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Dear Friend,
This week, I watched with dismay as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool filled with algae after another of Trump’s misbegotten vanity projects went off the rails, and I continued to work to thwart his other efforts to deface Washington. I also reintroduced the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act, announced more than $6.8 million in National Institutes of Health grants to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, met with our Congressional Arts Competition winner, voted for a major housing reform bill, introduced the American Rescuers of the Holocaust Congressional Medal Act, spoke with Russian opposition leader Yulia Navalnaya at a Library of Congress dinner, visited the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial with Intelligence Committee colleagues, and offered a Friday Flashback, a Bill Day cartoon, and a health tip. Keep reading and follow me on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram to see what I am doing as it happens.
Pushing Back Against Trump’s Vanity Projects Defacing Our Capital City
Reintroducing the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act
Announcing More Than $6.8 Million in National Institutes of Health Grants to St. Jude
Meeting with Congressional Art Competition Winner
Voting for the Housing for the 21st Century Act
Introducing the American Rescuers of the Holocaust Congressional Medal Act
Dining with Yulia Navalnaya at the Library of Congress
Visiting the Pentagon and 9/11 Memorial
The Friday Flashback
A Bill Day Cartoon
Weekly Health Tip
Quote of the Week
Pushing Back Against Trump’s Vanity Projects Defacing Our Capital City
George Washington personally recruited the French-born engineer and planner Pierre L’Enfant to design our “federal city” as the elegant capital we now know as Washington, D.C. In his second term, Donald Trump is doing real damage to the city with vanity projects like his gargantuan ballroom, his plans for a triumphal arch obscuring views of the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, his brief renaming of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his honor and his creation of a $16 million reeking swamp where the Reflecting Pool once graced the National Mall. All of this is intolerable, and I am doing what I can to reverse it, including submitting public comments and signing onto amicus briefs to support organizations that have filed suit against the unlawful actions. The triumphal arch would obscure the message intended by the bridge linking the Lincoln Memorial and the Robert E. Lee mansion in Virginia which was to bring the country, North and South, symbolically together after the Civil War. You can object to the triumphal arch by submitting comments to the National Capital Planning Commission by 11 a.m. July 9 here. I encourage everyone to speak out against this horrible desecration of our beautiful capital city.
Reintroducing the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act
On Tuesday, I reintroduced the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act with 48 bipartisan cosponsors, a measure to assure that the Supreme Court’s Olmstead ruling, giving people with disabilities the qualified right to receive the services they need in a setting of their choice, is honored. The late Ms. Reeves had to leave Memphis to escape life in a nursing home. No one should have to choose between being institutionalized or moving thousands of miles away to have access to the services and supports needed to lead an independent life. See my release on the bill here.
Announcing More Than $6.8 Million in National Institutes of Health Grants to St. Jude
On Monday, I announced that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will receive three grants from the National Cancer Institute totaling $1,172,297. On Wednesday, I announced St. Jude will receive six grants totaling $2,843,327 from other National Institutes of Health. And on Friday, I announced five more grants totaling $2,882,421 – making a total of $6,898.045 for just this week. See my releases with details here and here and here. Federal investments in health research such as these grants are critical to advancements in medicine and to St. Jude. Decisions on grant awardees should be based on the merits of the science, and not based on the whim of political appointees. I have signed onto Congressional comment letters opposing a proposed rule. You can read this rule which would obliterate scientific research in the United States and submit your own public comment before July 13, 2026, here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/29/2026-10817/regulation-for-federal-financial-assistance.
Meeting with Congressional Art Competition Winner
On the right, the artist with her picture in the Capitol
On Thursday, I met with the 9th Congressional District’s Art Competition winner Olivia Sterling, a rising senior at White Station High School, and her parents Janece and Ian Sterling. We had a nice conversation in my office about their plans visiting the nation’s capital close to the 250th anniversary of independence and about Olivia’s plans for college. Her picture, “The Beacon,” will hang in the U.S. Capitol for a year along with submissions from the other 434 congressional district winners. Congratulations, Olivia!
Voting for the Housing for the 21st Century Act
On Tuesday evening, I voted for one the most significant housing reform bills in decades -- the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act -- to make it easier to build and afford housing, including modernizing outdated government programs, lowering costs by removing unnecessary federal requirements, and increasing local flexibility over housing decisions. It also limits corporate ownership of rental housing and should make homeownership more affordable over time. Unfortunately, this major housing legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and Senate is now being threatened by Donald Trump who cancelled a signing ceremony Wednesday and plans to hold the bill hostage until Congress passes a restrictive voter ID bill aimed at further limiting voter access to the polls and improving Republican prospects in the mid-terms and preventing true congressional oversight of his administration.
Introducing the American Rescuers of the Holocaust Congressional Medal Act
Also Tuesday, I joined my congressional colleagues in introducing the American Rescuers of the Holocaust Congressional Gold Medal Act. The measure honors those who rescued countless Jews and other refugees during the Holocaust. Awarding Congressional Gold Medals to individuals and groups responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives is a well-deserved honor and is long overdue.
Dining with Yulia Navalnaya at the Library of Congress
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of murdered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, spoke at the Congressional Crossroads Dinner at the Library of Congress on Wednesday evening. An economist by training, she discussed her husband’s posthumous memoir, Patriot, and talked about life as one of her country’s most prominent dissident voices. We talked about my efforts, as the Special Representative for Political Prisoners for the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, to gain her husband’s release, and about my support for his work, and hers. She is an inspiration.
Visiting the Pentagon and 9/11 Memorial
On Thursday morning, several members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led by Chairman Rick Crawford of Arkansas with whom I have a friendly relationship, toured the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. It was my first time seeing it, and it was a moving and emotional experience to relive memories of the 184 lives lost on Flight 77 and on the ground. The two-acre memorial is open 24 hours a day, and I would recommend any visit to Washington include a trip across the Potomac to see it.
The Friday Flashback
This is me with legendary soul singer Al Green the night in December 2014 that he received the Kennedy Center Honor for a lifetime of contributions to American culture.
A Bill Day Cartoon – “Green with Envy”
Weekly Health Tip
An estimated six to seven percent of the American population will experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in their lifetimes. Rates vary by demographics and career paths, but women experience PTSD at twice the prevalence as men. That’s all good to know during June, officially PTSD Awareness Month. See information on the disorder from the National Institute of Mental Health here.
Quote of the Week
“The combination of personal courage, legal persistence and judicial independence is preserving due process and the American system of justice. But optimism is no cause for complacency. Federal prosecutors in Illinois may be chastened, but Todd Blanche, the man who announced the bogus prosecution of the Broadview Six in the first place, is Trump’s nominee to replace Pam Bondi as the attorney general of the United States. If he is confirmed, expect more vindictive prosecutions. Expect more prosecutorial misconduct. And expect more federal judges (and more American citizens) to say, along with Judge Perry in Illinois, that their trust is broken. Why? Because the Trump administration is the nation’s chief threat to the rule of law.” -- New York Times columnist David French in an essay titled “A Malicious Chapter in U.S. Justice” on Tuesday
As always, I remain
Sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress
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