WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma, ranking Republican member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, issued the following statement after the announcement that the U.S. no longer has the fastest supercomputer in the world: That title, previously held by the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, now goes to the Fugaku system in Japan. Fugaku is 2.8 times more powerful than Summit. * * * "Falling behind in supercomputing power  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, issued the following news release: Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) announced he will vote "No" this week on H.R. 51, a bill for District of Columbia statehood. Congressman Brooks said, "I will NEVER vote to give Washington, D.C. separate statehood status. Washington, D.C. is a CITY, not a state. Its population is roughly one-seventh of Alabama. To add perspective, giving D.C. statehood is the political equivalent of giving Jefferson County, Alaba  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. Timothy Burchett, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (TN-02) will vote against H.R. 7120, the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. This legislation was crafted solely by House Democrats -- with no input from House Republicans - in response to the senseless murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers last month. "Our constituents expect us to come to D.C. and work together to fix problems, but that's not what's happ  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 23 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced that Shelby County will receive a $35,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support its ongoing air pollution monitoring program. * * * "Air pollution can be a serious health hazard and fine particulate matter can do real damage to the lungs. "I'm pleased this ongoing grant supports Shelby County's efforts to monitor its air qua  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, June 24 -- 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, became a co-sponsor of H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, House Democrats' newly unveiled bill to invest more than $1.5 trillion in modern, sustainable infrastructure while creating millions of good-paying jobs, combatting the climate crisis and addressing disparities in urban, suburban and rural   more

WASHINGTON, June 27 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced that the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will receive a $432,218 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for research into neurological disorders. * * * "I'm pleased our medical school can continue its lifesaving work on neurological disorders in the midst of this pandemic. "I'm sure that the grant underwriting   more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release on June 23: 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, questioned whistleblowers and expert witnesses at an oversight hearing on the politicization of the Department of Justice, and called for Attorney General William Barr's impeachment. In his remarks at the hearing, Congressman Co  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release on June 25: 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, questioned whistleblowers and expert witnesses at an oversight hearing on the politicization of the Department of Justice, and called for Attorney General William Barr's impeachment. In his remarks at the hearing, Congressman Co  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release: 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, will return to Washington to participate in a hearing examining the unprecedented politicization of the Department of Justice under Attorney General William Barr. The hearing on interference and threats to prosecutorial independence will in  more

WASHINGTON, June 27 -- Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following statement on June 26: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) voted for H.R. 51, Washington, D.C. Admission Act, making 66 of the 68 square miles of the present federal district a state. The vote on passage was 232 to 180. * * * "I enthusiastically voted for D.C. statehood because it's the right thing to do. I have supported D.C. statehood since I was in the Tennessee State Senate. As a representative of the people, I reali  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, issued the following news release on June 25: Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee that voted to advance the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to a floor vote last week, applauded passage of the landmark measure. The vote was 236 to 181. Congressman Cohen participated in the debate on the bill this afternoon. In his floor debate remarks, Congressman Cohen said: "This is a good bill. Its time   more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tennessee, issued the following op-ed, published in The Hill: Earlier this week, the Summit supercomputer was dethroned as the fastest supercomputer in the world. Summit, housed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, held the top spot on the top500 list, an authoritative compilation of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, since its deployment in 2018. The Top500 is updated twice a year, a testament to   more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. Mark Green, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Rep. Mark Green sent a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith urging the Committee to include his bipartisan K2 Veterans Toxic Exposure Accountability Act in the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Green said, "Our Nation sent nearly 7,000 brave men and women to K2 Air Base in Uzbekistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. These troops are now five times more likely to  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: U.S. Representative David Kustoff (TN-08), issued the following statement following his vote against H.R. 7120 - George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. "Today, Congress had the opportunity to deliver real change for Americans. Unfortunately, Democrats refused to work across the aisle," said Rep. Kustoff. "Speaker Pelosi's bill included a number of elements that would only have made it more difficult for o  more

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Congressman David Kustoff joined Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Leader Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), in leading a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirming support for the U.S.-Israel   more

WASHINGTON, June 27 -- Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, issued the following statement after voting against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (H.R. 7120): "House Democrats have put forward a proposal that will make it harder for law enforcement to keep our communities safe, and it wasn't a hard decision to vote no. The U.S. Supreme Court created qualified immunity to protect government officials like teachers and firefighters from civil liability while on the job. If Democrats take away quali  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, issued the following column: In the weeks since George Floyd's death at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, our country has debated how to ensure that police officers are best serving our communities. As I have said before, the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are good men and women, and the actions of a few bad actors are not representative of all officers. However, we also recognize that the actions of b  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- 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, and Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), the Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, sent a letter to Robert Wilkie, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), requesting details about how VA intends to hold the former Chief Pathologist a  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release on June 23: Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Congress should act this year on "needed changes" to prepare for the next pandemic. Alexander made his remarks today during a Senate health committee hearing at which former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist testified about his calls 15 years ago for Congress to prepare for a pandemic. Witnesses testified as to how the federal   more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, issued the following news release on June 23: Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said Congress should act this year on "needed changes" to prepare for the next pandemic. Alexander made his remarks today during a Senate health committee hearing at which former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist testified about his calls 15 years ago for C  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) yesterday afternoon said on the Senate floor that "now, during this pandemic when we have got our eye on the ball," is the time for Congress to act on needed changes to prepare for the next pandemic. Alexander discussed some key takeaways from this week's Senate health committee hearing -- "COVID-19: Lessons Learned to Prepare for the Next Pand  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: The U.S. Senate last week passed the Great American Outdoors Act -- the most important conservation legislation in half a century -- 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. The bill also fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWC  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, issued the following statement on his vote for Senator Tim Scott's, R-South Carolina, police reform legislation, which Senate Democrats blocked from being considered by the Senate: "I voted to begin debate on Senator Tim Scott's proposal, which I co-sponsored, because it will make police officers more accountable, encourage departments to ban chokeholds and adopt best practices, provide better training to police officers, and make lynchi  more

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: Senator Marsha Blackburn urged Attorney General Bill Barr and the Department of Justice to "thoroughly scrutinize how [Google's] anticompetitive practices could lead to the crippling of journalistic freedom. I also ask that your probe examine abuses in both the online advertising and online search markets, and to take enforcement action swiftly before further economic harm results." This morning, Sena  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, issued the following news release: The Senate Armed Services Committee has filed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. As a member of the Committee, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) included language to fund mission-critical projects that will directly impact military communities in Tennessee. "Our nation is forever indebted to the servicemembers who put their lives on the line in the name of freedom," Senator   more

WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee issued the following hearing information: Business meeting at 9:45 a.m. on July 1: Business meeting to consider the following items: * PN 1716, Katherine A. Crytzer, of Tennessee, to be Inspector General of the Tennessee Valley Authority * PN 1609, Beth Harwell, of Tennessee, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority * PN 1610, Brian Noland, of Tennessee, to be a Member of the Board of D  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- The Senate Judiciary Committee issued the following news release: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, a bill to bolster national security interests and better protect communities across the country by ending the use of "warrant-proof" encrypted technology by terrorists and other bad actors to conceal illicit beh  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- The Senate Judiciary Committee issued the following news release on June 24: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, a bill to bolster national security interests and better protect communities across the country by ending the use of "warrant-proof" encrypted technology by terrorists and other bad actors to conceal   more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- The Senate Judiciary Committee issued the following news release on June 23: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) today introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, a bill to bolster national security interests and better protect communities across the country by ending the use of "warrant-proof" encrypted technology by terrorists and other bad actors to co  more