Remembering My District Director Marzie Thomas
Dear Friend,
I am saddened that my dedicated, caring, and well-known District Director, Marzie Thomas, has passed away. This week, while the House was not in session, I introduced the POST Act, reviewed a Judiciary Committee analysis of the financial impact of Trump’s pardons and commutations, signed on to an amicus brief standing up for Congressional spending authorities and life-saving science funded by federal grants, announced a prestigious National Science Foundation grant to a University of Memphis physicist, commemorated Juneteenth, recognized the valor of the police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on June 6, 2021, celebrated the “Gulf of Memphis,” and offered a health tip, a Friday Flashback and a Bill Day cartoon. Keep reading and follow me on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram to see what I am doing as it happens.
Remembering My District Director Marzie Thomas
Finding Trump’s Corrupt Pardons Cheated Victims of $1.3 Billion
Defending Congressional Authority and Supporting Life-Saving Research
Announcing a National Science Foundation Grant to the University of Memphis
Commemorating the Juneteenth Federal Holiday
Recognizing the Sacrifice of Our Capitol Police
Remembering My District Director Marzie Thomas
District Director Marzie Thomas and a memorial wreath on the District Office door
Marzie Thomas, my longtime District Director, has passed away. An extremely talented administrator, she understood the district and did an outstanding job meeting my constituents’ needs because of a deep familiarity with them as a 16-year newspaper reporter, editor and publisher for The Tri-State Defender. She served first as my special assistant for veterans’ affairs and community outreach beginning in August 2007, became my Deputy District Director in 2009 and became District Director in 2013. She attended Booker T. Washington High School and LeMoyne-Owen College, and she was also a fine soloist in the choir at East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church, a wife, mother, grandmother -- and a good friend. She will be sorely missed.
On Wednesday, I joined Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois in introducing the Protecting Our Students and Taxpayers (POST) Act to adjust the percentage of federal support going to for-profit educational institutions. See my release on the measure here.
Finding Trump’s Corrupt Pardons Cheated Victims of $1.3 Billion
The Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee conducted an analysis of the nearly 1,600 pardons or grants of clemency by President Trump since his second term began in January and found that they deprived offenders’ victims and taxpayers of about $1.3 billion owed as restitution or fines. See the analysis here.
Defending Congressional Authority and Supporting Life-Saving Research
The Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force, of which I’m a member, on Tuesday led 152 House Democrats in filing an amicus brief challenging the Trump Administration’s illegal and devastating cuts to life-saving medical research grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The brief defends Congress’s Article I authority to appropriate federal funds and advocates for every American who relies on crucial life-saving biomedical and public health research conducted at universities, medical schools, research hospitals, and other scientific institutions across the country. See the House Judiciary Committee's release on the brief here.
Announcing a National Science Foundation Grant to the University of Memphis
On Monday, I announced that the University of Memphis and Physics Professor Dr. Shawn Pollard will receive a $326,110 grant to study the electrical properties of certain metals. See my release here.
Commemorating the Juneteenth Federal Holiday
Thursday was the fifth time Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when African Americans in Texas learned slavery had ended, was celebrated as a federal holiday. See my statement commemorating the occasion here.
Recognizing the Sacrifice of Our Capitol Police
Speaker Mike Johnson has declined to place a brass plaque in the U.S. Capitol honoring the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Washington Police officers who defended the Capitol and those who worked in it on January 6, 2021. So, every Democratic member of Congress has placed a replica of the plaque next to their office doors. This is our way of showing we appreciate their service and sacrifice.
President Trump signed Executive Order 14172 on January 20 officially renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” and tried to bully The Associated Press and others who declined to recognize the name change. I have now placed a depiction of the “Gulf of Memphis” outside my office door in the Rayburn Building in Washington. It’s getting a lot of positive attention.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, the National Institute of Mental Health has some good guidance on being “stressed out.” See it here.
A Bill Day Cartoon – “War Talk”
This is me with my friends Congressman John Lewis and Peter Emerson at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on March 2, 2018.
“I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I'd be without you” – “God Only Knows” by Brian Wilson of The Bech Boys. Wilson, who passed last week, would have turned 83 today.
“Lives were being ruined and few hands were raised in help. Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?” – Playwright Lillian Hellman, discussing McCarthyism. She was born on this day in 1905.
As always, I remain
Sincerely,
|
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress