mr. cohen: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. cohen: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without. the gentleman is recognized. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. the first weekend of may the great storms came through from the west and struck in arkansas, mississippi, tennessee, and kentucky. the flooding damage was record breaking. the damage done in the state of -- in all states was great but in the state of tennessee was the most severe, my home state. the most destruction i guess and most damages occurred in the district of the honorable jim cooper, but in my own county of shelby, there was extensive damage. i joined with my colleagues in calling on our governor to issue a request for declaration of emergency and that was done by the governor. the federal government has responded in a magnificent manner. pres

mr. cohen you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you for your sponsorship of the bill. first i would like to ask mr. pratt and mrs. fortney if you can help us, it has been reported in a hearing in oregon, eric roseberg said at this point we don't have any research to show any statistical correlation between what is in somebody's credit report and their job performance or likelihood to commit fraud. are y'all familiar with that statement? >> i am. >> and do you concur or not concur? >> i don't because -- >> do you have statistical empirical evidence -- >> i would be happy to keep going. we really need the employers here because it is the employers who make the decision. >> i have heard your answer before. you don't have any data to discredit rose enberg, and mr. rose enberg doesn't have any information to support the credit words. so we are kind of going in a circle. >> not really. it is similar to asking us whether a creditor uses a credit report for a lending decision. you have to have the creditor here to answer that question because they are the ones to explain how th

mr. cohen: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. on monday it was my birthday and didn't go quite as planned. so one of the things did i is went to arlington cemetery and spent four hours looking at the graves and looking at the people who wish they had a birthday. i visited the kennedy grave and let the word go forth and i visited robert kennedy's grave and the tiny ripples of hope that can wipe down the halls of oppression. i want to read from one tombstone. where there is injustice we should correct it, where there is poverty we should eliminate, where there is corruption we should stamp it out, where there's violence we should punish it, where there is neglect we should provide care, where there is war we should restore peace, we should add them permanently to our storehouse of treasures. this from the vice-presidential candidate of the grand old party in 1948, the nominee for the supreme court and the chief

. >> mr. cohen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize for missing part of the earlier part of the hearing. i'm very interested and concerned, as are citizens of my district and constituents all throughout the country on this issue and what it's doing to the flo flora and the fawn in a of the gulf region. the entire united states of america will be affected by this but particularly memphis, new orleans, like a sister city, we consider the gulf coast as part of our world. part of all of our worlds. we need to be concerned. if i ask questions that have been asked before, i apologize. first, mr. mckay and mr. newman, this dome that you all came up with that you brought down after about three or four weeks and failed, when did you all come up with that concept? >> that particular coffer dam was used in prior spills in shallow water. >> so it was not a unique process, it was just that the depth -- >> the depth is different, and the issue with it in terms of why it didn't work on first try was that hydrates formed. >> it froze. wate

mr. cohen: mr. speaker, nearly one month after the deep water oil spill began, april 20, oil continues to flow from the well and destroying our water environment. the rig activities were considered to be low risk drilling exploration. such a classification sends chills up my spine given the countless riskier ventures occurring along the coast of our grade nation. while minneapolis of americans watch the news and see the destruction of the gulf coast, environment, and economy of that area i think of the thoughtless, faceless cavalier republican energy chants, drill, baby, drill. it ecos in the ears of the american public and anybody who cares about the gulf coast. it was a simplistic response. we have produced -- we use 25.9% of the world's oil. we have 2.2% of the world's energy reserves. you don't have to be a math scholar or nobel prize winner to know that won't work. you need to find alternative forms of energy. use america's great resource and brainpower, harness solar, harness the wind. find ne

we now recognize the gentleman from tennessee, mr. cohen for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. general holder, we had talked about racial disparities earlier, i think, last year when you were before us, and i have a bill which i have introduced the justice integrity act recently introduced in the senate by senator biden. we've held back on the bill at the request, i believe, of justice department because you were doing an internal study, i think. have you concluded that study? >> no. the studies that we are doing are still, they are fairly close to, as i like to say coming in to a landing, and i'm starting to hear now back from the task forces that we created, and on the basis of some of the reports that i'm receiving, i will be announcing a variety of things over the next two weeks or so. but the one that you're talking about i have not yet seen a report. >> when do you think you might see a report on that one? so you don't have one on racial disparities yet, you have others? >> well, we certainly have, we have been looking at the q

the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of of the gentleman from tennessee, mr. cohen, to suspend the rules and agree to h. -- house resolution 1337 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1337, resolution expressing the sympathy and condolences of the house of representatives to those affected by the flooding in tennessee, kentucky and mississippi in may, 2010. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. 402, the nays are zero. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the ru

cohen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i've got a statement that i'll just turn in and it goes through a litany of issues that -- some may be more relevant than others. mostly it concerns the bush/cheney halliburton administration that is responsible for this, the lack of regulation, the lack of oversight and the laissez-faire cowboy-type mentality that allowed all this to happen. we have got to have regulations and government needs to act to make sure people and our environment and our world is safe. but the main thing i want to address is mr. jones. i want to express my condolences to you. to lose a child and others have lost children and parents, 11 lives were lost. there's all kind of destruction and damage that pains me to see to my -- the gulf coast which is close to memphis. it's part of our world but the lives that were lost and i just express my condolences to you. >> sheila jackson lee. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i may be the only one on the panel that comes from oil country. at least as i can recogniz

cohen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i got a statement that i'll turn in and it goes through a litany of issues. some mie be more relevant than others, mostly it concerns and it concerns the bush-cheney lack of regulation and lack of oversight and the laissez-faire cowboy type mentality that allowed this to happen. we have got-to-regulations and government needs to act to make sure that people and our environment and our world is safe. the main thing i want to address is mr. jones. i want to express my condolences to you. to lose a child and others have lost children and parents, and -- 11 lives were lost. there's destruction and damage that pains me to see, the gulf coast which is close to policemen phys it is part of our world and the lives that were lost, and i just express my condolences to you. >> sheila, jackson. >> thank you. i may be the only one on the panel that comes from oil country. i -- at least as i can recognize who has lived in a community that has based its economic independence and contributions to the

cohen safety and environmental regulations do not differentiate between deep and shallow water developments? should there be more stringent regulations for deep water development? >> i would defer to mrannon burger. >> can you answer that? >> if the operations are similar in many circumstances, particularly with regard to we ll integrity. there are some differences in the regulation. whether there should be a separate set of regulations or separate section for deep water , that would merit consideration. >> thank you. >> senator rich. >> thank you. thanks for holding the hearing. i have one question, gentlemen. we're going to continue to develop oil wells in the gulf. i don't think there's any question about that. it is necessary. 40 years ago on the first earth day of the big issue was stopping nuclear power. they were incredibly successful in stopping nuclear power. as a result, we are much more reliant today on fossil fuels. we will continue to be like that as we drift away from that. everyone on this committee is committed to moving from fossil fuels. but it will take some time. there is no question. when you have human activity like this where you have a highly technical and sop