Working to Prevent Childhood Hunger in Memphis and Around the Country
Dear Friend,
This week, the House passed my amendment to help prevent children from going hungry, President Obama moved to help more than 100,000 Tennesseans burdened with student loan debt, and a new report showed that 60,000 Ninth District citizens will receive a raise if Congress increases the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. Keep reading to learn more about what happened this week.
Working to Prevent Childhood Hunger in Memphis and Around the Country
Ensuring Veterans Receive the Timely, High-Quality Treatment They Deserve
Banking on Students
Preventing Diabetes in Memphis
Giving Tennessee Students Better Opportunities
Helping Small Businesses and Minority-Owned Businesses Succeed
Raising the Minimum Wage for Hardworking Memphians
Righting the Injustices of Outdated, Racially-Biased Laws
Grants for Memphis
President Obama Seeking Mentors for Young People
Make Sure to Claim Unclaimed Property
Working to Prevent Childhood Hunger in Memphis and Around the Country
For many young people in Memphis and around the nation, one of their most exciting days is the last day of school before it lets out for the summer. But for others—like the less fortunate children in our country—school letting out has a more negative consequence: hunger. More than 16 million children in America, or one in 5 of all children in the wealthiest nation in the world, are at risk of going hungry. That isn’t right.
One of the wealthiest nations in the world should not send its children to bed hungry. Last week, I joined the Summer Food Kickoff at Emerald Square in support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program. The program provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children get the nutrients they need to learn, play, and grow throughout the summer months when free school lunches are not provided to them.
And I am pleased to tell you that on Wednesday the House passed my amendment to the Agriculture appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2015 to add $3 million in funding to the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program, which allows the USDA to study alternative approaches to provide food assistance to low-income children in urban and rural districts during the summer months. My amendment will help prevent hunger and make sure that children in Memphis and throughout the United States are able to lead happy and healthy lives. You can watch a video of me offering the amendment on the House Floor here.
Ensuring Veterans Receive the Timely, High-Quality Treatment They Deserve
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a new access audit showing that a significant number of veterans have been forced to wait too long to receive the treatment they deserve at VA Medical Centers around the nation, including at the Memphis VA. Any delay in providing care to the brave men and women who risked their lives for our safety is unacceptable, and I have consistently pushed to give the VA the resources and personnel needed to provide timely care.
While the Memphis VA, under the leadership of Director C. Diane Knight, has implemented the recommendations of the VA Inspector General, this report is disappointing and underscores that more still needs to be done—not only in Memphis but around the country—to fulfill our commitment to our veterans. I will continue working with President Obama and members of both parties in Congress to fix these problems and make sure that everyone who has served this country in uniform receives timely, high-quality care at the Memphis VA or any other VA Medical Center.
This week, President Obama acted to give borrowers of student loans the ability to cap their student loan payments at 10% of their monthly income. As the father of the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship, I’ve always worked hard to ensure that higher education remains affordable for students and families.
I agree with President Obama that we need to do more to bank on our students, and I support his move to help reduce costs for more than 100,000 Tennesseans with student loan debt. This week, I also met with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to discuss our efforts to make college more affordable through the “Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act” that I have cosponsored. Senator Warren’s legislation would allow borrowers to refinance their student loans at lower rates, a change that the U.S. Department of Education estimates that 25 million Americans could take advantage of to save roughly $2,000 over the lifetime of their loans.
I am disappointed that Republicans in the Senate blocked the chamber from even considering Senator Warren’s bill, but I will continue working with my colleagues in the House to pass this legislation and provide more relief to nearly half a million hard-working, responsible Tennesseans.
Preventing Diabetes in Memphis
This morning, I joined an open house for Methodist South Hospital’s Diabetes Wellness and Prevention Center to discuss the rising tide of diabetes diagnoses in Memphis. As a member of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, earlier this year I hosted a forum—part of my “Building a Healthier Memphis” series on wellness in the Ninth District—to discuss this disease, which impacts our minority community more than any other population, and to highlight ways to help reduce this disparity. Thanks to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, insurers are now required to cover preventive care services without charging co-pays or deductibles and insurance plans cannot discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions like diabetes.
Giving Tennessee Students Better Opportunities
This week, a Tennessee Lottery player in Knoxville won an almost $260 million Powerball jackpot. This is obviously great news for the winner, who has not yet come forward, but also good news for students throughout our state. I am proud of my decades of work as a State Senator to create the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship program, which since its inception has provided more than $3 billion to help our state’s young people attend college. As college costs skyrocket and college degrees become more important, it is critical that we do everything we can to keep college affordable for hard-working students and families. Every dollar spent on lottery tickets in Tennessee directly helps students and their families attend high-quality colleges, and that is good for our state and our economy.
