The United States Senate unanimously passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act this Wednesday.  The bill would provide millions of dollars to develop a cold cases unit within the Justice Department to investigate unpunished civil rights crimes that happened before 1970. The money would also help local law enforcement officials conduct these examinations of killings that happened in the civil rights era.

Senator Thad Cochran was a co-sponsor of this bill in 2005 when it originated.  He has praised its passage and hopes that President Bush will sign the legislation into law.  The President is expected to sign it.

“Justice has been delayed, but it should not be denied,” Cochran said. “We are nearing a time, half a century after many of these crimes were committed, when witnesses who are able to provide testimony will no longer be available.”

To find out more about the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act, click here to read an article in the Clarion-Ledger.

Senator Cochran spoke on the U.S. Senate floor again on Wednesday, July 30, urging the Senate to take action to provide meaningful energy reform before the Senate adjourned for August.  Read below Senator Cochran’s remarks on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday.

“Mr. President, We will soon be adjourning the current session of the Senate, and we have yet to consider any meaningful proposals to help relieve the pressure all of our constituents are feeling because of the high cost of energy. Before we return home, we should pass a bill that encourages increased production of energy here at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

America has responded to the jump in the price of gasoline by driving less and using less, and the price of oil has decreased significantly in the last two weeks because of this. There is a direct link between supply and demand and the price of oil. In order to pay less for oil, we must have more supply and we must have our own domestic supplies. We have been debating a bill that will not increase supply or decrease demand. The democrats continue to thwart our efforts on this subject, and we find ourselves in a logjam.

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An article was published today in the Clarion-Ledger titled “Senate Democrats press for approval of cold-cases bill,” and our campaign thought it was important to let readers know about Senator Cochran’s support for this bill which was not included in the article.  Senator Cochran was an original cosponsor of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act which is a bill that provdies funding for new Justice Department efforts to prosecute old civil rights crimes.  He also helped introduce the bill in the last congress with Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Senator Jim Talent (R-MO). 

Here are a few excerpts from the article with details of the bill:

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act - named after a black teenager who was slain in Money, Miss., in 1955 - and dozens of other measures have been gathered into a 400-page bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The bills have little in common. One would fund Washington’s subway system, another would create an electronic database of slavery records and post-Civil War reconstruction efforts. Most were blocked from votes by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., mainly because he wants open debate on the legislation and the opportunity to amend it.

Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and other Senate Democrats lobbied for the Emmett Till measure at a news conference Wednesday.

The measure would authorize $10 million for the Justice Department to open a new office to investigate cold civil rights cases. The office would cost about $2 million a year to operate.

Click here to read the full article in the Clarion Ledger.