Steve Cohen

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bid a reluctant farewell to Terri Lee Freeman, who for the past six years has served as President of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Ms. Freeman has done an exceptional job leading the nation's premiere Civil Rights museum, located in the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. During her tenure, Ms. Freeman organized the 50th anniversary of that seminal event in American history--``MLK50--Where Do We Go From Here?''--featuring such national figures as our late Congressional colleague, John Lewis; the Reverend Jesse Jackson, former Polish President and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa; the Reverend William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign, and many others who traveled from around the world to spend time in our showcase institution. In her six years, she saw the museum's budget double to $9.7 million while overseeing a staff of 50 and an increased physical footprint. She also helped affiliate the museum with the Smithsonian Institution and its traveling exhibits. Also while at the museum, she began ``Unpacking Racism in Action,'' a series of community dialogues aimed at confronting implicit and structural bias. Last year, she was named ``Memphian of the Year'' by Memphis Magazine. Before moving to Memphis, she was president of what is now the Greater Washington Community Foundation. In her 18 years with that organization, she increased the organization's assets from $52 million in 1996 to more than $350 million in 2014. A proven leader, Ms. Freeman was a 2016 graduate of Leadership Memphis and served on the boards of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, the New Memphis Institute and the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as being a member of the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition Steering Committee. Born in Chicago, Ms. Freeman is a graduate of Hamtramck High School (1977) and the University of Dayton (1981 through 1983) and received a Master's degree in organizational communications from Howard University. Ms. Freeman is married to Dr. Bowyer G. Freeman, senior pastor of the New Saint Mark Baptist Church in Baltimore, and the mother of three grown daughters. I wish Ms. Freeman every success in her new post as executive director of the Reginald Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture in Baltimore. I'm pleased to read that Ms. Freeman will always consider herself an ``adopted child'' of our city where her work and dedication will remain her lasting legacy.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time. After President Trump was not impeached, Susan Collins said he has learned a pretty big lesson; he was impeached. Then he brought his ``It will be wild,'' riotous television show that he produced for one person, individual one. Intelligence reports indicate that the people he said he loves and are special are going to attack this city and attack this Capitol next week. He has not asked them not to do it. He has not told them to stand down. I most fear January 20 because I think he will try to go out with a bang.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Last Wednesday, I came to these hallowed Halls where I serve to watch the electoral college ratify and certify the election of Joe Biden in what was a fair, transparent election, which 61 courts had looked into, and all said it was fine. I was sitting right up there in the gallery when a Capitol Policeman came in and said: We are locking the doors. We are locking the doors. And within only minutes of that, I heard the rabble knocking on the door, trying to knock it down. We were then told to put on our gas masks and to evacuate, and we all did it. This was an assault on the Constitution, an assault on Congress. It was a felonious assault. It was an attempt to murder the Congress and our processes to elect our President of the United States. It is the political equivalent of shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it. Somebody needs to stand up to that, and the 25th Amendment is one way to do it, whether Republicans can purge themselves of their own creation who has damaged this country.

