Steve Cohen

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer the thanks of a grateful nation for the life and work of former Washington Post Metro editor Harry M. Rosenfeld who guided the newspaper in its Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate coverage. Mr. Rosenfeld died last week at the age of 91. A survivor of Berlin's Kristallnacht in 1938, he and his family immigrated to New York City in March of 1939, just months before World War II began. After graduating from Syracuse University and a stint in the U.S. Army, Mr. Rosenfeld joined the New York Herald Tribune syndicate and rose to managing editor before joining The Post. Editor Ben Bradlee made him assistant managing editor for metropolitan news where he inherited a staff of hungry reporters covering local beats, among them Carl Bernstein. Mr. Rosenfeld later hired a very persistent Bob Woodward. The double-byline stories of Woodward and Bernstein, covering scandal and corruption in the Nixon administration, eventually led to Nixon's 1974 resignation. He ended his career as the editor of newspapers in Albany, New York. I offer my condolences to his wife Anne and his three daughters and his extended family. Mr. Rosenfeld's enduring sense of justice and demand for accountability helped change American history and inspired a generation of journalists. His passion for the truth and for journalism was an inspiration and a model to be emulated. His was a life well led.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to wish the best good fortune to a transformational educator, Dr. Marjorie Hass, who is leaving as President of Rhodes College in Memphis to become President of the Council of Independent Colleges, a Washington-based association of independent colleges and universities. There she will be a leading voice in national discussions of issues in higher education. In her four years at Rhodes, Dr. Hass has inspired the students, faculty and staff to maintain the stellar reputation it has gained over 173 years as one of the nation's top liberal arts institutions. Trained as a philosopher and guided by her Jewish faith, Dr. Hass has been a thoughtful decision maker as a college president, maintaining high standards in leadership development and academics. In the last four years, Rhodes has been named one of the nation's most innovative liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report, a ``best value'' college by The Princeton Review, and Tennessee's best liberal arts college by Niche, the lifestyle and culture magazine. Dr. Hass taught philosophy for over a decade at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, where she also directed the Center for Ethics, and holds bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in philosophy from the University of Illinois--Champaign-Urbana. Before coming to Muhlenberg College, Dr. Hass served as president of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where she worked to ensure talented students could succeed regardless of their financial background. Dr. Hass is married to Dr. Lawrence Hass, a former philosophy professor and sleight-of-hand magician, and she has two grown children, Cameron and Jessica. After her contributions to Rhodes and to our city, I look forward to seeing Dr. Hass testifying before the education committees on Capitol Hill in her new leadership position and wish her the best in this new chapter of her life.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, we are not normal. We are not over the pandemic. We are not over coronavirus and COVID-19. Many people in our country, over a majority in my State of Tennessee, have not been immunized, have not had the vaccine. I urge everyone to get vaccinated. When I was a young child, 5 years old, I got polio. Four months before I got polio, my father gave the polio vaccine to second graders in a test in Tennessee. He gave it to my brother in the second grade. He took some vaccine home to give to me, but decided it was outside of his call and didn't do it. I got polio. It has affected me every day of my life since, and it affected my father as well. I urge everybody to get the vaccine, not to regret it. Keep your children, your family, and your neighbors safe and free from illness.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Memphis playwright, Katori Hall, who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama on Friday for her play ``The Hot Wing King,'' which is set in a kitchen in Memphis. Ms. Hall won the prestigious national recognition as a nominee for a Tony Award for ``Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,'' a Broadway musical about the singer from Nutbush, Tennessee. In its citation, the Pulitzer Board ``The Hot Wing King'' a ``funny, deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.'' Ms. Hall, a graduate of Craigmont High School, first gained national acclaim for her 2006 play ``The Mountaintop,'' set in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his last night in 1968. That play, which debuted in London, won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Hall is the creator of the cable television blockbuster ``P-Valley,'' set in a Mississippi Delta strip club. I wish her well in what is already a very promising career.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, there is hardly anything this Congress can do that will be more important than having a bipartisan commission to look at the insurrection that occurred in this Capitol on January 6. There was an attempt to overturn our Constitution and to displace the electoral college and the peaceful transition of power that makes our country unique and special among the countries of the world. This wouldn't have happened but for the President at the time telling people to come to Washington on January 6--no other date but the day of the electoral college--to fight like hell or you won't have a government anymore and telling them he would walk with them to the Capitol and told them where to go. This cannot happen again. If we don't have this commission and reveal the truth, it will happen again. There is only one reason you wouldn't vote for this, Madam Speaker: if you can't handle the truth. Get the truth out.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I thank my most capable and socially aware counsel to my subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, who brought this issue to my attention long before the tragedy in Atlanta, the attacks that have been launched upon people of Asian-American descent in New York, California, and other places in this Nation. We held a hearing after the awful attacks in Atlanta, but it was because of the earlier attacks and the fact that attacks on any Americans because of their racial or national background is totally improper and wrong. Religion, race, national origin should not be a basis for any discrimination. I am pleased that these bills are being offered, that they are going to pass this House, and that, hopefully, they will pass the Senate. The reportage will be better, enforcement will be better, and maybe we will see an end to this intolerance.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. This meaningful legislation will protect pregnant workers who have suffered because of insufficient workplace protections, a story far too familiar to many workers in my district in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2018, I was shocked to read of the disturbing workplace abuses in an XPO Logistics warehouse in Memphis, which was reported in The New York Times. Warehouse workers were denied minor and reasonable accommodations, like less taxing workloads and shortened work shifts. These were pregnant workers. As a result, several women suffered miscarriages, some of which happened while they were still on the warehouse floor. I, along with Congresswoman DeLauro and 97 of my colleagues, wrote to the Education and Labor Committee to urge the 115th Congress to take decisive action and consider the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. I also participated in the Education and Labor Committee's subcommittee hearing on this bill last Congress. Many pregnant workers are being forced to choose between maintaining a healthy pregnancy and losing their jobs at a time when both their healthcare and their economic security are crucial. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act will ensure that pregnant workers get accommodations when they need them without facing discrimination or retaliation in the workplace by putting in place a clear, explicit pregnancy accommodation framework similar to the accommodation standard that has been in place for decades for workers with disabilities. I urge passage of this bill. I include in the Record the Better Balance report on the need for this law in spite of inaction by the State and the need for the 14th Amendment to be invoked. About eight States are included here. May 13, 2021. A Better Balance Legal Analysis of State Actor Pregnancy-Related Gender Discrimination Decades after Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (``PDA''), pregnant workers continue to face pernicious and unconstitutional gender discrimination at the hands of their employers, including state actors. Evidence of persistent discrimination by state actors against pregnant workers in need of accommodation warrants-- and indeed demands--Congress's exercise of its Section 5 power under the Fourteenth Amendment to remedy and deter violations of equal protection. In the 21st century, sex discrimination against pregnant workers often takes the form of reliance on insidious gender role stereotyping concerning women's place in the home and in the workplace. Too often, such stereotypes--such as, that motherhood and employment are irreconcilable--force pregnant women ``to choose between having a child and having a job.'' Stereotyping surrounding pregnancy and motherhood is pervasive, and biases can be intentional, implicit, unconscious, or structural. For instance, a study published in June 2020 surveying pregnant women who work in physically demanding jobs found that 63 percent of women surveyed worried about facing negative stereotypes related to their pregnancy, and many avoided asking for accommodations, sensing instead that they needed to overexert themselves physically in order to avoid stereotyping. As a result, the study's authors recommended ``creat[ing] better social support for utilizing pregnancy accommodation.'' Those pregnant women who are let go or pushed out for needing accommodation face a double burden based on stereotyping: After losing critical income at the very moment their growing family needs it most, they must then fight to re-enter a job market that assumes new mothers are less competent and committed than fathers and their childless peers. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed, such sex role stereotyping is a problem of constitutional magnitude. Indeed, the constitutional right to be free of invidious sex stereotyping ``at the faultline between work and family'' is now well-established For instance, in Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs, the Court rejected the ``sex-role stereotype'' that ``women's family duties trump those of the workplace. Craig v. Boren, the Court rejected ``outdated misconceptions concerning the role of females in the home rather than in the 'marketplace and world of ideas.' '' And, in Califano v. Westcott, the Court rejected ``the baggage of sexual stereotypes that presumes the father has the primary responsibility to provide a home and its essentials, while the mother is the center of home and family life.'' Yet state employers continue to participate in and foster unconstitutional sex discrimination, including gender-role stereotyping, by failing to provide reasonable accommodations to allow pregnant women to be both mothers and wage earners. The problem is pervasive. To offer just a handful of examples: In Alabama, Devyn Williams, a correctional officer trainee, informed her employer, the Alabama Department of Corrections, that she was pregnant. Corrections officials immediately began to discuss how to terminate Williams, with one deputy commissioner commenting in an email, ``Let me guess, we have to pay this person [Williams] through the entire pregnancy[?]''. At officials' urging, Williams provided a doctor's note recommending she be excused from the state's monthly physical training session due to her pregnancy. Upon receipt of the note, one corrections official emailed the others, ``[t]his [doctor's note] will give us grounds to separate [Plaintiff] from service.'' The state promptly fired Williams. In one sense, Williams was lucky: Alabama officials had the poor judgment to document their animus. Their emails made explicit the unconstitutional sex stereotypes motivating their refusal to accommodate. Employers do not always put the animus underlying their failures to accommodate in discoverable emails. The PDA has failed to root out such intentional yet ``subtle [forms of] discrimination that [are] difficult to detect on a case-by-case basis,'' thanks in part to a proof structure that demands onerous and lengthy litigation. (Williams was still litigating her case nearly five years after she requested accommodation.) In Oklahoma, Clarisa Borchert, a childcare attendant, informed her employer, a state university child care center, that she was pregnant. When Borchert's doctor recommended a 20-pound lifting restriction--which Borchert believed would allow her to continue to care for infants--the state told her that she would not be permitted to work ``with restrictions of any kind.'' The gender-based animus underlying the state's blanket refusal to accommodate Borchert's pregnancy was revealed by the ``daily disparaging comments'' made by Borchert's boss and other employees about her pregnancy. For instance, in response to Borchert's ``severe and ongoing nausea and vomiting caused by her pregnancy,'' her boss told her to ``get over it'' and accused her of feigning illness, telling Borchert that she ``wasn't really sick.'' Soon thereafter, the state issued Borchert a Separation Notice. In New York, Lakia Jackson, a nurse technician, informed her employer, a state university, that she was pregnant. Jackson repeatedly requested assistance changing patients, which her state employer denied because, in the words of her supervisors, the university ``does not accommodate pregnant women.'' As a result of the strain of changing one patient, Jackson had to be rushed to the emergency room and ``nearly [went] into pre-term labor.'' In defense of its refusal to accommodate Jackson's pregnancy, her state employer invoked a common sex stereotype about pregnant women: that she was simply ``using her pregnancy as an excuse for not doing her work.'' The state terminated her shortly thereafter. In Tennessee, Amber Burnett, a veterinary assistant, informed her employer, a state university, that she was pregnant. When Burnett alerted her employer that she could still work but that her physician had advised minimal or no contact with diseased animals placed in isolation, her employer told her that ``she should begin looking for another job.'' Shortly thereafter, the state terminated her. In justifying the termination, the state claimed concern for the potential for harm to Burnett's pregnancy--a rationale that the Supreme Court recognized decades ago is rooted in impermissible sex discrimination. In North Carolina, Lauren Burch, a special agent, informed her employer, the state alcohol enforcement agency, that she was pregnant. On her doctor's advice, Burch requested light duty status to avoid ``situations that would put her at risk for physical altercations.'' Her state employer approved the request but assigned her to a worksite that ``required a daily, six-hour round-trip commute'' (for which she was provided ``no work credit for travel time'' and was forced to use ``her personal vehicle at her own expense''). The state refused to grant her an assignment with a shorter commute-- despite Burch's doctor's recommendation that she travel no more than 1.5 hours--and pushed her onto unpaid leave. In Illinois, Tracy Atteberry, a police officer, informed her employer, the Illinois State Police, that she was pregnant. Upon the advice of her doctor, she requested light duty, which the state denied, despite providing light duty to other non-pregnant employees with medical needs. Instead, the state forced Atteberry to use up her personal time prior to giving birth to her child. In Oregon, Maricruz Caravantes, a caregiver, informed her employer, a state agency, that she had a high-risk pregnancy. Upon the advice of her doctor, Caravantes requested--and was denied--assistance with lifting patients, causing her to ``seriously injure[]'' her back. In Kansas, Deanna Porter, a psychiatric aide, informed her employer, a state hospital, that she was pregnant. When Porter's doctor advised that she avoid lifting more than 40 pounds, the state refused to allow Porter to work with the lifting restriction in place and sent her home. Shortly thereafter, she was terminated. Due to a combination of gaps in the law and narrow judicial interpretations, Congress's efforts through the PDA to eradicate ``the pervasive presumption that women are mothers first, and workers second'' have ``proved ineffective for a number of reasons.'' First, as described in A Better Balance's report, ``Long Overdue,'' two-thirds of women lose their PDA pregnancy accommodation claims in court. A high percentage of these losses can be traced to courts' rejection of pregnant workers' comparators or to workers' inability to find a comparator, under the Supreme Court's Young framework. The Young standard also has done little to create clarity in the law, sowing confusion among lower courts, juries, and litigants alike. As A Better Balance co-president Dina Bakst testified earlier this year: [R]ecent decisions further illustrate how steep a barrier Young and its comparator standard have erected to proving pregnancy discrimination in court. Workers, especially low- wage workers--and particularly women of color--typically do not have access to their coworkers' personnel files and do not otherwise know how they are being treated. Often, this information is rightly confidential, which means a pregnant worker would be unable to find the information needed to show they are entitled to an accommodation. Second, litigating accommodation cases under the PDA has proven so onerous and timeconsuming as to be wholly ineffective in the lives of real women. As noted above, Devyn Williams was still litigating her accommodation case nearly five years after she requested accommodation. Such delay has devastating consequences for pregnant workers who need accommodation promptly, not five years later. As our co- president testified: Most pregnant workers do not have the resources, time, or desire to engage in timeconsuming and stressful litigation to attempt to obtain such information. They want, and need, to be able to receive an accommodation promptly, so they can continue earning income while maintaining a healthy pregnancy. Finally, even when pregnant workers win their PDA accommodation cases, it is because they are lucky enough to find the perfect comparator or, like Devyn Williams, to have a state employer foolish enough to document their gender animus in a ``smoking gun'' email--the kinds of evidence courts have deemed necessary to prevail under the PDA. The many pregnant women who lack such evidence--but who nevertheless are denied the accommodations they need due to their state employers' animus and stereotypes--do not bring suit at all, a reality A Better Balance often hears from workers on its legal helpline. If a standard is so onerous as to prevent workers from seeking justice, that means current law offers no adequate remedy for a pernicious, unconstitutional form of discrimination. The PDA's failure to combat states' record of unconstitutional gender discrimination demands further action by Congress. Where, as here, ``Congress ha[s] already tried unsuccessfully'' to remedy violations of equal protection and such ``previous legislative attempts ha[ve] failed,'' then ``added prophylactic measures'' are justified and, indeed, imperative. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is just such a measure. The PWFA is narrow, tailored, and targeted to combat gender discrimination, including invalid sex role stereotypes about the place of ``mothers or mothers-to-be'' in the work sphere. By requiring reasonable accommodation of pregnant workers only where doing so would not cause employers undue hardship, the PWFA is carefully crafted to deter and quickly remedy unconstitutional sex discrimination in the hiring, retention, and promotion of young (potentially-pregnant) women and soon- to-become mothers. Moreover reasonable accommodations for pregnancy are inherently time-limited, and the vast majority of accommodations pregnant workers need, like the right to carry a water bottle or sit on a stool at a retail counter, are low-cost or no-cost. The minimal (or non-existent) economic cost of a pregnancy accommodation is one reason major industry groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, champion the PWFA. We urge Congress to pass this much-needed legislation:

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. I remind the House that we were under attack on January 6. Earlier this week a freshman Republican said that January 6 could have been seen as just a typical tourist day in the Capitol. Well, let me tell that gentleman that on typical tourist days in the Capitol, 100 policemen aren't beaten by people who try to enter the Capitol when it is closed to public attendance because of the coronavirus. On typical tourist days, people don't put excrement on the walls of the Capitol of the United States. On typical tourist days, people don't urinate on the floors of the Capitol of the United States. On typical days, people don't batter down the windows on the outside to breach the Capitol. On typical days, people don't batter down the doors and the glass entering the Speaker's lobby, resulting in one person's death. And if that person wasn't dead, they would have breached the floor of the House and God knows what they would have done if they could have found a person in the House. They were hollering, ``Hang Mike Pence,'' ``Nancy Pelosi, where are you? We are here.'' That was an insurrection. That was an attack on our Constitution. It should never be forgotten by anybody who was serving in the Congress, by any American because our liberty, our Constitution, our country, our values were on the line.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in the beginning of this week because of the routine inspection by the Department of Transportation in Arkansas, it was discovered that the Hernando De Soto Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River between Memphis and Arkansas had a major crack in a structural beam. As a result, that bridge which carries 50,000 cars across it and much of America's commerce along I-40 is closed, and it may be closed for as much as months--not days or weeks, but months. Traffic is diverted to a 1949 bridge, the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge, which is currently serving the need, but it is difficult, and it is causing traffic problems in Memphis. Mr. Speaker, 700 barges are stopped on the Mississippi River--370 going south and 330 going north--which cannot go under the bridge for fear that the bridge could fall and not support its own weight and damage the barges. I am calling on the Department of Transportation to get involved, to lend its expertise, and to lend money and finances to get this bridge open. This is a national tragedy, and it shows why we need an infrastructure bill immediately.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Waters for her important work on this bill and for helping with my amendment to be included therein. The amendment that I have is cosponsored by Representatives Ocasio- Cortez and Bonamici. It adds a section to the law that says, if you have got a debt that is beyond the statute of limitations, that debt collection companies can't go after you. There is a statute of limitations because sometimes over a period of time, the facts become kind of vague in people's minds. So the proof isn't strong, and they want to make sure that this could be an appropriate subject matter for a court case. Also, sometimes debts are sold and debt collection agencies buy them, and they don't really know the facts, the amounts, and all of that. So if a debt is over the statute, this prohibits the debt collectors from going after someone. I think I found this about 8 years ago in an AARP magazine, which I read, and they said how awful this was. And I thought it was, too. It took 8 years to get it here because it took a Democratic team to bring it to the floor to look out for debtors. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all the support we have got from my cosponsors, and I hope we pass the bill.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay my respects to a great civic leader of Memphis, Arnold E. Perl, who passed on Tuesday. A labor and employment lawyer for more than 40 years, Mr. Perl served on the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority, including 16 years as its chairman, where he advocated the idea of an aerotropolis linking the airport to the commerce of our city. He was also a past General Counsel of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry as well as Secretary and General Counsel of the Greater Memphis Regional Chamber. Mr. Perl served as the Chairman of the New Arena Public Building Authority, which built the $250 million FedEx Forum. Very active in the Jewish community, he served as the 45th President of Temple Israel from 2006 to 2008. Mr. Perl also served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee from 1996 to 2002 and was supportive of the Hope Scholarship funded by the state lottery I worked to establish as a state senator. For his efforts founding the Japan-Tennessee Society and his contributions to Japanese-American relations, he was honored in 2007 with membership in the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan. In 2006, he published Simple Solutions: Harness the Power of Passion and Simplicity to Get Results with FedEx's Tom Schmitt about best practices in business leadership. Mr. Perl founded the law firm Young and Perl, was a partner in the law firm Ford and Harrison, and he later became a member of the law firm Glankler Brown. Memphis has lost a fine leader. I extend my condolences to his wife Mary Lynn, his daughters Stephanie Perl Marks and Laurie Perl Meskin and their husbands, his extended family and his many friends.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to my friend Lynne Jordan Turley, a music and arts educator and a civic leader who lived a life full of purpose and meaning. Lynne gave to others because she cared for them and wanted to make the world a better place. She did this through her profession as an educator, both in Memphis and in New York City, where she helped to produce educational texts. She participated in civic affairs, both political and charitable. She was always for the candidate who supported the underdog and the downtrodden. Civically, the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College will and has contributed to the betterment of our city. Lynne was a talented musician who played her piano and sang to the enjoyment of children and friends both in person and on her WKNO television program. Lynne was a good friend to me both personally and politically. She was sweet and smart and cheery. She had good values that she shared and a big heart that was always open. Her journey from Selma to Memphis to New York and back to Memphis was eventful and exciting. She was the perfect spouse for her husband Henry as she complemented his abilities and talents and the two were greater for having each other. She had a host of friends, a group known as ``the Wild Women'' who were very active in community affairs, got involved in politics and encouraged people to vote and make a difference. When they set their minds to something, they got it done. There wasn't a bigger Memphis Grizzlies fan than Lynne, who loved going to every game and knew all the players, all the fans, and all the ushers. She loved them and they loved her. I extend my deepest condolences to her husband and my dear friend, Henry; her extended family, and her many friends. She led an exemplary life and will be greatly missed.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Courtney for yielding to me, and I appreciate him for bringing this bill. He has a long history of now 15 years of looking out for workers, laborers, and their fair place in our country, and I thank him for that. Over the past 13 months, our healthcare and social service workers have gone over and beyond in their efforts to keep us healthy and free during this COVID-19 pandemic. This bill, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, is one way Congress can help keep them healthy and look out for their safety. This amendment is a simple one. It simply says that Alzheimer's and memory care facilities are added to the type of residential treatment facilities covered by this bill. Alzheimer's and memory care facilities are sometimes overlooked in the definition and should not be. With our aging population, Alzheimer's and dementia is growing in prevalence. In the United States, more than 5.5 million people now are living with Alzheimer's. The number is expected to increase to 14 million people by 2060. Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in our country, but third among senior citizens, behind only cancer and heart disease. This increase in Alzheimer's diagnoses means more healthcare workers and social workers will be needed to help patients and their families to try to manage this disease and cope with the effects. This bill doesn't only help the workers, but it helps the victims of these diseases that put them in the institutions by making it more likely that people will want to go into those professions and not fear for their health. As anyone who has or had a loved one with Alzheimer's knows that Alzheimer's patients can become aggressive for many reasons. Sometimes it is just the inability to grasp a subject or to remember something or they are hungry or whatever, and they get violent. That is the reason oftentimes they are put into long-term facilities caring for Alzheimer's patients, and that is going to continue to grow. They have these outbursts of aggression. Healthcare professionals and social service workers need to be protected similar to their colleagues that work in residential treatment facilities. I appreciate your consideration. I appreciate this amendment being put in the en bloc. Hopefully, we pass it and pass the bill and we look out for healthcare workers and the people who are the beneficiaries of their work. And they will need more and more service providers as the years go on.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, when we came to Congress, my class of 2006 was offered the opportunity to go to Harvard University for a seminar. We were told there that one of the greatest problems facing this country was the lack of workers, that our birthrate was declining, and that we need more people to come to this country and more workers to supply our workforce and our economy. Those situations have not gotten better. These Dreamers are trained in America. They have been educated in America. They are talented. They are smart. We are not only doing the right thing by giving them this pathway to citizenship, but we are doing the right thing for America because we need their talent to make this country even greater. That is why I support the Dreamers act.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the chairman for his time, and I want to thank Mrs. Maloney and Ms. Speier for their long work on this, and the many women before them who have worked hard on this effort. Congress created the limitation on years on the passage of the ERA, and Congress can change it, and Congress should change it. I am the product of the work of a woman, my mother, and her mother produced her. We should not forget women and their commitment and invaluable contributions at our birth. Every woman should have the same rights as a man. They don't get paid the same, they are discriminated in the workplace, they are harassed, they are abused. They should have equal rights. That has not occurred in America, and it won't happen until we pass this bill. I favor the passage and I appreciate the spirit in which it is offered.

Mr. COHEN. Unlike Alexander Haig, I am only here temporarily. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), who is from the East Side and who, as chairperson, brought us the great hearing last year on the ERA.

