Steve Cohen

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, like Representative Jackson-Lee before me, I was shocked at hearing of the shooting at the Holocaust Museum yesterday. Indeed, it is a place of special reverence and a place where you wouldn't think violence would occur, but deranged minds do deranged things, and the man who did the shooting had a history of hate towards African Americans and toward Jews and toward our government, it appears, even though he served in our Armed Forces. It reminds me of the need for passing hate crimes legislation because hate today still exists in people's hearts, and when people hate any group, they generally hate all different minorities. They don't understand the America of tolerance and inclusion that we celebrate and upon which we were founded. It also reminds me of the need to have a COPS bill passed to have more protection, and the cops that were approved in the ARRA protect our society from these types of attacks. Yesterday there was to be a play debuted at the Holocaust Museum by Janet Langhart Cohen, wife of former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, about an imaginary conversation between Emmett Till and Anne Frank. It will debut on Friday at George Washington University and talk about tolerance and peace and the results of hate.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, tonight millions of Americans will tune in to the NBA finals to watch a great battle between Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard. Besides immense talent, these gentlemen share another characteristic--they went straight to the NBA from high school. Unfortunately, today's players won't have that same opportunity because the NBA prevents 18-year-olds from choosing their profession and going straight into the NBA simply because of their age. It's something that you don't see in any other sport, baseball, golf, tennis, hockey, any other sport. You don't see it in entertainment, and you don't see it when young men and women choose to join the military and fight for their country. This is part of a hypocritical system that we have which doesn't allow these people to choose their profession when they come out of high school, and it makes the term ``student athlete'' an oxymoron. The system does more to serve the needs of the universities and the NBA, which uses them as a farm system, than to serve the educational interests and needs of the students themselves. Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard have achieved outstanding success, and I look forward to watching them tonight. But there is no reason to think that today's 18-year-olds can't do the same. Age restriction should be abolished. The NBA should repeal this unfair rule.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the Speaker, and Mr. Lynch and Congressperson Blackburn for bringing this to the floor and for extending the time. I particularly want to thank Congresswoman Blackburn for initiating this concept because John Wilder deserves recognition, and he deserves recognition by having this post office named for him. We name post offices quite frequently for people, people that deserve it. But John Wilder put Fayette County on the map. And when you put a county on the map, the post office in those small counties is the place where the county is. That's where mileage is measured from and people congregate and political gatherings occur and all that. John Wilder was my friend, is my friend, and has had an unbelievable contribution to the people of Tennessee. I know it's been discussed how many years he served as Lieutenant Governor, longest-serving elected official in the free world of a legislative body, and how much he accomplished. I served in the Tennessee State Senate with John Wilder for 24 years. I think one of his most significant moments came before I knew him, at a time when there was segregation in the South and there were efforts to penalize black farmers in Fayette County, an instance that John Wilder refers to it, and many people do who remember it, as Tent City. And there were attempts to take advantage of the sharecroppers and to force them in certain ways, and John Wilder didn't go along with the establishment and he stood up for civil rights, and he stood with the black farmers in Fayette County, the African American tenant farmers, and refused to punish those black tenant farmers by evicting them or calling in their crop loans. That's a moment that John Wilder refers to when he speaks, and I believe, for those who are people of conscience, people in the civil rights movement throughout the Midsouth remember John Wilder for that principled stand. It was a stand by which men were known. One of the other things that John Wilder did that is most significant is he instituted a system in Tennessee where our judges were taken out of the political spectrum to the extent possible and put into a selection system. The Wilder plan, which survived an attempt to eliminate it in this general assembly, has served Tennessee well, provides that appellate judges are selected, not elected but selected, and that that meets the provisions of our State constitution and allows for judges who are not well known by the public to be chosen by a merit process. They have to stand for approval elections at the public ballot, the general election, but they are chosen not initially in contests where people have to go raise money and campaign on name recognition, but are selected based on their qualifications as submitted through a panel and chosen by the Governor from a list of three and then stand for reelection. And I think all but one of those people have been approved by the electorate and maintained. So his stand for civil rights and his stand for meritocracy in the judiciary are the two things I think John Wilder has done that are most, most admirable of the many. He also set up a Board of Education for the State to help K-12 and to put some common sense into the education processes in our State. No things are more important than civil rights, education, and a fair and impartial judiciary, and John Wilder stood for all of those. He's been a lawyer and respected in the courtroom. He's a farmer. He's a banker. He has interests in just about any business that's important to west Tennessee, and anything that got done in west Tennessee, rural west, and Memphis included, John Wilder had a stamp on it. There's a tower at the University of Memphis known as the John Wilder Tower because he was most instrumental in securing funds for the University of Memphis, which is the great State university in west Tennessee. John Wilder helped me in my career, appointed me chairman of the State and Local Government Committee, for which I served, I think it was, 12 years in that body. And although there were times when he was not as enthusiastic about the Tennessee education lottery as I was, at the end, there were 22 votes on the board in the Tennessee Senate to provide, give the people the right to vote on a lottery provision that had been banned in our constitution since the early 1800s, and that vote, with those essential 22 votes, every one was necessary, Governor John Wilder was one, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn was another, Congressman Lincoln Davis was another, led to students in Tennessee having the opportunity to go to school. I thank John Wilder. I thank Congresswoman Blackburn for bringing this, and I'm proud to be a cosponsor of the John Wilder Post Office.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chair, I rise to express my concern with the FAA reauthorization bill in its current form. The FAA Reauthorization bill contains many good improvements that will benefit aviation and the nation as a whole. However, the bill includes a provision that is completely unrelated to the FAA and could have the most damaging effect on the constituents in my district of Memphis. I am very concerned about the inclusion of language that seeks to change the laws with respect to only one company, FedEx Express, which is the largest employer in my district. The Federal Express Corporation, which includes FedEx Express, employs approximately 30,000 hard working Memphians. The FAA reauthorization bill, as currently drafted, includes a provision that would shift the employees of one company, FedEx, from coverage under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) to governance under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). FedEx Express and FedEx Corporation have been governed under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) since their inception. Some have said this change will put FedEx Express on an even playing field with competitor United Parcel Service (UPS). However, this is not accurate. Unlike UPS, which started as a walking/bike messenger system, FedEx Express has always been an air cargo carrier. I can understand why UPS would want their top competitor to be under the same labor laws. However, the two companies have different origination histories. There are over two decades of findings by the Federal courts, the National Labor Relations Board and the National Mediation Board that reaffirm Federal Express is an ``express carrier'' under the Railway Labor Act. The Ninth Circuit United States District Court in California has also reemphasized this and it is the law of the land. If it is the intent of Congress to do away with the Railway Labor Act that is one thing, but it's another to simply pick out one term because of one company. There is a long history with respect to our nation's labor laws, and the inclusion of three types of entities under the Railway Labor Act: railroads, airlines and express carriers. This is a very complex issue that could have drastic consequences, which could negatively impact our interstate commerce. A hearing should have been held in order to have an adequate public exploration of the policy surrounding the issue or the effect on private industry and the nation, or in this case, one company. Mr. Chair, through my long legislative career, I have always been a strong supporter of collective bargaining and I have been a longtime friend to labor. I have stood with them on important issues, like minimum wage, Davis Bacon, and trade agreements to protect American jobs and support American standards. However, this is not about denying workers an opportunity for collective bargaining, this provision is about switching the jurisdiction of a technical term in our labor laws in order to affect one company. Because this provision was included in the FAA reauthorization bill, I was asked by the Memphis Chamber of Commerce and the Memphis Airport Authority to oppose it. The question is one of fairness. Laws should not single out a person or a company, particularly when the law does not properly fit the circumstances. In this instance, making this so-called technical change will have a devastating effect upon the biggest employer in my District. In this already tough economic climate, the effects will be felt beyond Tennessee's Ninth Congressional District because FedEx is a great economic presence in our country and our world. Now more than ever, we need a steady stream of interstate commerce, which could very well be disrupted by this legislation. Such a disruption could cripple our economy.

