Press Releases

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced today that Porter-Leath has been awarded a $1,847,044 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support Early Head Start (EHS) Partnerships, part of President Obama’s Early Learning Initiative. This grant will be used to create and expand learning opportunities for infants and toddlers, providing comprehensive services like developmental and behavioral screenings as well as professional development for teachers and helping to increase parental engagement.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today criticized the use of Congressional video footage in a new campaign advertisement released by the Israeli Likud party, which is led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On several occasions both before and after the Prime Minister’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress last week, Congressman Cohen warned of the potential use of this footage for a political purpose. Use of video of House floor proceedings is prohibited by House Rules.

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) received the highest grade, 97%, awarded to a member of Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) for their 2014 votes. Congressman Cohen’s grade far exceeds the 43% average score of the entire Tennessee delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced today that two new federal grant programs aimed at eliminating the nationwide backlog of untested forensic sexual assault kits are now accepting applications. Congressman Cohen championed the funding needed to create these programs during last year’s budget negotiations and successfully fought to increase their funding by an additional $5 million.

[WASHINGTON, DC] – The United States House of Representatives today approved legislation introduced last month by Congressmen Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Jeff Denham (CA-10) which would allow families and passengers to travel with domesticated cats and dogs on certain Amtrak trains. The bipartisan Pets on Trains Act would also give Amtrak the flexibility to develop the details of their pet policy to best fit the service and their customers.

[MEMPHIS, TN] - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today defended Ambassador Susan Rice from charges in a New York Times full-page advertisement that she turned a blind eye to genocides in Rwandans and the Jewish people.

[MEMPHIS, TN] - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement after learning that his friend and hero Minnie Minoso passed away this morning:

"Ever since an exhibition game in Memphis where he--through a white player because of segregation--gave me a baseball and befriended me when I was only 5, Minnie has been a hero of mine. That initial meeting and the fact that he felt he could not give me, a child on crutches because of Polio, the ball directly and had to hand it to a white player instead made him my hero."

[WASHINGTON, DC] – The U.S House of Representatives has approved Congressman Steve Cohen’s (TN-09) amendment to cut short the “School-to-Prison Pipeline” and reduce youth incarceration in America by helping train school personnel in innovative conflict resolution methods that are less likely to result in non-violent juveniles entering the penal system. Currently, many school systems involve the police in non-violent incidents on school property, which helps feed the “school-to-prison” pipeline that is expensive and harmful to America’s youth.