Mr. COHEN. I ask us to pass this resolution, bring this country together, and get rid of this cancer.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Representative Lieu's Inspector General Protection Act. The inspector general system has been invaluable in rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in our Federal programs, and sometimes even criminal activity. It has also instilled confidence in Federal agencies by ensuring accountability. That, however, doesn't mean the system is perfect. Since the initial passage of the Inspector General Act of 1978, we have seen what works and what doesn't. We have added inspectors general and refined their processes. On January 20, a new President will be sworn into office and a new administration will lead our Federal agencies. Before they begin, now is a good time to update some of our inspector general requirements. This bill makes important improvements by requiring disclosure to Congress when an IG is put on nonduty status and why a President has not nominated a permanent IG for a vacant position. These updates are necessary, and we must also do more. Last Congress, I introduced the Appointments Clause Enforcement Act. That bill included several important changes to the IG system that would help make inspectors general more independent and instill confidence in them. For example, rather than the President appointing an acting IG when a position is vacant, my bill would have the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency develop a list of qualified candidates and share those with the chief judge of the district court in the District of Columbia, who would make the appointment. That way, a President could not install political allies as acting inspectors general, even ones who didn't receive the advice and consent of the Senate, as a way to reduce oversight. We should also clarify provisions to make sure that IGs forward legitimate whistleblower complaints to Congress without political interference and that those whistleblowers are protected from political retribution. I thank Representative Lieu for sponsoring the Inspector General Protection Act and Speaker Pelosi for bringing it to the floor as one of our first bills. I hope that this is the beginning of the 117th Congress' efforts to improve the inspector general system that works to improve our Federal Government's systems of administration and protects policies that are important for transparency and integrity of government.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools Study Act, a bill I introduced with Representative Danny Davis and Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois. It is also cosponsored by 43 of our colleagues in the House of Representatives and nine Senators. This bill would begin the process to establish a Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park to focus on the incredible impact of Julius Rosenwald, a successful entrepreneur and renowned philanthropist who made lasting contributions to the advancement of African American education during the twentieth century. Mr. Rosenwald was the President of Sears, Roebuck & Company who used his fortune to enhance the lives of others--establishing museums, community centers, and housing as well as helping Jews in Europe and new immigrants to the U.S. Moved by Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery, Mr. Rosenwald committed his time and finances to improving the lives of African Americans. Notably, he established the Julius Rosenwald Fund that partnered with local communities to create over 5,300 schools in the south to address the lack of education for African Americans. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, one-third of all African American children in the south were educated in Rosenwald schools. A 2011 study by two Federal Reserve economists concluded that the schools played a significant role in narrowing the education gap between black and white students in the south. In addition, Mr. Rosenwald provided matching funds to communities for construction of YMCA's for African Americans during the Jim Crow era. The Rosenwald Fund supported the early NAACP cases that eventually led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, provided fellowship to African Americans in the arts and sciences, and supported a number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Fisk, Dillard, and Howard. Mr. Rosenwald improved the lives of those in Chicago as well, creating the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry among many other local initiatives. When I was seven years old, our first family vacation was to my mother's hometown of Chicago. During that trip, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which my mother and others referred to as ``the Rosenwald.'' That memory led me to dig into the life of Julius Rosenwald as an adult. My dear and late friend, Julian Bond, told me about the Rosenwald schools and that furthered my appreciation of this man's farsightedness, empathy and wisdom. The esteemed contralto singer Marian Anderson, discriminated against in the Jim Crow South, won a prestigious Julius Rosenwald Fellowship that allowed her to tour Europe, entertaining heads of state, making headlines in American newspapers and creating ``Marian Mania'' around the world. Returning to the United States, she was invited by President Franklin Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to play the White House in 1936 and, famously, sang ``My Country 'Tis of Thee'' from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939 after being denied the stage of the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall by segregationists. The documentary, ``Rosenwald,'' by Aviva Kempner was a fitting tribute to Julius Rosenwald. I was privileged to be present for a showing at the White House East Wing when Barack Obama was president and Valerie Jarrett was his senior advisor. Ms. Jarrett's maternal grandfather, Robert Rochon Taylor, was involved in carrying on the legacy of Julius Rosenwald by helping to plan, build and manage what became known as Rosenwald Courts, a multiunit housing complex in Bonzeville. Julius Rosenwald was a visionary philanthropist whose altruism--and philosophy of giving embodied the Jewish concept of tzedakah--social justice and charity. It's past time to ensure his legacy receives its due place in history. I urge my colleagues to support the swift passage of the Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools Study Act.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember a giant of the Memphis community--the Reverend James LaVirt Netters Sr., who passed on Sunday at the age of 93. Reverend Netters served more than 60 years as the senior pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Westwood. Reverend Netters graduated from the historic Booker T. Washington High School, which produced other noted alumni such as civil rights activist Maxine Smith and civil rights attorney Judge Russell B. Sugarmon Jr. He went on to graduate from LeMoyne-Owen College, a historically Black college. He was a Memphis City Schools teacher when he responded to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s clarion call for jobs and freedom and attended the 1963 March on Washington. He returned to Memphis galvanized to address integrated public accommodations, getting arrested, like Rosa Parks, and encouraging other ministers to join him, in sitting in whites-only sections of buses in demonstrations that resulted in desegregating the system. Determined to make a difference in the lives of Black people, he turned to electoral politics. He was one of the first three Black City Council members sworn into office in January 1968, along with the Reverend J.O. Patterson and Fred Davis, and worked tirelessly behind the scenes during the Sanitation Workers Strike that led to the assassination of Dr. King that year. After his Council service, he was an administrative assistant and served as a community liaison for Memphis Mayor Wyeth Chandler from 1972 to 1975. He later received a master's degree and a doctorate in Divinity from Memphis Theological Seminary, where a faculty chair in Rhetoric and African American Studies is named in his honor. Reverend Netters was a stand-up pastor whose friendships and influence knew no bounds. He was the longest- serving pastor of a single church in the City of Memphis and was respected for his moral authority. Other pastors and ministers held him in high regard for his leadership, activism, commitment to ministry and the community, and his focus-driven life. Noted for his work outside the church as well, Reverend Netters served on the board and as chairman of the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. MLG&W's business center building is named in his honor, as is a portion of Third Street--James L. Netters Parkway. An open-minded leader and a man of impeccable character, he respected all people; there was not a prejudiced bone in his body. He reached across all religious, gender, political and racial groups as a respected bridge that brought all of Memphis together. I appreciated his friendship and his solid support, especially during my early runs for Congress. I was honored to take him as my guest to the annual Congressional Prayer Breakfast where he was pleased to meet with President Obama. I express my profound condolences to his family and to the Mount Vernon Baptist Church community he served so well. He led an exemplary life and will be missed.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019 or the MORE Act. This landmark legislation is long overdue. It will descheudule marijuana, provide expungement for previous offenders, clarify that those previously convicted of marijuana related offenses would be eligible for federal benefits, and will establish an excise tax system on marijuana to invest in communities disproportionately affected by our failed marijuana policy. I have been working on this issue since I was first elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1982. In this Congress, I have sponsored the CARERS Act to provide legal certainty for those using medicinal marijuana allowed under state law and the Fresh Start Act which provides a pathway for expungement for these types of offenses. The history of marijuana as a Schedule-I drug is one full of bias and discrimination. This policy has served its racist purposes, targeting communities of color and disproportionately incarcerating people of color. The War on Drugs has been a resounding failure, especially regarding cannabis. About 700,000 Americans each year are arrested for cannabis related offenses. Despite similar usage rates, there are nearly four Black Americans arrested for a cannabis-related offense for every white American. In my district, the situation is even worse. According to a 2013 ACLU study, in Shelby County, 83.2 percent of people arrested for cannabis offenses were Black, which the report cited as one of the highest county-level statistics in the nation. These arrests and convictions have long term impacts. Those with criminal records are limited from receiving federal benefits including SNAP, housing benefits, and Pell Grants. Our policy is exactly backward. We should be supporting those susceptible to substance abuse, not punishing them. This bill rights an historic wrong and invests in the communities most harmed. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill. I thank Chairman Nadler for his leadership on this important issue.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of Tommy Pacella, President of the Memphis Medical District Cooperative, who passed away gracefully on Monday at the age of 43. Mr. Pacella did much to improve his hometown, particularly the Medical Center area, where he helped 36 businesses open and thrive over the past six years. Before that, as an Assistant City Attorney and at the Mayor's Institute of Excellence in Government, Mr. Pacella brought best practices and a passion for improvement to his city, and they will be his lasting legacy. Mr. Pacello, a graduate of the Evangelical Christian School, the University of Georgia, and the University of Memphis, where he earned a law degree and Master's degree in city planning, was uniquely qualified to tackle the urban issues that were his chosen field, and he excelled. I was pleased to work with him on the transportation infrastructure issues of the Medical Center district and appreciated his thoughtful ideas for improvements that he laid out at a roundtable forum I hosted just last year. Mr. Pacello was also chairman of the Memphis Chapter of the Urban Land Institute, which named him as one of the top 40 real estate professionals under the age of 40 in 2015, and he served on the Memphis Area Transit Authority board of commissioners. The way he approached his illness with a positive mindset and a focus on the essential was an inspiration to all who knew him. I express my profound condolences to his wife, Olivia; his young daughters, Colette and Cecile; his many friends and colleagues; and all those his life inspired. I have no doubt that, had he been given more time, he would have been one of our greatest civic leaders. He led a fine life and will be missed.''

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember and honor Bishop Lee Ward, the former senior pastor of Greater Harvest Church of God in Christ in Memphis, who passed on Tuesday at the age of 97. Bishop Ward, a native of Abbeville, Alabama, joined the Marine Corps in April 1943 and was later recognized with a 2012 Congressional Gold Medal as one of the remaining 362 Montfort Point Marines for their service during World War II. On the reverse of that cherished medal reads this inscription: ``For Outstanding Perseverance and Courage that Inspired Social Change in the Marine Corps.'' Bishop Ward went on to serve in the Korean and Vietnam Wars in 26 years with the Marines, retiring as a master gunnery sergeant. As pastor of Greater Harvest COGIC, Bishop Ward served for 42 years before turning over his legacy to his son, Elder Renardo Ward. I express my condolences to Bishop Ward's wife, Julia, his children and grandchildren, his many friends and the entire Greater Harvest and COGIC community. Bishop Ward led an exemplary life, and he will be missed.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember my friend and a local and national Democratic Party stalwart, Myra Stiles, who passed on Friday at the age of 84. Mrs. Stiles was active in Democratic Party politics, joining the Volunteer Women's Roundtable shortly after arriving in Memphis with her husband, Robert, months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. She went on to become an officer, president, and treasurer of the Democratic Women of Shelby County, and served in positions with the Shelby County Democratic Executive Committee, as well as President of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women. She always had the Democratic women's annual Christmas Party at her home--a wonderful gathering of friends in the holiday season. Mrs. Stiles was also a longtime member and chair of the Shelby County Election Commission, first elected in 1987. No one in the last 30 years has done more guaranteeing access to the ballot and free and fair elections in Shelby County than Myra Stiles. She was also special assistant to William Farris when he served as chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party (1978-1981). Mrs. Stiles was active in the political campaigns of Harold Ford, Sr.; Harold Ford, Jr.; Beverly Marrero; Mary Wilder; and many others on the national, state, and local levels. She was instrumental in my campaigns going back to 1976, when I was a candidate for the state Constitutional Convention from the Midtown district. She was an enthusiastic supporter in all my subsequent races for the state Senate and later for Congress with her prominent and well-recognized yard signs on McLean. Mrs. Stiles attended four Democratic National Conventions and two presidential inaugurations. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland proclaimed February 20, 2016 ``Myra Stiles Day'' for her dedicated service to the city and its citizens. Since 2003, Mrs. Stiles had been an active member of Mothers of the NILE, an organization which works to reduce the number of children entering the juvenile justice system. Mrs. Stiles loved politics, the democratic process and Democratic principles and her community will long remember her dedicated service. I extend my profound condolences to her children Allison, Sarah and Robert, and their families, and to her many friends and colleagues. She did important work and will be missed.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise-today in support of H. Res. 1154, condemning QAnon and rejecting the conspiracy theories it promotes. Although my vote was not recorded, I strongly support this resolution. I spoke on the floor on Thursday to commend Representatives Malinowski and Riggleman for their leadership on this issue. I was pleased to vote yes on the Rule. I have been targeted by QAnon on social media and have seen personally the absurdity and danger of their beliefs to our political system and to our countries historical beliefs in truth and in reality.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I came here for the purpose of commending Representatives Malinowski and Riggleman for bringing the resolution condemning QAnon and its baseless, racist theories. But having heard some of the remarks today, I have to tell you: Speaker Pelosi is standing up for American values and standing up for the least of us, while the Republicans are standing for the most of us. The Republicans passed a $150 billion tax break for the richest Americans, people like Donald Trump who don't pay taxes. They get a 4- year backlog to file losses in real estate deals to cut out their taxes. They won't do anything for children in a child tax credit, but they think that that policy of giving people, on average, a $1.6 million tax benefit to the richest 1 percent is good values. That is not good values. That is bad values. That is not good values; that is bad values. And the Republicans ought to object to that because it is making them the party of greed and tax weaselers and the bad people in America and not caring about the least of these.