Tag: Congressman Steve Cohen

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Future of Environmental Justice Center In Jeopardy Due To Federal Funding Freeze

Young, Gifted and Green's 2024-25 Tribe 7 Lead Prevention Ambassadors at their first Leadership Retreat in Memphis. Photo Credit: Young, Gifted, and Green via Facebook

The announcement of a freeze on federal funding for public loans and grants is likely to affect an environmental justice project for Memphis.

On January 27, a memorandum was leaked from the Office of Management and Budget to heads of executive departments and agencies. The letter ordered all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders.”

“This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best use of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities,” the memorandum said. “The temporary pause will become effective on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 p.m.”

Prior to this announcement, Young, Gifted and Green, a non-profit environmental justice organization, received a nearly $20 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a result of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.  However, the organization said they are uncertain if these rewards “will actually be awarded.”

According to a statement from Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) This funding was meant to establish the Mid-South Environmental Justice Center along with a community engagement plan, coordinated workforce training in green jobs, and hands-on water and air-quality testing.

“As we have seen in recent years, with fights over pipelines, air quality and our sand aquifer, we must be vigilant in assuring our neighborhoods and their residents see true environmental justice,” Cohen said. “This EPA funding will create a center to coordinate the appropriate responses and help communities get and remain safe and healthy.”

LaTricea Adams, founder, president, and CEO of Young, Gifted and Green said while they wanted this to be a great opportunity for the city, they are unsure about its fate.

“With today’s announcement of the temporary pause on all federal funding/programs is definitely felt and impacts our award,“ Adams said in a statement. “Despite these extreme circumstances, our application was selected out of thousands across the country, and we have not given up faith that we will see this project persevere,” 

Adams said they will provide updates as they receive more information about the future of the project and their grant.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Lee Rejects Money to Give Free Summer Meals to Children

Posted to Facebook by Tennessee House Democrats

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee rejected $1.1 million in federal grant funding at the beginning of the year, an action that will end free summer meals for up to 700,000 Tennessee children. 

Lee’s adminstration indicated last year that it would not renew the state’s participation in the federal Electronic Benefits Transfers Program for Children (Summer EBT). His office told NBC News last month that it costs too much to administer the program, noting that the federal government began shifting the adminstration cost to the states.  

The program issued a $120 EBT card, called Sun Bucks, to 700,000 children in Tennessee last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administered the program for the federal government. They were available for children aged 6- to 17-years-old for June, July, and August, when most children are on summer vacation. The money could only be spent on food. 

Lee’s adminstration did not formally announce the rejection on any public platform. Instead, his office quietly missed the January 1 deadline renewal. 

The rejection brought questions and anger from many. 

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) requested an explanation of Lee’s decision by January 17th. He said child hunger is “especially pressing in Tennessee,” where 40 percent of families report food insecurity, according to data from Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy. 

“While I understand your office issued a statement claiming that the program was ‘established in the pandemic-era to supplement existing food assistance programs in an extraordinary circumstance’ and that the program is ‘mostly duplicative,’ I urge your administration to reconsider,” Cohen wrote in a letter to Lee this week. “Congress’s decision to make the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) a permanent summer program through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 reflects the bipartisan recognition of its success and necessity. 

“Feeding our children is not just a matter of public policy — it is a moral imperative. Well-nourished children are better able to learn, grow, and lead healthy, well-adjusted lives.”

Knowing that Lee’s decision on the matter was at hand, many Tennessee relief agencies advocated for him to keep the program. 

The Nashville-based Tennessee Justice Center urged its followers to send Lee a form letter, which asked him to keep the program. 

“In 2024, Summer EBT served over 650,000 children in Tennessee and brought nearly $79 million into the state economy,” the center said. “Tennessee children aren’t going anywhere. They will continue to need food during the summer months in 2025 and beyond.”

In a December opinion piece in The Tennessean, Rhonda Chafin, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, said opportunities like the Summer EBT program are rare, and praised Lee for joining the effort in the first place.

“Opportunities to create such profound, positive change for children — at minimal cost to the state — are rare,” Chafin wrote. “By continuing Summer EBT, Tennessee can address child hunger, boost educational outcomes, and stimulate local economies simultaneously.

“Governor Lee has demonstrated compassionate leadership in this area before, and we trust he will do so again. The children of Tennessee are counting on us to stand up for their well-being. Let’s not let them down.”

Tennessee House Democrats were more direct in their assessment of Lee’s decision. Before Christmas, the group posted a photo of Lee dressed as The Grinch with a sack on his back, that reads “Food $$$.” The meme asks, “Will the Governor steal your child’s summer meals?” 

The post also carried this treatment of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

“’Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the state,

Tennesseans were begging Gov. Lee to stop with the hate.

Letters were sent with stories of how,

Lee’s decision on summer EBT for children was needed now,

With hopes that he will renew the program with glee,

Call his office with a hopeful plea.”

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

US Department of Transportation Allocates Millions to Memphis Intersection Improvement

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT)has allocated $13.1 million for improvements to one of the most dangerous intersections in the city of Memphis.

Last week the department announced its fiscal year 2024 (FY24) Safe Streets and Roads for All grants, which totaled $172 million, nationwide. Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced that the city would be using its funding to redesign the intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue and Pendleton Street.

“This complex intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street has a confusing array of signals, fading and disjointed pedestrian connectivity, and little guidance on appropriate movements,” USDOT officials said.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) said this corridor faces “crippling congestion” affecting freight facilities, warehouse and distribution centers, as well. The agency applied for funding for Lamar Avenue in 2018 through the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program, receiving $71.1 million for improvements.

According to USDOT, the city plans to close one of the roads at the intersection to provide a simpler design in hopes of improving safety. Other enhancements will include a public education campaign, a pilot program for a camera magnification system, and crash data analysis technology.

Another allocation was made to the MidSouth Development District for $2, 419, 870 from the FY 2024 Planning and Demonstration Grant Award to further address traffic-related injuries.through a “Comprehensive Safety action Plan.” 

USDOT officials said the grant will use data analysis, stakeholder input, and best practices to implement a plan to reduce “roadway fatalities” across the region.

“The demonstration activities will include a Safe Routes to School demonstration and EMT post-crash care training,” USDOT added.

Cohen said he was pleased to vote for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which has lead to the funding for these improvements.

“ I am sure that having this new investment in comprehensive safety planning will help save lives,” Cohen said in a statement.

Memphis was ranked the most dangerous metro city for pedestrians earlier this year by the nonprofit organization Smart Growth America. Their data showed that more than half of pedestrian deaths (65 percent) over the last decade happened in the last five years.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Tag Teaming a Grant

Rep. Cohen takes the pledge at last weekend’s Kennedy Dinner of the Shelby County Democratic Party. (Photo: Courtesy Lexie Carter)

“We’ve secured $13.1 million in federal funding to overhaul one of the most dangerous intersections in our city — Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street.”

So begins an online notification from the office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, and it is accompanied by a photograph of the mayor with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

The notification goes on to boast that “[w]e’re not just fixing a dangerous intersection — we’re transforming it with clearer signals, safer crosswalks, and better pedestrian pathways” — all of it being “a huge step towards ensuring that every Memphian can navigate our streets with confidence and peace of mind.”

Sounds good all right. I remember that intersection from the days when, as a 14-year-old, I threw the old Memphis Press-Scimitar in that neighborhood. In vintage times, it was where the old streetcars did a turnaround, and it absolutely was hazardous to negotiate, especially on a bicycle.

And comes yet another online notification — this one from 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen: “I’m pleased to announce a new investment of $13.1 million [under the] Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act … to completely redesign the dangerous intersection at Lamar Avenue, Kimball Avenue, and Pendleton Street …”

The congressman, a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, notes further, “I strongly advocated for this project and for funding to improve our streets in hearings with Secretary Buttigieg and in letters of support to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and I’m proud we brought it home.”

Well, er, to whom goes the honor of having snagged this benefit from the feds? The mayor or the congressman?

Both, as it turns out. Asked about it, Cohen calls it a “cooperative joint effort” and says, in a text, “The mayor was a planner, and they’re his people. Politics and pitching by congressmen certainly helps. … Grants don’t just fall out of a coconut tree.”

And credit for the grant goes even further. Cohen points out that the grant, in its original form, was first proposed by former Mayor Jim Strickland and had been included as an earmark in legislation that, before being resurrected, was stalemated in a previous session of Congress.

All of which is to say that, yes, it does indeed take a village to get things done.

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vote of the Shelby County Commission on Monday to support the City Council’s lawsuit against the Election Commission to restore a gun-safety referendum on the November ballot was passed on a party-line vote — nine Democrats aye, four Republicans no.

Speaking for the Republicans, Commissioner Mick Wright quoted Governor Bill Lee’s concerns, expressed earlier Monday in Memphis, that the city should find itself at odds “with the rest of the state.” Democratic Commissioner Henri Brooks countered that it was “time to stand up to bullies.” And other commissioners tended to follow their party’s line.

With its vote, the commission became an “amicus curiae” in support of the suit, which has caused various GOP state officials to talk ominously about withholding shared state funding from Memphis.

• Citing the prosecution in Georgia of a father who armed his son with an AR-15 used in a fatal school shooting, Democratic state Rep. Antonio Parkinson says he intends to re-introduce his measure to penalize “a person who illegally transfers a firearm to a minor” using it for criminal purposes. Parkinson’s bill was introduced in last summer’s special session on gun safety but was tabled by the majority Republicans.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

New Law Would Make Public Some of TVA’s Biggest Salaries

TVA president and CEO Jeff Lyash. (Credit: Toby Sells)

A bipartisan bill filed Tuesday would require the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to make salary information public for employees who make some of its largest paychecks.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) and U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) introduced the measure that would make public salaries for TVA employees who make more than $109,908, or the maximum basic pay rate for many of the federal government’s top-level positions. 

Lyash refused to give salary specifics last month in a hearing before a House committee. In it, Cohen said he has requested that salary information in the past and never received it. He wanted to know why. 

Lyash said part of the TVA Act once required those salaries be listed in a report to Congress and the White House. However, that requirement was changed with a 1995 federal law and TVA was asked to stop filing the report. Now, Lyash said his agency is only required to give detailed salary information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

“That’s not the people that created the TVA,” Cohen said. “That’s not what the TVA Act requires, and that’s just not right, Jeff. It’s not right. You’re part of the government. You’re created by the United States government. You’re part of it. 

“Salary should be transparent. And when people are making over $1 billion, the public ought to know who they are and what they’re doing.”

With that, Cohen’s speaking time in the hearing had expired. However, his line of comment was picked up by U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves (R-South Louisiana). 

“Your position is unsustainable, if you’re not going to give him the information he’s asking for” Graves said to Lyash. “You’re a government entity. You need to provide him the information. 

“Just to give you a little counsel there, I’d strongly urge you to do it. Otherwise, you’re going to be compelled to do it and you can either cooperate or it’s going get a little ugly. I’d urge you to comply with his request.”

Burchett struck an optimistic note in a news release about the new TVA bill.

 “I have seen the TVA improve its transparency in recent years, and I want to make sure that continues,” Burchett said in a news release. “This bill will help Congress keep TVA accountable for how it pays its employees, which is an important part of preserving its public trust.” 

The new bill is not the first time the two Tennessee lawmakers worked together on pay at TVA. Last year, they introduced another bill that would likely lower the pay of TVA’s CEO, Jeff Lyash. The bill would have reduced his pay to a level comparable with those of CEOs at other public utilities.

Lyash is the highest-paid federal employee, making up to nearly $10 million annually after benefits and bonuses. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump called Lyash’s pay “ridiculous” and threatened (but failed) to cut that pay “by a lot.”

Categories
News News Feature

Abortion Rights Supporters March in Downtown Memphis

Abortion rights supporters march on Beale Street on May 14, 2022. (photo by Chris McCoy)

Hundreds gathered in the hot sun to rally in support of abortion rights on Saturday in Downtown Memphis. The crowd was protesting the anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision that would reverse the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade, the decision which affirmed women’s Constitutional right to abortion via their right to privacy.

A Planned Parenthood of Memphis and North Mississippi official declined to estimate how many attended the Bans Off Tennessee protest, beyond noting more than 1,200 had signed up for the event through the organization’s online organizing portal. The rally crowd spilled out of Ida B. Wells Plaza, dwarfing the dozen or so Proud Boys counter-protesters, who flashed white supremacist hand signs at the line of feminist protestors facing them across Beale Street.

A Proud Boy flashes a white power hand sign at abortion rights protestors. (photo by Chris McCoy)

Among the speakers at the hour-long rally were Tennessee House Representative London Lamar, scientist and Shelby County Democratic Party chairwoman Gabby Salinas, Planned Parenthood organizers Antoine Dandridge and Aerris Newton, Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, and candidate for Tennessee State Senate Ruby Powell Dennis.

Planned Parenthood organizer Aerris Newton speaks next to the statue of Ida B. Wells. (photo by Chris McCoy)

After the rally, most of the attendees braved the heat to march down Beale Street, where tourists and revelers watched and took pictures of the throng. At one point, a street singer incorporated the marchers’ chant “My body, my choice” into a blues song.

Abortion rights protestors march down Beale Street. (photo by Chris McCoy)
A spectator applauds the marchers on Beale Street. (photo by Chris McCoy)

The marchers turned onto Main Street, where their chants of “No justice, no peace” echoed through the urban canyons. While taking pictures of the crowd, this reporter almost ran over Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis, who was cheering on the marchers from the south sidewalk.

Abortion rights protestors march past the Orpheum in Downtown Memphis. (photo by Chris McCoy)

By this time, the tiny counter-protest had melted away. Beyond the occasional thumbs-down along the route, there were few signs of dissent from the marchers message in support of women’s rights to make their own reproductive health decisions.

Abortion rights protestors arrive at the National Civil Rights Museum. (photo by Chris McCoy)

The energized crowd arrived for a second rally at the National Civil Rights Museum, where organizer Newton led chants. Cohen thanked the marchers for braving the heat and told the crowd he was with them “one million percent.” Volunteers handed out water bottles as the protesters mixed about, sharing their stories of experiences with abortion and their personal awakening to the cause. No violence or arrests were observed.

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) rallies the crowd at the National Civil Rights Museum. (photo by Chris McCoy)
Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Cohen Demands Restoration of Postal Services

9th District Congressman Steve Cohen has weighed in

emphatically on the changes in the U.S. postal service, already effected or proposed by President Trump’s newly installed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy.

Both at a Monday press conference with local postal workers and in a Tuesday letter to DeJoy, Cohen demanded the restoration of machines already taken out of service. In the Memphis area, that has included several machines used in the process of sorting and delivering mail — affecting, as the Congressman noted, the successful delivery of “prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns, and absentee ballots.”
The text of the letter is as follows:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza West, Southwest Washington, D.C. 20260
Dear Postmaster General DeJoy,

August 19, 2020
I write to express my deep concerns about the removal of sorting machines in Memphis and across the country and urge you to return the machines into service. Among other things, the Postal Service delivers prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns and absentee ballots to millions of Americans.
It is my understanding that five out of twenty-four sorting machines, one of three machines used for sorting larger pieces of mail such as magazines, and one machine used in the revenue tallying process have been removed. Management has also reduced the number of employees assigned to run the machines. This has slowed delivery and reduced the amount of mail that can be processed each day.
I am especially concerned about the large mail sorters which might be needed to process and sort ballots if they are designed to be larger than the average letter. At such a critical time with elections approaching, these changes are ill-advised and could be detrimental to our Democracy.
The delivery of mail is vital to the fabric of our society and attempts to reduce service have harmed people and will continue to harm people without immediate action. I strongly urge you to reverse your decision, make sure all machines are put back into operation and ensure people can receive their mail in a timely manner.
As always, I remain, Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen Member of Congress

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Lee Issues Order “Urging” Statewide Shutdown, Stops Short of Mandating It

Under increasing pressure from numerous quarters, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday issued what he called “safer at home guidelines in every Tennessee county as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.”

But the Governor stressed, “This is not a mandated shelter in place, but instead urges Tennesseans who are in non-essential roles to remain at home….The executive order restricts businesses that cannot safely operate during COVID-19 including businesses like barber shops, salons, recreational and
entertainment outfits. It also provides for the continuation of essential businesses throughout every county to protect the economy.”

The “order” will go into effect at midnight Monday and will extend for two weeks, until April 14 at midnight.

Typical of those asking for stronger action was 9th District Congessman Steve Cohen, who issued a letter this afternoon containing this statement:

“I write today to urgently request you issue a mandatory shelter in place order for Tennessee and prohibit gatherings of more than ten people. I am proud to represent the Ninth District of Tennessee that connects Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, but I fear that, without these preventative measures, it will become a hub of illness that will quickly overcome Memphis’s health care facilities. I commend your decision to urge Tennesseans to shelter in place, but this virus crosses state and county lines and it is already claiming Tennessee lives. Your order must become mandatory.”< Meanehile, the entire Tennessee congressional delegation — Senatyors Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn and the nine members of the House — asked President Trump for additional disaster aid to the state, saying in part: “…On behalf of the State of Tennessee, we are writing to express our support for Governor Bill Lee’s request to declare a major disaster pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic beginning on January 20, 2020…..”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Corey Strong To Challenge Cohen in the 9th District

Corey Strong

Yes, it’s true: Steve Cohen has an opponent. The 9th District Congressman, who has knocked off a serious string of Democratic challengers since 2006, when he first emerged victorious from a multi-candidate primary field, now faces a 2020 bid from Corey Strong, the former Shelby County Democratic chairman.

Strong acknowledges that Cohen has made the appropriate votes in Congress, supported legislation that a Democrat should have supported, properly backed up Democratic President Obama, and has correctly opposed Republican President Trump. Further, says Strong, the Congressman has successfully become a factor in key national dialogues.

What he has failed to do, Strong maintains, is to bring jobs to a home region that desperately needs them. Strong even finds evidence of this alleged failure in a well-publicized stunt staged by Cohen last spring on the House Judiciary Committee. That was the occasion in May when the Congressman ridiculed the failure of Attorney General William Barr to answer a subpoena by wolfing down pieces from a Kentucky Fried Chicken basket at his seat on the committee.

Cohen got headlines, both pro and con, and, says Strong, “I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is that we’ve got all kinds of local fried-chicken enterprises here in Memphis, and he could have made his point with them if he wanted. But he didn’t.”

Strong is well aware that Cohen, who is white and Jewish, has easily dispatched all previous would-be party rivals in his predominantly African-American Memphis district since that first victory in 2006. He has triumphed over Justin Ford, Willie Herenton, Tomeka Hart, Ricky Wilkins, and Nikki Tinker, all of whom had either name recognition or financial support or both.

He has done so, as Strong acknowledges, by careful attention to the needs of his constituency in most ways — save the aforementioned inability to raise the income level of his district.

Strong believes he can succeed at that task, where, he says, Cohen has not. And one way of demonstrating his prowess will be to raise a campaign budget that will allow him to compete with the financially well-endowed incumbent Congressman on relatively even terms..

“I will do that,” says Strong, a Naval Reserve officer who in 2017 became the renovated Shelby County Democratic Party’s bounce-back chairman after it was decommissioned by the state Democrats a year earlier during a period of internal stress and discord within the local party.

Strong acknowledges that Michael Harris, his successor as local party chairman, has had a difficult problem arousing support from party cadres because of issues stemming from his suspended law practice. But, says Strong, local Democrats have a duty to support their party.

The future congressional aspirations of current Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris have become so obvious as to make Harris’ ambitions something of a public proverb, and a good race next year by Strong, even if unsuccessful, could serve the purpose of setting up a future challenge against Mayor Harris. But Strong insists he is in the 9th District race this year to win.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Protect Net Neutrality

The free flow of information is critical not only to facilitate our commerce, but to ensure that our democracy thrives. While the First Amendment protects us from government attempts to suppress speech, protections from large corporations that use their market dominance to act as self-appointed information “gatekeepers” are not constitutionally guaranteed.

9th District Congressman Steve Cohen

Yet the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is supposed to protect and promote the public interest in the telecommunications industry, has undertaken an aggressive effort to repeal strong legal protections for net neutrality that ensure that information can flow unimpeded on the internet. As a result Americans could soon wake up in a country where online dissent has been diminished or sidelined. The informed commentary of marginal groups seeking to shape opinion could be blocked, slowed down, or otherwise given disfavored treatment by internet service providers serving their own commercial or even ideological interests and stifle the dissemination of accurate but unpopular views.

This fear of a top-down corporate suppression of opinion is not far-fetched. It’s the predictable consequence of a plan long sought by broadband service providers: To repeal the FCC 2015 Open Internet Order, which mandates equal treatment of content over the internet by broadband service providers. The commission’s chairman, Ajit Pai, has scheduled a vote to do just that on December 14. The FCC should reject this effort.

Chairman Pai’s plan would be a catastrophe for both technical innovation and civil discourse. Without net neutrality, a handful of dominant corporations that are both broadband providers and content providers could be in a position to stifle competing content and would have an obvious economic incentive to do so. Not only would this prevent new innovators from entering the marketplace, it would also allow such companies to decide what content is available to their customers and would also allow them to make access to competing content difficult if not impossible. In addition to being bad for consumers, such content discrimination is bad for democracy, for it potentially impedes citizens’ ability to receive the information they need to understand proposed policies, debate them and, if necessary, organize opposition to them.

The proposed FCC order repeals the strong net neutrality framework established in 2015 and would repeal the 2015 Order’s bans on blocking, throttling or paid prioritization – three of the gravest threats to equal access. Current rules prohibit broadband providers from blocking a website, slowing a website down or providing differential speeds for different websites based on whether the content provider has paid for faster service. This type of conduct by broadband providers could limit or block access to political dissent, marginal or minority views and complex ideas that help a healthy society function.

I have joined more than 40 of several of my colleagues in asking the FCC to abandon this extremely unpopular plan and to maintain strong net neutrality protections.

Strong net neutrality protections have proven to be one of the most important consumer protections of our time. Net neutrality is extremely popular because people realize slowing streaming speeds to discourage consumers from some sites just doesn’t seem fair. Blocking access to competitors seems unfairly restrictive. Rigging the market for the profit of a handful of internet service providers doesn’t appeal to people already rightly suspicious of corporate control of their lives.

Beyond all that, the proposed rule is not good for competition, innovation or creativity. Broadband investment has continued to surge under the open rules and could decline in a pay-to-play internet world. Slowing or crippling access to some websites is not innovation. A free internet permits access to all users, regardless of ability to pay. We don’t want an internet in which an elite has access to critical information or services and others are priced out.

The end of internet neutrality cannot be allowed to occur without a fight. What the FCC chairman has proposed would change the way we communicate, and not for the better.

Congressman Steve Cohen represents Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District.