Steve Cohen

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the most fundamental right in our country is voting. The Pew Charitable Trust recently did a study on registration and voting in each State. I am sad to say that my State of Tennessee came out pretty bad. We were 40th in the number of people registered in our State. About 78 percent of the people were registered to vote. In turnout, we were last. Only 28.5 percent of the people in Tennessee voted. This was based on the 2014 elections. The 2018 elections will determine a lot about who sits in this House, who sits in the Senate, and, eventually, who sits on the Supreme Court. It is imperative that everybody register to vote so that they can vote in the November elections, not just in Tennessee, but everywhere in the country, and that everyone turn out to vote so the voting totals are a fair representation of the people, all the people, if we are going to have a House and a Senate that is representative of America. What occurred in Helsinki and what was brought out with the indictments by Special Counsel Mueller show how much the Russians think of our election system, that they got involved in a cyber attack on our country to defeat a candidate. We should care as much about our electoral system as the Russians. We should care more about it. The fact that more than 20 percent of the citizens in my State do not register and do not vote is appalling. With the continued threat to the electoral system in 2018, it is so important that we at least make it difficult for the Russians to have an impact. That means that each and every citizen needs to register, register others as their civic duty, vote as their civic duty, and make their voices heard. Otherwise, this room will not represent ``America the Beautiful.''

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I want to commend our United States Department of Justice for reopening the Emmet Till murder case. Emmet Till was a young man who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955. The case that was brought to trial in Mississippi charged two White men who were identified by a Black one, one of Mr. Till's 14- year-old relatives. The all-White jury found them not guilty. Both men, looking back afterwards, said they did it, and nothing happened. There have been lots of investigations about this, lots of reports, and the Justice Department has seized some ``new evidence'' to reopen the case. I commend our Justice Department. While justice delayed is justice denied, justice, whenever it can be found in these civil rights cases, is appropriate and proper. I thank the Department of Justice.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today, the House passed a resolution which I authored with the help of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of which Ed Royce is the chairman supporting NATO and the NATO countries that are endangered by Russian aggression, particularly Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Baltic area. The Balkan countries also have been threatened, including Montenegro, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The resolution speaks of our support of the sanctions against Russia. And the sanctions should remain until Crimea is returned to Ukraine and the Donbas no longer has war. Then we continue to support the Baltics who have their airspace invaded by Russian aggression. I am pleased that Speaker Ryan allowed this resolution to come to the floor and was passed by voice vote unanimous consent as the Senate had passed a similar resolution 97-2. The House and the Senate stand together in support of NATO and our allies in Eastern, Central, and Western Europe.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recall the excellent life of Melvin T. Burgess, Sr., who served his community in various capacities for 56 years and died June 28 at the age of 80. Mr. Burgess served for 33 years with the Memphis Police Department, the final two and a half years as Police Director. Mr. Burgess was a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School after which he joined the U.S. Air Force. He was also a graduate of Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana. Mr. Burgess joined the Memphis Police Department on March 12, 1962, starting off in the Beale Street Precinct as a beat officer. He rose through the ranks, working in the juvenile, robbery, narcotics and homicide units before becoming an Inspector then Director in January 1992. As Director, he assumed the command of 1,448 commissioned officers. He ran for Shelby County Sheriff as a Democrat in 1998 but did not prevail. The following year, he began working as the second in command of the Tunica County Sheriffs Department during federal corruption probe and, when the sheriff under indictment pleaded guilty to extortion and resigned, Burgess ran the department for almost a year until a successor was elected. He was commended by one federal prosecutor for ``coming in and righting the ship.'' He also worked as chief of security for Harrah's Casino in Tunica. Mr. Burgess was a true man of character and integrity whom I grew to know and admire while I was the legal advisor to the Memphis Police Department. I want to extend my condolences to his wife of 43 years, Johanna; his son Shelby County Commissioner Melvin Burgess II and his wife Sandra; his daughter Pamela Nelson; and his four grandchildren. Melvin Burgess always did the right thing. His was a life well-lived, and he will be missed.