A Smarter Approach to Prosecuting Non-Violent Drug Offenses and Reducing Racial Disparities
Dear Friend,
I always enjoy the time I am able to spend in Memphis, being with friends, and in my home. The weather has been glorious this week and Elvis and Tiger Football are in the air. We’ve been meeting with lots of groups and individuals as well as our constituents and mentioning our accomplishments and disappointments. Keep on reading to learn more about my week.
A Smarter Approach to Prosecuting Non-Violent Drug Offenses and Reducing Racial Disparities
Helping Children of Immigrants Contribute to America
Better Choices for Memphis and American Families
Fighting to Prevent Increased Hunger in America
50th Anniversary of the Great March on Washington
Helping Grow Our Economy on Presidents Island
Grants to Memphis
Affordable Care Act Navigators
Grant Announcements
A Smarter Approach to Prosecuting Non-Violent Drug Offenses and Reducing Racial Disparities
Monday afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech in which he announced a long-overdue shift in policy. As I’ve been calling on President Obama’s Administration to do for years, Attorney General Holder announced that the Department of Justice will overhaul its draconian prosecution policies for non-violent drug offenders that adversely and unequally impact people of color and minority communities.
I have long been a vocal critic of prison overcrowding and unfair sentencing practices, and was a cosponsor of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 which reduced the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Prior to President Obama signing our bill into law, those arrested for crack offenses—mostly young, African American men—were subject to far harsher penalties than those arrested for powder cocaine offenses, who are more likely to be Caucasian. An offender arrested with a mere 5 grams of crack-cocaine would have faced the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as an offender arrested with 500 grams of powder cocaine—but that is no longer the case. And, according to a recent ACLU report, more than 83% of those arrested in 2010 for marijuana possession in Shelby County were African American—and African Americans were 4.2 times more likely to be arrested here than Caucasians.
By making this announcement, Attorney General Holder renewed the Obama Administration’s dedication to making sure our nation’s policies better align with our ideals, the goals of our judicial system, and our laws. We can no longer continue hoping that imprisoning the most number of people for the longest amount of time will keep our streets safe or help rehabilitate non-violent offenders—we already know that it doesn’t work, and we know that our current policies unfairly harm African American and minority communities. While there is still more that can be done and much more work for us to do, I am glad our government is taking this important step towards a smarter, fairer, and more just approach to addressing drugs in America.
Helping Children of Immigrants Contribute to America
Unfortunately, at a time when the nation needs jobs, improved infrastructure, a comprehensive immigration bill, and a fully effective Voting Rights Act, the Republican Congress remains focused on obstructing President Obama at every turn. While they have so far been able to block both comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act—which I support—the President has still been able to work around their stubbornness.
One year ago today, the Department of Homeland Security began implementing an executive order that President Obama signed called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The order provides young people who were brought to the United States as children with temporary protection from deportation if they can demonstrate that they meet several criteria. This move by the Administration helps protect young people who were brought here by no choice of their own from deportation—and works around Congress’ failure to pass the DREAM Act.
While I support DACA and am glad that it has already helped more than 430,000 young immigrants, we cannot forget that we must still pass the DREAM Act and pass a comprehensive immigration reform plan. DACA is not law and could be reversed by a new President—while a law cannot be. I will continue working to push Congress to vote on these important policies.
Better Choices for Memphis and American Families
This week, a dozen organizations from across the political spectrum thanked me for leading a successful effort to curb wasteful and risky spending in the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Department Appropriations bill. We need to rein in our overgrown defense sector and protect taxpayers as well as critically important projects, programs and agencies—from the NIH and early childhood education to infrastructure and food stamps—from the disastrous effects of thoughtless sequestration cuts. We must make smarter, more thoughtful decisions.
Our nation’s priorities should better align with those of our nation’s people—and that means winding down our outsized overseas spending and reprioritizing projects here at home. Pentagon leaders admit they do not need as much money as Congress continues to give them—but sequestration’s impact on NIH research projects affects all Americans, cuts to the SNAP program threaten the more than 1 in 4 Shelby County residents who rely on food stamps to adequately feed their families, and bridges and roads across the country are deteriorating. Instead of funding wars, we should be focused on finding cures, feeding and educating our children, and rebuilding America.
Fighting to Prevent Increased Hunger in America
On Tuesday, I joined more than 200 of my colleagues in the House in sending a letter to Speaker John Boehner calling on him not to push more Americans into hunger by not including funding for nutrition programs in the Farm Bill. Republican leaders in the House recently forced through a Farm Bill that did not reauthorize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Nearly 270,000 residents of Shelby County rely on SNAP to adequately feed themselves and their children—that’s more than double the number in any other county in our state. It is critical for those families, and for millions of other families across the country, that Speaker Boehner craft the Farm Bill to ensure that we don’t increase hunger in this country.
50th Anniversary of the Great March on Washington
A public ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington will be held in DC later this month. If you are planning to be in our nation’s capital August 24th-28th, please let my office know—there may be additional events you will want to attend and I want to make sure you are aware of them. Just call my Washington, DC office at 202.225.3265 or send an email to patrick.cassidy@mail.house.gov.
Helping Grow Our Economy on Presidents Island
Tuesday evening, I joined Mayor A C Wharton and other local stakeholders for a briefing about the Presidents Island Multimodal Expansion Project that is competing for a $35 million TIGER Grant from the Department of Transportation. If awarded, the grant would facilitate expansion of industry on the Island by adding increased rail capacity and would improve Memphis’s economic competitiveness. After the briefing, I joined several local officials and leaders on a bus tour of the project site to get a first-hand look at how it will help grow our region’s economy. Our city won a $15 million competitive TIGER grant for the “Main Street to Main Street” project, which includes the construction of a walking and biking trail spanning the Mississippi River via modifications to the Harahan Bridge. With the support of local officials and stakeholders, I am working very hard to secure another one of these highly competitive grants that bring jobs and businesses to Memphis.
This week, I announced nearly $1.75 million in federal grant funds to Memphis organizations. University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis was awarded more than $185,000 for important research relating to traumatic brain injuries. The University of Memphis also received more than $300,000 for a research project that aims to help software developers. The Mid-South regional office of Seedco also received more than $1.2 million—read the next section for more information on what they’ll use this funding for.
Affordable Care Act Navigators
Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation’s (Seedco) Mid-South regional office was awarded $1,216,013 in funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Navigator grant program. This funding will be used to help provide in-person assistance to area residents who want additional help in shopping for and enrolling in plans available through the health insurance Marketplaces that will open this fall.
Seedco’s Navigators, in partnership with other local organizations, will be trained to provide unbiased information to consumers about the Health Insurance Marketplaces, qualified health plans, and public programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. They will also be trained on adhering to strict security and privacy standards – including how to safeguard a consumer’s personal information – and will be required to meet these standards. They will be subject to federal criminal penalties for violations of privacy and fraud statutes, on top of any relevant state law penalties.
I regularly release a list of grant announcements from federal agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation, and others. These federal funding opportunities are available to faith-based and neighborhood associations, nonprofits and other community organizations in the 9th district. The announcements are updated regularly on my website.
As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress