Press Releases

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) will be among a group of U.S. Representatives and Senators slated to join President Barack Obama on his historic trip to Cuba on March 20-22. President Obama will be the first president to visit Cuba in 88 years after announcing in 2014 that he intended to re-establish diplomatic relations with the country. In August 2015, Congressman Cohen joined U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and a bipartisan delegation of U.S. Senators and Representatives at the official re-opening of the United States Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today sent a letter to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) President and CEO Bill Johnson highlighting the inequalities in the TVA’s proposed pension cuts for its workers and executives.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today welcomed Senator Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) announcement that he will offer an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill when it’s considered before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to require the FAA to adopt minimum seat-size standards for commercial airlines, and work with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) to help advance this issue in the Senate.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today welcomed Senator Charles Schumer’s (D-NY) announcement that he plans to offer an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill to require the FAA to establish seat-size standards for commercial airlines. Congressman Cohen, a member of the House Aviation Subcommittee, is the author of bipartisan legislation in the House, the Seat Egress in Air Travel Act (H.R.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) today released the following statement on the decision to relocate the Director of the Memphis Veterans Administration Medical Center, Dr. C. Diane Knight to the Office of Primary Care Service Line at VISN 9 in Nashville, TN.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Congressman Jeff Denham (R-CA), members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today praised Amtrak for making their Pets-on-Trains pilot program permanent. Last year, Congressman Cohen and Congressman Denham introduced the bipartisan Pets on Trains Act, now law, which allows families and passengers to travel with domesticated cats and dogs on certain Amtrak trains. This law also gives Amtrak the flexibility to develop the details of their pet policy to best fit the service and their customers.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation, today announced that the Seat Egress in Air Travel (SEAT) Act (H.R. 4490) has gained bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) signed onto the bill as a cosponsor. The SEAT Act would require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a minimum seat size and minimum distance between rows of seats for the safety and health of airline passengers.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today received a perfect 100% score by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) for their 2015 National Environmental Scorecard. Congressman Cohen's score was the highest awarded to a member of Tennessee's Congressional Delegation. It far exceeds the 21% average score of the entire Tennessee delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.