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Steve Cohen
Congressman Steve Cohen is a fourth-generation Memphian who has served the 9th District of Tennessee since 2006 and dedicated his life to public service. As a child, the challenges of living with polio taught him how to overcome obstacles through persistence and determination, values which would shape his career as a legislator. Filing to run for office on the same day he first registered to vote – just after his 21st birthday – Congressman Cohen stepped onto the path of public service that has defined his life and shaped the lives of people in Memphis, Tennessee, and across the country throughout his career in local, state and national politics.
During his 24 years in the Tennessee State Senate, Congressman Cohen amassed a strong record of passionate, honest and unselfish service. He consistently spurned special interests to stand up for the people’s interests. In 1984, he drafted and passed a resolution creating one of the first state Holocaust Commissions in America to educate others about and commemorate the Holocaust. On issues ranging from civil rights and gender equality to funding for the arts and animal welfare, Congressman Cohen was a relentless advocate in the Tennessee State Senate even in the face of overwhelming opposition.
His determination might be best exemplified by his success in founding the Tennessee State Lottery after fighting for it for nearly twenty years. His leadership in the referendum effort that instituted arguably the most successful education initiative in Tennessee history earned him his title as the “Father of the Tennessee Lottery.” Since the inception of the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship program in 2004, more than $6.5 billion has gone to students continuing their education in technical schools, colleges and universities across the state. Hundreds of thousands of students have benefited from Congressman Cohen's tireless efforts to provide Tennesseans with access to affordable, high-quality post-secondary education.
Upon election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, Congressman Cohen immediately distinguished himself on Capitol Hill for his thoughtful legislation and quick wit. He quickly earned a reputation as a champion of civil rights and justice on the highly influential Judiciary Committee, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi referring to him as the “conscience of the freshman class” in 2008. That same year, he was instrumental in passing the first-of-its-kind House resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans. In 2019, Congressman Cohen was appointed Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. As Chairman, he presided at the first hearing on reparations to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow. He also chaired historic hearings on the Voting Rights Act, the Equal Rights Amendment, access to abortion, reparations, presidential pardon power, and other constitutional and civil rights issues. In response to racial injustice and police brutality across the United States, Congressman Cohen introduced the Police Training and Independent Review Act, requiring independent investigation and prosecution of incidents in which police use of deadly force results in a death or injury; the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act, which would require federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to collect, compile, and submit data to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics on the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers; and the CAMERA Act which would provide state and local law enforcement a grant program to increase the use of body cameras. All three bills were included in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which initially passed the House in 2020 and again in 2021.
Congressman Cohen has remained a steadfast leader on issues of importance to the people of the 9th District, working closely with Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to lead the policy debate on issues like education, infant mortality, the economy, criminal justice, veterans’ issues, transportation, infrastructure, and health care. His persistence and hard work have paid off with $76 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s new maintenance facility and electric; a $30 million Choice Neighborhood grant to redevelop and revitalize Foote Homes and surrounding areas; a $15 million TIGER grant to create jobs and fund the Main Street to Main Street Connector Project to make major improvements to the Main Street corridor and connect West Memphis to the Big River Crossing pedestrian path and bike trail along the Harahan Bridge; an additional $9 million in the federal budget and a $2 million dollar federal grant to the city of Memphis to help reduce the backlog of untested sexual assault kits that could catch predators and prevent crime; and numerous other projects and policies. Congressman Cohen also led the effort in Congress for the state of Tennessee to receive a guarantee disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotment totaling more than $530 million over the next 10 years to help the state’s hospitals and community health centers recoup expenses incurred caring for those who cannot afford to pay.
Congressman Cohen’s commitment to expanding access to health care to every individual runs all the way back to his time as a Shelby County Commissioner when he cast the deciding vote for the creation of The MED which today, as Regional One Health, has one of the finest trauma care and burn center units in the Mid-South and serves as Memphis and Shelby County’s public hospital. In 2010, Congressman Cohen was proud to vote in favor of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which vastly expanded health care to twenty-one million Americans. Since then, Congressman Cohen has steadfastly protected the ACA from partisan attacks and worked to build on this historic health care expansion. He remains committed to fighting for universal health care, expanding Medicaid, and the continued strengthening of Medicare, Social Security and Disability programs.
In November of 2015, Congressman Cohen was named a member of the Highway Bill Conference Committee, where he worked with his colleagues from the House and Senate to craft the first bipartisan, long-term surface transportation bill in a decade to improve our nation's infrastructure. As a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Congressman Cohen proved instrumental in House passage of the Moving Forward Act of 2020. In 2021, he was proud to vote in favor of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the first major infrastructure law in decades, which was signed into law by President Biden and included language drafted by Congressman Cohen to prevent deadly truck underride crashes, reduce impaired driving, promote regional passenger rail, and make roads safer for pedestrians, bikers and transit riders. Under President Biden, Congressman Cohen twice welcomed Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to Memphis to assess damage to the Hernando de Soto Bridge, launch improvements to Memphis International Airport, and advocate for additional investments in Memphis as a global logistics hub.
In May 2016, Congressman Cohen was named a member of the Opioids Package Conference Committee where he worked to address the opioids crisis in the United States. In January of 2017, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi appointed Congressman Cohen to serve on the powerful House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee to set the Democratic policy agenda and nominate Democratic Members for committee assignments. In February 2017, Leader Pelosi appointed Congressman Cohen to serve on the House Ethics Committee. Presidents Obama and Biden nominated several of Congressman Cohen’s recommendations for federal positions, including Judges Andre Mathis, John Fowlkes, Sheryl Lipman and Bernice Donald; U.S. Attorneys Kevin Ritz and Edward Stanton III; and TVA Board Members V. Lynn Evans, Ron Walter and Bishop William Graves, who have all been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
In 2021, Congressman Cohen was named Co-Chair of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) by Speaker Pelosi. Since his appointment to the Commission, Congressman Cohen has also been appointed as the first-ever OSCE PA Special Representative on Political Prisoners by Margareta Cederfelt, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
As Co-Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Congressman Cohen led the fight against global kleptocracy. Several of his bills to reduce the influence of foreign oligarchs have been either signed into law by President Biden or passed in the House of Representatives. Congressman Cohen has also led the fight against fraud and political corruption in the United States. He was the first Member of Congress to file comprehensive articles of impeachment against Donald Trump in 2017 and voted to impeach him four times, twice in Committee and twice on the Floor. Congressman Cohen cosponsored bills that aimed to hold the President to the same ethical standards as other federal members, require political party nominees to release three years of tax returns, and commission an investigation into foreign interference in the 2016 election. He remained at the forefront of the movement to impeach former President Trump until the final vote in early 2021 when Trump was impeached for a second time on the House Floor.
Congressman Cohen was appointed the Ranking Member of the House Aviation Subcommittee in the 118th Congress. He continues to serve as a senior member of both the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and of the Judiciary Committee.
Congressman Cohen dedicates himself to providing outstanding constituent service to the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County. The doors of his District Office in the Odell Horton Federal Building are always open for constituents, and Congressman Cohen has hosted hundreds of events across the district. Congressman Cohen is committed to improving the lives of his constituents and continues to advocate to secure millions of federal dollars for local projects related to health care, infrastructure, transportation, housing, homelessness, education, public safety, community revitalization programs, and more. He has never faltered in fighting for those who do not have the power bestowed by wealth and advantage, and his goal remains to ensure that everyone – regardless of race, class or creed – has the opportunity to achieve their American dream.
Biographical Information Born May 24, 1949, Memphis, TN B.A. Vanderbilt University, 1971 J.D. University of Memphis School of Law, 1973 Established legal practice in 1978 after serving as a legal advisor for the Memphis Police Department Public Office U.S. House of Representatives, 110th through Current Congress, 2007 to Present Tennessee General Assembly, State Senator, 93rd through 104th Sessions, 1982 to 2006 Shelby County Commissioner, 1978 to 1980 Delegate and Vice-President of the Tennessee Constitutional Convention, 1977 Community Involvement Memphis College of Art, Board of Trustees, 1988 - 2002 Memphis Zoological Council, 2001 - 2006 Memphis Zoological Society, Board of Directors, 1988 - 2000 Circuit Playhouse, Inc., Board of Directors, 1977 - Present Memphis Redbirds Foundation, 1998 - 2003 Memphis/Shelby County Center City Commission NAACP, Lifetime Member Tennessee Holocaust Commission, 1984 - 2006