Helping Small Businesses and Minority-Owned Businesses Succeed
Memphis is home to many well-qualified small-business owners who do great work. They are the heart of the Memphis economy and play a critical role in our nation’s economic recovery. After years of hard work, my persistence paid off when the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded a $1 million grant to start the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Center in Memphis. The MBDA is the only federal agency created specifically to foster the establishment and growth of minority-owned businesses, and the Memphis Business Center has helped our minority businesses secure loans and expand. Earlier this year, I was happy to announce that the MBDA Business Center in Memphis had won an additional $250,000 of federal funding.
Today, I am pleased to invite small business owners and entrepreneurs from the Ninth District to this year’s Federal Procurement Fair, which I’ve hosted annually since 2010 to help give our city’s minority-owned businesses and small businesses the expertise they need to navigate the federal contracting process and an opportunity to gain a competitive edge as they work to grow their businesses and create good-paying jobs right here in Memphis. My Federal Procurement Fair will be held at the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis on Monday, June 30th, beginning at 9am. If you plan to attend, please RSVP by emailing cohen.procurement@mail.house.gov.
Raising the Minimum Wage for Hardworking Memphians
This morning, I highlighted a new report from Oxfam America showing that an estimated 60,000 Ninth District citizens will receive a raise if Congress increases the national minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The organization’s new report also showed that roughly 548,000 Tennesseans, or about 22% of our state’s workforce, stand to benefit from an increased national minimum wage.
Throughout my career, I have always fought to ensure that hard-working Memphians can earn a living wage and won’t have to struggle to provide for themselves and their families. No one who works hard and plays by the rules should have to raise their family in poverty. When I came to Congress in 2007, I was proud to vote for an increase in the federal minimum wage, but since then the cost of basic necessities has risen and the minimum wage has become less valuable. I am disappointed that Republicans continue to block a vote to increase the minimum wage and give 60,000 Ninth District residents a much-deserved and long-overdue raise. I will continue working to force Speaker John Boehner to let us vote on this important legislation.
Righting the Injustices of Outdated, Racially-Biased Laws
On Tuesday, I joined Attorney General Eric Holder in urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make certain non-violent drug offenders eligible for reduced sentences if they are incarcerated in federal prisons serving sentences that no longer apply under current law. Earlier this year, the Commission approved sentencing guideline changes that are estimated to reduce prison sentences for new non-violent drug offenses by an average 23 months, but it must still vote to make currently-incarcerated individuals eligible to have their sentences retroactively reduced.
Throughout my career, I’ve fought for fairer sentencing laws and worked to eliminate racially-biased sentencing disparities. After years of advocating on behalf of Americans who are unfairly incarcerated, I am pleased that our nation’s policies are beginning to bend further towards justice—but that justice has not yet reached many of those who most need it. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 that I helped pass marked a step towards addressing a fundamentally unfair policy moving forward, but it did not address the injustice of—or the wasteful spending necessitated by—keeping Americans in prison longer than current law mandates. I stand with President Obama’s Administration in urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to move swiftly and make these new sentencing guidelines retroactive for current non-violent offenders.
Yesterday, I announced more than $4.6 million in funding for several research projects at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as well as for the hospital’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. The funding will be used to continue important work at St. Jude, one of the world’s finest health care institutions. You can read more about the research projects being funded here.
President Obama Seeking Mentors for Young People
It is important that all children have caring adults who are engaged in their lives, but too many young people lack this important support. That’s why President Obama is calling on Americans to sign up as long-term mentors to young people through his new “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative. The President is seeking people from all walks of life who want to develop sustained and direct mentoring relationships that will play vital roles in the lives of young people in Memphis and around the country. If you are interested in signing up to help young adults in our city stay on track, you can do so here.
Make Sure to Claim Unclaimed Property
The State of Tennessee maintains a searchable database of unclaimed property, which can include bank accounts, stocks and dividends, wages, refunds, insurance payments, gift certificates, credit balances and overpayments, and a number of other things. There is no cost for accessing the database, and you may find that you are owed money or property. If you have not searched the database yet or if you haven’t searched in a while, you can visit https://www.claimittn.gov and see for yourself whether the state is holding any property or assets for you. And you may pass this information along to your friends and family as well!
I hope you have an enjoyable Father’s Day on Sunday.
As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress