagon to the White House on Donald Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14, would prohibit enacting such a plan and any future presidential birthday parades going forward. The measure notes that a proposed $92 million parade planned during the first Trump administration was abandoned and encourages Trump to consider alternatives to fighter jet flyovers for his birthday, including birthday cake, a round of golf or a bingo night. See my release on the measure here.
Watching Trump Disrupt Markets with Erratic Tariff Announcements and Reversals
Trillions of dollars were needlessly erased from 401(K) retirement accounts and savings plans by this irresponsibly erratic President’s threats to impose huge tariffs on our trading partners and then reversing course on most of them on Wednesday for 90 days. This is no way to run economic or trade policy, and the uncertainty it is causing is doing a lot of harm. Early on, the conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal called it “the dumbest trade war in history,” and most economic experts say it has been the worst policy decision ever. Trump himself mused recently that we could be in for a recession. I don’t recall anyone saying they voted to Make America Have A Great Depression Again.
Touting IIJA Investments in Memphis International Airport
On Tuesday, as the Ranking Member of the Aviation Subcommittee, I touted major improvements made at Memphis International Airport (MEM) because of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act and its $4 billion annual investment for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) at a hearing on airport infrastructure and safety. MEM improvements aren’t just a face-lift but represent a next-generation-level overhaul reflecting Memphis’ role as a logistics leader and gateway to the world. See my release on the hearing here.
Introducing the Fair Debt Collection Improvement Act
Also Tuesday, I reintroduced the Fair Debt Collection Improvement Act that would bar debt collectors from bringing legal actions involving a consumer’s debt for which the statute of limitations has expired. See details in my release here.
Congratulating Our Congressional App Challenge Winners
On Wednesday, I went to the Capitol Visitor Center to meet and congratulate 14-year-old Kennedy Jefferson and 11-year-old Cathryn Jeff, this year’s 9th Congressional District winners of the Congressional App Challenge. Their application intends to provide help for struggling students and get them on a path out of generational poverty and on a road to success. Kennedy is homeschooled, and Cathryn goes to the Math, Science, and Technology Magnet School in Marion, Arkansas. I am impressed by Kennedy and Cathryn’s coding skills and social awareness.
Calling Attention to Real ID May 7 Deadline
Anyone planning to fly after May 7 must have a Real ID card or a valid passport. The regular Tennessee driver’s license will not permit passengers onto domestic flights. Please be prepared with the required forms of identification before heading to your Department of Motor Vehicles, which is permitting walk-ins. See FAQs about Real ID requirements here.
Announcing $2.6 Million Grant to the Memphis Health Center
This week, I announced that Memphis Health Center Inc. will receive a grant of $2,685,248 to provide mental health and substance abuse services to patients through May 31, 2026 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. See my release here.
Applauding $897,000 NIH Grant to St. Jude
On Wednesday, I announced that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will receive a grant of $897,250 to study “dynamic RNA-protein assemblies and neurological disease” from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. See details here.
Inviting Participation in Congressional Art Competition
Again this year, I am soliciting artwork from 9th Congressional District high school students for the Congressional Art Competition. It’s an opportunity to recognize and encourage artistic talent across the country. The winner from TN-9 will have his or her work hung in the U.S. Capitol for a year. The deadline to submit artwork is Tuesday, April 22, at noon. See rules and details here. If you have further questions, contact my District office at (901) 544-4131.
With baseball starting up, I felt it would be good to flash back to my baseball hero as a child, the great Minnie Minoso. We met at an exhibition game in Russwood Park in 1955 when he -- through a white player because of segregation -- gave me a baseball and befriended me. That initial meeting and the fact that he felt he could not give a five-year-old child on crutches because of polio, the ball directly and had to hand it to a white player made a profound impact on me. We were friends for the rest of his life. This photo was taken at AutoZone Park at the 2007 Civil Rights Game where Minnie was my special guest. Minnie is now in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Thank you, Minnie, for so many kindnesses and for giving me so many thrills as I watched the box scores of every one of your games from the day I met you until you were out of the majors. Geoff Calkins wrote about Minnie and me in a nice column in 2021.
A Bill Day Cartoon -- "Trump's Tariffs"
Our country’s maternal mortality rate today is worse than it was 25 years ago, especially for Black women. Black women die in childbirth at two to three times the rate of white women. Yet, 80 percent of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable. I am a cosponsor of a resolution identifying the period from today, April 11, until April 17, as Black Maternal Health Week, helping to call attention to the problem and find solutions like my NEWBORN Act that I reintroduced last month. For more information about preventing maternal mortality, visit https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-mortality/index.html.
“Anyone sounding the all-clear on tariffs, or Trump economic policy in general, should be kept away from sharp objects and banned from operating heavy machinery…Trump’s post-pause tariff regime remains the biggest trade shock in U.S., and I think world history.” – Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman in a Substack post titled “Trump Is Stupid, Erratic and Weak.”
“This is the worst self-inflicted wound that I have ever seen an administration impose on a well-functioning economy.” – Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on CNN.
As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress