Congressman Cohen Welcomes President Biden's Vision of the State of the Union

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) will attend this evening’s State of the Union address by President Biden as the nation continues to register major progress in employment, rising wages, investments in infrastructure, ending the COVID-19 pandemic, slowing inflation, and addressing domestic and international threats to democracy. Prior to the President’s remarks, Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

“It is both encouraging and refreshing to see the Biden administration address the nation’s priorities with steady progress and competence. I welcome President Biden’s vision of what a united Democratic House, Senate and White House were able to accomplish in his first two years. Through passage of the American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, among other measures, we staved off economic disaster and propelled our country to historic job growth, record low unemployment, and rising wages, while addressing our pressing environmental, infrastructure and health needs.

“I am proud to be joined in the House Chamber tonight by my guest, the Reverend J. Lawrence Turner of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, who inspired the nation with his rousing eulogy at last week’s funeral for Tyre Nichols and his call for police reform. I recommended to the White House that Tyre’s parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, be invited to tonight’s address and am delighted they will be seated in the First Lady’s box.

“As the President will make clear tonight, we must make our communities safer for all Americans by acting on police reform and combatting gun violence.

“We must also build on our historic progress in growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out by lowering health care costs, strengthening Social Security and Medicare, reducing child poverty, and fueling a boom in clean energy, manufacturing and infrastructure -- all funded by making the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals pay their share. In that spirit, President Biden will call on Congress to finish the job on investing in America and its people by passing the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax Act, which I authored.

“I am pleased to hear about the good things we are doing as a country and look forward to continuing to work with the President and my colleagues in moving toward a more perfect union.”