{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cohen-questions-witnesses-hearing-southern-poverty-law", "Congressman Cohen Questions Witnesses at a Hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center", "2025-12-16", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", "cohen", "https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today questioned expert witnesses before its Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government at a hearing entitled \u201cPartisan and Profitable: The SPLC\u2019s Influence on Federal Civil Rights Policy.\u201d\n\nThe Republican majority on the Subcommittee sought to characterize the longtime civil rights organization -- founded in 1971 by civil rights giants Julian Bond and Morris Dees, and which historically sued the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups into bankruptcy -- as an \u201canti-Christian\u201d organization. It also suggested it had an outsized and illegitimate influence on the Biden Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.\n\n\u201cThey (SPLC) used to bring cases, and I still think they do bring cases, that are important,\u201d Congressman Cohen said.\n\nCongressman Cohen also noted that many leaders of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), A.M.E, C.M.E., and Black Baptist congregations are supporters of the SPLC.\n\nSee Congressman Cohen\u2019s exchange with the witnesses here.\n\nWitnesses at the hearing were:\n\nAndrew Sypher, Executive Vice President of Field Operations, Turning Point USA\n\nTony Perkins, President, Family Research Council\n\nTyler O\u2019Neil, Senior Editor, The Daily Signal\n\nAmanda Tyler, Executive Director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cohen-questions-witnesses-hearing-southern-poverty-law"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9116420298814774, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}