macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TIM MURPHY (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

I thank the chairman. One of the benefits of reviewing these publicly is to help get some facts on the table with regard to what these projects are. This project of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation program is one of 37 heritage sites around the Nation. It includes such other projects as the Tennessee Civil War Heritage Area. the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Area. Mississippi Gulf Coast Area. the National Aviation Area and. of course. the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area in Arizona. This one in Pennsylvania involves nine countieslin four congressional districts. It was something that started in 1988 at that time. signed into law by President Reagan. The purpose of this was to help promote some of the heritage of the industries of iron. steel. coal and transportation that were an important part of Pennsylvanias history and our Nations history. Thus. designation as one of these national historic areas. It has had an impact. that goes far beyond the money that has been invested in it. and. that is. a construction boom has come out of this. Also. it has spawned other projects such as dealing with acid mine drainage remediation projects. river conservation projects.. county heritage plans. the creation of growth of trail development groups. More than 65 local preservation. conservation. and community organizations have significantly expanded their missions in recognition of their role in developing a heritage resourcefor the region. All in all it has helped leverage some $90 million of grants from other sources to help promote these programs with this. We recognize that as we look at these projects around the Nation. those of us who are in Pennsylvania may understand best those projects in Pennsylvania as those in some of these other areas. Mississippi. I may not know as much about those or the ones in Virginia or Arizona or Georgia. wherever these other projects are. But this is important to Pennsylvanians and its important to our Nation. to a large extent because Pennsylvania and the region was the area that built the world literally with steel. with our coal. We are a State that has lost manufacturing jobs. In fact. tourism and agriculture are our two highest sources of incomein Pennsylvania. and it is important that we understand that tourism is a source of jobs in Pennsylvania like many other States. It draws visitors in not only from our Nation but from around the world and it is worthy of working on ways to continue these jobs with some growth. The vast majority of funding for these programs has come from other sources. But what it has done. also. is help preserve some of that heritage. Understanding the history of our Nation is important to understanding the future of our Nation. Thus. we need to learn the lessons from history to fund these things to understand how it is important and how to promote this. This is not just something for my district. but it is important to several districts. and it is important to our Nation and the startup tourismrelated businesses that are otherwise unable to secure loans from other programs.
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TIM MURPHY (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

Reclaiming my time. I would like to add a couple of other things that relate to some Federal overlap with this particular project. This whole area of the heritage preservation group for southwestern Pennsylvania also overlaps with 218 nationally registered properties. 16 national historic landmarks. two national park units and one other national landmark all recognized by the Federal Government as a way of linking these things together. It is a way of helping to promote these things for jobs and for understanding the heritage of our Nation. Someone once said that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Indeed. where we stand now with an importance of understanding what our economic heritage was. our industrial and manufacturing heritage. are important to the people of southwestern Pennsylvania and are important to the people of the Nation. Mr. Chairman. I urge my colleagues to vote "no" on this so that we can preserve that heritage. Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Let me just say. first of all. it is the Presidents requested number. but the District can use this money because of the students that are still waiting in line to make sure that they have a place and there is no waiting list. Let me just add this. You are defending the Office of Special Counsel. The Special Counsel. just weeks after he came into office. removed any reference to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation from the OSC Web site. He then testified before the Senate that he did not believe current law protects Federal employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. an assertion that flies in the face of decades of precedent and defies an Executive Order by President Bush. Today. the Special Counsel is under investigation by the Presidents Council For Integrity and Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management for claims that he retaliated against employees who complained about office policies. issued an illegal gag order. abused. his hiring authority. discriminated against homosexuals. allowed political bias to influence enforcement of the Hatch Act. and forced senior career staff to relocate from OSCs Washington headquarters to a new regional office in Detroit. I would suggest that the gentleman go back and do his homework on this office. There are some sensitive issues they are dealing with. But I will tell you. this takes it back to last years appropriation level. I think. or just about that level. More importantly. I think this money can be better spent on the students of the District of Columbia.
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Which is almost the number they had last year. In light of the record that has been compiled here. the investigation of GSA is complete. That has been forwarded to the President. That is no longer pending. so that is no longer an issue. I just wanted to make that clear on the record. This is not about that. This is about a number of other issues that have been concerns expressed from your side of the aisle as well.
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