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Father Nicholas Vieron, the much admired retired pastor of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Memphis, who passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 94. Father Vieron was a revered ecumenical leader in Memphis, serving as Chairman of the Memphis Ministerial Association at the time of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With Rabbi James Wax, the Reverend Frank McRae, Dean William Dimmick and other religious leaders, Father Vieron confronted Mayor Henry Loeb the day after the assassination, which helped bring the strike to an end and helped bind Memphis together during that time of crisis for our city. A native of New Orleans and the son of Greek immigrants, he grew up across the street from America's first Greek Orthodox Church. Father Vieron came to Memphis to become pastor of Annunciation Church in 1955 after attending seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts, and served as a priest in Louisville, Kentucky, and Huntington, West Virginia. In Huntington, he received a master's degree from Marshall College. In Memphis, he received a J.D. from the University of Memphis School of Law in 1970. He retired from Annunciation in 1991 but stayed busy. For decades, Father Vieron taught a 15-week course in the Greek language to all comers, telling students that there would be no tests but that they were required to endure his corny jokes. My favorite: There are three stages in life--young, middle aged, and ``you're looking good.'' For 40 years, he served as chaplain to the Memphis Touchdown Club. He also served as editor of The Epistle, a newsletter for retired Orthodox priests. In 2015, he received the MLK Legacy Award from the National Civil Rights Museum. His wife of 69 years, Bess, passed in 2017. I want to express my condolences to his sons, Leonidas and Paul, his four grandchildren and five great- grandchildren, the entire Annunciation Greek Orthodox community, and his many friends and admirers. Father Vieron led an exceptional life of service and he will not be forgotten.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, although I was present, my vote inadvertently was not recorded on H.R. 451. My vote should have been recorded as Yea.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Dr. Melissa Collins, a second-grade science teacher at the John P. Freeman Optional School in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis, who last week was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. This honor was just the most recent recognition of Dr. Collins' huge influence in the classroom as an Early Childhood educator and as a policy maker. She was also the winner of a 2010 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. During the East Room ceremony at the White House, President Obama jokingly asked Dr. Collins to consider tutoring his daughters. Among many of her accolades, Dr. Collins received the 2013 NEA Foundation's Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence, the 2014 West Tennessee Teacher of the Year Award, the 2015 Queen Smith Award for Urban Education from the Council of Great City Schools, the 2015 Kennedy Center-Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, the 2017 National Science Teachers Association Science Educator Development Award, and was one of six U.S. finalists for the $1 million Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Award in 2018. Dr. Collins has taught at John P. Freeman for 21 years and has been a standout from the start. In 2007, she instituted the ``Muffins with Moms'' days to have students see their mothers read to their classes and, later, the ``Dates for Dads'' days for fathers to have lunch with their children at school. She also instituted the ``Dress Up Friday'' days so students could show off a little. In class, she has her students don lab coats to conduct their science experiments and has been known to incorporate music in her teaching, part of the rationale for the Sondheim award. ``I learned to take a risk for my students and myself. I allowed my students to drive their own learning and curiosity,'' she has said. ``In the beginning, I would seek opportunities. Now, those opportunities seek me. I was chasing my dreams and now my dreams chase me.'' After graduating in 1992 from Whitehaven High School, where she played basketball and her father, Stanley, coached the football team, she earned a master's and doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi while constantly giving back to her community. As a policy expert, Dr. Collins has travelled to India and Brazil and across the U.S. to confer with other recognized leaders, and to the Halls of Congress, where she has advised Senator Alexander and me on best practices and good ideas. I value her insights and her passion for the students she loves. On Friday, students still learning from home will stage a drive-by parade in her honor outside the Freeman Optional School. She is a true inspiration, and I wish her well as she continues her astonishing career.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in 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 who call Memphis home. Two years ago, I was shocked to read of the disturbing workplace abuses in an XPO warehouse in Memphis. Warehouse workers were denied minor and reasonable accommodations like less taxing workloads and shortened work shifts. 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 ninety-five 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. The 116th Congress has rightly given this bill the attention it deserves, and this bill will give pregnant workers the protections that are past-due. No employee should be forced to choose between their job and their health. I appreciated the opportunity to participate in the Education and Labor Committee's Subcommittee hearing on this bill, and I am pleased to support the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act's consideration today.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding. Madam Speaker, Mr. DeJoy was before a Senate committee on Friday. He was asked if he would put back in the sorters that he had removed, and he said no. I think that is because he had already done his dirty work. He had already slowed down the mail by taking the sorting machines out, and the flat sorters as well, which my postal people tell me is causing great delays and will cause greater delays. He had already done it. He refused to put them back in. Why? Because the job was done, and he didn't want to put those sorters back in to see that the mail was delivered. He is no Karl Malone. He does not deliver. He is not the ``Mailman.'' These postal sorters need to be there. 39,000 letters an hour go through. The flat sorters are necessary for the mail-in ballots. There is no reason he wouldn't put them back in. It wouldn't save any money. It costs money to take them out. He didn't save money by taking them out. He reduced efficiency. He reduced the ability of the Post Office to deliver ballots to elect a person safely in America. This is a shame, and it is a crime. Madam Speaker, I support the bill, and everyone here should.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate my friend Steve Lockwood, who is retiring after more than 18 years as the executive director of the Frayser Community Development Corporation. In that role, Mr. Lockwood has seen a rebound in property values after the Great Recession and has worked to bring $30 million in redevelopment to Frayser's MLK Zone surrounding Martin Luther King College Prep. Mr. Lockwood's tenure with the agency is almost as old as the CDC itself, which was founded in January 2000. In what is obviously a labor of love, Mr. Lockwood has created an agency known for offering homebuyer education and financial literacy for residents of a market once defined by foreclosures. Mr. Lockwood's mission-based focus has inspired his staff and his legacy will be their continued successes. I wish him all the best in a well-deserved retirement.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the two amendments that I have in the en bloc concern horses. One concerns wild horses and a more humane way to deal with the wild horse population. Right now, the Bureau of Land Management uses helicopters, rounds them up, and puts them in pens for the rest of their lives. This would be a more humane practice and cost only 10 percent of their budget, and it would certainly be something the Rolling Stones would be for, ``Wild Horses.'' The other is one that would give money for an audit on the soring practices of Tennessee walkers, an inhumane practice that has gone on for a long time. We need to be considerate of our four-legged friends, and this would support the walking horses. Mr. Speaker, I am thankful to see these included in the en bloc, and I am pleased to see this progress.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Lowey for yielding. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. In this en bloc amendment, there are four amendments that I offered. I have offered them for 4 years. They have been accepted, now, for 2 years. They are emoluments amendments. They will say we can't spend money at businesses that the President owns. Well, we shouldn't. No President should be in the business of getting money from the government, and it wasn't until Donald Trump became President that this became a problem. He does it at his hotels. He does it at his golf clubs. He has done it having airplanes stop at different airports than they normally do for refueling so they will end up having to spend the night at his golf club in Scotland. And recently, it came up that he asked his Ambassador to England to get one of his golf clubs in Scotland the opportunity to host the British Open and make a ton of money. The Presidency should be about serving the country and serving the people and supporting democracy, not about supporting yourself and putting money in your pocket.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time. I say to the gentleman from North Carolina that I remember that the last time I saw John Lewis was March 5, his birthday; and the gentleman offered the prayer. That meant a lot to me, and it showed me the respect that you had for him and that he had for you. It was a beautiful moment. There was not a more perfect person that has probably served in the Congress and, certainly that I have known in my life, than John R. Lewis. He had every quality that you would desire in a human being and couldn't even imagine a person to have them altogether. He was a hero of the civil rights movement and cared greatly about the injustices that he had seen as an African American, and that is what launched him on his civil rights struggles. But once he got moving, it was people of different issues of discrimination that he championed; whether it was gay and lesbian; whether it was Native Americans; whether it was women, or just simple people being victims of gun violence, John Lewis took up the cause and he stood up for everybody. He did not know color. He did not know gender. He did not know any differences in people. He loved all people. It was such an honor to serve with him. Early in my career, the American Bar Association presented the Day Award to John Lewis, Richard Lugar and myself. The award was nothing compared to the fact that I was with John Lewis that day. It made me feel much greater than I ever could become. I had the