Mr. COHEN. This is an excellent bill, and Mr. Oberstar and Mr. Costello have done a great job. But there is a provision which affects the number one industry in my district, Federal Express, in a way that could be very adverse to my community and to that corporation. It lifts them out of the Railway Labor Act where they've been in their entire history and changes 80 years of case and court law. The Railway Labor Act was created to keep our labor moving and have labor and management in express carrier airline and railroad services work in a very special way to protect interstate commerce and keep it flowing. This could jeopardize that particular situation. If we want to repeal the Railway Labor Act, that's one thing, but to lift a company out of it specifically is not fair when there has not been a hearing. My airport authority, my Chamber of Commerce, and most of the business leaders in my community are against the bill for this reason, and for that reason, I will have to vote ``no.'' But there is so much good in it, it's a regrettable vote.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday this Nation recognized the 55th anniversary of a great Supreme Court case--Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. That case overruled a case called Plessy v. Ferguson, which legalized segregation in this country. The people who brought about the Brown v. Board of Education effort did much to start the civil rights movement and kindled a spirit and a spark in America that has led to more equal justice and a better nation that we are continually improving upon. John Hope Franklin, who recently died and has been honored by this House, researched the law on the subject; and Thurgood Marshall, who later became a United States Supreme Court Justice, argued the case on behalf of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. On this, the 55th anniversary of that historic case that kindled a movement in this country that went from the streets and the churches to this Congress, we need to recognize those who have fought so valiantly for justice and liberty and civil rights in this Nation. I appreciate their efforts and what they've done for our Nation.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, my hometown of Memphis is known for music, the home of rock and roll and the birthplace of the blues. Tonight the Blues Foundation will celebrate the 30th awarding of the Blues Foundation International Awards for the greatest blues performers. B.B. King will be there, and he'll give the first B.B. King International Entertainer of the Year Award. Other performers include Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, Taj Mahal and others. In the category for Best Blues Performer of the Year, Bobby Rush is nominated, not our Bobby Rush but the Bobby Rush of blues fame also from Chicago. Memphis is proud to have a great musical heritage and we will celebrate it and enjoy it tonight. I encourage everybody to enjoy the blues. In this economy, they are more relevant than ever, unfortunately, Madam Speaker.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. I want to thank Representative Brady for the minute. I was a freshman last year, and I got the opportunity to meet Jack Kemp on several occasions. He obviously was of a different party, but there wasn't a nicer person to meet and to welcome me into Congress and spend time with. Congressman Dreier talked about being a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Well, I was the real deal. I was a Los Angeles Chargers and a San Diego Chargers fan, which is where Jack Kemp started his career, and we talked at length about different players with the Chargers and the Bills, Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln, Elbert Dubenion, and on and on, and he was as nice a person as there was. I went to his Web site, which if you do you will see letters he wrote. He wrote a letter in November to his grandchildren, and the letter is beautiful. It talks about segregation when he was with the Chargers playing the Houston Oilers and one of his teammate's father could not sit in the stands where his father did; he had to sit in the end zone. Jack Kemp was totally against segregation. He wanted a just society. He was for civil rights. He didn't see color. And he was a man who should be emulated by both sides of the aisle. We will miss him.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume. H.R. 1107 codifies into positive law as title 41, United States Code, certain general and permanent laws related to public contracts. It is a rather extensive bill, fairly dry bill, that doesn't do much in the way of substance but does many technical corrections. It was prepared by the Office of Law Revision Counsel in coordination with our Judiciary Committee. This bill is not intended to make substantive changes in the law, but as is typical with the codification process, a number of nonsubstantive revisions are made, including the reorganization of sections into a more coherent overall structure. But these changes are not intended in any way to have any substantive effect, simply procedural, and make the code more easily used. The bill has been subject to extensive review in the previous two Congresses, by relevant congressional committees, agencies, and practitioners, as well as the public. Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to note a question that has come to our attention with respect to a reporting requirement found in 41 U.S.C. 405b(d) of the present law and restated as 41 U.S.C. 2304(c)(2) in the bill. There is a question whether that reporting requirement is still effective. Section 3003 of the Federal Reports Elimination and the Sunset Act of 1995, 31 U.S.C. 1113 note, stated that each provision of law requiring the submission to Congress of any annual, semiannual, or other regular periodic report specified in a list that had been prepared by the House Clerk would cease to be effective as of May 15, 2000. The provision in question is listed on page 156 of that document. In this regard, it should be noted that, as positive law codification bills do not change substantive law, the restatement of a revision does not revive it if it has otherwise become ineffective. Thus, the reporting requirement, as restated, is effective to the extent, and only to the extent, that it was effective under the underlying source law on the day before the restatement was enacted. That is a matter for the agency and the committee of substantive jurisdiction to work out. If legislation removing that requirement from the text of the underlying law is enacted before final enrollment of this bill, that change can be reflected at that time, if and when it occurs. Mr. Speaker, this is a bill that shows bipartisanship. Mr. Issa has done a wonderful job representing his side of the aisle. I am proud to represent mine. Republicans and Democrats have come together on this bill. I would ask for a positive, unanimous vote on this important legislation.