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for the time. What we are experiencing here in this moment in this Chamber is the greatest tribute to Federico Fellini that could ever be produced in this House. It is a theater of the absurd. It is a ruse on the American people and an attempt to defeat justice that will go back and expose activities involving Russia and participants in the 2016 election that resulted in the election of Donald Trump. The fact is there is a special counsel investigating that, one of the most distinguished Americans ever, a Purple Heart recipient who went in the Marines because one of his friends was killed; and he volunteered to go to Vietnam, received a Purple Heart and other commendations, and then came back here and didn't practice law and make money and get greedy on 5th Avenue, but he pursued justice, and he put Gotti away, and he put Noriega away. He has dealt with some of the worst people in this world, and it is a perfect calling for him to stand for the Constitution and for our country and for the rule of law and investigate possible collusion with Russia in our 2016 election and other activities. The campaign manager for President Trump is in jail right now because, while out on bond, he did acts that the judge couldn't countenance and couldn't count on him not to engage in again, so she had to put him in jail. There have been indictments. There have been guilty pleas by people close to the President. The President is feeling the heat, and his acolytes here in the House of Representatives, rather than operating as a check and balance on the administration and protecting the flag, the Constitution, and doing their duty and their oath of office, are producing this ruse to make the American public think there is something wrong with our Justice Department, our FBI, and our special counsel, going after Mr. Mueller, a registered Republican; Mr. Rosenstein, a Republican appointed by Mr. Trump; and Mr. Wray at the FBI, a Republican appointed by Trump. As we are here on this floor, the Judiciary Committee is having a sham hearing with Rosenstein and Wray, Republicans fighting Republicans to get information. But it is not Republicans fighting Republicans. It is Republicans fighting for Trump, who has taken over this party, a party that once proudly stood for people like Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower and George Bush and George H.W. Bush and even Abraham Lincoln, who most people know was a Republican. What we are seeing is the takeover of our democracy, and this is the theater of the absurd. These documents should not be turned over, and the Justice Department doesn't turn them over because it would reveal sources and it would imperil an investigation. God bless the United States, and may we protect Robert Mueller. I reiterate my oath to defend the Constitution.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Nationally Enhancing the Wellbeing of Babies through Outreach and Research Now (NEWBORN) Act, a bill I introduced earlier today. In Shelby County, Tennessee, there were 123 children who did not make it to their first birthday in 2016. In the United States, our infant mortality rate is comparable to countries like Bosnia, Chile, and Cuba, and a recent study found that a child is 76 percent more likely to die before their first birthday in America than in 19 other wealthy nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More concerning is the racial and ethnic infant mortality disparities that continue to exist. In 2015, the rates for infant mortality were over double for black infants compared to white ones. This is unacceptable. That's why I am introducing the NEWBORN Act. If enacted, the NEWBORN Act would create infant mortality-focused pilot programs in the highest-risk areas of the country. The pilot programs would focus on addressing one or more of the top five reasons for infant mortality: birth defects, preterm birth and low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, maternal pregnancy complications, and injuries to the infant. The NEWBORN Act would specifically encourage the development of community-specific practices to promote pre-natal care and community outreach and education. The current infant mortality rates are tragic, but good practices can improve health and save lives. I urge my colleagues to help pass this bill.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the chairman and all the work he has done for many, many years in the House, and I appreciate the opportunity to serve with him. And I appreciate the ranking member for his help on this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I ask for an ``aye'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This amendment, which is an environmental amendment, would prohibit the House from spending funds to purchase plastic drinking straws in our eating areas in the House. Plastic drinking straws are a considerable environmental risk to mammals and fish. They are dropped and discarded on the streets but particularly in the oceans. And they have had whales show up with 17 pounds of plastic in their stomachs and tortoises with straws in their nostrils and all kinds of awful things. It is a threat to sea turtles and all kinds of marine wildlife. This would be an opportunity for us to show the public that we are aware there are cities, restaurant associations, and other groups that are banning straws or at least asking that they be made optional for customers so that they are used or not used, but let the customer make that decision. I think this would be a great thing for the House to do to show that we understand this environmental problem.