great honor to travel with him to South Africa for the 50th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's Ripple of Hope speech in Cape Town. I saw and I sat across from he and Bishop Desmond Tutu, and I knew I was seeing two angels together, two special souls united. Mr. Lewis loved two people in life that were his heroes; one was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the other was Robert Kennedy. The purpose of that speech on that trip was to honor Robert Kennedy and the 50th anniversary of that speech. In that speech, Robert Kennedy said: ``It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.'' Robert Kennedy might as well have been speaking about John Lewis that day in 1964, because that is what John Lewis did; and he was more than a ripple of hope, he was a tsunami of hope. He was in every good cause there was, and he sacrificed himself physically in South Carolina, in Alabama, in Mississippi, for civil rights. And he sacrificed himself even when he was a Member of Congress for different causes, getting arrested. And when he was on death's doorstep, he got himself to Washington, D.C., to appear at Black Lives Matter Plaza and give hope and encouragement and support to the young people that were striving for the causes that he had strived for his whole life. I value every single moment I spent with Congressman Lewis. It was an honor to know him. I miss him. And just the other day, I looked up at the scoreboard, and when I didn't know quite how to vote on some issues, I would look to John Lewis and see how he voted. And he wasn't there. He was my hero.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Leader Hoyer expressed, I think, everybody's feelings about John Lewis. I lost a hero and a friend, a cohort in good trouble, and a colleague. It is said, when you come to the House, you sometimes walk with giants, rarely do you get to walk with a saint. John Lewis was a saint. He was heavenly. He embodied the spirit of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. He exhibited that in his work, his life, his votes, his advice to his colleagues. There is no good time to die, but John Lewis lit a fire that has turned into a tremendous blaze, and I am fortunate that I have been able to feel the warmth and share it with him.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, in this historical moment, we are all working to find ways to eliminate racial injustice and the disparities it causes. Certainly, people of color must be treated with fairness and respect by law enforcement. But it will take far more than that to begin to make a dent in the race and sex discrimination that keeps far too many people locked out of the American dream. In this context, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise or DBE Program, which is reauthorized in this legislation, is essential. As we have over the past decades since the DBE program was originally enacted in 1983, this Committee has received enormous amounts of evidence demonstrating that discrimination continues to plague the industries that make up the surface transportation market. One of the studies referenced in our Committee Report involves the Nashville and the surrounding metropolitan area. The numbers are devastating--especially in prime contracting. Firms owned by African Americans earned 3 cents on the dollar of what we would expect them to earn given their availability in Architecture and Engineering markets. For Asian Americans the number was 18 cents on the dollar and for Hispanic Americans it was 47 cents on the dollar. That is simply unacceptable. In construction contracting, African Americans did better, but Hispanic Americans did much, much worse--and none did as well as white males. In prime construction contracts, African American owned firms earned 55 cents on the dollar of what we would have expected given their representation in the availability for prime construction contracting. Asian Americans earned 25 cents on the dollar and Hispanic Americans earned 1 cent on the dollar. Metro Nashville Tennessee Disparity Study Final Report, Griffin and Strong, P.C., August 2018, at 83 through 84. These numbers make clear that minority business owners in this country are trapped in a cycle of discrimination from which escape is close to impossible. We cannot permit this situation to continue.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday we will celebrate the Independence Day of our country. In our Chamber we have photographs of Lafayette and George Washington. In the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, it reads: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'' Unfortunately, those words were not complete because African Americans were not considered men, and they were not given the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are still pursuing that. We did it with the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and we are doing it in other ways with opportunities for African Americans. And as we said in the founding of our country, that we are becoming a more perfect union, and we continue to do that today; to see to it that all men and women have certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Hopefully, we will remember that on Saturday, and remember that the reason why we cut ourselves off from King George is because we wanted to be a Nation of a rule of laws and not a Nation of a rule of man. That was worth people signing the Declaration, putting their lives at risk, and founding the United States of America.