In The News

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis calls the Tennessee Promise last dollar scholarship program for community college and state technical centers “a fraud.”

And last week he said a plan by President Barack Obama to model a federal program on Tennessee Promise probably won’t get past the Republican majorities in the U.S. Senate and House.

Cohen has been critical of Tennessee Promise from the moment it was proposed in 2014 by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

At a townhall meeting Downtown last week, Cohen remained sharply critical of the program and Haslam personally.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) has reintroduced legislation requiring the Justice Department to maintain data on how many people are killed by police officers each year.

Cohen, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the legislation in December but filed it again for the new Congress that started this month.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has refiled legislation to require law enforcement agencies to report detailed information on police use of deadly force to a national database.

The bill, filed Tuesday and called the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act, would close a loophole in federal law that Cohen says prevents the adequate collection of comprehensive national data regarding justified and unjustified fatal interactions with police.

Long a proponent of taking the decennial congressional apportionment process out of the hands of politicians, Rep. Steve Cohen has once again introduced legislation to do just that.

The apportionment process, Cohen says, often leads to partisan gerrymandering. He favors an independent redistricting commission. On Thursday, Cohen reintroduced the John Tanner Fairness and Independence in Redistricting (FAIR) Act, which would create such a commission.

Nine members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation Thursday sent a letter to Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Marilyn Tavenner requesting an extension of TennCare’s waiver approval from earlier this year. Because Tennessee does not receive funding through the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital program that every other state participates in, the lawmakers are requesting continuing funds to support Tennessee hospitals that help tens of thousands of low-income patients receive medical coverage they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) has introduced legislation requiring the Justice Department to collect data on how many people are killed by police officers.

Reliable data on police shootings due to "excessive force" is not available because the Justice Department doesn't maintain a comprehensive record. The lack of such information has come to light after the high-profile deaths of African-American men by white police officers in Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, N.Y. and other cities in recent months.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Ron Walter, WREG’s president and general manager, will fill one of nine positions on the TVA Board of Directors.

The U.S. Senate approved Wednesday Congressman Steve Cohen’s recommendation by a vote of 86 to 12.

“I was pleased to recommend Ron Walter to President Obama, as I have known Ron for nearly 40 years and know of no finer citizen of our community,” Cohen said. “He is diligent in all things, active and well-loved in the community for his genuine, caring attitude.”

A group of democratic Congressmen wrote a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan Tuesday urging him to "carefully scrutinize" the proposed sale of for profit college behemoth Corinthian Colleges to a student loan debt collector with a troubled record. The debt collector, ECMC, has been criticized widely for hounding bankrupt students in court and using extreme arguments to deny borrowers any relief on their loans.