Steve Cohen

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to say, Mr. Fitzpatrick got the award from the American Bar Association for his good work on legal services, and I compliment him on that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal). (Mr. NEAL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Massachusetts an additional 1 minute.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth), who is the ranking member and future chairman of the Budget Committee.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker said: Does anybody have the guts to stand up? I am standing up, and I voted against the tax cut bill and against the mammoth budget bill that caused this deficit to go up by $4 trillion. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin).

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, government is and should be about more than just dollars and cents. Government, and especially democratic government, is about nurturing community, taking care of one another, and defending our common humanity. H.J. Res. 2, proposing a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget every fiscal year strikes sharply against those core values, as much that we see in government these days does. A balanced budget amendment undermines our commitment to each other, as expressed through critical social safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP; Medicare; Medicaid; and Social Security. My constituents in my congressional district of Tennessee and millions of vulnerable Americans nationwide depend on these and other programs to make ends meet in difficult economic circumstances. Therefore, it concerns me greatly that this Congress, which hypocritically passed massive tax giveaways to corporations and the superwealthy, has chosen to devote its limited time to what is essentially a gimmick to avoid actually making politically difficult decisions about the Federal budget. Just this week, my Tennessee colleague, respected Senator Bob Corker, called out his fellow Republicans when he tweeted: ``If we were serious about balancing the budget, we would do it. But instead of doing the real work, some will push this symbolic measure so they can feel good when they go home to face voters.'' I wear on my lapel the letter ``F.'' That is the grade that Bob Corker and I give this Congress for its work toward balancing a budget: trillions of dollars of debt with tax giveaways to the wealthiest, trillions of dollars of debt with a budget that gives the Pentagon $70 billion more than they want. A balanced budget is nothing but an attempt to shortcut government, and it would impose real harm on millions of Americans. Social safety- net programs would be at particular risk if a balanced budget amendment were to be adopted because they are funded every year by drawing on savings accumulated in prior years. And let's be real about what is going on. After giving tax breaks to the wealthiest and corporations, after giving away massive budget amounts, particularly to defense, they want a balanced budget amendment. How would they balance the budget? On Medicare, on Social Security, and on Medicaid. On people who are ill and seniors who need money to live on and healthcare to keep their lives going. That is who this cruel Congress would say the balanced budget amendment falls on. They would be on the chopping block. This funding mechanism ensures that benefits could be paid to those who need them and provides the opportunity to stave off funding shortfalls before they occur. The state of the Department of Justice is another example, given President Trump's sharp political attacks on General Sessions out of frustration with his recusal from any investigation concerning Russia's interference in our Presidential election. Voter suppression efforts, the resurgence of white nationalists in American politics, and the active efforts to undermine the work of a free press are other meaningful topics worthy of our attention; issues that are important to the American public, not a balanced budget amendment that won't come into existence and will harm the American people. I strongly oppose the idea of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution because it threatens Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; it threatens SNAP; it threatens programs that keep people alive and make their existence tolerable. Many constituents of mine depend on these and many in America do. The House has better things to devote its time to. I strongly oppose H.J. Res. 2, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who is always so generous and kind.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the Members that my Republican Senator Bob Corker said that this Congress will go down in history as the worst fiscal Congress in history for having voted for both the tax scam bill and the big cuts for the wealthy. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), a scholar and a gentleman.