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), who is the chairman of the committee, that he may control that time.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, this past week marks the 29th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of people in the town of Khojaly, Azerbaijan. This was the largest killing of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians during the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Khojaly, which is in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, was once home to 7,000 people. On February 26, 1992, 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 injuries. More than 100 children lost a parent and 25 children lost both parents. At least 8 families were all killed. This is a devastating tragedy. A cease-fire was negotiated in 1994, but the conflict remains unresolved. In the wake of the 2020 fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh, it is my hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan can finally come to the table and find peace. Long-term peace, security, and regional cooperation are in the best interests of the entire region of the South Caucasus and the world. Azerbaijan has been a strong partner of the United States and its allies. This cooperation has included: 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 has outstanding relations with Israel. As Azerbaijanis throughout the world commemorate the massacre and continue to grieve the loss of loved ones, I hope they can find peace amidst this tragedy.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. I started my career as the legal adviser to the Memphis Police Department. There were many fine policemen, and most of them never used a choke hold, never used their gun, and operated admirably. Some did not. The disproportionate share that African Americans have suffered from killings by police shows we need to act. You can't think about George Floyd being choked with a knee and killed for 8 minutes. You can't think of Eric Garner being wrestled down like a prize trophy animal and killed in Staten Island, or young Tamir Rice, shot without an officer taking a second to think about it. Mr. Speaker, these deaths require us to act. This is not defund the police. This is reform the police and save human lives. We need to pass this bill today. We should have passed it 40 years ago when I was a police attorney. Pass it now.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, this is an important and good bill. It is a comprehensive bill that takes in a lot of issues that are important to giving people the opportunity to vote and the opportunity to elect their leaders in fair manners. The most important, I think, as Leader Hoyer addressed all the points, is redistricting, to have nonpartisan redistricting commissions decide how the State legislatures and the congressional seats will be designed so that they are geographic, understandable, and done without the intent of electing a particular party to that position. Madam Speaker, right now, most of the districts are determined in the primary; that is why we don't have competitive districts and people coming closer to the center to try to work together. This bill also has the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. John Lewis was the conscience of the Congress. He almost gave his life in Selma, Alabama, to try to get the right to vote for people. Nobody should have to do that.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I stand in support of this legislation. I have stood in support of this right for over 25 years. When I was a Tennessee State Senator, I was the only member of the State Senate to vote against a constitutional ban on gay marriage. It was a legal pejorative; all people should have a civil right to be treated equally and to be given due process of the law. And they should have that today, and that is what this bill stands for. This is a continuing battle that my friend, Julian Bond said was a fight for fairness, justice, and equality against injustice and bigotry. We need to pass this bill and continue our move to a more perfect union.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, yesterday, we had a Judiciary Committee meeting on the rise of white nationalism and the concerns it should pose to our country. It was a pertinent meeting, and I was shocked to hear some of the remarks of my colleagues on the Republican side who still have not accepted the fact that what happened on January 6 was an attack on our Constitution that they take an oath to and an attack on our country. They seem to think it was just a demonstration, a small, polite demonstration of 200 people; that it was, some said, people other than Trump people posing as Trump people. Those were Trump people. They wore Trump hats. They had Trump flags. They hollered ``Trump.'' They were there to stop the steal for Trump. America faced a great traumatic experience, as I did being in this Chamber on January 6, and I ask my Republican colleagues to accept it, accept the fact that it was a big lie, and Joe Biden is the properly, lawfully elected President of the United States.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Herman and Bobbie Goldberger on their retirement. Their family-owned labor of love, The Hebrew Watchman, has been a cornerstone of the Jewish community in Memphis for 95 years. Founded in 1925 as The Memphis Watchman by Leo I. Goldberger, Herman's father, it has chronicled Memphis Jewish life with grace and devotion for generations. I am very pleased to see that Jewish Living of the South Inc., and Jewish Scene Magazine editor and publisher Susan C. Nieman, have acquired this important and beloved cultural institution and have pledged to keep it going for another 95 years. I want to thank Herman and Bobbie Goldberger for their stewardship of The Hebrew Watchman and wish them well in retirement.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise to remember Martha Hays Cooper, known as ``Ookie,'' a remarkable woman and friend and the wife of our colleague Jim Cooper, who passed away last Thursday in Nashville. I include in the Record for history her husband's words in tribute: Martha Hays Cooper died peacefully at home in Nashville on Thursday, February 4, after years of struggling with Alzheimer's. ``Ookie'' was married to Representative Jim Cooper for almost 36 years, mother of their three amazing children, Mary (Scott Gallisdorfer), Jamie, and Hayes, and grandmother of the incomparable Jay. Martha was born on September 13, 1954, the second child of the late Dr. A.V. Hays and Dr. Martha Hays Taylor of Gulfport, Mississippi. Her siblings, Art Hays (Debbie) of Gaithersburg, MD, and Mary Hays Peller (Steve) of New Orleans, survive her. Martha graduated from Sweet Briar College in 1976 and from Mississippi State in 1980 with an M.S. in ornithology. Her first job was in a cubbyhole in the attic of the Natural History Museum, the Bird Division of the Smithsonian, staffing the first two editions of the million- selling National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. An adventuresome soul, Martha smoked cigars in swamps to repel mosquitoes, made lifelong friends in Buenos Aires, taught children and studied Puffins for the Quebec- Labrador Foundation, protected Least Terns on Gulf of Mexico beaches, camped in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and worked the Galapagos Islands for World Wildlife Fund, all while keeping an African-Grey parrot named Baroot in her kitchen. Martha lived in Georgetown and drove a 1971 Robin's-egg- blue Volvo P1800E when she met Jim, the youngest congressman in the U.S., who proposed at a White House Christmas party. Part Audrey Hepburn, Ali MacGraw, and Penelope Cruz, Martha was wary of politics until she lived in Shelbyville with Jim's mother for a few months in 1984 to manage Jim's first re-election campaign. The experiment worked. They married on April 6, 1985, followed by the birth of Mary Argentine in 1990, John James Audubon in 1991, and Hayes Hightower in 1995. Martha loved Mardi Gras, Galatoires (``the big G''), hurricanes and snow, peonies, Little Cayman Island, Ernie Banks, homemade popovers, Radnor Lake, friends in the Query and Centennial Clubs, Aretha Franklin and Paul McCartney, Standard Poodles (Ruby, Sirius Black, and Romeo), Cicadas, golf, City House's belly-ham pizza, families of Crows, Prince Charles, her Cardinal-red 2003 Mini-Cooper, and the Hermitage, serving as Regent of the Ladies' Hermitage Association. Her favorite president was Barack Obama; favorite bird: Upupa Epops. Martha's charm and optimism were heroic, eclipsing her illness. She ALWAYS smiled and said thank you. She loved car travel; on bumpy roads she'd say ``this makes me wiggle.'' In recent years, she drew wobbly hearts on everything . . . with a Sharpie when she could find one. The family is grateful to Martha's main caregiver, Sandy Mathers, her friend of 25 years, as well as newer friends, Heather Tavasti and Alyssa Action. The team at Alive Hospice was godsent.''

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Coach Jerry C. Johnson, the basketball coach and athletic director at the historically Black Lemoyne-Owen College, who coached the Magicians to Memphis' only NCAA Championship title in 1975 and died Sunday at the age of 102. Coach Johnson won 821 games over 46 seasons at LeMoyne- Owen, where he also coached swimming and track and field, and taught health and physical education courses. Many of the students he coached and mentored went on to illustrious national recognition, including eight who became NBA players. Coach Johnson, who came to the college in 1958, was the first Black basketball coach to win a Division III national title and LeMoyne-Owen was the first Historically Black College and University to win that recognition. The LeMoyne-Owen Magicians remain the only men's college basketball program in Tennessee, and the only sports program in the city of Memphis, to win an NCAA championship. In my own interactions with Coach Johnson, I was always impressed with his quiet demeanor and self-effacing attitude, even though he was as much a star in the Memphis basketball world as anyone. Off the court, he was just a good man, caring about people in a quiet and compassionate manner, reaching out to help players, former players, and students without regard to their athletic ability or gender. He offered a helping hand and his heart reached so many. Known as strict but fair, Coach Johnson, an Oklahoma native, had an unusual connection to the game of basketball: he learned it from Hall of Famer John McClendon, the former Cleveland State coach who served as the first Black coach of a professional sports team, and McClendon learned the game from James Naismith, the inventor of the modem game of basketball. Coach Johnson was the focus of a newly released independent documentary, ``1st Forgotten Champions,'' which was directed by Memphian Morreco Coleman and covered the 1975 Division III NCAA championship. The documentary recently premiered in California, Nashville and Memphis. Johnson was a member of the Memphis Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the Fayetteville State University Athletics Hall of Fame and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. I extend my profound condolences to his son, Jerry Jr.; his daughter, Wandra Haywood and her husband, Samuel, of Gainesville, Florida; his six grandchildren; and his seven great-grandchildren. Coach Johnson will be remembered as a gentle giant and a gentleman. He led an exemplary life.