Steve Cohen

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay my respects to Fred Hiatt, the longtime editorial page editor of the Washington Post whose authoritative and thoughtful voice on thousands of issues of public policy helped to strengthen our democracy. Mr. Hiatt, a 40-year veteran of the Post and a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, oversaw the opinion page and introduced the Post's audience to dozens of talented writers. An advocate of civil rights, democracy, human rights, and equality of opportunity, his thousands of unsigned editorials influenced public opinion and policy makers, including me. His forceful demand for justice when Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered will never be forgotten. He once said he believed there will always be a market for ``really good, serious, readable, thoughtful, unpurchased, non-yelling opinion,'' and provided it daily on the Post's pages. I express my condolences to his wife Margaret Shapiro, and his children Alexandra, Joseph and Nathaniel, and his many friends and colleagues. His was a purposeful and dynamic life, and he will be missed.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I was saddened when I read this morning about an incident concerning a teacher and a school board in East Tennessee. Matthew Hawn was fired for teaching about white privilege to his largely white classes of Contemporary Issues students in Sullivan Central High School in Kingsport, Tennessee. Mr. Hawn used both historical and contemporary examples, including the recent trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd. The General Assembly of Tennessee recently outlawed teachers from teaching critical race theory or ideas that any race is ``inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive'' and backed the law with financial penalties. This sort of legislating is a throwback to an earlier period of intolerance and fear of history and science. Our state's reputation was stained in the 1920s by the prosecution of Dayton, Tennessee, schoolteacher John Scopes for teaching evolution. I had hoped those days were long behind us. I guess not. Confronting painful periods in our country's history--such as slavery, segregation, the Trail of Tears, women denied voting rights--will make our students more tolerant, aware and worldly. I am deeply troubled by what has happened to Mr. Hawn and I hope decision makers will restore him to his place in the classroom where he can challenge young minds with new ideas.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in 1954, I was stricken with polio. In 1955, not quite 6 years of age, I went to a baseball game in a segregated Memphis, Tennessee. I had crutches, a White Sox cap, and a White Sox T- shirt. A player gave me a baseball, a White player. I went to my dad and told him about it, and we went down to thank him. He said: Don't thank me. Thank that player over there, No. 9. He was the blackest player in the stadium in the first integrated game in Memphis, Minnie Minoso. Minoso didn't feel comfortable giving a baseball to a White boy in Memphis in 1955 at the exhibition game. That lucky moment for me gave me a hero and an angel who stayed with me all my life. Later in 1960, when he came to Memphis, we visited not at the Peabody where the White players were but at the Lorraine Hotel where the Black players stayed. He was a nine-time all-star baseball player in the segregated Lorraine Hotel. We maintained our friendship over the years. This is a picture of me giving him a certificate in Comiskey Park, where he played seven decades, the most decades of anybody playing professional ball. In this picture, we were in Memphis at the Civil Rights Baseball Game. One of the first things I did when I was a Congressman was to introduce a resolution to honor the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame in Kansas City. In it, I said that Minnie Minoso would have been in the Hall of Fame but for segregation and spending years in the Pacific Coast League and the Negro Leagues when he should have been in the major leagues. It was killed in the Senate by Jim Bunning, a Senator who was also a Hall of Famer. On Sunday, Minnie Minoso was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I took Minnie to Cuba when I went there and handed out No. 9 pins, and I handed out baseball cards to Cuban fans when I was there for the baseball game that President Obama put together. The Cuban people loved him. He was their Jackie Robinson. On January 24, he goes in the Hall of Fame with Jim Bunning. I thank the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I thank Minnie Minoso. He has been my hero.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I mourn the loss of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. As a lawyer, I have always had respect for the Court as the highest court in the land dispensing justice, but starting with Bush v. Gore, it became more political. In Shelby v. Holder, it emasculated the Voting Rights Act, destroying section 5 and taking the basic fundamental principles of democracy away from so many people. In Citizens United, it gave the rich and the powerful more and more money. And then yesterday, it took away women's right to choose. To hear some of the arguments from Justice Kavanaugh, to say abortion is not in the Constitution so we should leave it to the States, well, high-speed internet is not in the Constitution either, but the courts can hear cases on that. Nuclear power is not in the Constitution, but the Court will hear cases on that. To hear Justice Barrett say women can just go a little longer and give birth to those children because there will be somebody there that wants to adopt that child, deciding for the mothers that they will have to bear that child might cost them their life. Childbearing is not without risk and takes them away from other things. Unfortunately, the Court is very diminished.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case that threatens abortion access throughout the country, not just in Mississippi where the case originated. I walked over to see the protesters, the demonstrators, the supporters, and the objectors. There is a lot of controversy, but the fact is, standing law in the United States, stare decisis, is that women have a right to choose. It is a personal right, and it is enshrined in Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade was enunciated, passed, and approved by the Supreme Court when I was in law school. The right of a woman to choose is part of my political DNA. I hope it never changes. One of the Justices asked one of the attorneys addressing the Court: Why don't we just leave it to the States? Well, one of the last times Mississippi and its confederate States, all of which have abortion laws that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade was outlawed--the issue was ``leave it to the States on slavery.'' That was wrong then, and it is wrong now. Women have the right to choose.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, President Biden is leading this country in the right direction. He is moving us forward, but the Republicans refuse to see it. The Build Back Better bill will help middle class families, produce more jobs, reduce taxes, and make costs less on prescription drugs, on home healthcare for seniors, on childcare for working mothers, and give them an opportunity to participate in America's economy. President Biden led us on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Bipartisan? Yeah, not much. There were 17 Republicans in the Senate, maybe 16, only 13 in the House. There is nothing partisan about getting goods to market, about speeding up the supply chain, which happens when you get good roads and the opportunity for trucks to travel on them, trains to proceed, and airplanes to deliver their cargo. President Biden is leading us in the right direction. We just have to hope that the Senate and the Republicans here will help us in this last month as we try to raise the debt ceiling to pay for Trump's tax scam and to pass a budget.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, contrary to the remarks from my friend from South Carolina, leading economists in this country say that the Build Back Better bill will help on inflation. It will ease inflationary measures. It is important that we pass the Build Back Better bill if we are going to deal with inflation. Build Back Better, the Reuters Agency says Biden's spending plan will not add to inflationary pressure. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said, ``The bills do not add to inflation pressures, as the policies help to lift long-term economic growth via stronger productivity and labor force growth, and thus take the edge off of inflation.'' Madam Speaker, 17 Nobel Prize winners in economics have already stated they believe the Build Back Better bill will ease longer term inflationary pressures. So it is not an inflation problem. In fact, by passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we make it easier for people to get to work and for goods to get to market. Improving our ports, our airports with cargo, our highways, and our rail, all of those things, make it easier for us to work against inflation and to get goods to market and improve the economy. So we should pass Build Back Better, and hurray Biden.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today we remember and honor Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian tax lawyer who in 2008 uncovered a massive fraud scheme of hundreds of millions of dollars perpetrated by law enforcement officers. In any normal situation, Mr. Magnitsky would have been praised for his efforts. But this was Putin's Russia, and he was arrested by the very people whose nefarious dealings he exposed. The conditions Mr. Magnitsky faced in prison for almost a year were inhumane, and on November 16, 2009, already weakened and seriously ill, he did not survive the beatings he received from prison guards. Twelve years later, Putin still controls Russia. Throughout the country, hundreds of prisoners of conscience languish behind bars because of their political opinions, their activism, and even their religious beliefs. Thanks to Sergei Magnitsky's determination to stand up for what is right in the face of overwhelming state power, the laws that bear his name ensure they will not be forgotten. His story is the story of many others--not only in Russia, but worldwide. Exposing human rights abuses and corruption carries many risks in many countries. Yet there are many brave people who continue to reveal the truth. The Magnitsky Act has become a living memorial to Sergei Magnitsky's bravery. We in Congress originally passed this legislation to sanction those involved in the death of Mr. Magnitsky. Since then, we have expanded it to cover the world's worst human rights abusers. What began here has spread internationally as the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada have all adopted their own Magnitsky sanctions. Many others, such as Japan, Australia, and Taiwan, are considering their own legislation. Magnitsky sanctions have completely changed the nature of the fight for human rights and against corruption. They not only protect our own system against abuse but also provide a measure of justice to those denied it abroad. We will keep encouraging our democratic allies to adopt similar sanctions so that one day there will be no safe haven left for kleptocrats and their blood money. Finding justice for Sergei Magnitskyin Putin's Russia seems more impossible with each passing year. However, we have not forgotten his tragic story and we will never stop calling for accountability for those who imprisoned him and ultimately killed him; those who enabled corruption and abetted murder. We are determined to not let his memory fade. Instead, he will serve as an indelible reminder of all those who suffer under corrupt regimes.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, today is a major day. Not as major as the day we had about 10 days ago when the House passed, with bipartisan support, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but we are going to have a bill signing in the White House in just a few minutes by President Biden. This is a big deal. We passed a bill that President Trump couldn't pass with a Republican Congress and without a Republican Congress. President Biden and this Congress passed it. It is going to mean road repairs, bridge repairs, airport additions, bridge observations and repairs. Ports in our country will be improved. Broadband will be extended. The electric grid will be improved; people will get access. This is what used to be bipartisan--people working together to get the infrastructure of our country that moves goods to ports, goods to people, makes our country tick, helps business, puts jobs together. This is an important bill. The Democratic Congress with 13 Republicans passed it. It is a great day to celebrate. America is on the move again.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. The President is trying to help America, help the middle class, help the forgotten. The Build Back Better bill will give people childcare that they need and women to go to work. It will give a child tax credit and make it permanent, lifting half the children in this country out of poverty. It will give elderly people who are infirm and need to be at home elderly in-home care so they can stay in their homes. That is wonderful for those people, something they need. It will provide for family and medical leave, something every other industrial country in the world has. It will put $500 billion in unbelievable investment in the future of our planet, on climate controls, and credits for folks to go into renewables and solar and heat, wind-powered energy, and improving the electrical grid. It will do many wonderful things, and it is all paid for. And the only Americans paying more in taxes are those making $10 million and above, they will pay a surtax. Madam Speaker, it is a great plan. It is an American plan. It should be a bipartisan plan. And I am for it. Thank you, President Biden.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, the House continues to pursue the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better bill. There will be a Rules Committee meeting today on those bills. Hopefully, they will come to the floor and will pass with bipartisan support, as the infrastructure bill was passed with bipartisan support in the Senate. The House has been working to get the framework improved to include other issues. There are so many good issues that we can have in this bill, and we hope to have the maximum possible. But as a baker once said, and my father implored me as a child: Look at the doughnut, and not at the hole. We will pass a very good bill, hopefully bipartisan.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, H.R. 390, which would fully name the Federal building in Memphis for Odell Horton, a great jurist. Right now, it is the Clifford Davis-Odell Horton Federal Building, and this would remove Clifford Davis' name from the Memphis Federal building. In one of my first acts as a Congressman, the first bill I passed was a bill to add Judge Horton's name to the Federal building and to call it the Clifford Davis-Odell Horton Federal Building. I initially hoped to simply rename the building for Judge Horton, but the political will to do that was not present at that time. Now, here we are in 2021, and the political will is present, including the family of the late Clifford Davis, who we communicated with, and they suggested that it should be renamed. The family said: ``We are proud of Cliff Davis' many contributions to Memphis, but his membership in the Klan and his support for Jim Crow cannot be excused.'' I completely agree and believe it is time to ensure that all of Memphis can look with pride and respect at their Federal building and have a name for this great jurist who served in that Federal building. Judge Horton left a remarkable legacy as the first Black Federal judge appointed since Reconstruction. Judge Horton also served as chief judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney, the first African- American member of Mayor Henry Loeb's city administration as the head of health and hospitals, and the president of LeMoyne-Owen College, a historic HBCU located in Memphis. Judge Horton was a man of honor who dedicated his life to public service for the betterment of west Tennessee. Judge Horton broke down racial barriers and served the judicial system well. Judge Horton is long deserved in this individual distinction. I thank the entire Tennessee delegation and Mr. Guest for joining in the movement to pass this bill and honor Judge Horton in this singular manner. I also thank Chairman DeFazio, Chairwoman Titus, and Ranking Members Graves and Webster for advancing this bill to the floor. I urge all of my colleagues to join me and vote ``yes'' on this bill.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, Otto von Bismarck, in the 1870s, I believe it was, said: ``Politics is the art of the possible.'' It is still true. The Build Back Better bill will be the art of the possible. It will be good for America. It will create jobs. It will help the middle class deal with the burdens and blessings of children, childcare, child tax credits, and education. It will be a very significant bill passed by this Congress to help the middle class and help those people who haven't been helped in the past, as the Trump tax cuts helped the wealthy. Madam Speaker, I look forward to voting for it. I thank the people who are creating the art and making this possible. Politics is the art of the possible.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, a heartbreaking statistic of the COVID- 19 pandemic has been the increase of domestic and family violence that continues to affect Americans across the country. It has alarmingly gone up. We must do all we can to keep children and families safe throughout this pandemic and at all times. My amendment is part of the en bloc package, and it simply clarifies grant eligibility to include legal aid organizations that provide violence prevention services. There is a direct relationship between legal intervention and a decline in domestic violence. One study found that obtaining a permanent protection order resulted in an 80 percent reduction in physical violence in the 12 months after initial client contact. Another study found that women represented by legal counsel obtained a protection order 83 percent of the time, while those without legal counsel only received a protection order 32 percent of the time. In the United States, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men have experienced domestic violence, resulting in tens of millions of Americans experiencing domestic violence in their lifetimes. Legal aid is a critical prevention tool to help limit the damage domestic violence causes. I want to thank Chairman Scott, Legal Services Corporation, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and all of the domestic violence prevention organizations for their support of the inclusion of this amendment and the vital work that they do. I want to thank Reisha Buster on my staff, Kevin on my staff, and all of the other members of my staff. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the overall bill.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, Ford Motor Company recently announced it is going to place a facility to construct electric trucks at the Memphis megasite in west Tennessee. This site is 50 miles from Memphis and has been developed for the purpose of industrial opportunities for people in west Tennessee who need it well, and it affects Memphis. We are happy and proud that Ford picked this site for these jobs and for this important environmental effort to have electric batteries for vehicles and electric trucks. We think Ford will be a great representative in Memphis. They have been a good representative in Louisville. As the Speaker well knows, Louisville shouldn't get everything. Memphis deserves something, too. I appreciate Ford coming to Memphis.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, they won't question Trump's statement that the insurrection was November 3 because that is the day each and every one of them and each and every one of us was elected. It was a free and fair election when it came to electing Congresspeople, but for President, they think it was an insurrection. Horse manure. Bannon, who was thumbing his nose at the Constitution and this Congress by not responding to his subpoena, said that it would be different than on election day, on January 6. It wouldn't go as expected, because he was part of plotting what was an overthrow of our government. He was pardoned by President Trump for ripping off Trump supporters. He got them to give money to an effort to build the wall, and he took over $1 million for his own personal expenses. Fraud. But Trump didn't care that he ripped off Trump people for a Trump wall. He pardoned him. The whole thing is a con game, and we need to end it before democracy goes out the window. I urge you to support the rule and the underlying resolution. Protect America and protect democracy.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I just had to come back. I was leaving and saw the lady's speech on the TV, and I had to come back. If prices have gone up in New Mexico and the country, a large part of the reason why prices have gone up is because of the pandemic, because people have been sick and out of work. That has caused the supply chains to back up and other things. She didn't count in that, because of Joe Biden, people have gotten $300 a child per month to help pay for those goods, and because of actions by mostly the Democratic Caucus, sometimes bipartisan, but mostly the Democratic Caucus, they got stimulus checks and other benefits. So they have come out on top. What people should not forget is that we need to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill that has 17 Republicans on it from the Senate. I have broken with my Progressive Caucus to vote for it because it creates jobs, and it is the right thing for America. My Republican colleagues should break from their caucus and commit to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, too. If you are not for Build Back Better, that is your business. It is your business on infrastructure, but infrastructure is bipartisan. The Senate made it bipartisan. And I broke with my Caucus and my sub- caucus, and other people will, too, to vote for it. Build Back Better is fine, but you should break and vote for the infrastructure bill. That is something we should get together on.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel in Memphis for his 30 years leading the historic, 167-year-old congregation. Rabbi Greenstein is the most recent in a long line of rabbis leading a congregation whose history is entwined with the history of the city of Memphis, from the Civil War and yellow fever epidemic, through both World Wars and the Civil Rights movement. One of Rabbi Greenstein's predecessors, Rabbi James Wax, led the Memphis Ministerial Association during the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968. Rabbi Greenstein has been instrumental in working with the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH), his namesake, a group dedicated to dealing with social issues and economic and educational disparities in our community. Rabbi Greenstein returned Temple Israel to Midtown Memphis when he dedicated Temple Israel Crosstown, an auxiliary branch in Crosstown Center, an important move for Judaism in Memphis. Rabbi Greenstein is a great orator and the congregation looks forward to hearing his High Holy Days remarks each year. He is also the Jerry West of rabbis for his ability to select phenomenal cantors and associate rabbis to complement his talents and present an All Star team at Temple Israel, from Rabbi Katie Bauman to Rabbi Bess Wohlner to cantorial soloist Happie Hoffman and many others, including a husband- wife team. Rabbi Greenstein has brought together Memphis religious leaders addressing Memphis' crime problems and helped calm anxieties after the September 11 terrorist attacks by linking arms with Muslim and Christian leaders. I commend Rabbi Greenstein--my rabbi--for his 30 years of service in Memphis and wish him many more productive years in our community.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I come from Memphis, which is a transportation hub, but I am an American, and transportation moves goods and products and creates jobs. I am proud to be for this bill. I would have preferred having the bill that the Transportation Committee came up with. We worked until 4 in the morning to come up with a bill. But that is not reality. This is the only bill that in reality can happen. This is much more of a Republican bill; bipartisan from the Senate, endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, endorsed by many, many Republican groups. Nobody do I think more of than the dean of the House, and I am so happy Don Young endorsed this bill. I hope more Republicans will join with him. This is a good bill for America. I will vote for it to move America forward.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Rogers for their hard work on this bill. I have two amendments that have been added into this amendment. The first puts anticorruption at the core of U.S. foreign policy, reflecting the Biden administration's declaration that corruption is a national security threat, and indeed it is. As the House chair of the bipartisan and bicameral Helsinki Commission, bipartisan foreign policy to promote human rights and counter corruption is deeply important to our group and to our Nation. Corruption is the fuel of human rights abuse, and dictatorship is the primary means by which dictators and their cronies influence government and society. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the large group of bipartisan colleagues who supported this amendment, many of whom are members of the Counter-Kleptocracy Caucus. A special thank-you to Representatives Malinowski and Salazar, whose Combating Global Corruption Act is also included in the amendment. The other amendment would require the Secretary of Defense to attempt to recover the Afghan aircraft that the U.S. provided to the Afghan Government and were flown out of the country by Afghan pilots fleeing the Taliban. These aircraft were purchased with U.S. tax dollars and should be returned to us. They are in Uzbekistan and other countries. I am sure the Taliban would like to get them back, but they should come back to the USA.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember and praise the contributions George S. Vest made to U.S. foreign policy. Vest had a long career as a U.S. diplomat during the Cold War. He died on August 24 at the age of 102. Among Ambassador Vest's accomplishments was representing the United States while initiating the 35-country multilateral diplomatic process that led to the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in August 1975. This process continues to this day as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, based largely in Vienna with 57 participating countries. History records the U.S. approach to those negotiations, a Soviet initiative, in late 1972 and 1973, as one of damage control, but Vest, his team and his successors did better than that. Working with our friends and allies in Europe, and engaging our Soviet and Warsaw Pact adversaries directly, they laid the groundwork for overcoming the East-West divide with a direct and frank dialogue based on a comprehensive definition of security that included respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. At the time, addressing human rights issues in other countries was something diplomats hoped to avoid; over time it became recognized as essential to their security and developing relations. The negotiations also produced confidence- building measures designed to lessen the risk of accidental war during a time of heightened tensions. Although neither Vest nor most of his fellow diplomats may have foreseen its potential value, their work eventually helped bring the Cold War to a peaceful end 30 years ago, and the OSCE continues to serve as a forum for addressing tension and instability in Europe to this day. Even in the darker days of the Cold War, this diplomatic process showed many courageous human rights advocates--private citizens--that they were not alone. It gave them the hope to keep fighting for a better world. As long as it remains true to its original Helsinki principles, it still does, and always will. As the Co-Chairman of the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), better known as the Helsinki Commission, I believe it is important that we recognize George Vest's early efforts. The U.S. Helsinki Commission was founded in 1976 and has since helped to ensure that the multilateral diplomatic process Vest started reflects not only U.S. interests but those of any country--indeed any person--who values freedom and democracy. As the elections just held in Russia demonstrate, work still remains. George Vest was a combat veteran of World War II and later served in various diplomatic positions beyond those related to Helsinki, including as advisor to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the State Department's liaison to the Defense Department, spokesman for the State Department Under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Vest ended his career at the State Department as director general of the Foreign Service, recruiting and selecting future American diplomats. Our debt to this fine public servant, and his legacy of promoting peace over decades, is boundless. I thank his living sons, George S. Vest IV and Henry Vest, for their father's historic service to our country.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, we were here until about 12:15 this morning trying to work out the votes for a rule to move America forward. I hope we have them. We will find out soon. We are trying to get the Build Back Better bill passed, the resolution to provide the opportunity for us to have that bill come forward, and the infrastructure bill as well. They will provide for needed infrastructure for American companies, businesses, and families; child care tax credits to be made permanent; prescription drug costs to be reduced; water lines improved and corrected; wastewater, which was so inadequate in Tennessee, where we had dozens die from floods. Hopefully, we will get this passed, it is important business. I thank Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer for their long hours and their work in trying to build back America better.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, the Republicans say we don't need this voting rights bill, that we should leave the power with the States. My subcommittee had 13 hearings over 2 years, and the professors and the attorneys told us that every time Black and Brown people gain in population and start to take power, there start to be changes in the laws to stop them from having power. Just this year, 18 States have enacted 30 laws restricting the ability to vote. There were at least 495 voter suppression bills pending in the States as of yesterday. For them to say we don't need a bill in the year that this Capitol faced an insurrection, when they tried to overturn the electoral college and overturn a free and fair election, and after that happened, two-thirds of the Republicans voted to overturn the election by throwing out the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. And then we wanted to study that insurrection, and a very thin number of Republicans even voted to study it. Democracy is on the line. The right to vote is on the line. What we learned from our hearings is that we need to pass the Voting Rights Act and protect people's rights to vote because that is what America is about. I support this John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, the coronavirus has gotten to levels in Memphis not known since last January; it is dangerous. Fortunately, today, the Pfizer vaccine was given final full approval by the FDA for all people 16 and over. This weekend, Phil Valentine, a conservative radio host in Nashville, passed away. Also, one of the greatest football players in Memphis, Danton Barto, 50 years of age, passed away. Both passed because they got COVID; neither had the vaccine. Both said toward the end of their life they wished they would have encouraged everyone to get the vaccine. I ask you, please get the vaccine. Let America continue its activities and culture and lifestyle as we have known it in the past.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today as the Co-Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission) to remember the great Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalev and to include in the Record an opinion column by Vladimir Kara-Murza from Wednesday's Washington Post. MOSCOW--``Our opposition was not political; it was moral incompatibility with the regime,'' Sergei Kovalev, a leading figure in the Soviet dissident movement, explained in an interview for a documentary I made in the early 2000s. ``At some point you realize that it is shameful to remain silent.'' Last week, Kovalev died in his sleep at the age of 91. His funeral on Friday was attended by thousands of Muscovites who filed past his casket at the Sakharov Center, an institution named for his friend and mentor, Andrei Sakharov, and designated by Vladimir Putin's government as a ``foreign agent.'' Several Western countries sent their diplomats to pay respects. No Russian government official attended. Perhaps it was better this way. I doubt Kovalev would have appreciated hypocritical gestures of condolence from a regime led by a KGB officer who has brought back many of the authoritarian practices Kovalev spent his life fighting. Like many in the Soviet dissident movement, Kovalev joined the human rights struggle from the academic world. A successful biophysicist and head of a laboratory section at Moscow State University, he had a PhD and more than 60 research papers to his name. But he could not remain silent in the face of a resurgent totalitarianism of the Brezhnev era that saw both domestic repression and aggressive posturing abroad. For Kovalev, the defining moments were the show trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, both in the second half of the 1960s. His activism brought his scientific career to an end, of course. From then on, Kovalev dedicated his life to documenting, publicizing and confronting abuses committed by his government against his fellow citizens. A founding member of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR--the first human rights group in the country--and the Moscow chapter of Amnesty International, Kovalev served as the editor of the Chronicle of Current Events, the samizdat news bulletin that reported on human rights violations throughout the Soviet Union. During Kovalev's subsequent trial on charges of ``anti-Soviet agitation,'' the KGB tried to prove the slanderous nature of the Chronicle's reporting--but ended up confirming its accuracy. Not that it changed the outcome: Kovalev was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment followed by three years in internal exile. His trial was held behind closed doors with a preselected ``audience.'' Sakharov tried, unsuccessfully, to enter the courtroom and ended up standing outside the door throughout the trial. At the very same time, in Oslo, Sakharov's wife, Elena Bonner, was accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, which he dedicated to ``all prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union and in other Eastern European countries''--including Kovalev, whom he mentioned by name. The collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe saw many former dissidents go into politics to help steer their countries toward democracy. Poland's Lech Walesa and Czechoslovakia's Vaclav Havel were only the best-known examples. In Russia, to its chagrin, this was more the exception than the norm--but Sergei Kovalev was among those exceptions. Four times he was elected to the Russian parliament. He was also Russia's first human rights ombudsman, co-wrote the human rights clauses in the constitution and served as Russia's representative on the U.N. Human Rights Commission and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Throughout it all, he stayed true to the principles that had defined his dissident period. He sought to make politics moral and never compromised his conscience. With the start of Russia's military campaign in Chechnya, he tried to use his position to prevent bloodshed--including by personally leading negotiations that saved the lives of more than 1,500 hostages during a terrorist siege in the summer of 1995. But while President Boris Yeltsin had genuine respect for Kovalev, he chose advice from elsewhere. When it became clear that the war would not stop, Kovalev resigned his official positions and sent Yeltsin a sharply worded open letter. The president responded personally, thanking Kovalev for his service and expressing sympathy for his motivation. This was a different Russia. Kovalev spent the last part of his life as he did the first: in opposition to a regime increasingly intolerant of domestic dissent and increasingly aggressive toward others. While Russia still had a real parliament, Kovalev remained a member--voting against Putin's confirmation as prime minister in 1999 and warning of a coming ``authoritarian police state led by . . . the well-preserved Soviet security services'' in early 2000. That was a time when many in Russia and in the West were still harboring illusions about Putin. When legal opposition politics became all but impossible, Kovalev returned to being what he knew best, a dissident. His last public appearance, earlier this year, was at a virtual event commemorating Sakharov's centennial. Kovalev described himself as an idealist--an indispensable quality in a seemingly hopeless struggle against a ruthless authoritarian system. The main lesson from Kovalev and his fellow dissidents was that one can choose not to remain silent even in the most difficult circumstances. And that, in the end, the struggle might not be as hopeless as it seems.'