macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor a very dedicated leader from my community. our superintendent Jane Russo. She has served the Santa Ana Unified School District for over 25 years. As the first woman superintendent for Santa Ana Unified. she has been a visionary for the community. Superintendent Russo has built partnerships with parents. with community leaders. with government. and with business leaders. She has taken leadership roles she has mentored and she has shown parents and faculty and administrators. the business community. all of us. what it is to truly collaborate and work together. With approximately 58.000 students. 61 schools. 4.500 employees. Superintendent Russo manages the second largest employer in Santa Ana and the largest school district in Orange County and the sixth largest school district in California. Her accomplishments have been recognized at the State and national levels. Under her leadership for the school districts academic performance index. it increased by nearly 100 points. and she received the highest score on State compliance report cards for special education and the highest increase in State testing for English language learners scoring proficient and above. Ms. Russo will leave a lasting legacy in our district. She has shaped and made our community even better. and I am honored to recognize such a great member of our community. and I congratulate her on her retirement. MEDICARE
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 139. insert the following after line 12 and redesignate succeeding sections (and conform the table of contents) accordingly:
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Chair. I demand a recorded vote. The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII. further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Texas will be postponed.
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Chair. because of the graciousness of the ranking member. Mr. CONYERS. and the chairman. Mr. SMITH. of agreeing to my amendment. Jackson Lee No. 5 that was just debated. I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my request for a record vote. The Acting CHAIR. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Texas? Without objection. the request for a recorded vote on amendment No. 5 is withdrawn and the amendment stands adopted by the voice vote thereon.
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Chair. I rise in support of the Sensenbrenner amendment. Actually. I dont agree that firsttofile is unconstitutional. and I. in general. am not opposed to the idea of firsttofile. But. unfortunately. the bill is flawed. and you cannot have firsttofile without robust prioruser rights and a broad prioruser rights used in the grace period. We dont have that in this bill. And so what we will have are established businesses having to either reveal trade secrets or be held up. have to license their own trade secrets. For startups this is a very serious problem. And coming from Silicon Valley. Ill tell you Ive heard from a lot of startups and the venture world that supports them that this provision is defective. There were other remedies. They were not adopted. All we can do now is to strike the firsttofile provision. I do that without any reluctance. It will serve our economy best. And I thank the gentleman for offering his amendment.
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chair. I want to thank all the women and our male coaches. Weve been practicing for 3 months. two or three times a week at 7 in the morning. all to raise money for a great cause. for the Young Survival Coalition. which helps young women who are struggling with breast cancer or who have survived breast cancer. All of you know that I am a breast cancer survivor. along with SUE MYRICK on the other side of the aisle. But this game is our opportunity to come together as women. as sisters. as a bipartisan representation in the fight against breast cancer. We invite you all out to come to the game tonight. 7 p.m. at Watkins Recreation Center. and watch us beat the Capitol press corps.
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I would ask unanimous consent that the vote be retaken. We had a tremendous effort that consumed money and time for a similar incident in a previous Congress. The smart thing to do would be to recognize this was error. and redo the vote so that we can all move forward in comity.
Date: 2011-06-24
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. there are many issues that we must address in this august body. but it is tragic to note that we have been here for 24 weeks since the GOP took responsibility and control of this House and we have done nothing to create jobs. In fact. the majority leader has indicated the Republicans have no plans to do anything on jobs through this summer. Why does this pose a crisis? Because in the midst of all of this. a number of mergers are coming into fruition. in particular the UnitedContinental merger. We have already had an announcement that Houston will lose 1.500 jobs. and no response from United or Continental. In addition. United had a recent collapse of its database. or its system. which caused massive shutdowns and clogging of the system. where passengers were stuck in airports because they couldnt get their planes off the ground. When we have mergers with no restraint and no oversight. we have a problem. So jobs are necessary to be created. and there needs to be oversight over mergers like Continental and United so that communities like Houston and elsewhere wont be losing jobs with no response.
Date: 2011-06-24
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the gentlelady. Mr. Speaker. I stand here this morning as someone who has opposed the Iraq war and consistently opposed the Afghanistan war under both Republican and Democratic Presidents. I think it is important to stop the politics this morning and recognize that mistakes were made by Presidents of all political parties. The War Powers Resolution that is now being debated as being unconstitutional by my Republican friends has a very strong purpose. It is the purpose of this joint resolution to fulfill the intent of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States and ensure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly going to occur. Now we have Republicans suggesting that the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional. What do they want? This is a political game. I voted for Mr. KUCINICHS resolution. and the Republicans had the opportunity to also vote for Mr. KUCINICHS resolution. This is to embarrass the President. I agree with the underlying sentiment that this was handled badly and that there should have been consultation. Now there is an opportunity for authorization. We need to debate this not whether it is President Obama but whether or not there is a collaborative effort between NATO and the Arab League to address this hostile situation in Libya. And. frankly. I dont like the politics of this. The politics says. its okay if its a Republican President but not okay if its Mr. Obama. I am interested in preserving the integrity of this Constitution and have consistently voted that Congress has a right to declare war. But we are now engaged in a consultation process. and I hope Members will engage in the debate on the basis of the right decision to make. I am against war. Bring the troops home from Afghanistan. End the war in Iraq. But right now. this should not be Republicans against Democrats on the question of whether or not we are in a collaborative effort with NATO on this issue of Libya. We are attempting to save lives. take the politics out of it.
Date: 2011-06-24
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the distinguished gentlelady. I went to the Libyan Embassy at the very start of this horrific crisis and stood with the Libyan ambassador that resigned and called for the resignation of General Qadhafi. Today I continue to call for the cessation of the violence and abuse against the Libyan people. But we have to address this question away from the cloud. as I indicated. of politics. We must adhere to the Constitution. Congress right to declare war. but I cant understand this now backside debate about the War Powers Resolution being constitutional. For some of us. we believe that the contents of it insist that it is. So my point to my colleagues is. the Kucinich resolution was on the floor. and every Republican had the opportunity to vote for it. Why we are here again with a resolution that imitates the debate that we had. I believe the underlying principle and premise is to embarrass this administration and President Obama.
Date: 2011-06-24
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the distinguished Speaker. and to the distinguished Members that are on this floor. what a heck of a position to be in. Let me make it very clear this is a set of circumstances that frames itself around the Constitution. the War Powers resolution. that indicates that Congress must be consulted. But I am in the middle of my actions that took place months ago or many weeks ago as the crisis and the murderous acts of Colonel Qadhafi began to seize his people. And we went to the Libyan Embassy to ask for Colonel Qadhafi to step down. and we joined with the thenAmbassador in his courageous act. Colonel Qadhafi is known to oppress his people. to deny rights of freedom of press and speech. as well as association. to train dictators in oppression and intelligence. and the murderous acts still go on. But it is a crisis when we have an administration. unfortunately. that has not seen fit to undertake the consultation that is necessary. Yet I believe that we should finish the task. and it is different from Iraq and it is different from Afghanistan. We have a time certain and. as well. we have the Arab League that has asked us to stand with them against the oppression of one of its members. This is a door opener to say to the people that we have asked to be with us to go against terrorist acts to stand for democracy. So this is a devastating position to put the Members of Congress in. but we must do our duty today. and I believe that it is good to say that the Hastings amendment is the framework. though I would prefer 6 months. and I hope there is an opportunity to address this for a limited time.
Date: 2011-06-24
Speaker: DAVID SCOTT (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. what we have here are two essential arguments. one is more of an intramural argument between Congress and the White House. but it is a misplaced argument because there is no President that has come to this Congress for a declaration of war since World War IIand granted. weve been in seven or eight major conflicts. So this is much greater than this conflict between the White House and this Congress. Unfortunately. I believe that this measure is just an attempt to. rather in a strong way. get the attention of the President. It may be to chastise the President a bit. I think if you look at the RECORD there were communications here. but there is a larger profound message here. Its not a message that this is to send to the President. This is a badtimed piece of legislation because it sends the wrong message to the world. Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress. we are the leaders of the free world. America is a great country. and our standing is at stake. And this move. this bill will pull the rug out from under NATO at precisely the time when we need to be sending a strong message of encouragement. The United States is in a support role here. So it is very important that we defeat this amendment and make sure that we send the right message to our allies. that we will not pull the rug out from under them.
Date: 2011-07-06
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 9. line 6. after the dollar amount. insert "(reduced by $650.000)". Page 33. line 18. after the dollar amount. insert "(increased by $500.000)". Page 34. line 1. after the dollar amount. insert "(increased by $500.000)". The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Date: 2011-07-06
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 9. line 6. after the dollar amount. insert "(reduced by $600.000)". Page 33. line 18. after the dollar amount. insert "(increased by $500.000)". Page 34. line 1. after the dollar amount. insert "(increased by $500.000)". The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Date: 2011-07-06
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I want to take a moment. since I have just followed my amendment. to thank Mr. YOUNG and Mr. DICKS for seeing an expanded category of individuals suffering from PTSD and accepting my amendment and working with us. I want to thank Dr. BROUN for his service and for his direct view of what happens to great Americans. soldiers who have sacrificed and they cannot function because of PTSD. So I am grateful for that. And the reason why I say that. Chairman YOUNG and Ranking Member DICKS. is because many people dont realize the work that the Defense Appropriations and the Pentagon does on a number of health issues. One of them happens to be cancer. I have heard in coffee clutches or around dinner tables that cancer is an epidemic. It seems appropriate for the Defense Department. which has been at the cutting edge of technology over the years. such as the Internetcan be in the lead. So I intend to offer an amendment that I would like to discuss with Mr. YOUNG and Mr. DICKS. but I intend to withdraw. But it is very important. This amendment would increase funding under title 6. Defense Health Programs. by $500.000 in order to fund research related to triple negative breast cancer. and will be offset by reducing the general operations and maintenance and activities at the Department of Defense. I am hoping my colleagues will work with me on this. and I hope they will be reminded of a young woman by the name of Yolanda Evette Williams. who was an outstanding medical professional who fought against this triplenegative strain of cancer and left behind a husband. a mother. and two children. It is a specific strain of breast cancer for which no targeted treatment is available. The American Cancer Society calls this particular strain of breast cancer "an aggressive subtype associated with lower survival rates." I offer this amendment to increase funding for research. not to take away moneys from others. but I would certainly like to. out of this discussion. have this kind of cancer looked upon as we are doing our research to develop a targeted treatment for the triplenegative breast cancer strain. Breast cancers with specific. targeted treatment methods such as hormone- and genebased strains have higher survival rates than the triplenegative subtype. highlighting the need for a targeted treatment. Just to say a word about Yolanda. she was a dedicated member of the Good Hope Baptist Church. She was a graduate of Texas Southern University. She received a number of degrees. She was a member of the Jack and Jill. Her mother was a medical professional. Dr. Lois Moore. She was a chief clinical officer for the Atrium Medical Center Hospital in Stafford. Texas. having a long history. even though she was very young. of her commitment as a nurse to medical care. This young woman did not have a chance because of this enormous strain that does not have a high survival rate. It is treatment. is hormone- and genebased strains. and it has. as I said. a difficult time of survival.
Date: 2011-07-06
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I rise today in support of H. Res. 268. This important resolution reaffirms our Nations unwavering commitment to a negotiated settlement of the IsraelPalestinian conflict. which can only be achieved through direct IsraeliPalestinian peace talks. Since 1948. when the United States became the first country to recognize the Jewish State of Israel. we have always stood by her side as a strong ally and friend. This resolution is no exception. As each day brings a new set of complex changes to the Middle East. it is more vital than ever that we protect and strengthen that friendship. From insisting that Hamas reject terrorism and accept Israels right to exist. to supporting the Obama administrations opposition to the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. H. Res. 268 reaffirms the sense of the Congress and the Obama administration that we must continue to stand strong with our democratic ally against hostile enemies and attempts at delegitimization. In doing so. we continue to demonstrate our stalwart support that we have provided as a country for more than six decades.
Date: 2011-07-06
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank my colleague. the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee. for allowing me to speak. I rise in strong support of H. Res. 268. a resolution reaffirming our Nations commitment to a negotiated settlement of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. As cochair of the Democratic Israel Working Group. I would like to thank my colleagues. both Republican Leader ERIC CANTOR and our Democratic Whip STENY HOYER. for bringing this important bipartisan resolution to the floor. I have been to Israel and the West Bank on numerous occasions. I can personally vouch for the desire of the people of Israel and the Palestinian territories to come to a peaceful settlement that will end decades of discord and violence. A negotiated twostate settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians is the keystone of the peace process. It is the official policy of the U.S. government. the Israeli government. and. until recently. the Palestinian Authority. Only through direct negotiations can difficult compromises be reached on core issues like borders. water. refugees. the status of Jerusalem. and security. Attempts to bypass direct negotiations and seek recognition of a unilaterally declared Palestinian state by the U.N. General Assembly will not help the Palestinian people. Instead. such a declaration will undermine the peace process and endanger the security and wellbeing of the very people it claims to support. A unilaterally declared Palestinian state will lead to a greater height in tensions. turn the region into a powder keg. and invite terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah to take advantage. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
Date: 2011-07-06
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

and Messrs. BRADY of Pennsylvania. HOLDEN. and CLEAVER changed their vote from "no" to "aye." So the amendment was rejected. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise to say today that I was elected in November of last year for the 10th time here. and I am in my fourth district in that period of time. I have spoken to people all over Dallas County. Tarrant County. and Collin County. and unanimously they are seriously concerned about the lack of a true job plan from the Republican majority. We must cut spending. We must ensure longterm fiscal health. But gridlock over spending cuts does not create jobs. We need a bipartisan compromise that focuses on fiscal responsibility while maintaining investments in our community that continue to create jobs and grow the economy. To get Americans back to work. we must invest in science. education. research and innovation to create the jobs of the future. and we must focus on Americas ability to build. construct and grow manufacturing across the country to remain globally competitive. Mr. Speaker. these efforts can and will spur job growth and ensure that our Nation can compete and be a leader in the global economy.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor the life of Greg Cooper. Mr. Cooper recently lost his battle with cancer on May 26 of this year. He was a proud United States marine. and he served his country between 1963 and 1967. which included a tour in the Vietnam War. Upon leaving the Marines. Greg was hired by the Santa Ana Police Department. where he held several very highprofile jobs and worked with the neat tactical units that we have. While serving his community as a Santa Ana police chief. he earned a bachelors degree from California State University. Fullerton and a masters degree from the University of Southern California. Leaving Santa Ana in 1992. he was appointed chief of police in Sanger. California. and in 1996 he relocated here to Washington. D.C.. where he accepted a position with the Department of Justice to administer our COPS grant program. In 2002. Greg joined the Department of Homeland Security as FEMAs chief security officer. and he retired in Mr. Speaker. this Nation and my community mourns the loss of a loyal friend. a respected leader. and a dedicated public servant.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE (democrat)
Chamber: H

JOHNSON Texas changed her vote from "yea" "present." Sanchez. Lore Sarbanes Scalise Schakowsky Schiff Schilling Schmidt Schock Schrader Schwartz Schweikert Scott (SC) Scott (VA) Scott. Austin Scott. David Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Sewell Sherman Shimkus Shuler Shuster Simpson Sires Slaughter Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Southerland Speier Stearns Stivers Stutzman Sullivan Sutton Terry Thompson (CA Thompson (MS Thompson (PA Thornberry Tiberi Tierney Tipton Tonko Tsongas Turner Upton Van Hollen Velazquez Visclosky Walberg Walden Walsh (IL) Walz (MN) Wasserman Schultz Watt Waxman Webster Welch West Westmoreland Whitfield Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Wolf Womack Woodall Wu Yarmuth Yoder Young (AK) Young (FL) Young (IN) Paul Rahall tta So (twothirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Date: 2011-07-11
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I rise to express deep disappointment and concern about the severe proposed cut in this bill to the Federal Everglades Ecosystem Restoration effort. The Energy and Water bill before us today slashes $32 million from the administrations request. These times of tight budgets certainly call for belttightening. but cutting 20 percent from the requested amount for Everglades restoration is draconian. It is wildly disproportionate to the more modest 3 percent cut in the bill to the overall fiscal year 12 Corps of Engineers construction fund from fiscal year 11 levels. I thank my colleague Congressman DAVID RIVERA for joining me and other members of the Florida delegation to urge that full funding be restored to this important national priority. as