Mr. COHEN. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1107) to enact certain laws relating to public contracts as title 41, United States Code, ``Public Contracts''.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 14) recognizing the importance of the Border Patrol in combating human smuggling and commending the Department of Justice for increasing the rate of human smuggler prosecutions, as amended.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Arizona, a valuable new Member, Mrs. Ann Kirkpatrick.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how many more speakers Mr. Issa has.

Mr. COHEN. I reserve my time.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I would just again like to thank Mr. Issa for his work on this issue. And this is a very important issue. It is important for our security. But it is also important for the concept that people ought to have freedom. And they ought to have freedom in all ways. Many types of enslavement, unfortunately, have gone on in this world for a long time, and still it goes on today. And it is not just commercial slavery, there is slavery in other parts of the world where it is still something that has not been eliminated. It was only 200 years ago that we said we wouldn't import any more slaves, and 144 years ago that we ended the practice in this Nation. It was a long time that people used their power over others. So this is an important concept and an important, substantive bill, and I thank Mr. Issa. I ask everybody to vote for the bill.

Mr. COHEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this legislation, sponsored by the Honorable Darrell Issa of California, a member of our Judiciary Committee, and a most valuable one, recognizes the recent important steps taken by the Department of Justice and several agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to fight human smuggling in all its forms, including human trafficking and slavery. I am proud to say that last year the 110th Congress took decisive actions to renew the Nation's efforts against human trafficking and modern slavery. We also went so far as to issue an apology in this House for the slavery that this country condoned before 1865. Both Houses of Congress unanimously adopted the bipartisan William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. It bears repeating that this bill, this substantial bill of 129 pages that provides a myriad of tools to protect trafficking victims and to combat human trafficking at home and around the world, passed both Houses unanimously, once again, a bipartisan effort Mr. Issa led. This is a strong indication that we are really serious about eradicating human smuggling in all its forms. Building on our efforts in Congress, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have also renewed their efforts against smuggling and human trafficking. Recently, we have seen a substantial increase in the prosecutions of smugglers and traffickers. We have seen the adoption of a global enforcement strategy to disrupt and dismantle domestic and international human smuggling and trafficking organizations. And we have seen strong interagency cooperation of identifying rescue victims of human trafficking and modern slavery. These agencies should be commended for their renewed commitment in these areas. I further commend Darrell Issa for his leadership on this bill. And I commend my chairman, John Conyers, and I commend him on everything he has done. He has been a wonderful member and a mentor to me; and Ranking Member Lamar Smith, also a great mentor to me of the Judiciary Committee; and Chairman Bennie Thompson and Ranking Member Peter King of the Homeland Security Committee for their work in improving the bill and making it a consensus, bipartisan measure. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, as Congresswoman Watson was saying, we will vote this week on the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act. That act will do several things, one of which will set up a commission to look into the causes of the economic morass that we are presently experiencing. Congress did that in the Great Depression, and it led to the reforms that kept this country safe for a long time. Then we fell to the arguments that were made, starting with the Reagan administration, about the free market and the free market which took us where we are today. The free market, unfettered, has caused this problem. But a study needs to be taken by the Congress, and that's what that bill would do. It would also expand the abilities of several State governments and nonprofits to look into fraud and extend Federal fraud statutes to the TARP and to the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. People who fraudulently steal from the government or steal these funds are engaging in as un- American an activity as anybody could do short of espionage. I endorse the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act and hope that we could have a commission to get to the bottom of what's happened. This past week, Mr. Speaker, I watched ``Wall Street,'' the movie. It's shameful and it's today's world.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, this is one of the most important bills to come before the Congress. I hope it has bipartisan support, because, indeed, people of all income ranges have credit card debt. And the actions of the credit card companies in changing due dates and other features hurt everybody. This is crippling Americans, consumers, with interest, debt and fees. We had a committee meeting--I am chairman of Commercial and Administrative Law--on this subject. The credit card industry told us they couldn't change their computers quicker than 2 years to get ready to do such a bill. I would submit if we can put a man on the Moon, the banks can get their computers fixed to deal with this bill, and they should. We had an amendment we offered in committee on college students. College students are most vulnerable and shouldn't be lured to credit cards at an early age and put into even more debt than student loans do by offering prizes and gifts. I support the bill and hope we can go further in the future or with the Senate.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Thank you, Chairman Conyers. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this bill of which I am a sponsor. The gentleman who just spoke, who I respect, talked about the Founding Fathers and what has happened to our country. Well, it is a great country and I love our country, and it was a great country when it was founded. But when it was founded, women didn't have the right to vote and African Americans weren't citizens. It takes time to perfect your law and to become a more perfect Union, and that is what this law is doing. It is taking an effort to perfect and make better our laws to reflect the society we have today and the thinking and the mindset that we have and the understanding of what happens in law. If we go all the way back to always the Founding Fathers, we would have slaves, we would have second-class citizens--which are women--and we wouldn't have any rights for anybody that wasn't a white male who owned property. Times have changed, and thank God they are changing today, Mr. Speaker. The fact is, this has no effect on anybody that speaks about hate crimes. It doesn't affect any minister that speaks from the pulpit. We have had hate crimes in this country in State legislatures, and Federal law as well, for decades, and no preacher or person using the spoken Word has ever been prosecuted or charged with a crime, and never would. This law goes further than any law ever because it specifically says that no First Amendment rights or rights guaranteed through freedom of speech will be abridged or, because of the exercise thereof, have any charge brought against a person who exercises those rights. Never before has that been in a law that we have had here. So more rights are given to people, even though it is unnecessary to give them because there is no problem, it is basically simply to guarantee and assure people, to calm their concerns. People talk about people not being able to preach against people being gay. The fact is they can do it, and the fact is the Ten Commandments tell you not to bear false witness. And people who submit that preachers could be arrested for preaching against homosexuality, which they do today, that they could be arrested, there is a commandment about that, ``Don't bear false witness.'' This is a good law.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and achievements of noted historian and visionary, John Hope Franklin. I have a copy of Professor John Hope Franklin's book From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans in my office. The manual has been an invaluable reference text for me for many years. It was one of my college textbooks while I was an undergrad at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Born in 1915 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, John Hope Franklin was the grandson of a slave. He went on to become one of the most prolific chroniclers of civil rights history in America. Professor Franklin was just 4 or 5 years old when he witnessed the horror of the Tulsa Race riots of 1921. Under Chairman Conyer's Judiciary Committee, I was fortunate enough to meet Professor Franklin in 2007. He came to testify in a hearing before Congress urging the passage of legislation that would clear the way for survivors of the riots in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa to sue. The hearing's main effort was to extend the statute of limitations survivors' claims. John Hope Franklin was a graduate of Fisk University, a historically African-American university in my home State of Tennessee; he received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. In 1956, Dr. John Hope Franklin became the first African-American Chairman of the History Department at the all-white Brooklyn College. Dr. Franklin's research contributed to the success of Thurgood Marshall and the Legal Defense Fund. Officially, Dr. Franklin was a part of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team that helped develop the historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case that forever changed the face of public education in this country. In 1982, he became the first African American professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke University. In 1995, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in our country. Dr. Franklin received the National Freedom Award in 2007 from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee for his influence over the state of civil and human rights in America. Dr. John Hope Franklin has been honored by the nation's two oldest learned societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. John Hope Franklin integrated the African American narrative into the fabric of American history. He made us recognize that African American history is the history of all of us. Currently the Judiciary Committee, Chairman Conyers, and I are working on H.R. 1843, the John Hope Franklin Tulsa-Greenwood Race Riot Claims Accountability Act of 2009. H.R. 1843 provides that any Greenwood, Oklahoma, claimant (a survivor or heir/descendent of victims of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Race Riot of 1921) who has not previously obtained a determination on the merits of a Greenwood claim may, in a civil action commenced within five years after enactment of this Act, obtain that determination. Simply put, this is the legislation that stemmed from the 2007 hearing where I met Professor Franklin. This legislation extends the statute of limitations for survivors and survivors' claims. Thank you, John Hope Franklin.