macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-12-06
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. this resolution offers support for our closest ally. Israel. and calls upon member states of the United Nations to stop supporting resolutions that unfairly criticize Israel. Israel is the only memberstate in the UN that is prevented frdm belonging to the regional grouping which it geographically belongs in and is. therefore. prevented from participating in much of the ordinary work of the UN. Israel cannot vote for or be elected to many of the UNs central organizations. Just as troubling as being denied full membership. however. is the disproportionate number of resolutions passed in the UN that unfairly criticize Israel. AntiIsrael resolutions are often adopted in agencies. and on issues which have no relevance to the work or mandate of these organizations. Additionally. the Commission on Human Rights routinely adopts a grossly disproportionate number of resolutions concerning Israel. Of all condemnations of this agency. 26 percent refer to Israel alone. while states such as Syria and Libya are rarely criticized. Another egregious example of bias against Israel is the fact that the UN has repeatedly held Emergency Special Sessions of the General Assembly on Israeli construction in Jerusalem. The Emergency Special Session was originally conceived in 1950 for emergencies like the Korean War. however in the last two decades. these special meetings have only been held regarding Israel. Emergency Special Sessions were not convened over the genocide in Rwanda. ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. or with regard to the other major world conflicts. Since joining the United Nations on May 11. 1949. Israel has been singled out time and again for disproportionate criticism. underrepresented on important committees. denied full membership in regional groupings and constantly attacked by a bloc of Arab states and their supporters. Mr. Speaker. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of this resolution to once again reaffirm our support for Israel. and to urge members of the UN to stop supporting resolutions that unfairly criticize Israel and prevent Israel from fully participating in the UN.
Date: 2005-12-06
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of this resolution honoring the life and legacy of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It has been 10 years. November 4. 1995. since Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a gunman in central Tel Aviv after attending a rally. however. Mr.. Rabins service to the Israeli people and work to promote peace with Israels neighbors is still present today. At the age of 19 Mr. Rabin joined the Israeli Army where he served for 27 years. culminating his military career as I.D.F. Chief of Staff. After retiring from I.D.F. service on Jan. uary 1. 1968. he was appointed Israeli Ambassador to the United States. Mr. Rabin returned to Jerusalem in early 1973. and became active in the Israel Labor Party. In the December 1973 elections. he was elected to the Knesset. and when Golda Meir formed her government in April 1974. he was appoioted Minister of Labor. This government resigned shortly afterwards. and on June 2. 1974. the Knesset voted confidence in a new government headed by Yitzhak Rabin. As Prime Minister. Mr. Rabin placed a special emphasis on improving the economy. solving social problems. and strengthening the I.D.F. Following the Labor Partys defeat in the May 1977 elections. Mr. Rabin served as a member of Knesset in the opposition. until the formation of the National Unity Government in September 1984. He then served as Minister of Defense in the National Unity Government from September 1984 to March 1990. From March 15. 1990. to June 23. 1992. Mr. Rabin served again in the Knesset in the opposition. Before the 1992 elections. the Israel Labor Party held its first nationwide primaries. Mr. Rabin was elected chairman of the party in February 1992. and in the June 1992 national elections he was elected Prime Minister. On September 13. 1993. Mr. Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles in Washington. DC. outlining the proposed interim selfgovernment arrangements. The "GazaJericho First" agreement. signed in Cairo on May 4. 1994. addressed the implementation of the first stage of the Declaration of Principles. Following the progress in the negotiations with the Palestinians. Mr. Rabin received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work. I had the opportunity to meet Prime Minister Rabin and value his memory. Mr. Rabin was an extraordinary man. and not enough can be said about his commitment to the Israeli people. his country. and regional peace. Mr. Speaker. I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 535 to honor the legacy and life work of Mr. Rabin.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I am privileged to serve on the Financial Services Committee under the leadership of Chairman OXLEY and Ranking Member FRANK. because this bill is yet another example of what we can accomplish when both sides of the aisle.work together. And this is not the first time that that has occurred. and I am sure it will not be the last when it comes to the results that come out of this committee. As outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once said. "Free markets presume peaceful societies." The infinite risks associated with terrorism have demonstrated their potential to destabilize our markets. so I rise to express my full support for the version of TRIA before the House today. I want to thank Chairman OXLEY. Ranking Member FRANK. Representative BAKER. and Representative KANJORSKI for their stalwart leadership on this issue. I also want to thank all members and staff from the Financial Services Committee who have worked so hard to bring this to the floor The House version of the bill includes critical reforms that will help protect the American economy in the event of another terrorist attack. It includes important group life provisions. streamlines insurance filings. and gives consumers more options and protections. I am proud that this legislation has gleaned broadbased bipartisan support. and I encourage all my colleagues to support the House version of the bill today and in conference. Mr. Speaker. I look forward to working with the chairman and the ranking member and any other interested parties on the language related to the life insurance fairnessfortravelers issue.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. continuing my support for an overwhelming majority of free trade agreements. I .cast my vote in favor the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In the past I have expressed serious concerns over copyright provisions contained in some free trade agreements negotiated by the Bush Administration that arguably constrain the ability of the United States to modernize our laws to reflect the realities of technology. I have been repeatedly reassured that notwithstanding these copyright provisions. the United States would still be able to modernize our copyright laws. I am also pleased that in other areas of the U.S.Bahrain FTA. the President finally followed Democratic recommendations to ensure the adoption and enforcement of internationallyrecognized basic standards for the people of Bahrain.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: JACK MURTHA (democrat)
Chamber: H

a Marine Corps veteran with strong defense credentials. came out for bringing our troops out of Iraq. But instead of engaging in an honest dialogue with him. the first reaction from the other side of the aisle was to resort to fearmongering and character assassination. Representative MURTHA was subjected to the most vile and devious accusations. He was compared to a prominent al Qaeda terrorist. He was said to be emboldening our enemies. It was implied that he was a coward. And then the majority resorted to a gimmick. a cheap stunt distorting Mr. MURTHAs words in an attempt to gain political advantage. I wish that those on the other side of the aisle were half as honorable as they are clever. The American people deserve better. Our troops deserve better than this. They deserve a thorough. substantive. honest debate on the war. not a bill that could not be amended. not a bill brought to the House floor for no other reason than partisan gamesmanship. Mr. Speaker. a group of Democrats has written a discharge petition to bring the Iraq debate to the House floor. to bring it through legislation around a piece of legislation called Homeward Bound. H.J. Res. 55. to bring it to the House floor so that we can have the debate we need. This discharge petition will allow 17 hours of debate on the Nations Iraq policy. And unlike the sham bill presented by the majority in response to Representative MURTHAS call to the end of war. it would be brought up under an open rule. a rule that allows amendments to be introduced. I urge my colleagues to sign the discharge petition. allow for a real debate.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

I can tell you I just strutted in from helping my first graders with their homework. Just so you know. I have my priorities straight. I spent a couple of minutes listening to your exchange and cannot help but chime in here and express my deep concern which I know my good friend from Florida shares as well. We had our Governor and FEMA represent our delegation in advance of Wilma. You have got Katrina and we all are very familiar with the lack of preparation clearly and the aftermath of Katrina and the disaster literally of the aftermath of Katrina but then you fastforward a couple of months to Wilma when we had 2 months that FEMA could have learned from some of those mistakes and dealt with the preparedness issues that they were really poor on and the aftermath response issues that ihey received incredibly poor marks on. You would think that they would have fixed it. But in our case. our Governor and FEMA represented to us that we were the model State. I say this not to be too specific about any one States preparation. but FEMA and the Florida government represented that our State was the most prepared. We can tell you that if our State and their response to Wilma is the pride and joy. is the model for preparation in disaster response. then we should all be deeply concerned about the other 49 States and their preparedness and potential response for a natural or a manmade disaster like a terrorist attack.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

You are absolutely right. On top of that. because we are about thirdparty validators and it is not all about just what we say. you have Governor Kean and Mr. Hamilton who the other day gave them a list of Fs on almost every major aspect of preparedness and what we should be doing in terms of response to a potential terrorist act. It is just one more example of their lack of caring. of their lack of competence. of the cronyism. of the corruption. Find a C word and this Republican leadership and the administration absolutely fit the bill.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Thank you just for the filling in of the facts. The list goes on in terms of the cronyism that is rampant through this administration. So you have corruption. You have cronyism. Then you have. as the gentleman from Ohio just described. the total lack of competence. Example after example: The proposal on Social Security. The way they handled Katrina. The way they handled Wilma. The deficit. We have an $8 trillion deficit.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Just a few examples of what you are talking about. we are talking about the role of the White House in promoting misleading intelligence when it came to how we got into the war and the Iraqs weapons of mass destruction or lack thereof. We are talking about the responsibility of senior administration officials for the abuses at Abu Ghraib. We are talking about the role of the Vice Presidents office and the award of Halliburton contracts. no information on that. no accountability. The role of the White House in withholding the Medicare cost estimates from Congress. The identity of the energy industry campaign contributors that met with the Vice Presidents energy task force. We could keep going about the corruption. the lack of information. the lack of competence. and in fact. when we come back at our next opportunity in our next hour. we will continue to go on about that.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. you know. there has been a whole lot of twistedup debate on time tables and whether we are insisting on a time table and withdrawal. and whether the withdrawal is immediate or 6 months. When we talk about the drawndown of troops. and the fact that we need to make sure that it is the Iraqi people that are ultimately responsible for running their own country. we are referring to the Presidents objectives that he said that he wants to see. And the other day I heard the President talking about that we will withdraw and begin to withdraw troops from Iraq when we have objectives that are reached. Well. what the heck does that mean? Does it mean that when 50 percent of the Iraqi battalions are fully independent? Does it mean 75 percent? Where are the benchmarks? I mean. it is fine to say that we need to have objectives about this. We should not leave or withdraw troops until we meet objectives. But what are those objectives? I need something concrete to be able to go home and tell my constituents. I mean. we have got 2.013 American lives that have been lost. and 50 percent of those kids have been kids under the age of 22. There is some serious accountability that needs to be brought to bear here. And. you know. vague references to objectives that should be met by the President is not what I call accountability. not when you have $223 billion being spent on this ar.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Your reference to what their philosophy is with pursuing this tax reconciliation. this tax cut package tomorrow as not being a conservative philosophy. I will commend to you our colleague. the gentleman from California comments. who is one of the leaders of the Blue Dogs. In his special order last night. with the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross). it is the politics of Scroogeonomics. because as we approach the holiday season. what they are doing and what they are engaging in. the Republican leadership is engaging in. Scroogeonomics. We can only hope that tonight. as many of our Republican colleagues heads hit their pillow. we can only hope that they are visited tonight by the ghost of Christmas past. because that is how we are going to ensure. it is probably the only way that we will ensure it. through a visit of the ghost of Christmas past. that they are shown what the essential ramifications are if they actually move forward and pass this proposal. the cuts to child support. enforcement. the cuts to food stamps. the horrendous cuts in financial aid that they just handed down a couple of weeks ago in the budget reconciliation. Budget Cut Act. Now tomorrow they want to give tax cuts to people who are in the top twotenths of 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans. .We are not making this up. This is factual. That is who the vast majority of these tax cuts will go to. What is unbelievable in this Scroogeonomics proposal of theirs is that they actually .have the audacity to call the budget reconciliation act the Budget Deficit Reduction Act when you have got $50 billion in budget cuts in that and then tomorrow they are going to adopt. hopefully they wont. hopefully we will have enough of our colleagues visited by the ghost of Christmas past and they will have their consciences tweaked and they will vote "no" tomorrow. but then tomorrow w6 could potentially adopt $70 billion in tax cuts. I just helped my first graders with their math homework. but even they could figure out that that adds $20 billion to the deficit. $20 billion in which we already have $27.000 for every man. woman. child and newborn baby in this country. That is how much each of us owes.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

When you are talking about your faith. my faith. I am a member of the Jewish faith. our faith talks about the spirit of Tikkun Olam and giving back to our community and thinking of those who are less fortunate. We are referring to the party that claims to corner the market on faithbased values. If you look at every aspect of their agenda. there is not a component of their agenda that has anything to do with what our faith traditions teach us or with values or with making sure that the least of us and the least among us are assisted. We are supposed to be their voice. If you had listened to the religious leaders who have come to this Capitol and talked about how abominable they think this proposal is. both the budget reconciliation bill and the tax cut package tomorrow is. then you would know that they do not have the moral high ground in this debate whatsoever.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

You are absolutely right. Unless you believe that the contracting and the culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence is reserved for contracting only in the Iraq gulf coast region. We have a thirdparty validator. in the New York Times today. where in the gulf coast here we have Rosemary Barbour. the wife of the nephew of Haley Barbour. Mississippis Governor and former Republican National Committee chairman. who now has apparently received $6.4 million in contracts by her company. and 10 separate contracts from FEMA or the General Services Administration without any bid. A nobid cofitract.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

The wife of the nephew of Haley Barbour. Mississippi Republican Governor. former RNCchairman. she has received $6.4 million in contracts for things like laundry service and showers and delivering tents. Not emergency needs 3 months after Katrina hit that would seem to require nobid contracts. but 10 separate contracts from FEMA and the General Services Administration. nobid contracts. of $100.000 or more. Now. if that is not cronyism.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

That we have been talking about. then I do not know what that is. Did that contract have to be no bid? What made the wife of the nephew of the Governor. who is a former RNC chairman. who just also happens to have been a Republican Party activist. what made her the most qualified? Coincidentally? Coincidentally? Oh. gee. she just happens to be related to the Governor of Mississippi. who is the former RNC chairman and who happened to get a nobid contract. 10 nobid contracts for services that I would not deem emergency. that needed to not take the time we would like to require in terms of accountability for reviewing contracts and making sure it goes to the responsible bidder. the person who is going to provide that service in the most economical way. I know we are coming in on our last few minutes.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

The wife of the nephew of the Republican Governor of Mississippi. former RNC chairman. $6.4 million in contracts. 10 separate contracts from FEMA and the GSA that were nobid. for services like providing laundry equipment. delivering tents. and maintaining showers for relief workers.
Date: 2005-12-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

No. we are saying there is a continuation of the culture of cronyism and corruption. and it is time to give government back to the people. And that is what we want to do next year. give government back to the people. make sure government can be responsive to the peoples needs and provide for the needs of the people who need the most help.
Date: 2005-12-08
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. today we are presented with Act II of the Republican majoritys ongoing and tragically misguided reconciliation saga. In Act I. we learned who the majority felt most deserved to bear the brunt of their spending cuts: poor citizens who rely on Medicaid. hungry people who turn to food stamps and families trying to afford college. Now in Act II we are learning where they propose that money go: for tax breaks. that are targeted primarily to benefit the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans. And what is the net result? An even bigger deficit that will have to be paid for by our children. Let me be clear: In a properly prioritized budget. I believe there is room for targeted. fiscally responsible tax relief. And thats precisely the kind of tax relief Democrats are offering in our substitute today. The Democratic alternative extends all of the tax cuts set to expire next yearincluding such items as the deduction for college tuition expenses. incentives for brownfields cleanup and the 15year depreciation schedule for certain small business expenses. Moreover. unlike the Republican package. Democrats provide guaranteed alternative minimum tax reliefso that 16 million middleclass taxpayers wont be unfairly ensnared by the AMT. Finally. and importantly. the Democratic substitute is completely paid forand wont add a dime to the Federal deficit. By contrast. when considered in its entirety. the Republican reconciliation package will actually increase the deficitat a time when the nations debt is already running over $8 trillion. Additionally. when faced with the choice of whether to use the reconciliation process to protect AMT relief for middleclass taxpayers or tax breaks for the wealthiest investors. the Republicans chose to leave AMT relief unprotected while extending tax -breaks on capital gains and dividends that dont even expire until 2008tax breaks over half of whose benefits flow to those who made over $1 million last year. Mr. Speaker. during a time of war. in the aftermath of a catastrophic hurricane. with 45 million Americans lacking health insurance and skyrocketing home heating costs projected this winter. this majority is proposing to take from those with the least. give to those with the mostand tell our children they will have to pay for it all later. Mr. Speaker. we can do better. In fact. I would submit thatin this season above all seasonswe are required to do better. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill and support the fiscally responsible Democratic substitute.
Date: 2005-12-08
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Do you need any ethics training? You and I served in the Florida house of representatives together. in the Florida senate together. now we serve in the United States Congress. You know. the ethics training I got began in kindergarten when my mom and dad taught me right from wrong. I have had ethics training my entire life. It is not understandable to me why we would need and why there are some Members in this body that appear to need it.
Date: 2005-12-08
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

I want to ask you another question. Do you need ethics training to tell you that you should not take bribes? Do you need ethics training that tells you that you should not circumvent State law and provide fundraising assistance and direct contributions to candidates for State office?
Date: 2005-12-08
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the other place that we are lagging behind is global education standards. I was shocked to learn that the difference in the number of students who graduate with an engineering degree from nation to nation is staggering. Here is another place. sadly. where we are no longer first. China is first. They are first by miles. They graduated 600.000 students with an engineering degree this year. 350.000 with engineering degree in India. and 70.000 in the United States.