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Rep. Steve Cohen

Representative for Tennessee’s 9th District

pronounced steev // KOW-un

Cohen is the representative for Tennessee’s 9th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 4, 2007. Cohen is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 74 years old.

Photo of Rep. Steve Cohen [D-TN9]

Earmarks

Cohen proposed $48 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:

  • $20 million to Memphis Area Transit Authority for “Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) Operations & Maintenance Facility Project, Memphis, TN, TN-09”
  • $7 million to Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority for “Snow Removal Equipment (SRE) Building at Memphis International Airport”
  • $3.8 million to Shelby County Health Department for “Shelby County Health Department Emergency Operations Center and Safe Room”

These are earmark requests which may or may not survive the legislative process to becoming law. Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Across representatives who requested earmarks, the median total amount requested for this fiscal year was $39 million.

Earmarks are federal expenditures, tax benefits, or tariff benefits requested by a legislator for a specific entity. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. All earmark requests in the House of Representatives are published online for the public to review. We don’t have earmark requests for senators. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Source: Appropriations.house.gov. Background: Earmark Disclosure Rules in the House

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Cohen.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cohen is shown as a purple triangle in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Cohen has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Jun 1, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Steve Cohen sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Cohen was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 13 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Cohen sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Transportation and Public Works (23%) International Affairs (18%) Crime and Law Enforcement (18%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Finance and Financial Sector (10%) Health (8%) Taxation (7%) Education (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Cohen recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Cohen voted Nay

Cohen voted Aye

Cohen voted Aye

Passed 304/117 on Jun 23, 2011.

The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to May 2023, Cohen missed 267 of 11,072 roll call votes, which is 2.4%. This is worse than the median of 1.6% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: