macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2010-07-28
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of S. 1789. but as someone who helped to write the Drug Control Act of 1986 that we seek to amend. Id like to make a few observations to set the record straight. It is indeed true that the death of basketball star Len Bias served as an exclamation point concerning the threat posed to our Nation by the scourge of illegal drug use. The fact that someone who seemed bigger than life could fall prey to the growing cocaine epidemic brought home the reality of the danger to every home with a television set that had tuned into the University of Maryland basketball games. And that reality was not lost on this body. The number of Americans addicted to cocaine dramatically increased in the 1980s thanks in major part to the escalation in crack use. Hospital emergencies increased by 110 percent in 1986. From 1984 to 1987. cocaine incidents increased fourfold. The crack epidemic was associated with a dramatic increase in drug gangrelated violence. A 1988 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in New York City. crack use was tied to 32 percent of all homicides and 60 percent of all drugrelated homicides. I would add that even 5 years after the drug bill was considered on this floor there was a growing concern over the crack epidemic which plagued minority neighborhoods. The acclaimed depiction of this scourge was even portrayed in the movie "New Jack City." Director Mario Van Peebles. also one of the main characters in the film. observed that "the immediate problem is that crack is and was a killer in the Black community today." Thats what we faced at the time we passed this bill. This is the context of the crack epidemic and the 1986 drug bill. The concern about crack cocaine was. and in my view remains. a valid one. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. crack causes faster and shorter highs than powder. which results in more frequent use. Crack cocaine is also associated with gang activities and violence. as evidenced by U.S. Sentencing Commission data. There is. in my view. a basis for disparate treatment of those who traffic in crack versus powder. Having said that. the inclusion that there is a basis for treating crack and powder differently is in no way a justification for the 100to1 sentencing ratio contained in the 1986 drug bill. We initially came out of committee with a 20to1 ratio. By the time we finished on the floor. it was 100to1. We didnt really have an evidentiary basis for it. but thats what we did. thinking we were doing the right thing at the time. Certainly. one of the sad ironies in this entire episode is that a bill which was characterized by some as a response to the crack epidemic in African American communities has led to racial sentencing disparities which simply cannot be ignored in any reasoned discussion of this issue. When African Americans. lowlevel crack defendants. represent 10 times the number of lowlevel white crack defendants. I dont think we can simply close our eyes.
Date: 2010-07-28
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman. Although I cannot. and could not. support the legislation reported out of our committee to completely eliminate any disparity in the treatment of these illicit substances. that is not what we have before us today on this floor. I must say that from a law enforcement standpoint. perhaps the most important factor here is the amount of the substance that is covered. According to narcotics officers I have spoken with. you want to reach the wholesale and midlevel traffickers who often trafficked in 1ounce quantities. That is why S. 1789 would raise the amount of crack cocaine necessary to trigger a mandatory 5year sentence from 5 grams to 28 grams. which is close to the 1 ounce. This does seem to make some sense. It is a fair and just treatment of the problem. It serves the interests of law enforcement in reaching wholesale and midlevel traffickers while reducing the crack powder ratio to 18to1 from the current 100to1. I think this is tough but fair. I would not support going further. I support this bill very strongly. I believe that this is what justice should be about. This is a wellcrafted bill. It is a good compromise. It serves the ends of justice and fairness. I hope people will support it.
Date: 2010-07-28
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. its my pleasure to yield 5 minutes to my friend. the distinguished ranking member of the Rules Committee. Mr. DREIER from California.
Date: 2010-07-28
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. it is my privilege to yield 3 minutes to a brilliant new Member of this House from Hawaii .
Date: 2010-07-29
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Madam Speaker. its my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to my friend from Georgia. my classmateits amazing how the years have passed-
Date: 2010-07-29
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Madam Speaker. it is a privilege to yield 2 minutes to my friend from the Rules Committee. the leader from North Carolina. Dr. Foxx.
Date: 2010-07-29
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

I thank my friend from New York once again for his courtesy. I think this has been a good debate. Madam Speaker. on Tuesday of this week. the Congressional Budget Office released a report titled "Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis." The report sounded an alarm on the Federal Governments outofcontrol debt and the consequences if we fail to address the debt. It said. "Growing budget deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels." And we are seeing in other countries in the world that this is not a theoretical problem. I mean. this is a very serious. practical problem that can devastate countries and truly hurt people. And so we have to realize that as a Nation we have to change course. I know that is going to require bipartisanship. and I hope that we see it soon. but were not seeing it yet. and its very worrisome. On the contrary. the path we are on is. as the Congressional Budget Office has said. not supportable. So one way to help reign in Federal spendingand of course none of this is going to be pleasant. but its necessary. and I know that action thats required is approaching because it is necessarybut one way is to cut spending that is not absolutely necessary. that can be considered wasteful. Over the last week. participants in Minority Whip CANTORS YouCut initiative voted on programs for us to bring to this floor for cutting. To date. participants in that program have voted to cut $120 billion in spending. This week. the participants in that program voted to cut the Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit program. That program allows eligible taxpayers to receive a portion of their earned income tax throughout the year in their paychecks. There was a recent audit of the program that found that 80 percent of the recipients did not comply with at least one program requirement. another 20 percent had invalid Social Security numbers and thus may not have been eligible for the credit. and 40 percent failed to file the annual tax return required to reconcile the credit. Suffice it to say that. as a result. the program is susceptible to waste and abuse. and cutting it would save more than $1 billion. So I will be asking Members to vote "no" on the previous question so that we can have a vote on that issue. on cutting the Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit program. I would like to remind the membership that a "no" vote on the previous question will not preclude consideration of the underlying legislation before us today. the Transportation. Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. Madam Speaker. I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment and extraneous materials immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.
Date: 2010-07-29
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman for the time. Mr. Speaker. its interesting to listen to this debate. Its almost as if those on the other side havent been home and havent seen whats really occurring. The folks back home know that when you are talking about the effects of the stimulus package. it has created government jobs. but we have lost considerable jobs in the private sector. In fact. the overall employment numbers are down in terms of people even seeking jobs by more than a million. And thats progress? If you really want to do something. get rid of this whole bill and instead pass a bill that gets rid of one of the most destructive things we have with respect to small business. That is section 9006 of the health care bill. It has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with adding tremendous new burdens of paperwork on businesses. It requires anybody involved in a business or trade. any time they purchase over $600 from any entity or individual. cumulative over a year. they have to file a 1099. A 1099. Not because you have any obligation to pay payroll tax. but because somehow we think everybody cheats. Because somehow we want to have a paper trail for every purchase you make. It is the universal snitch act. We dont trust fellow Americans. A government that doesnt trust its citizens is a government that the citizens will not trust. What we ought to do is just get rid of this bill and instead eliminate 170 words out of the 340.000 words in the socalled health care bill. Talk to your small business people. Ask them what they think would help them increase the opportunity to provide jobs. They will tell you this is number one on their list. We ought to bring it to the floor immediately. and we ought to get rid of this nonsense where we dont trust fellow citizens. Just to give you one example. one person who actually deals in the sale of gold coins said that he will have to file between 10.000 and 20.000 1099s next year.
Date: 2010-07-29
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Every single business person you will talk to will tell you how incredibly stupid this is. number one. And number two. it will create a disincentive for people to go to small businesses. Because if you want to diminish the number of 1099s you file. you wont go to your local restaurant. you wont go to your local hardware store. you will only go to the big chains. It is absolutely destructive. If you want to really do something. get rid of this bill and instead support the repeal of that section of the health care bill that has nothing to do with health care. but has everything to do with damaging small business and jobs in this country.
Date: 2010-07-29
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker. I am one of those who supported the section of the bill that we had in the Judiciary Committee and attempted to convince others on my side to support it. because I believe we ought to expand it to include those people who assisted and those people who found that they had health problems after the time originally envisioned. But I dont have to go to my father confessor. as someone suggested. to say that I cannot support this bill. I did not believe that it was going to have attached to it a jobkilling provision which is going to hurt jobs in my district and throughout California. I did not know we were going to have the openended type of program that was in title I. I fully thought that we would come to the floor with a bill that was bipartisan in nature and that was. in fact. what I envisioned when I voted for it and spoke for it on the Judiciary Committee. I am saddened. frankly. by having this bill presented the way it is today. I am not going to be here and complain about procedure. What I am going to do is complain about the result thats before us. We can and we have done better in the past when we have been confronted with very difficult issues on a bipartisan basis. when the Republicans were in charge. when the Democrats were in charge in the past. and we have been able to come up with legislation that got the support of this House. The unfortunate thing here is that this bill will not pass today. and yet we could have a bill that does. in fact. carry out all of the sentiments expressed on this floor today. but we are not going to have that chance. and I am saddened by that. not angered by that.
Date: 2010-07-30
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker. this bill never went through committee. never was marked up in committee. And you know what. its awfully good to hear the other side finally admit that they messed up in the health care bill. that it is going to have a tremendous impact on small businesses. You know. you cant raise taxes on small businesses in the health care bill. use that revenue to say ObamaCare will reduce the deficit. and then turn around and remove those same business tax increases and tell small businesses that you are doing them a favor. Thats known as a shell game in a carnival. Thats shameful. You know what. you are not doing them a favor. Representative LUNGREN introduced the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act to remove that huge burden on entrepreneurs that was found in the health care bill. That language was here yesterday. and it was not allowed to be voted on. Rather. the majority pulled the bill so that we could not have that very meaningful vote. This morning it was turned around and added to language that raises taxes elsewhere. And ironically. its called the Small Business Tax Relief bill. And Members are going to be forced to vote on that. This is totally unacceptable. The majority first needs to make up its mind whether or not it really wants to help small businesses. Then I think that the majority needs to be honest about that decision. There is a reason. Madam Speaker. why Members on the opposite side of the aisle are afraid to go home and face election. and its exactly this kind of chicanery that causes that fear.
Date: 2010-07-30
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Is there any rule. under the House. that requires notice being given to the author of a bill when it is being brought up without any notice whatsoever. since I am the author of the 1099 repeal bill and have had it before this House since April of this year and given no notice? Is there any requirement under the rules that this be notified that this bill is going to come up?
Date: 2010-07-30
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. The Speaker has just told us that because this is a bill being brought up under suspension of the rules that all rules are. therefore. suspended. My parliamentary inquiry is under regular rules. Is there any requirement that the author of a bill be at least given notice that that bill is to be brought up to the floor for consideration before it is considered?
Date: 2010-08-10
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. I thank the gentleman. Madam Speaker. Congress adjourned without doing anything useful over the last year and a half to get this economy turned around. America knows it. Sadly. this bill isnt going to change that fact. My colleagues know that theyve bankrupted the States with ObamaCare. and they know full well this wont be the last time the Federal Government borrows money to bail out the States. As for the education jobs funding. the money provided in the stimulus. the $54 billion as a matter of fact. provided in the stimulus was supposed to do the trick. but like the stimulus as a whole it just didnt work. did it? This $10 billion is a transparent handout to the teachers union. who not only continue to insist on greater pay but actually got their Democrat buddies to put it in the bill. If States take the money. their hands are actually tied on making any tough budget decision choices. including pay. As a result. the States will be back here again. and very soon. asking for more Federal bailouts. which the current majority will probably be very happy to give to them. My Democrat colleagues are incredibly generous when it comes to spending OPMthats other peoples money. The only problem is that the other people. each and every taxpayer in our great country. already owe $130.000 apiece in Federal debt. Thats why the American people are fed up. Finally. any claim that the bill is "paid for" is utterly nonsense. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle know that. This bill before us represents another $14 billion in sham accounting gimmicks that the majority cannot resist using. Never mind that youve already used the money. the tax revenues. several times to pay for three different spending bills.
Date: 2010-08-10
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. I thank the gentleman from Michigan. We all know that the $14 billion in food stamp cuts will never actually really take place. So it is really a sham isnt it. folks? Just like the doc fix and everything else. you will kick the can down the road and far enough. so far. in fact. that it wont have to be counted in todays budget. Madam Speaker. the bailouts must end. The borrowing must end. The gimmicks must end. If we are ever again to have a competitive country. the relentless tax increases on job creators also must end. I urge a vote against this.
Date: 2010-09-14
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Madam Speaker. I rise today to honor and congratulate MiamiDade College on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Since opening its doors in 1960. it has served as an exemplary institution of higher learning for the residents of MiamiDade County. A leader among Floridas institutions. it became the first integrated junior college giving students of all races and ethnicities the opportunity to seek a higher education. Since implementing these policies. it has maintained its commitment to diversity. boasting a student population hailing from 178 countries. MiamiDade Colleges diversity extends to its broad areas of studies offering more than 300 major areas of study and a variety of degrees. Offering students associate. bachelors degrees. and short term certificates. the MiamiDade College has the largest enrollment of any college or university in the United States. and has awarded more associate degrees than any other college. MiamiDade College also stands out by offering an affordable. comprehensive. education to individuals of all incomes as well as backgrounds. Thirtynine percent of its student body. lives below the Federal poverty level and 61 are defined as low income. Speaking to MiamiDade Colleges commitment to students in lowincome families. it currently receives the highest number of Pell Grant awards. South Florida. which. I am honored to represent. owes a debt to MiamiDade College for providing quality affordable education to our community. It is an honor to represent MiamiDade College and again I congratulate it on its 50th anniversary.
Date: 2010-09-14
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. we just returned from. I think. the longest August recess that I have ever experienced. and I come back refreshed. refreshed from listening to my constituents back home. And they wanted me to deliver a message when I got back here. They said. Stop the spending. raising taxes on us in the midst of this economic downturn makes no sense whatsoever. get control of the budgetat least adopt a budget and follow it as we are required to do in our homes and in our businesses. And. yes. Mr. Speaker. they asked me to deliver this message: stop picking on the employers of America. If you want employees. you need employers. And stop making it more difficult for the small business men and women in my district to continue to operate. Get government out of the way. The people back home are willing to take the lead if we will just let them do it. Lets return to oldfashioned American principles. Thats the way we march to the future.
Date: 2010-09-15
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Serving our country in uniform is. frankly. probably the most noble thing that any human being can do. and it is such incredible sacrifice that our troops do. and their families as well. And they are the ones who allow everything that we take for granted on a daily basisto live in freedom. to live in democracy. They are the ones who allow us to do that. So today we have the opportunity to help transition our soldiers and our veterans into civilian life much more easily. H.R. 5282 will help to make opportunities available to the brave men and women who are returning from the fight on the global war on terror. And so this legislation will continue our commitment to our veterans through education and employment opportunities. As part of the civil works mission. the Corps of Engineers uncovers countless historic artifacts continuously. However. a lot of these historic artifacts which are very important items are. frankly. just uncataloged and just semiabandoned. and they need curation. This is such a commonsense bill. It helps preserve our history and preserve our past. while also making sure that we give opportunities to the most noble. to the best and the brightest of our country. to our troops and to our veterans. I urge all Members to support our veterans and support this real commonsense. noble legislation. Madam Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2010-09-15
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. I think the issue has been adequately explained. This is something that has to be done. Who better to do it? Who is more qualified and who is more deserving? Who is better to do it than our veterans. than our troops and our soldiers?
Date: 2010-09-15
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. I think the gentlelady from Texas explained this bill very well. Obviously Judge Bogue had a very distinguished career. and I want to highlight the fact that he also served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II and later in the JAG Corps. I think it is important when somebody does that. when they have done so much. to highlight that. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2010-09-15
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I just want to highlight what the gentlelady from Texas already said. I think it is worth repeating. We know about his career. but I want to highlight the fact that he did serve in the United States Navy as a patrol pilot during World War II. I think that we all need to thank our veterans for their patriotism. I thank the gentleman from Colorado for bringing this up. He is someone I have great admiration and respect for. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2010-09-15
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker. we are a very young Nation. but it is so crucial that we remember our history and that we honor our martyrs. This is one of those examples when we have a great opportunity to do both. These individuals gave their lives for the rights that we. frankly. take for granted now and that we hold so dear. Special Agent Moore ensured that the rule of law was enforced and that those murderers were brought to justice. so I think that it is fitting and appropriate to honor these men by naming the FBI building in Jackson. Mississippi. after them. I also support the Senate amendment. and I urge my colleagues to do the same. Madam Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2010-09-15
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. again. this is an important piece of legislation. and I would urge its support. With that. I would yield back the balance of my time.