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today to offer an amendment to increase funding for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account by $2 million, specifically for use in the SuperTruck II program. The SuperTruck program was started by the Department of Energy under President Obama and former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to improve freight and heavy-duty vehicle efficiency. The Appropriations Committee acknowledged in the committee report the success of the SuperTruck II program, noting these funds will help SuperTruck II to continue to dramatically improve the freight efficiency of heavy-duty class 8 long-haul and regional-haul vehicles through system level improvements like the hybridization of vehicles, saving more fuel while idling--that is something I saw in a field demonstration and it is pretty amazing how they turn off at intersections with lights, et cetera--engineering high-efficiency HVAC technologies, and more. This amendment to increase funding for the SuperTruck II program will allow the Department of Energy to better achieve its freight efficiency goals, and the amendment is fully offset by decreasing the departmental administration account. I would like to thank Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for their hard work on this bill and for including this amendment. The Rules Committee might have done that, but I don't think they would have if there were objections from the chair and ranking member. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 100th anniversary of the Republic Day of Azerbaijan, and to extend my best wishes to all Azerbaijanis. May 28th marks the founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, when the people of Azerbaijan first gained their independence from the Russian Empire in 1918. Although Azerbaijan's independence was ended by Soviet forces in 1920, it is noteworthy that the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan was the world's first secular parliamentary democratic republic in a predominantly Muslim nation--earning diplomatic recognition from the United States during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. We also recall that the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan granted universal suffrage to its citizens in 1918, making it the first Muslim country to give women the right to vote. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan restored its independence on October 18, 1991, when its Parliament adopted the Constitution Act on the Restoration of the State of Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has emerged as a key player for enhancing global energy security. The completion of the Southern Gas Corridor--which will run from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, and Albania into Italy--will increase the energy security of key American allies by increasing the amount of natural gas from the Caspian Sea to European markets. Azerbaijan also provides roughly 40 percent of Israel's oil consumption and enjoys friendly ties with Israel beyond oil sales. Jews have resided in Azerbaijan for 2,500 years without persecution and today, the Jewish community in Azerbaijan numbers over 12,000. Azerbaijan is also home to Christian communities and has been praised for its religious tolerance by the European Parliament. Azerbaijan is a key global security partner for the United States. As an active member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, Azerbaijan cooperates with the United States in countering terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and narcotics trafficking. Azerbaijani troops serve shoulder to shoulder with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, as they previously did in Kosovo and Iraq. In support of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan has extended important over-flight clearances for U.S. and NATO flights as well as regularly providing landing and refueling operations at its airports for U.S. and NATO forces. As co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, I congratulate the people of Azerbaijan on the centennial of their Republic Day. May the partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan progress and continue to benefit both of our nations.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, our country's democracy and rule of law are in danger, being threatened at every moment. Today is my birthday and also the birthday of Bobby Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan. And with that, I quote Bob Dylan: Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won't come again And don't speak too soon For the wheel's still in spin And there's no tellin' who that it's namin' For the loser now will be later to win For the times they are a-changin' Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside and it is ragin' It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin' The line that is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is rapidly fadin' And the first one now will later be last For the times they are a-changin' My colleagues, get it together and save democracy and protect us from this President.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, Tennessee has a law that is about 160 years old. The legislature changed it some, but the Governor needs to sign a bill to do it. It is a law that allows juveniles, before they are convicted, be sent for ``safekeeping'' in an adult penitentiary or prison. This occurred recently in two cases. The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group took one of those cases. A girl was charged with a crime and had a $30,000 bond assigned to her. She couldn't make that bond and the court sent her to an adult penitentiary where she and one other girl were isolated in a wing of the adult penitentiary for 40 days. The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group got an attorney, Josh Spickler, who got the girl's bond set at a higher figure, but one that they were willing to make to get her out of jail. Juveniles should not be put in adult facilities before they are convicted, and nobody should be put in safekeeping and put away like that when they don't need to be, and they can be incarcerated in a juvenile facility. I hope the Governor signs the bill and makes our Tennessee law more current.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chair, to affirm what the chairman already knows, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this bipartisan, bicameral amendment, offered with my colleague on the Aviation Subcommittee, Mr. Woodall, and spearheaded in the Senate by former military pilot, mother, and great Member, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and Senator Perdue. This amendment is common sense and ensures the safety of the flying public. Our bipartisan amendment streamlines an onerous process that has led to unintended burdens and delays on the State Department of Motor Vehicles across the country and delays in getting prospective pilots eligible for employment. To be clear, this amendment does nothing to remove protections to pilots and their privacy already enshrined in Federal law. In 1996, Congress passed the Pilot Records Improvement Act, which mandated the airlines obtain driving records of all prospective pilot employees from the National Driver Registry. An unintended consequence came about requiring only the chief State licensing official could approve such request. This has caused delays at DMVs, and currently, most employees have to request these records from Missouri, since they are the sole State still willing to access the National Driver Registry for requests from all parties. That is not what was intended, and it requires a simple and technical fix that this amendment does bring about. That 1996 law also clearly and strictly stipulated the written consent that airlines require from pilots before obtaining their records and spells out strict guidelines on the privacy and use of that information. They cannot sell that information. Mr. Chairman, I support the amendment and ask that it be voted on and approved, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 46 printed in part A of House Report 115-650 be modified by the form I have placed at the desk.

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to take my remaining time to thank Mr. Shuster for his work on this bill, and Mr. DeFazio for his work, too. They did bring about an excellent bill that I am proud to support. I have been proud to be a member of the committee with Mr. Shuster as the chair. He has done an outstanding job and done his father's memory as a great chairman even greater honor. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Nadler for yielding. I appreciate the work of Mr. Goodlatte and the other sponsors, Mr. Nadler and everybody else. This was really an issue where we showed that Congress can be productive, can get something done, working with all of the different groups and bringing them together. It is a successful effort. Music is very important to my hometown of Memphis, which, of course, is the hometown of Elvis Presley, where Sam Phillips put Elvis in the studio at Sun Records and produced the rock and roll that Chuck Berry and Little Richard had been playing but had not really reached a lot of people's ears. It did, and it set the world on fire. It brought a change in music and an appreciation for it. In Memphis, we have had Isaac Hayes, who did so much; Sam and Dave; David Porter; and many, many Memphians who participated. But I have personal friends in Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, and J.D. Souther, who were great songwriters and performers and have not received, necessarily, their financial due as they should, and fairness, and this will get them done. As Mr. Crowley mentioned, it will get engineers and producers payment for their work to help create these musical creations that people love. Mr. Speaker, I thank all of the sponsors and appreciate the fact that I was able to participate and support it and be a cosponsor.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the Republic of Azerbaijan for hosting an event on April 18th celebrating the relationship between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Israel. The Republic of Azerbaijan has been inclusive of its vibrant Jewish community and has the distinction of being a majority Muslim country that has a friendship with Israel. The United States of America and the Republic of Azerbaijan have enjoyed strong diplomatic relations since 1992 following Azerbaijan's successful declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. The Republic of Azerbaijan has been supportive of a two-state solution for peace in the Middle East while maintaining and strengthening its partnership with the State of Israel. The Republic of Azerbaijan is celebrating the centennial of becoming the first ever democratic republic in the Muslim world. Thank you again to the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding for hosting a great event honoring the enduring relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, malevolent actions and accidents give an opportunity for people to rise to heroic actions. America is a country familiar with heroes. At a sad and awful event this weekend in Nashville, Davidson County, at a Waffle House where four individuals were killed and four injured by a crazed individual with an AR-15, a man named James Shaw, Jr., rallied all of his courage and strength to rise to the occasion of heroics, to get the assailant, take his gun from him, and to save his life and other people's lives. James Shaw, Jr., is a lifetime Nashvillian. He didn't plan to be a hero that day, but he rose to the occasion. I take my hat off to him and commend him for his actions in saving other lives. Just a week or so earlier, we had a Southwest Airlines plane that would have crashed if it weren't for a great pilot, possibly, a plane that, tragically, had a piece of the wing come off and fly into the airplane and cause the death of a passenger and chaos on the plane. The pilot, a trained Navy fighter pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, stayed calm and brought that plane in safely without any other loss of life or injuries. She is a Sully part 2: Sullenberger, who took that plane in New York and landed it in the river and saved a lot of people's lives. We all honored Sully, as we should and should have. We need to honor Tammie Jo Shults in the same way. She is Sullenberger part 2. And James Shaw, Jr., of Nashville is a hero of the same dimension, and he saved many American lives. Those acts need to be remembered, reflected upon, and honored. I do so today, and I know other Members of this House do as well.

Mr. COHEN

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on this day, as a lawyer and as a Congressman, I want to express my appreciation for the Department of Justice, the FBI, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Wray, and others. The attorneys in the Justice Department are among the best in the country, and Mr. Mueller and Mr. Rosenstein are in that group. The FBI have the finest law enforcement people in our country, and Mr. Wray heads that office up. Besides being outstanding jurists, men of rectitude, and probity, what else do Mr. Wray, Mr. Rosenstein, and Mr. Mueller have in common? They are all Republicans, and they have all been attacked by our President. Our President said, when the warrant was issued on his attorney's office for his materials, that that was an attack on our country. In my opinion, that statement and the attacks on our Justice Department and FBI, and on Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Mueller and Mr. Wray, those were attacks on our country. When one undermines the Justice Department and the FBI and, basically, people working in the Federal Government to protect us and see that our laws are carried out in an appropriate manner and that the rule of law, which this country is respected for all around the world, is meted out in evenhanded fashion, that is an attack on the fundamental principles of the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, I resent that suggestion. The fact is Mr. Rosenstein showed great bravery in seeing--as we say in jury charges, ``going where truth dictated and justice demanded''--in seeing that that warrant was issued. They did it on the basis of probable cause and information that they had to have surveillance of Mr. Cohen. They had to have probable cause to even have surveillance. And then to go through--knowing this man was the attorney for the President--and authorize the warrant and to know his job was on the line and his neck was on the line showed great courage, something we all in America should respect and hold up as an admirable quality in a man who exhibits the best characteristics of our citizenry. Then Mr. Rosenstein, a learned attorney who didn't feel that attorney-client privilege was being infringed upon, sent the case to the Southern District of New York, where other lawyers who were trained took the case to a judge, who was also learned in the law, who said the warrant should issue. Attorney-client privilege is alive and is being dealt with in the proper fashion in Judge Wood's courtroom. She is properly seeing to it that it is respected, but that information that is not that of an attorney-client privilege will be revealed to the American public. For some reason, a lot of people today who normally are talking about the Second Amendment are talking about attorney-client privilege like it is the biggest legal principle in our country's fabric. What is more important than anything--and attorney-client privilege is being respected--is the information that has been garnered through that search warrant that could show the possibility of crimes being committed by the President of the United States of America. There is nothing more important to be seen, and attorney-client privilege is nothing compared to that. Why people are concerned about that and not the information that they are trying to keep quiet astonishes me. We need a transparent President. We need a President who pays his taxes and reveals them to the American public and who doesn't try to squash the Justice Department, the FBI, and means of people of probity and rectitude and character. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Wray, the Justice Department, and FBI officials.

Mr. COHEN

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

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