WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, ranking Republican member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, issued the following news release on June 17: Today, Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, released the following statement after the release of the President's Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS) Task Force report: "I applaud Dr. Van Dahlen and the entire President's PREVENTS Tas  more

WASHINGTON, June 20 -- Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, ranking Republican member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, issued the following news release: Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, released the following statement after he participated in a Facebook Live Q & A interview with Jeremy Butler, the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) yesterday. "IAVA has been laser focused on serving post-9/11 veterans for years   more

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, June 20 -- Rep. Timothy Burchett, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (TN-02) announced his support for the Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act of 2020. This legislation aims to build stronger relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they protect without jeopardizing the safety of law-abiding Americans. "The JUSTICE Act avoids a massive, one-size-fits-all federal respon  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 20 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, today announced that Southwest Tennessee Community College will receive a grant of $1,859,883 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase student success in community college mathematics through instructional change. Southwest is one of eight community colleges participating in the five-year p  more

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced that the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will receive an $11.2 million Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a fiber optic intelligent transportation system (ITS) along the Interstate 40 corridor between Memphis a  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 17 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, announced that Memphis Animal Services will receive a $25,000 grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to address fundraising shortfalls during the coronavirus pandemic. The funding is part of the ASPCA's $5 million Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Initiative. * * * "This gra  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced that the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business and Economics will receive a $111,999 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how rapid changes in work conditions in response to the pandemic have affected employee well-being. * * * "Understanding how the rapid transformation of the workforce affected those working from home and those require  more

WASHINGTON, June 20 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, applauded the advance of the Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation (INVEST) in America Act. The bill incorporates several of Congressman Cohen's priorities including his bill, H.R. 1400, the Horse Transportation Safety Act, in its entirety. It also incorporates many  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 20 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a 24-year member of the Tennessee State Senate, condemned the Tennessee General Assembly for making passage of a draconian abortion bill the bargaining chip needed to pass a state budget. The measure was passed in the early hours of Friday morning. * * * "Overnight Thursday into Friday morning's early hours, I was increasingly disturbed to see the Tennessee State Se  more

WASHINGTON, June 17 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) a senior member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will return to Washington on Wednesday to participate in the markup of two major legislative initiatives. In the Judiciary Committee, where Congressman Cohen serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, he will cons  more

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement on June 18: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), who in 2008 drafted and passed a historic Congressional resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow-era discrimination, announced that he will enthusiastically support calls for making Juneteenth a national holiday. On June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers first informed slaves held in Texas that they had been freed more than two years earlier by President Lincoln's   more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release on June 17: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, urged his colleagues to focus on police overuse of force against African Americans, and not misleading and distracting narratives, in its consideration of the Justice in Policing Act. The Committee voted to send the measure to t  more

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling rejecting the Trump Administration's effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program shielding those brought to this country as children from being deported. The court ruled that the Trump Administration was arbitrary and capricious when it suddenly ended the program. * * * "Eight years ago, President Obama showe  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tennessee, issued the following transcript on Fox News: On Oct. 30, 2001, wearing a navy-blue New York Fire Department quarter zip, President George W. Bush stepped out onto the mound at Yankee Stadium to throw the first pitch of game three of the World Series. There was not much to cheer for in the days following 9/11, but the cheers from the crowd were deafening, as the president stood there with American flags flying all around. It was a mome  more

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee, June 17 -- Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tennessee, issued the following statement on President Trump's executive order on safe policing for safe communities: "I support President Donald Trump's Executive Order on safe policing for safe communities. "This Executive Order will allow for information sharing on incidents of excessive force and directs the Department of Justice to certify independent organizations to provide accreditation to police departments on de-escalation  more

WASHINGTON, June 16 -- Rep. Mark Green, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. Green has sent a letter to National Security Subcommittee Chairman Lynch calling for a hearing to examine vulnerabilities in the Department of Defense's MAVNI (Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest) program. Green commented, "In recent years, DOD has discovered the MAVNI program recruited individuals who had received fraudulent visas to attend universities that did not exist, individuals w  more

WASHINGTON, June 20 -- Rep. Mark Green, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. Green has introduced the Our Money in China Transparency Act, which would require detailed annual reporting on any Federal funds spent on activities conducted in collaboration with China's entities and institutions. Green said, "As our Nation recovers from the devastating impacts of a virus unleashed on the world by the lies and dishonesty of the Chinese Communist Party, America's taxpayers deserve a c  more

WASHINGTON, June 17 -- Rep. Mark Green, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. Green sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai urging the FCC to grant houses of worship a temporary waiver to use long-range FM transmitters without fear of harsh government fines. Green said, "During the coronavirus pandemic, America's communities of faith have sought innovative ways to gather without putting their members at risk. Some houses of worship have even he  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 16 -- Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. David Kustoff (TN-08), announced $11,200,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the Tennessee Department of Transportation Project for Fayette, Haywood, Madison, Henderson, Carroll, Decatur, Benton, Humphreys, Hickman, and Dickson Counties. With this funding, the Tennessee Department of Transportation will install approximately 143 miles of fiber optic communications and deploy ITS  more

WASHINGTON, June 17 -- Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. David Kustoff (TN-08), signed on as a co-sponsor to the PPP Access for Rural Hospitals Act. This bill would allow smaller hospitals that are part of a larger health system to waive affiliation requirements to be eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Currently, small, rural hospitals that are part of a larger health system are not eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program if the hea  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. David Kustoff (TN-08) and Rep. Darren Soto (FL-09), led a bipartisan letter to House Leadership asking to extend the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) emergency telehealth waivers, including those for behavioral health, for a period of 22 months or longer. The letter also asks for this extension to be included in a potential Phase IV coronavirus relief package. Read the full letter,  more

WASHINGTON, June 20 -- Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following joint statement with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, on the termination of Laura Cunningham, president of the Open Technology Fund and the OTF Board. McCaul and Blackburn were the Republican authors of the Open Technology Fund Authorization Act: "As the lead Republican sponsors of the Open Technology Fund Authorization Act, we are troubled by the recent  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, issued the following statement on June 17 after the release of the President Trump's Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide Task Force report: "I applaud Dr. Van Dahlen and the entire President's PREVENTS Task Force on the release of their roadmap to preventing veteran suicide today". "I was honored to have Dr. Van Dahlen and her team visit Tennessee with me in December, where I got to witness their passion for prev  more

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, issued the following column: Our country has made great strides in our fight against the coronavirus, and we are finally starting to hear good news. America is reopening, people are returning to work, and we are learning more and more about how to defeat this virus every day. Our economy is still recovering from the forced shutdown implemented to slow the spread of the virus, but we have reason for cautious optimism. The U.S. Bureau of Labor S  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Rep. John Rose, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Congressman John Rose (TN-6) advocated on behalf of Tennessee bankers, retail businesses, and their customers by pushing Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell in his biannual report to Congress for answers to why the Fed has failed to fulfill weekly coinage orders to banks in Tennessee and across the country. "I'm curious what the Federal Reserve would suggest banks and retail businesses do to deal wi  more

WASHINGTON, June 16 -- Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the following joint statement on June 15 with Rep. Karen Bass, D-California, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, on the Supreme Court's refusal to re-examine the doctrine of qualified immunity: "Today, the Supreme Court refused to re-examine its misguided decisions shield  more

WASHINGTON, June 16 -- Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, issued the following joint statement with Reps. Karen Bass, D-California and Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, on June 15 regarding the Supreme Court's refusal to re-examine the doctrine of qualified immunity: "Today, the Supreme Court refused to re-examine its misguided decisions shielding government officials from accountability when they violate Americans' civil rights. The Court invented its 'qualified immunity' doctrine without any basis in t  more

WASHINGTON, June 16 -- Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the following joint statement on June 15 with Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, in response to the Supreme Court's rulings in Bostock vs. Clayton County, Georgia, R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes vs. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Altitude Express vs. Zarda: "Today's decision will go down in histor  more

WASHINGTON, June 16 -- Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, issued the following joint statement with Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee: In response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda. * * * "Today's decision will go down in history as a landmark decision for equality and civil rights in this country. The Supreme Court today affirmed that no one should  more

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following statement after the Senate passed a resolution designating June 20 as American Eagle Day: "On American Eagle Day, we celebrate the recovery and restoration of our national symbol, the bald eagle. The bald eagle is a symbol of the spirit of freedom and sovereignty of the United States, and this day gives us an opportunity to reflect on what makes America such a great place to live. "I'm also especially proud as a Ten  more

WASHINGTON, June 19 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to uphold the DACA program: "The Supreme Court's decision will provide temporary relief to current DACA recipients, but it is clear to me that Congress must act to fix our broken immigration system. "Congress should work together to achieve a permanent result both for DACA recipients and border security, and any other improvements to legal immigration that we can agree   more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) released the following statement after cosponsoring Senator Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) police reform legislation. "I'm glad to cosponsor Senator Tim Scott's legislation to help states reform our country's police departments by holding police officers accountable, identifying and encouraging the adoption and use of best practices in community policing, and provi  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, issued the following news release: Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said that at least two of the most important temporary changes in federal policy made to help patients see doctors by phone or video during the COVID-19 pandemic should be extended permanently. "As dark as this pandemic event has been, it creates an opportunity to learn fro  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said that at least two of the most important temporary changes in federal policy made to help patients see doctors by phone or video during the COVID-19 pandemic should be extended permanently. "As dark as this pandemic event has been, it creates an opportunity to learn from and act upon these three months of intensive telehealth experiences, s  more

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, June 18 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $20 million to the new Oak Ridge Institute at the University of Tennessee (UT) to expand the university's partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to train the next generation of American scientists and engineers. "This $20 million federal grant is in support of an institute that is the culmination of 40 years of effort to merge the stren  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) released the following statement after the U.S. Senate passed the Great American Outdoors Act by an overwhelming 73-25 bipartisan vote. The legislation includes Alexander's bill to restore the country's 419 national parks and cut in half the national parks' $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog, which the senator said will be "the biggest boost to our national p  more

WASHINGTON, June 17 -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced that ten counties in West and Middle Tennessee would receive an $11.2 million grant through the Department of Transportation's Infrastructure for Rebuilding America program. The grant, the direct result of a request made by Senator Blackburn earlier this year, will fund approximately 143 miles of fiber optic communications on I-40 between Memphis and Nashvil  more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) became a cosponsor of Senator Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate Communities Everywhere (JUSTICE) Act. The legislation provides long-term solutions focused on police reform, accountability and transparency, while also promoting efforts to find solutions to systemic issues affecting people of color such as education and health disparities.   more

WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee issued the following testimony by Andrea D. Willis, senior vice president and chief medical officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, at a hearing entitled "Telehealth: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic" on June 17: I am Dr. Andrea Willis, and I have the privilege of serving as the Chief Medical Officer at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. As a board-certified pediatrician who has had the honor of serving as  more