[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 22, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL OP-ED

                                  _____
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 22, 2017

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the following op-ed I 
recently wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

       Last year, then-candidate Donald Trump condescendingly said 
     to African Americans, ``You live in your poverty, your 
     schools are no good, you have no jobs . . . What the hell do 
     you have to lose?''
       We now know the answer: a lot.
       Changes at the Department of Justice (DOJ), alone, are 
     alarming. Instead of serving its traditional role as guardian 
     of civil rights, DOJ is in full retreat. It has reversed 
     course on voting rights, abandoning opposition to a Texas 
     voter ID law in which a federal court found 600,000 
     registered voters did not have IDs necessary to vote.
       Instead of protecting citizens from police who illegally 
     discriminate against African Americans, Attorney General 
     Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has stated he does not 
     favor the type of consent decrees used in Baltimore and 
     Chicago to remediate conditions.
       Sessions has also rolled back President Obama's efforts to 
     phase out private prisons. African Americans not only make up 
     a disproportionate share of the U.S. prison population, but 
     appear more likely to be sent to private prisons, where the 
     DOJ Inspector General has warned there are more security 
     incidents than in public prisons.
       Sessions has threatened to thwart the will of voters in 
     states that have legalized marijuana. African Americans are 
     three times more likely than whites are to be arrested for 
     marijuana, despite usage being virtually the same.
       The new Education Secretary thinks HBCUs, ``are the real 
     pioneers when it comes to school choice.'' This is ignorant 
     of segregation that necessitated the creation of HBCUs. Betsy 
     DeVos has an education record that does not bode well for 
     public schools, which have provided a path for African 
     Americans to achieve the American Dream.
       The new HUD Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson, said within days of 
     assuming office that slaves were ``immigrants,'' a comment 
     that bewildered many, including the NAACP. The President's 
     recently-released budget proposal cuts $6 billion from this 
     agency that so many rely on.
       The outlook for a minimum wage increase under this 
     Administration is nil. The President's first pick to head the 
     Department of Labor opposed a raise, despite there not having 
     been one since 2009. According to the Economic Policy 
     Institute, 35 percent of African-American workers would 
     benefit from a minimum wage increase.
       Critical programs that help the most vulnerable such as 
     Meals on Wheels, heating and energy assistance, and nutrition 
     aid to women and children (WIC) would be drastically cut or 
     eliminated in the President's budget. In addition, the budget 
     eliminates Community Development Block Grants and HOME 
     programs that provide affordable housing for low-income 
     residents. Legal Services Corporation, which helps those who 
     cannot afford legal representation, and the Minority Business 
     Development Agency, which helps promote minority-owned 
     businesses, would be eliminated. Massive cuts to these vital 
     programs would be devastating to Memphis.
       While these cuts would have a disproportional impact on 
     African Americans, most cuts will affect all those who are 
     economically disadvantaged and in need of government 
     assistance.
       Republicans are also rushing a health care plan that takes 
     from low and middle-income families and gives to the rich. 
     According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, 24 
     million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026 under this 
     plan. Insurance costs for citizens over 50 years of age would 
     increase dramatically, and financial assistance would be 
     drastically cut for those in need. All while millionaires and 
     billionaires receive massive tax breaks.
       During Black History Month, Trump showed his ignorance of 
     the African American experience when he suggested Frederick 
     Douglas was alive. His cabinet is on pace to have the fewest 
     African Americans of any administration in recent memory.
       While some African Americans have enjoyed prosperity and 
     acceptance, it is undeniable that African Americans still 
     suffer from vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow. Discrimination 
     and institutional racism have held so many back and left many 
     in need of government relief. Over the last half century, 
     much of America's progress has been measured by how it has 
     dealt with its original sin of slavery. Civil rights, voting 
     rights, advances in health care, public education, social 
     justice and ladders of opportunity to enter the middle class 
     have been markers by which we have judged presidential 
     administrations. Sadly, this administration is failing on all 
     counts.

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