We had to get the money from somewhere. and this seemed to me an appropriate place to take it. I am no stranger to this program. I was the chief author of authorizing this legislation to begin with. So we are not taking it for some program. This is a program I had a lot to do with creating and feel strongly about it and feel it could use additional money. I think the District feels the same way. The fact the committee funded it at the .Presidents level doesnt mean it couldnt use additional money and fund additional students.
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

The one the gentleman is referring to has been completed. It has been forwarded to the President. and they have no additional jurisdiction. For the record. we need to clear that up.
Date: 2007-06-27
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Chairman. I demand a recorded vote. The Acting Chairman. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII. further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Virginia will be postponed.
Date: 2007-06-28
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. this past Monday on the 57th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Majority Leader STENY HOYER and I. introduced legislation to rightfully honor Korean War veterans with a national charter. The charter pays no money but gives veterans leverage when dealing with the VA. It is about time those who served in the Korean War enjoy the same -mark of distinction and national recognition as those who came home from World War II. Some have dubbed the Korean War the "forgotten war" or even "the war that America forgot to remember." You know. I was in that war. and so were at least two of our colleagues. CHARLIE RANGEL and JOHN CONYERS. and I think that it is kind of ridiculous that we havent given them the recognition they deserve. I flew over 62 combat missions in Korea. and I cant think of a better way to honor our patriots who served in Korea. I -urge my colleagues to cosponsor our bill. H.R. 2852. to give the Korean War Veterans Association a national charter.
Date: 2007-06-28
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Chairman and colleagues. this OFAC. Office of Foreign Assets Control. regulation clarifying the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. this regulation that the amendment before us seeks to prohibit enforcement of. stemmed from requests by U.S. financial institutions that were becoming concerned- by the increasingly slow rate of payment for agricultural sales by the Cuban regime. The financial institutions requested OFAC to clarify the legislative intent of cash in advance. which is in the law. in order to protect the interests of those financial institutions on their claims. The Cuban regimes entity in charge of agricultural purchases has an abysmal record of not paying its creditors and has been known to extort or seek to extort agricultural associations in order to increase the regimes lobbying pressure in favor of the unconditional lifting of sanctions. which is sought by the regime. The regime promises more agriculture purchases if agriculture interests lobby Congress for what the regime seeks. an end to sanctions. In effect. the opening.of mass U.S. tourism and trade finance. Currently. Mr. Chairman. the Cuban regimes foreign debt represents close -to 800 percent of its GDP. and it is ranked by international credit agencies as the second worst. if not the worst. credit risk in the world. Countries throughout the world are taking extreme measures to obtain restitution for billions of dollars they are owed. which the Cuban regime refuses to pay. In one example. a 15.000ton Cuban regimeowned ship was held in the port of Conakry in Guinea. while a Canadian company armed with legal judgments pursued partial payment for the Cuban Governments defaulted debt. And those are the types of actions. Mr. Chairman. that U.S. companies and ultimately U.S. taxpayers would inevitably have to resort to if Congress were to authorize credit for sales to the Cuban regime. The Congress. Mr. Chairman. must not allow the American taxpayer to become another victim of the Cuban regimes nonpayment to its creditors. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance* of my time.
Date: 2007-06-28
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Chairman. I would simply reiterate that this clarifying regulation by OFAC stems from concerns and requests of U.S. financial institutions that were concerned because of a pattern they were noticing of delays in payment. So this regulation is precisely to carry out the legislation and implement the legislation of the year 2000 as. again. is a consequence and pursuant to the request of U.S. financial institutions that sought protection. and through clarification. So with that in mind. I oppose the amendment by the gentleman from Kansas. Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2007-07-11
Speaker: TIM MURPHY (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman. I am here to speak on behalf of this bill and my support for it. Under the Medical Device User Fee Modernization Act reprocessed or reused medical devices are brought under the regulation of the FDA. Now. there is a problem with reusing medical devices sometimes. and that is these devices Were designed for optimal performance and safety under their intended conditions of use. not necessarily designed for their ease of cleaning or even secondary use. which make it extremely difficult to effectively clean and resterilize. Reusing medical devices can compromise their safety and performance and even destroy some of these devices. This can also lead to deadly hospitalacquired or nosocomial infections. At least half. half. of all cases of nosocomial infections are associated with medical devices. Let me give some examples of the rates of infection from these devices: 23 percent of peritoneal dialysis catheters. 7 percent of pacemakers. 7.2 percent of implantable cardioverter defibrillators. up to 50 percent of ventricular assist devices. and 30 percent of bladder catheters. just to name a few. I would like to thank Chairman DINGELL and Ranking Member BARTON as well as Chairman PALLONE and Ranking Member DEAL for working with me to include language in the Medical Device User Fee amendments of H.R. 2900. the Food and Drug Administration Act of 2007. for a study on the causes of these infections. from reprocessed singleuse devices. from handling of sterilized medical devices. from inhospital sterilization of medical devices. from health care professionals practices for patient examination and treatment. hospitalbased policies and procedures for patient examination and treatment. hospitalbased policies and procedures for infection control and prevention. and hospitalbased practices for handling medical waste and other relevant hospital practices. Let me explain why and what this means in terms of real lives and dol-
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

You know. we shouldnt even be discussing surrender in Iraq today because 2 months ago today. three American soldiers were captured in Iraq. Tragically. the body of Private First Class Anzack was found a few days later in the river. DOD has changed the status of Specialist Jimenez and Private Fouty from unknown. to missing/captured. Considering that the military found their IDs in an al Qaeda safe house. Im sure theyre being mistreated. And I hope and pray that they can stay alive until we can rescue them. As a former prisoner of war for nearly 7 years in Vietnam. I know what these guys are going through. We must find them. and we must bring them home. Naysayers in Washington should not be talking about pulling the plug on our troops in Iraq when we have our own men missing in action who need to be rescued. SCHIP -.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: TIM MURPHY (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

Mr. Speaker. at least half of all cases of hospitalacquired infections are associated with medical devices. These medical devices include items ranging from tongue depressors to catheters and heart valves. These preventable infections infect 2 million patients per year and end up costing 90.000 lives and over $50 billion annually. These are unacceptable costs for patients. taxpayers and Congress. Up to this moment this morning. we already have over 1 million cases. you can see on this chart. 47.000 deaths and a cost of over $26 billion. and thats just as of today. Yesterday we passed the Medical Device User Fee Act which included an amendment in there that I placed in that allows for the government. the GAO. to study these issues. They note that even after rigorous cleaning and sterilization. virus and bacteria still exist on reused medical devices. . Manufacturers. providers and facilities should take measures to reduce the rate of infections. I urge my colleagues to refocus our Nations health care systemon patient choice. patient safety and patient quality and join me in working on these things together where we can save lives and save money for our Nation.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. since I consider the gentleman from Missouri such a stalwart Member of this House. and a friend. I rise not in anger but in sorrow as I oppose his amendment. I have profound disagreements with the specifics of this particular bill. I came to Congress. returned to Congress after 9/11 precisely because of 9/11. because I thought we needed. as a country. to respond to the threat of Islamofascism in an effective way and that we needed to recognize that our war against Islamofascism was a multifronted war. And one of the fronts of that war is Iraq. You can argue whether its the number one front or not. but it is important. And I think everyone would agree. And what we do there is important. And how we act there is important. And when we withdraw. even though we call it a redeployment. that is important. It is amessage that goes beyond Iraq. It goes to all of those who would do us ill in this world. And I cant understand. when we had General Petraeus look us in the eye just a couple of weeks ago and say to Members. I believe in my mission. Ive told my men and my wbmen that I believe in the mission. and if I didnt believe in it. I would tell you immediately because Imnot going to sacrifice men and women in vain. And he said. give me the time to do it. And we said. yes. sir. you have the time. And now we say. when hes over there with his men and women. were not going to give you the time. Were going to second guess. I dont understand how you prosecute a war. One Member got up and said. lets end this war by passing this resolution. You end a war usually in America by winning. by defeating the enemy. We have this bill up now. Were going to have a bill up in another couple of weeks thats going to tell us we have to change the habeas corpus issue. we have to grant habeas corpus to unlawful enemy combatants. for the first time in the history of our Nation. putting us at a position that we never would have had in World War II. It would have crippled us during World War II. And then were going to hear. close down Guantanamo. Lets look at this bill as just a. piece of the approach that the other side is taking.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. the gentleman from Georgia did offer this amendment in committee. and it was rejected. What he wanted was to be able to present it before the full House. And he was pointing out that the proniise that had been made by the majority was that there would be more openness during the consideration of legislation such as this. And thats what the gentleman from Georgia- was trying to point out. At this time. Mr. Speaker. it is my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished leader on this issue and many others. the gentlewoman from Illinois .
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I want to thank all the distinguished colleagues who have participated in this debate. Obviously this is a very. very important piece of legislation that is being brought forth today. We have concerns with regard to the process. not in the creation of the legislation itself but in the way in which it has been brought forth to the floor and the rule that brings the legislation to the floor and establishes the terms of debate for the legislation. I think it has been a good debate. I think weve been able to express certainly our concern with the process. as well as in the case of most Members that I have certainly heard on this debate. the evident awareness of the importance of the underlying legislation and the issue dealt with by the underlying legislation. Having said that. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

