macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-11-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. if the gentleman will yield. we talk in our 30something Working Group here. I used to say every week. but now its every night. about thirdparty validators. and I think it is important to have thirdparty validators so that we show the people who are hearing us tonight that this is not TIM RYANS opinion or DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZS opinion or KENDRICK MEEKS" opinion or BILL DELAHUNTS opinion. this opinion is shared by many. many others. The Republican leadership here. they talk a good line about faith and values. In fact. they base almost their entire campaigns. the case they make to the country. about how we need to restore family values. we need to restore values and faith. and there should be more faith injected into every aspect of our government. Well. let us see what the people of faith. our faith leaders are saying about these budget cuts that we "are going to be considering next week. Today. there were leaders from various faiths that joined in prayer at the Capitol. Those leaders included Reverend Dr. Bob Edgar. who is the general secretary of the National Council of Churches. Reverend Jim Wallis. founder of Sojourners and Convener of Call to Renewal. Rabbi David Saperstein. director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism. and Eleanor Giddings Ivory. director. Washington office. Presbyterian Church. They had a press conference before the prayer and they called for a moral budget and urged Congress to stop immoral budget priorities. Let me just outline a few of the things that they said. Reverend Wallis said. "As this moral battle for the budget unfolds. I am calling on Members of Congress. some of whom make much out of their faith. to start some Bible studies before they cast votes to cut food stamps. Medicaid. child care and more that hurt the weakest in our Nation. Reverend Edgar of the National Council of Churches said. "We gather today just days after Rosa Parks. the mother of the civil rights movement. lie in State here in the Capitol rotunda. Even as we celebrate her life and the strong witness she had for justice. we recognize that justice is hanging in the balance as this proposed budget.. if passed. would hurt those who are most in need in our society: children. the elderly. and those living in poverty." I just want to quote from the remarks that Rabbi Saperstein made. He quoted the Bible and used the Bibles words to help our Republican colleagues understand the impact that they are making. He urges us to "deal thy bread to the hungry." not "steal thy bread from the hungry." Remember Proverbs stern warning: "Do not steal from the weak because he is weak and do not oppress the poor in the gate." Listen to the voiceless and to the Biblical imperative: "Speak out for those who cannot speak for the rights of the destitute." These are the thirdparty validators who are our religious leaders that are urging this Republican leadership not to go down this path. not to pull out the rug and the floor and literally burn the house down that people who are so badly in need in this country cannot afford to sustain.
Date: 2005-11-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Our priorities. apparently the priorities of this administration are in appointing unqualified people to run Government agencies like Michael Brown. whose priorities clearly were more on what kind of shirt he was wearing. as opposed to making sure that the people in the gulf coast States who were about to get and then did get hit by Katrina did get taken care of. And about whether to roll up their shirtsleeves and by appointing their college roommates to jobs. to making sure that you have wellqualified people in the Government. It does not stop at Michael Brown. You have people who have been found to be wholly unqualified up and down the Government. You have corruption. through and through. from the top. At the White House. the first person working in the White House in 130 years to be indicted in 130 years. You know. we have had quite a few scandals in White Houses past just in my lifetime.. but never once has a White House official. an administration official working in the White House been indicted before 130 years ago. That is where their priorities are.
Date: 2005-11-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. it is unfortunate that they do not appear to have any interest in that. Yet again. the cronyism and the culture of corruption continues because one would think that after Brownie they would have learned. who is. still on the payroll.
Date: 2005-11-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

$148.000 a year. They may have learned and bring in additional people who are qualified. Yet. the President just picked the FDIC. the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. chairman to run the gulf coast recovery. Let us peruse his qualification. He gave $100.000 to President Bushs Presidential campaign. . I
Date: 2005-11-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Because they have no interest in it stopping. We are approaching the end of our hour. and I want to yield to the gentleman from Ohio and ask him to give out our Web site.
Date: 2005-11-03
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. tions. Newv Tacoma Narrows Bridge ConSpeaker. I move that the House do now struction Project [CGD1305033] (RIN: 1625adjourn. AA00) received September 1. 2005. pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). to the Committee on
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. this afternoon all across south Florida. there are thousands of people whose homes have been condemned. They have been condemned following a category 3 hurricane called Hurricane Wilma. Subsequently in the last few days. it has been pouring rain. I went door to door in my district over the weekend and met hundreds of men and women in their 80s and 90s stuck in their apartments with no power. At one point. I came upona 93yearold women in her kitchen with her 90yearold nextdoor neighbor who were looking with despair at an MRE. trying to figure out how to get it open. put it together. and get it heating so that they could have the first hot food. something resembling hot food. that they had had in 5 days. I literally had to help them with the print on the instructions that was this big. try to figure out how to put that meal together without burning themselves. because as soon as you put the water in the meal. it starts to immediately heat up. This was not an isolated incident. In the 2 days after that. those women and the other senior citizens that I represent in the Sunrise Lakes Condominium were told that they needed to leave their apartments because after the rain. the leaking_ through their condominium roof was so bad that their apartments were uninhabitable. They are now in an elementary school with.no shower. with a makeshift shower that was put together with two portapotties shoved next to each other and plastic sheeting taped up with a hose stuck over the top so that they could bathe. We are talking about men and women in their upper 80s and 90s. Hurricane Wilma has.caused tremendous suffering in south Florida. and there has not been enough national attention on the plight of my constituents and the constituents of my south Florida colleagues. We need to make sure that we are able to provide the help and assistance that they so desperately need. There is need across this country. and next week we are going to add insult to injury and apply a -manmade disaster in the form of the budget reconciliation. -which is Washingtonspeak for budget cuts. There are going to be proposed housing cuts. Medicare cuts. food stamps. school lunches. Between Katrina and Wilma. and all of the suffering going on across this. country. now is not the time to add more harm and do more damage to people who are badly in need. Mr. Speaker. we need to do right by Americans. not pull the rug out from under them. I urge my colleagues to make sure that we provide the badly needed assistance. both to victims of Hurricane Katrina on the gulf coast and to victims of Katrina from south Florida.
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

The gentleman is absolutely right. The gentleman talked about. he started his last couple of minutes talking about the precedentsetting activity in this administration. To take that a step furthet. let us talk about just how precedent setting this administration is. NotfembezA. 2005 They. are certainly precedent setting in terms .of ethical lapses. in terms of corruption and cronyism .and the lack of confidence. You have literally. with the indictment of Mr. Libby on Friday. the first White House official to be indicted in 130 years. Nbw. throughout our lifetime. throughout our lifetime and the lifetime of our generation here in the 30Something Working Group. you go through probably our earliest memory of our administration would be Nixon. We were young kids during the Nixon administration. but obviously that was a pretty significant scandal. Then youmove forward. Nothing too terrible in "the Ford administration. People obviously had some deep concerns or overMr. Carter administration but nothing ethical to speak of. Obviously. With Iran Contra and the Reagan administration and the number of officials who were investigated and subpoenaed there were deep concerns. but no one indicted from the White House. The same thing with President Clinton. No indictments of people in the White House. Definitely some questions. but now we reach the Bush administration. Does the gentleman from Ohio - have the.chart with him from the other day where we can put it up and show people and the Speaker what the President said during his campaign? Is that with us? As we are getting it. if you recall. the President when he was a candidate for President talked about how he was going to transform the standards of ethics of the White House and that anyone working in his administration was going to be held to the hihest of standards. That it was not just going to be whether they have actually. broke the law. but the standard. and here it is. President Bushs promise that he made as a candidate that. "In my.administration we will ask not only what is legal but what is right. Not justwhat the lawyers allow but what the public deserves." Well. I do not know. I guess prevarication is just a common practice. It is just part of their culture. part of their culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence.
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Right. I guess they believe they can say anything they want to. They do not have to follow it. and there would be no~consequences. But. see. unfortunately for them. fortunately for the American people. the American people get it now. They are on to them. Let us talk about the-.Washingtpn PoSt poll. and I know we. Will have an opportunity to.jput this -up in poster form probably next week. but one -.of the questions that the - WashingtonPost/ABC News poll asked was. Please tell me whether the following sthte-. ment applies to Bush or not: He is honest and trustworthy. In May of 2004. 53 percent of the American people answered that question yes and 45 percent said no. Now 40 percent think he is honest and trustworthy. and 58 percent say he is not. I think that is in part because you can tell a lot about a person by the people they surround themselves with. Right now. let us look at who is surrounding the President of the United States or who previously was surrounding him. You have Mr. Libby. who was indicted on Friday. and. of course. it is not confirmed unless and until he is convicted. He is not guilty of a crime yet. But he was indicted. The first official in the White House in 130 years. The President said if somebody committed a crime they will no longer work in his administration. The gentleman from Ohio I know will probably talk a few minutes about the difference in the shifting sands of the Presidents statements. But you have Mr. Rove who increasingly it has become clear. as clear as a bell. that he absolutely was directly involved in outing a covert CIA agent. directly involved. yet he is still in the .White House with the highest security clearance. access to the most top secret information. It is easy to see why 58 percent of the American people do not think the President is honest and trustworthy. Because if you take it a step further. the same Washington Post/ABC News poll says it has been reported that another subject of the investigation has been. Karl Rove. who has been a close advisor to Bush. The question was. Given what you have heard or read. do you think Rove did anything wrong in connection with this case or not? If yes. do you think he did something unethical but not illegal or did you think that he did something illegal? j Fortynine percent of the American people answered that question that he did something wrong for sure. Of the 49 percent. 26 percent believe he did something. illegal and 23 percent think he did something unethical. Fortynine percent of people asked believe that Karl Rove. did something either illegal or unethical. and 59 percent of the people believe that he should resign from the White House. Now. is President Bush so incompetent that he is not able to cope without Mr. Rove by his side? I do not know. Generally. I expect that. I know I surround myself with a number of competent people. You make sure you put together a team of people that does not rise and fall on one person and their knowledge and ability to assist you.
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Well. you bet your sweet bippy they are worried. They are worried you are asking for those documents. Because there are those on the other side of the aisle that would try to lead people to believe that we are just a bunch of malcontent Democrats who are standing on the floor complaining about something inconsequential. It is just -the same old. same old. Not true. Look at the reasoning and the motivation that was behind the outing of a covert CIA agent and of the planning and machinations that were going on in the White House to conceal and deceive the American people about what their plans were. It was all about making sure that they could have their way in going to war in Iraq. That is what it all boiled down to. And the consequences of that motivatioh are that now we have more than 2.000 American soldiers. men and women. who are dead. who lost their lives because this administration was hellbent on being right. facts be damned. It made no difference to them that all the evidence mounting showed that they were wrong. that there were no weapons of mass destruction. It was obvious there was no other reason to go into Iraq.other than the President and his people decided we should. long before September 11. With all the documentation that has come out now pointing to the fact that. soon after the President was elected in 2000. it had been decided that they were going to go to war in Iraq. and what they have been doing for the last few years leading up to our entering Iraq and since then is assembling the factsaround their deci�ion. Then subsequent to our entry into Iraq and it being discovered there were no weapons of mass destruction. in part because Joe Wilson went there to Niger and demonstrated factually that that was not the case. subsequently they have had to prevaricate. They have had to lie. because. oops. it was shown that not only were they wrong but they were deceitful. Can you think of any more heinous an act than deceiving the American people and the world on the ultimate sacrifice that Americans are asked to make for their country?
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

They -have no respect for the American people. They have no respect for the American people. When you are willing to do anything and say anything to have your way. regardless of the consequences. that demonstrates that you have no respect for the people that you represent. for the people that sent you to Washington to do right by them. As elected officials. the three of us and all our colleagues here who serve in this Chamber. who have stood for office. most of us many times. what we are doing when we go and put our name on that ballot and ask people to support us. we are asking them to put their faith and their trust in us. We are telling them that we respect their opinion. that we will honor their opinion. People in America do not expect to always agree with what we do here. I know there are people in my district who sometimes agree with me and sometimes they do not agree with me. But what they have told me. and I know each of my colleagues have heard this same thing. they have told me. Debbie. I do not always agree with you. but at least I know you are up there fighting for what you believe in. I knowthat you have the utmost integrity. I know I can put my faith and trust in you and that you are always going to look hie in the eye and tell me exactly how things are and tell me the truth. There is no one in America that the President can look in the eye and say he has told them the truth. Because. although he specifically has not been accused of anything illegal. he specifically has not been accused of anything illegal. you are a reflection of the people you surround yourself with. And. essentially. by allowing Karl Rove to remain in the White House and by hanging on to his staff that have been accused of unethical behavior-
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Forgive me. Mr. Speaker. but there are times when this is so outrageous and the conduct that is going on in this administration is so outrageous that it is difficult to contain myself and it is difficult to keep that outrage bottled up inside. Because that is what we have been asking for weeks now. Where is the outrage? Where is the outrage from the Republican leadership in this Chamber? They certainly had plenty of outrage during the previous administration.
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. what it boils done to is that here in the House the rules hem us in. and we have to talk around a lot of what we might like to say more directly. but the American people elected us to speak truth to power. I mean. that -is the bottom line. We could not have more power in the White House than there is right now. and they exercise every bit of it. They exercise every bit of it. regardless of the consequences. regardless of the plight of the people whose decisions they affect. There are so many examples of how what we are doing on this floor allows us to reveal that truth. The gentleman from Ohio has a chart right there that will help us ferret out a little bit of that truth.
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. created a net increase in jobs here in Speaker. with all due respect to the the United States. -This report found gentleman from California. you are the that offshore outsourcing resulted in chairman of the Rules Committee. You the creation of more than 419.000 jobs. spend as much time restricting the compared to the 162.000 technology jobs Democrats ability to offer amend- that have been displaced from the ments and act in a bipartisan fashion United States. So when people look at and provide input to the policies that the fact that. yes. some jobs have gone are forced through this Congress than overseas. they forget to look at the ahyone else in this Chamber. There is fact that we have had a surge in job absolutely no bipartisan effort made creation that is in fact a byproduct of here. . socalled outsourcing. The chief econo-
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Our good friend. the gentleman from California . was defending the Republican leaderships position here that they are committed to cutting the deficit. and that that is. you know. a major reason why next week they are going to rain down these horrendous terrible cuts in the budget on the people who are the most in need. I was not very good at math when I was younger. But you know. the most simplistic mathematical calculation would tell you that if they are going to cut $50 billion out of the budget next week. yet still provide $70 billion worth of tax cuts. than I guess I just wonder how they are going to reduce the deficit when you are still adding $20 billion to it. I mean. and then that is to say nothing of the fact that when you cut the budget. you are doing nothing to reduce the deficit. That is just what is so mindboggling. I think if we can. I would like to .translate. because words like deficit and reconciliation and big Washingtonspeak words like that are sometimes hard for regular folks in our districts to understand. so let us talk about what this reconciliation budgetcut document that we are going to take up next week. what it really means for people. In the Agriculture Committee. they voted to cut $844 million from the food stamp program. which would kick 300.000 families out of the program and leave 40.000 children ineligible for free school lunches. Now. that is not whining. That means a little boy or little girl is going to have a grumbly tummy day after day. Do you know what it feels like? I know what it feels like to not have anything in my tummy. I do not have anything in my tummy right now. But I have the ability to go out and buy a sandwich. People who get free and reduced school lunches do not have that luxury.
Date: 2005-11-04
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Where is their moral outrage? Where are their morals? That is what I want to know. I am a mom. I have three little kids. The gentleman from Florida has two young children. Can you imagine a circumstance where you would allow your children to go hungry if you could do something about it? Our role here as Members of Congress. we are supposed to look out for the people who cannot look out for themselves. That is what government is for. Children are pur most vulnerable citizens. Laws are written. and government exists so that we can take care of kids because they cannot make their parents earn enough money to.be able to pay for their breakfast and their lunch. That is where we come in. That is where government fills in for the individuals. society. It is not fathomable to me. When I gave birth to my children. my life transformed overnight. Overnight. In a matter of hours. And my whole life becam. not about me any more. or my daytoday needs. but about their daytoday needs. That is why we are here. because we are supposed to be taking care of the needs of people who cannot do it for themselves