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay special tribute to my Memphis constituent Virginia Henderson Granger, a veteran overseas U.S. Army nurse during World War II, who turned 98 last month. Mrs. Granger was born on February 21, 1920, in Johnson City, Illinois. She graduated from West Frankfort Community High School in 1937 and went to nursing school at Christian Welfare Hospital in East St. Louis, Illinois, earning her R.N. in 1942. Later, after her service in the Army, Mrs. Granger went to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. Mrs. Granger volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps in 1943 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. At Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, Mrs. Granger received her basic training and then worked at the Station Hospital for six weeks while awaiting further orders. She traveled by troop train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, which was the port of embarkation for the European Theatre of Operations. Mrs. Granger was sent to Barnstaple, England, as a platoon nurse caring for troops. She returned to the U.S. to take up her permanent assignment after a passenger/cargo ship, the USS Munargo, was converted into the 206th U.S. Army Hospital Ship Thistle. She served on the Thistle for most of two years, rising in rank to First Lieutenant. The home ports for the Thistle were New York City and Charleston, South Carolina, while its overseas port was Naples, Italy. As a hospital ship, it was considered neutral under the Geneva Convention and bore a large red cross on the upper decks. While aboard the Thistle, Mrs. Granger made 12 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean bringing sick and wounded troops home from the European Theater. While in the Mediterranean Sea, the ship shuttled sick and wounded troops from Oran, Algeria and Southern France. Mrs. Granger and the rest of the crew of the Thistle participated in the Southern France Invasion in August 1944. At the end of the war in Europe, the Thistle and Mrs. Granger were sent to the Philippine Islands to evacuate the remaining sick and wounded. After three years of service, Mrs. Granger returned via Long Beach, California, and was discharged in Des Moines, Iowa. Mrs. Granger was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the EAME (Eastern, American, Mediterranean) Campaign Medal with three Bronze Service Stars, the American Pacific Campaign Medal, and three overseas bars. Mrs. Granger, a widow, was married to John W. Granger, an Army veteran of the war, for thirty years. After leaving the Army, she worked as a nurse at the John Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Memphis Veterans Hospital. She worked a total of thirty years at the two hospitals and served in almost all of the departments within the hospitals. For several years she was the supervisor of the Spinal Cord Injury, Post Surgical Unit, and Psychiatric Departments of the hospital in Memphis. Except for her college years in St. Louis, Mrs. Granger has lived in Memphis since 1946. She helped open the Veterans Hospital in St. Louis and she helped move the Memphis Veterans Hospital from Park and Getwell to its current location on Jefferson Avenue. She retired from the VA in 1979. Mrs. Granger currently lives at the Kirby Pines Retirement Community. Mrs. Granger is a longtime member of American Legion Post 250 in Germantown. I want to commend Mrs. Granger for her long years of service to our country and its veterans and hope that my constituents and her many friends will thank her for the devoted hard work she has done for a grateful nation.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize the coordinated struggle of workers on the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers' strike to voice their grievances and reach a collective agreement for rights in the workplace. To enshrine this moment into history and the record of the House of Representatives, I recently introduced a resolution, H. Res. 720, to commemorate the historic convergence of the Civil Rights and Labor movements that the sanitation workers' strike represents. Since Its introduction, my resolution has garnered the support of a bipartisan coalition of nearly 100 members of the House including almost every member of the Congressional Black Caucus, every member of the Tennessee House delegation, and the support and passage of an identical resolution in the United States Senate. On February 1, 1968, Memphis sanitation workers Echol Cole, 36, and Robert Walker, 30, climbed inside a garbage truck amid putrefying trash and dead chickens in a driving rain and were crushed to death when the compactor malfunctioned. Twelve days later, frustrated by the city's response to the latest event in a long pattern of neglect and disrespect for its black employees, 1,300 black men from the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike. Sanitation workers demanded recognition of their union, better safety standards, and higher wages. Their fight--symbolized by strike placards reading ``I AM A MAN''--brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis. On April 4, 1968, during the labor dispute, Dr. King was assassinated on the balcony outside his room in the Lorraine Motel, now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. On the cusp of the solemn 50th anniversary of the assassination of the late, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I would like to lay out the record of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and the events leading up to the assassination of Dr. King: In 1968, 1,300 African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, fought for collective bargaining rights and equality in the workplace. In the struggle for workers' rights, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) integrated the labor movement and the civil rights movement in a demand for basic human rights and respect for all men and women. Black employees doing most of the low-wage work in Memphis had almost no health care, pensions, or vacation, worked in deplorable conditions, and were shown disrespect by White supervisors. 40 percent of the workers qualified for welfare in order to supplement their low salaries and were denied the opportunity to improve their working conditions by Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb and the City Council. On January 31, 1968, 22 Black sewer workers who reported for work were sent home when it began raining, losing a day's pay, while White workers were not sent home and received a full day's pay. The following day, February 1, 1968, sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker sought refuge from a downpour in the hamper of a garbage truck amid putrefying garbage and were crushed to death when the compactor malfunctioned. On February 12, 1968, Memphis sanitation and public employees went on strike after attempting last-minute negotiations with Mayor Loeb and the city on the terms of their employment, demanding that the city recognize their union, and provide a pay increase to $2.35 an hour from an average of $1.70, overtime pay, and promotions based on merit irrespective of race. In response to the workers' demands, Mayor Loeb, on February 13, 1968, threatened to hire replacements unless workers returned to work On February 18, 1968, the President of AFSCME, Jerry Wurf, arrived in Memphis and negotiations began in the basement of St. Mary's Episcopal Church with Rabbi James A. Wax of Temple Israel representing the Memphis Ministerial Association, mediating between the city and striking workers, assisted by Local 1733 President T.O. Jones and AFSCME Director of Legislative and Community Affairs William Lucy. After an all-night vigil outside City Hall on February 19-20, 1968, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and union workers called for a boycott of downtown businesses. On February 23, 1968, 1,500 strikers and supporters organized a march to the Memphis City Hall, where, 11 days after the initial strike, the City Council refused to recognize the union. In the following days, 500 White labor union members joined members of the clergy and sanitation workers in a march downtown, 116 strikers and supporters were arrested during a peaceful demonstration, and hundreds of high school students joined in another march led or supported by members of the clergy including Rabbi Wax, the Reverend Frank McRae of St. John's United Methodist Church, Father Nicholas Vieron of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, and Dean William Dimmick of St. Mary's. On March 4, 1968, a proposal by State Senator Frank White to create a State mediation board to resolve the stalemate was rejected by Mayor Loeb. On March 5, 1968, the Ministerial Association announced that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would be traveling to Memphis on behalf of striking workers. On March 7, 1968, the City Council voted to reject union dues checkoff for sanitation workers. Throughout March 1968, national civil rights leaders, including Roy Wilkins, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, James Bevel, Andrew Young, and Jesse Jackson, among others, came to Memphis to rally the strikers. On March 28, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Reverend James Lawson of Centenary Methodist Church led a march from the sanitation workers' gathering spot at Clayborn Temple and on to Beale Street which was marred by window-breaking and disintegrated into a riot as police responded with tear gas and gunfire. Also on March 28, 1968, 16-year-old Larry Payne was shot to death by a Memphis police officer, police arrested 280 mostly Black demonstrators, and the State legislature authorized a 7 p.m. curfew which was enforced by 4,000 members of the National Guard moving into Memphis. In response to Payne's death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called Payne's mother, Lizzie, offering consolation, and vowed to visit her on his return to Memphis. Also on March 28, 1968, and in response to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s promise to return to Memphis to lead a march based on the principles of nonviolence, the city obtained a temporary restraining order in Federal court forbidding such a march. In response to the temporary restraining order, AFSCME General Counsel Mel Wulf asked the firm of Burch, Porter and Johnson and attorneys Lucius E. Burch, Jr., David Caywood, Charles Newman, and W.J. Michael Cody to work on lifting the injunction to allow the march to proceed. Louis Lucas and Walter Bailey of the Ratner and Sugarmon firm were deeply involved in representing King and striking workers for the duration of the labor dispute. On April 3, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed a rally of 10,000 Black workers and residents, members of the clergy, White liberals, and union members at Mason Temple, the Memphis headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, for what would be his last speech, forever known for the lines `I have been to the mountain top', and `I may not get there with you but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land', linking the civil rights and labor movements and foreshadowing his fate. On April 4, 1968, a daylong hearing on the city's injunction resulted in an order from United States District Judge Bailey Brown in the late afternoon allowing the march, with some restrictions, to go forward on April 5, 1968. On April 4, 1968, the day after his rallying cry for compromise, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated by a sniper on the balcony outside of his Lorraine Motel room in Memphis. On April 4, 1968, Memphis and cities across the country erupted in violent protests and rioting. On April 5, 1968, Rabbi James A. Wax led a march from St. Mary's Episcopal Church to City Hall and confronted Mayor Henry Loeb with the Nation watching on all three networks, telling him `There are laws far greater than the laws of Memphis and Tennessee, and these are the laws of God'. On April 8, 1968, an estimated 42,000 people, led by the wife of Rev. Dr. King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, and her children, peacefully marched in memory of Dr. King and in support of the union's requests. On April 16, 1968, AFSCME announced that a 14-month contract had been agreed to and accepted, and included union dues check-off, a grievance procedure, and wage increases of 10 cents an hour in May and another 5 cents in September, ending the 3-month strike. On April 29, 2011, the 1,300 sanitation worker strikers were inducted into the Department of Labor's Labor Hall of Honor. Today, the integration of the civil rights and labor movements remains a work in progress and requires our continued vigilance. In the days leading up to and surrounding April 4th 2018, 50 years after that fateful night, the world will converge on Memphis, a now- sacred place where the world lost a true beacon of justice. Nevertheless, the light from that beacon shines on, lighting a path towards true equality and compassion for one another, long after the passing of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There, we will pay homage and respect to a man whose bold courage helped change the world, and whose legacy continues to be a force for justice and hope for all. I urge my colleagues to pass H. Res. 720, to immortalize our honor and respect for the Memphis sanitation workers and Dr. King and the legacy they leave behind.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, while we are on recess, the city of Memphis, Tennessee, will be the center of civil rights history as the 50th anniversary of the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., will be memorialized on April 4 in Memphis, where he was slain. At the Lorraine Motel where he was staying and killed, a great civil rights museum has sprung up like a phoenix from the ashes, the great history of the civil rights movement. At that spot, at the same time he was killed, there will be a bell ringing, and there will be civil rights leaders from all over the country in Memphis to mark the occasion: our own John Lewis, Andrew Young, Danny Glover, and Cary Kennedy. There are so many that I shouldn't start, but they will be there to honor Dr. King's memory. Dr. King's dream is not fulfilled yet. We need to continue to work to make his dream fulfilled in this country to where everybody, regardless of their race or their gender, for that matter, or their sexual orientation, has an opportunity to climb ladders of opportunity to participate in the American Dream and have a successful life and be a part of the middle class, if possible. I hope everybody will give some thought to Dr. King and his dream on April 4.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, I addressed this House on the issue of Mr. Mueller and his important investigation in the Special Counsel's Office. I am concerned, as we leave on Thursday or Friday, that the President could fire Mr. Rosenstein--who has authority over Mr. Mueller--or fire Mr. Sessions and put somebody in who will jeopardize Mr. Mueller's investigation. Accordingly, a bill I have, H.R. 4669, was filed in December to protect Mr. Mueller. It gives him due process rights--if he is fired-- to go to court before a three-judge Federal panel to show that he was fired for purposes which were political and not relating to his job performance. I am filing a discharge petition today. I will be filing it in 10 minutes, asking all Members of the House to sign it; to bring this bill to the floor immediately for a vote so that we can protect the special counsel, protect Mr. Mueller, and protect America. God Bless America.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. COHEN. Would it be appropriate to announce to the House that there is a discharge petition at the desk for H.R. 4669 to give Mr. Mueller due process rights in case he is fired for other than good cause?

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill I introduced today to designate the U.S. Postal Office at 1320 Autumn Ave. Memphis, Tennessee as the ``Judge Russell B. Sugarmon Post Office.'' Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1929, Judge Russell B. Sugarmon is heralded for his contributions to the City of Memphis and his work to reverse the tide of racism in Tennessee, paving the way for future black leaders in the area and inspiring their efforts to increase their representation in elected, Democratic bodies. In 1959, Russell Sugarmon became the first African-American in Memphis to run for a major city office when he ran for Public Works Commissioner. Sugarmon's tenacity to overcome racial opposition to his candidacy paved the way and inspired other African-Americans in Memphis to seek public office. In 1966, he was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly, becoming the second African-American in Tennessee to be elected to the Assembly post Reconstruction. From 1976 to 1987, Sugarmon was a Referee in the Memphis Juvenile Court System before being appointed to serve as a judge for the General Sessions court. Judge Sugarmon was subsequently elected and re-elected to the bench and held his seat for 20 years until his retirement in 2006. Working alongside notable Memphis pioneers and leaders in the fight for racial justice and equality, Judge Sugarmon was instrumental in using the courts to desegregate public transportation, restaurants and public facilities and the desegregation of Memphis public schools. Both the NAACP and ACLU have honored Judge Sugarmon for his contributions to Memphis. He was most recently awarded the 2014 be the Dream MLK Legacy Award. As a trailblazer for African-American stewardship in public office and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, it is only fitting that we enshrine our recognition of his contributions to the City of Memphis and the African American community by naming the 1320 Autumn Ave. Post Office in Memphis, TN in honor of his legacy. I urge my colleagues to support this measure in honoring Judge Russell B. Sugarmon, an exemplary American and titan of his time.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to talk about the events of Friday night and concern for the continued special counsel position of Robert Mueller. On Friday night, late, the Deputy Director of the FBI, Mr. Andrew McCabe, was fired. I haven't seen the IG report. Nobody has seen it. It won't be available until April. But it is concerning that, that late at night, people were working at Justice to fire a career employee and possibly deprive him of his pension. Mr. McCabe believes the reason he was fired was because of his knowledge of Mr. Comey's conversations with the President, and his own conversations with the President, and his being a corroborating witness. I don't know what the cause was, but the process was awful. It was rushed, and it seemed to violate the due process rights of this career Federal employee. And then to watch the President of the United States, a multibillionaire, spike the ball on being able to deprive a 20-year Federal employee of a pension was cruel, un-American, and mean- spirited. It was a shot across the bow at other government officials who are doing their jobs--Justice Department officials, FBI officials, law enforcement officials who love this country and put their lives on the line--and that if they don't agree with the Mueller investigation continuing; or if they see concerns about the United States President and his campaign and some involvement with Russia or with obstruction of justice, or violations of emoluments clauses; that they too risk their jobs and risk their pensions, and risk their financial security. It is a scary time in America, and we are looking at the abyss. In December, I was concerned about this as well. And Representative Walter Jones from North Carolina, a Republican, and I, have a bipartisan bill, H.R. 4669, which has a Senate companion filed, and is bipartisan as well, by Senator Tillis and Senator Coons, which is S. 1741; and it gives the special counsel due process if he is fired for causes that are not objective--related to his job and the performance of his duties. But it means he couldn't be fired for politics and he couldn't be fired to squelch an investigation concerning the very fundamentals of this country and allegiance and adherence to the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America for which we have all taken an oath to uphold. Nothing is more sacred. If the President has done nothing wrong, as he has said on many occasions, and he has tweeted recently about Mr. Mueller and said it is a ``witch hunt'' and said there is no collusion. If there is no collusion, if there is no obstruction of justice, if there are no violations, the President should, as Representative Trey Gowdy has said, welcome the continuation of the investigation to clear him. As Representative Trey Gowdy said: He is not acting like a man who is innocent. And Representative Charlie Dent has said similar things. If you have nothing to hide, why stop an investigation if there is nothing to find? And if there is something to find and something for the American people to know about, and for Congress to know about and act on, then it is incumbent on us to protect Mr. Mueller and protect that investigation. That is why we have these bipartisan bills. I know there is Democratic support for these bills, but there hasn't been Republican support that I know of, beyond Senator Tillis and Representative Walter Jones. I call on Speaker Ryan to schedule this bill, have it scheduled in Representative Goodlatte's committee, my committee, the Judiciary Committee, for a hearing, or bring it directly to the floor for a vote. I call on Representative Goodlatte to schedule the bill for a markup and have it voted on. But, more importantly, I call on my Republican colleagues to stand up for America and stand up for their oath of office. We get along, Republicans and Democrats. Republicans are good people, too. They have different thoughts on certain issues and different perspectives than most Democrats and I do. But we all believe in an America that should not be capitulating to Russia, and an America that shouldn't be seeing the Constitution shredded and laws violated. So I call on my Republican colleagues to look into their soul, look into their heart, remember their oath. Sign on to H.R. 4669, as Representative Walter Jones has, and stand up for America.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the DUI Reporting Act, a bill I introduced today with my colleague Steve Chabot along with the support of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and a bipartisan coalition of Representatives from across the United States. If enacted, it would address the loophole in our nation's drunken- driving laws that enables repeat DUI offenders to be charged and tried; as first-time offenders because of inconsistent reporting. Currently, when police make a drunk driving arrest, they don't always have access to information about all of the driver's previous arrests for driving under the influence. The reason is because not all police report DUI arrests to either the National Crime Information Center, or ``NCIC'' for short, or the Next Generation Identification database, or ``NGI,'' which are the national crime databases that can be made instantly available to police right from their patrol cars. The consequences of this lack of reporting can prove tragic. Just a few years ago there was a terrible accident in northern Mississippi, just outside of my Congressional District. Two teenagers from Memphis were killed when the car they were driving was struck by a drunk driver who had accrued seven DUI charges since 2008 and had been allowed to plead guilty five times to a first-offense DUI. When the law enforcement officer ran the suspect's driving record in the national database, his past DUI convictions never showed up. This is shameful. A DUI somewhere should be recognized as a DUI anywhere. It should not matter where you were caught driving drunk. If you drive drunk, previous offenses should be recorded and penalties should increase so innocent lives can be saved. The accrual of multiple first-time DUI offenses is unconscionable and must be brought to an end. Our bill will save lives by enacting common-sense, bipartisan reforms to harmonize reporting standards for DUI offenses across the states. I urge my colleagues to help pass it quickly.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Angus McEachran, the editor of The Commercial Appeal, the daily newspaper of my hometown of Memphis. McEachran died Monday at 78. Known as a rough and tough, no-nonsense newspaperman, McEachran started off as a copy boy at the Memphis newspaper and presided over two of its signature stories as Metro Editor--the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and the death of Elvis Presley in 1977. Over the years, he nurtured the careers of hundreds of reporters, editors and photographers and opened opportunities for African Americans and other minorities while broadening the scope of the newspaper's reporting to more accurately reflect the whole community. After Memphis, he was executive editor, then editor, at The Birmingham Press Herald before moving on to become editor of The Pittsburgh Press where the newspaper won back-to-back-Pulitzer Prizes for investigative journalism in 1986 and 1987. Returning to his hometown of Memphis as editor and president of The Commercial Appeal in 1993, he added a third Pulitzer. Mr. McEachran retired in 2002 having worked his entire career in the Scripps Howard chain of newspapers. I extend my condolences to his family and friends across the country.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, we have been out of session for a week, and much has happened in America. Of course, the most dreadful thing is Parkland, Florida, and the Douglas High School. I shed quite a few tears thinking about those students and looking at the teachers who lost their lives. The system failed. The FBI failed to follow up. Apparently, the sheriff's department failed to follow up. Mr. Speaker, our President failed because he failed to see the problem that we have in this country is not giving teachers guns, but giving teachers more respect and giving them more counselors and giving them more aid to be able to teach. He failed to see that the problem is not just in schools, where it is so important and there have been shootings and killings, but there are killings in Texas churches and in Las Vegas concerts, and by people over 21 years of age. Banning bump stocks, which was the response to Las Vegas, is right and good and needs to be done by law to be done legally. Banning assault weapons being purchased by under 21-year-olds is good, but we need to ban assault weapons for everybody, for the 58 victims in Las Vegas as well as the victims in that church in Texas--and high-capacity magazines. We need to let the CDC study. We need to act. God save America and the Chamber.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate two tragic events in Azerbaijani history. 2018 marks the 28th anniversary of the ``Black January'' killings and the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre. On January 19, 1990, the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet Presidium declared a state of emergency in response to the growing national independence movement in Azerbaijan, and Soviet troops moved into the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. They fired indiscriminately at peaceful demonstrators, and destroyed critical infrastructure, like medical facilities. When Soviet troops left the city on January 20, more than 130 people were dead, over 700 were injured, 841 were arrested, and five were missing. Human Rights Watch released a report on the incident, later named Black January, stated that, ``indeed the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19-20 constitutes an exercise in collective punishment. The punishment inflicted on Baku by Soviet soldiers may have been intended as a warning to nationalists, not only in Azerbaijan, but in other Republics of the Soviet Union.'' On February 26, 1992, Armenian troops descended on the town of Khojaly, located in the Nagomo-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. During their advance, Armenian armed forces massacred over 600 unarmed people, including 106 women and 83 children, and left less than 2,000 survivors. Hundreds more became disabled due to their horrific injuries. More than one hundred children lost a parent and 25 children lost both parents. At least 8 families were completely killed. The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict remains unresolved. In spite of these tragedies, Azerbaijan has emerged as an independent nation with a growing economy. It is also a strong ally of the United States; U.S.-Azerbaijani cooperation efforts include playing a leadership role in nonproliferation issues; providing troops to serve shoulder-to-shoulder with U.S. forces in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan; allowing transit of non-lethal equipment used by coalition forces through Azerbaijan to Afghanistan; construction of the Southern Gas Corridor from the Caspian Sea to Italy, thereby providing Europe with an alternative to Russian energy sources; and supplying 40 percent of Israel's oil. Azerbaijan also has a thriving Jewish community and is an ally of America's ally Israel. I urge my colleagues to recognize the sacrifices of the Azerbaijani people in their steps toward a free market economy and democracy, and to work together to facilitate peace in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today in support of the Stop, Observe, Ask, and Respond to Health and Wellness Act, which is the acronym SOAR. In April of 2016, I worked with the Department of Homeland Security to host a Human Trafficking Awareness Training program in Memphis at the University of Tennessee. We gathered State and local law enforcement, first responders, healthcare workers, faith-based groups, and educators to discuss the importance of and strategies to combat human trafficking. This event solidified my stance and activated me to go forward with the legislation to address the human trafficking that is occurring in the United States. Shortly after, I was proud to introduce this bipartisan bill along with my colleagues: Congressman Kinzinger from Illinois, Congressman Cardenas from California, and Congresswoman Wagner from Missouri in the House, as well as Senators Heitkamp and Susan Collins in the Senate. Human trafficking is the second fastest-growing crime in Tennessee, and it is amazing that every 2 minutes someone in the United States is entered into human trafficking. Every 2 minutes. In 2016, 8,042 cases were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, with 110 of those occurring in Tennessee. Those are just the cases that were reported. Human trafficking remains a hidden crime, and victims rarely seek help because of cultural barriers or due to fear of their traffickers, law enforcement, or of being deported, because many are imported into our country to engage in sex crimes. In April 2016, I joined with the Department of Homeland Security in hosting our conference in Memphis, and from there came our legislation. The SOAR Act directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a program to provide training to healthcare providers at all levels on human trafficking. Trafficking victims often end up in healthcare settings, and because traffickers want to maximize profits, victims will not have health insurance and will not often follow up on treatment. And pimps and johns will beat up the women, and they will end up in a public healthcare facility because they don't have insurance. Mr. Speaker, 57 percent of trafficking victims report physical injuries, and nearly all report having faced either sexual abuse or physical violence. These injuries caused a reported 63 percent of trafficking victims to go to the emergency room when they are being exploited. Many victims also end up with sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and are at high risk of pregnancy. As a result, nearly 88 percent of trafficked victims are seen by a healthcare provider at some point and, more likely than not, it is in an emergency room. So these are the people we seek out most to train and see the signs of trafficking to be able to report it to law enforcement and help these ladies out of the situation they are in. Despite this, out of more than 5,600 hospitals in the country, only a handful have a plan for treating patients who are victims of trafficking, and over 95 percent of emergency room personnel are not trained to identify trafficking victims. As a result, it is estimated that only 1 percent of human trafficking victims are identified when they seek emergency care. We must encourage healthcare professionals to be alert to possible instances of human trafficking when victims appear in clinics or doctors' offices for needed care, and we must provide them the additional training and resources to accomplish this goal. I am proud to work on the SOAR to Health and Wellness Act and I urge my colleagues to help pass it today. I thank my cosponsors and the Republican leadership for scheduling this bill.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, this House generally jumps into action once there has been a mass shooting by having a moment of silence. Today we didn't even have a moment of silence because the House knows that those are meaningless acts that don't have any effect on our schoolchildren who have been the victims of 18 school mass shootings this year. It is shameful this Congress has not dealt with no fly, no buy. If you are on a terrorist list, you can still buy a gun. It is a shame this Congress passed a law that takes away from individuals who get Social Security who may be mentally ill the ability to buy a gun. We don't even have studies on what has been happening in trying to protect schoolchildren. It is a shame. We need to act. American schoolchildren are at risk, and I am ashamed at what this Congress has failed to do: take action.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in the wake of the release of President Trump's outrageous budget that slashes funding for programs that help reduce crime and reduce recidivism, I rise in support of the Fresh Start Act, a bill I reintroduced earlier today that will bring positive reform to our criminal justice system. If enacted, the Fresh Start Act would allow certain individuals who have been convicted of nonviolent offenses, have paid their debt to society, and are now law-abiding members of the community to petition courts to have their nonviolent conviction expunged from their records. A criminal record, even for a minor, nonviolent offense, can pose as a barrier to employment, education and housing opportunities--the very things necessary to start one's life over. This is not only bad for rehabilitated offenders, it is bad for their families and for the communities in which they live. The Fresh Start Act would give nonviolent offenders a chance to start over again, a chance to become productive members of society. The bill allows offenders to apply for expungement to the court where they were sentenced and allows the United States Attorney for that District to submit recommendations to the court. Applicants who are denied could reapply once every two years. Once seven years have elapsed since an offender has completed their sentence, expungement would be automatically granted. However, sex offenders and those who commit crimes causing a loss of over $25,000 would not be eligible for automatic expungement. Finally, the bill would also encourage states to pass their own expungement laws for state offenses. States that pass a substantially similar law would receive a 5 percent increase in their Byrne funding while those that do not would lose 5 percent of their Byrne funds. It is one thing to convict someone of a nonviolent crime. It is quite another to condemn him to a de facto life sentence for it. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the late Memphis native Richard K. ``Kirk'' Bowden, a deputy U.S. marshal who protected some of the most important Civil Rights pioneers of the 1960s. Mr. Bowden was one of a small group who protected James Meredith when he travelled off campus after integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962. Bowden later guarded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1963 March on Washington at which he delivered his ``I Have A Dream'' speech. Mr. Bowden died January 20 at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was 82. Mr. Bowden was a graduate of Douglass High School in Memphis and attended what is now LeMoyne-Owen College before joining the U.S. Air Force criminal investigations division from 1954 to 1958. He served as an officer with the Washington, D.C., Police Department before joining the Marshals Service, from which he retired in 1987. He later returned on contract until 2017. I met Mr. Bowden several times through the years at Douglass alumni events and appreciated his professionalism and commitment to the Douglass Red Devils. I wish to pay my respects to Mr. Bowden and thank his family for his long and dedicated service to his community, his country and Douglass High.