I thank you. So HUD understands. if it does drop to 50. it should be moved up promptly to 60. and I look forward to the hearing.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

I want to thank you for including my language on reform in the managers amendment. This I believe goes a long way to create innovation in helping people gain selfsufficiency.The main reason I want to speak today. is because many on my side have a real problem with the requirement that language be translated into a language that anybody who might come to a HUD assistance program might require. to speak. and your bill -goes a long way. I have consistently supported every effort to repeal President Clintons executive order which requires any recipient of Federal funds to provide translations into any languagean individual requesting service may speak.. but recently. HUD has issued a requirement that says that any housing authority or PHA must provide this translation to individuals who come before them. This is theFederal Government creating a mandate and requiring the private sector to pay the bill. And what you are doing I wholeheartedly support. You are saying that if the Federal Government wants to require a mandate. then they should pay the bill. It has been estimated that one of these translations can cost a section 8 individual or group or housing authority up to $10.000 for eachlanguage they want to translate -the documents into. and what you are doing is absolutely correct. If we are not going to change the law. then lets not have an unfunded mandate placed on the private sector that the private sector has to pay for when HUD and the Federal Government wants to mandate it. And. what you are saying is: HUD. if you want to mandate it. you pick up the bill. And I think that is very important that we do this. and I want to stand up saying I wholeheartedly support it. I do not support the mandate. period. that Clinton imposed. but we are stuck with it. It is an executive order. And what you are saying is the private sector should not be suffering the burden of an unfunded mandate if the Federal Government wants to mandate it. So I want to clarify for my side that what we are doing here is saying we are relieving an unfunded mandate on the private sector and placing the burden on the Federal Government. who should be responsible. And if we want to change the law. lets change the law. But until we change the law. the private sector should not suffer the burden of financing something the Federal Government is imposing on them. I wholeheartedly support the managers amendment. and I thank you for working with me on rent reform and other things.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Reclaiming my time. I think you are right. It is cheaper for us to pay for shipping than it is for them to pay for translations. Lets do it one time. ship the documents. and we deal with the problem. unless we want to change the law.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Reclaiming my time. we dinosaurs have to speak in the language we are accustomed to. And with that. this dinosaur yields back the balance of his time.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

The intent of this amendment is to allow for hardship cases like that. A single mother who has young children would be a hardship.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

On page 2. hardship exemption. number 3. It allows the housing authority to create exemptions for families in a hardship. And that would be one of the exemptions.
Date: 2007-07-12
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

I think. Mr. FRANK. you .know my heart. and you and I have worked on a. lot of stuff. I think Mr. CHABOT and I would be willing to accept a 50percent exemption for single mothers with multiple children who have a hardship. who are unable to move in the sector. So we are willing to cooperate. We are not trying to throw mothers with children out of the home.
Date: 2007-07-17
Speaker: JIMMY DUNCAN (republican)
Chamber: H

from Tennessee. for his work. I will be voting for H.R. 980 today. and I urge my colleagues to do likewise. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2007-07-17
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Messrs. SHIMKUS. NUNES. CARNEY and Mrs. BIGGERT changed their vote from "no" to "aye." So the amendment was rejected. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. Stated against: