macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2006-03-29
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. back in November. Homeland Security officials found and deported 85 illegal aliens from Mexico. 63 of the 85 had previously committed such crimes as burglary.. drug possession. sexual assault and murder. In September. 99 illegal aliens were arrested in a sting operation in. my home State of Florida. All of them had violent criminal backgrounds. Back in July. officials arrested 29 illegal aliens from South Korea who were operating a sex trafficking business. If these violent criminals could break through our borders. how do we know that terrorist groups have not also? I call on my colleagues in the Senate to pass the bill that We have passed. H.R. 4437. the Border Protection. Antiterrorism. and Illegal Immigration Control Act. Mr. Speaker. we cannot leave our Na.tions security to chance.
Date: 2006-03-29
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate the Plano West Senior High School girls basketball team for being the first Plano ladies team to capture a State basketball championship. They are the Lady Wolves. Earlier this month. the Lady Wolves of Plano West routed the Rockwall Yellowjackets. The girls in blue and black were trailing at half time 1813. That all changed when they rallied in the second half to capture the lead and win. Not just win. but win big. 5447. They are the girls basketball champions of Texas. Congratulations. Lady Wolves. Your parents are proud of you. Piano is proud of you. America is froud of you. and I salute every one of you. God bless each one of you and God bless America. Mr. Speaker. the following are the names of the players and I would like to congratulate them one and all: Becca Feagin. junior. Mary Rich. junior. Rachel Hester. senior. Alexis Morgan. senior. Lindsay Hughes. senior. Katie Makanani. sophomore. Taylor Shead. junior. Tawni Ichimura. senior. Kristen Nash. senior. Kathleen Nash. junior. and Micah Garoutte. junior.
Date: 2006-04-04
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Madam Speaker. I rise today in strong support of this resolution. It is important to not only remember those that perished in this terrible tragedy. but to keep in mind that individuals in the affected area are still suffering. Although the worlds worst nuclear disaster occurred at Chernobyl nuclear power station in Northern Ukraine. the wind carried 70 percent of the radioactive material into the neighboring country of Belarus. This disaster has impacted the region economically. socially. and medically. I would like to recognize the efforts of Chernobyl Childrens Project International. a notforprofit organization that works with the people of Belarus to help them overcome the lingering effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. This organization provides humanitariao and medical aid to over three million children the United Nations recognizes as suffering from the Chernobyl disaster. In addition. I would like to recognize Children of Chernobyl which is an organization that works to provide a respite from ongoing exposure to radiation by bringing children to the United States to stay with host families for the summer. In my district. Annandale United Methodist Church has worked with Children of Chernobyl since 1993. Annandale area host families have opened their homes and hearts and allowed children from the effected region to stay with them for the summer to get some much needed rest. These children significantly benefit from the clean water. healthy food. fresh air. and love that Annandale area families provide. The children return to their homes with a new understanding of American culture as well as new clothes. shoes and other necessities. During the childrens visit. Northern Virginia area doctors donate. their time to provide the children with medical care. dental checkups and vision and orthopedic care. It is important that here in America we continue to support the recovering from the Chernobyl disaster. Twenty years after this tragic accident. we are observing the devastatirLg affects of long term exposure to radiation. and I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.
Date: 2006-04-05
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. it is budget time again. This is when people in Washington outline a blueprint of how much money the g ernment is going to spend. on wl Sadly. some in Congress want to spe spend. spend. It is a shame because American people deserve better. T] deserve a commonsense budget t controls spending and elimina wasteful programs. The RSC budget balances the bud by 2011 and cuts useless programs 1 Asian elephant conservation hist( whaling programs. It is time for Congress to take a h look at how we spend our money support the RSC budget for a bet -America.
Date: 2006-04-05
Speaker: JO ANN DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speak7 law in 2004 effectively banning intercountry er. I rise today in support of the thousands of adoption and limiting any domestic adoption. Of course. it is in Romanias authority to enact such laws. But as Members of the United .States Congress. acting in the best interests of our own children and as a Nation committed to. fighting for all human dignity. we shall continue to advocate for the placement of children in permanent homes. Furthermore. as long as there are thousands of families in the U.S. wishing to adopt andto give a child a loving home that would otherwise not have one. I will continue to take every opportunity to explain to our counterparts abroad why this is such an.important causefor our children and for the health of our nations. There is simply no greater gift than a home and no greater support network than a family. Meanwhile. there are currently 37.000 children in orphanages in Romania and an estimated 49.000 living in temporary arrangements. such as foster care. These numbers are staggering. This is an entire generation of young people who will not have the support of a parent to excel in school. the comfort of a family when sick or in need. and more fundamentally. the love and care.essential to the development of a child. It is not just Americans that advocate for lowering barriers to adoption. Citizens of several European countries and Israel had a number of pipeline adoption cases that were pending when the moratorium was instilled in 2001. The U.S. is also a sender country of American orphans. something that people often forget. Last December. the European Parliament voted unanimously on an amendment to their Report on the Extent of. Romania s Readiness for Accession to the European Union in favor of the completion of all the pending international adoption cases in Romania. Additionally. according to UNICEF: For children who cannot be raised by their own families. an appropriate alternative family environment should be sought in preference to institutional care which should be used only as a last resort and as a temporary measure. until the child can return to the family environment. I am disheartened by the actions so far of Romania in failing to complete the pipeline adoption cases which would have resulted in placing over 1.000 orphans with permanent. loving homes abroad. I hope that as we face more of these challenges and political barriers down the road which directly impact children. we will work together to get past those barriers which are artificial. Mr. Speaker. I will conclude by respectfully requesting that this body continue to engage in a dialogue with our allies and colleagues abroad on the importance of adoption. both domestic and international. as a preferable alternative to institutional care. Thank you.
Date: 2006-04-05
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 320. calling on the Governnment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Pham Hong Son and other political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. The Vietnamese people- have endured extensive struggles for many years in their ongoing fight for basic human rights and freedom. As a member of the Vietnam Caucus. I am dedicated to promoting awareness and policy debates among the U.S. Congress. the American public. and the international community about the greater need for fundamental human rights in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. I would like to voice my support for H: Con. Res. 320. as it calls for the immediate release of Dr. pham Hong Son and other political prisoners of conscience. In March 2002. Dr. Pham was arrested after he had translated an article entitled "What is Democracy?" from the Web site of the United States Embassy. in Vietnam and sent it to both friends and senior party officials. On August 26. 2003. the Vietnamese Supreme Court sentenced Dr. Pham to 5 years in prison. to be followed by 6 years of house arrest. The arrests of Dr.-Pham. along with many others. demonstrate the ongoing human rights abuses and lack of religious freedom in Vietnam. We must continue to bring attention to these issues. generate pressure on Vietnamese officials. and hold the Vietnamese government accountable. I am hopeful H. Con. Res. 320 will serve as a small steppingstone towards the ultimate liberation and freedom of the Vietnamese people. and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution.
Date: 2006-04-05
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman very much. If this bill becomes law. let us speculate about exactly what will happen. Whdt would elections and politics be like if the Federal Election Commission regulated 527s? Let us see. There might be some honesty. For example. candidates and elected officials would not be able to rely on partisan political groups like moveon.org to do their dirty work. Let us see. they might be a lot cleaner because billions of dollars in soft money contributions would stop. and so would the false and misleading message campaigns that take place in various districts almost daily. One of my colleagues said if they are aware of any misuse of the 527s in the political area. let me just state but one. The ACORN Group. which is a political front for a liberal 527 group called America Votes. has also been implicated in political escapades. A former ACORN worker admitted to deliberately throwing out Republican registration forms and paying gatherers only to collect Democrat registration forms in 2004. Actually. in at least one State this is being investigated. Is this fairness? What about those who chose not to register in the Democrat Party?. They may have been Republican. they may have decided to be an independent. Do they not have a right to have their registrations turned into the local election commissioner? You know. allowing groups to hide behind faulty. arcane and outdated FEC and IRS rules is not an option. Congress must move forward and reform the laws that allow these 527s to spew their lies and fraudulent tactics on the American people. Regularly in my district. I get the 527 calls. My constituents are wise to the fact that this is an unregulated entity.
Date: 2006-04-06
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. the Budget Committee chairman today. we have heard it. has mentioned a number of times something that is captured in this budget. reducing waste. fraud and abuse. Now. our friends from the Democratic side also have a consistent theme. spend more money regardless if a lot of it is wasted. But you see. .Mr. Chairman. billions of dollars are lost each year to waste. fraud and abuse in the Federal Government. Not only -does waste. fraud and abuse steal from the American taxpayers. Mr. Chairman. italso burdens those who rely on the government for their services. Unfortunately. our friends on the other side of the aisle. they are consistent in. again. spend more money. without measuring efficiency or effectiveness of the programs. It is evident. obviously. that some on the far left measure success of government programs by the level of spending. not on results. Again. just spend more of the taxpayers money. no matter what. We cannot excuse programs that. through waste. fraud and abuse. are cheating the taxpayers out of billipns of dollars of their hardearned money. We owe it to the people that sent us here to Washington to ensure that their hardearned tax dollars are protected through good oversight. performance evaluations and sensible funding decisions. While the far left is endlessly attempting to increase taxes without any form of accountability and spend more money. I urge you to support the Republican budget that helps make our government programs more efficient. reducing waste. fraud and abuse. while funding our Nations priorities.
Date: 2006-04-06
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. as you know. I was absent from this House for 16 years. and I came back longing for some familiarity. but also hoping for some change. But as Yogi Berra said. when we have these budget debates. it is deja vu all over again. The same words I heard 18 years ago from the other side of the aisle still prevail: "weaken." "starve." "slash." "stab." "kill." "attack." "assault." "inflict pain." So I looked at the budget to see how much less it is than when I left here 18 years ago. It is so much larger now it is unbelievable. When we had the head of the OMB. now soon to be the new chief of staff at the White House. appear before us. he said that if we do not start to control entitlements. mandatory spending. by the time my children are ready to retire. we will have no ability. he said. to spend anything on discretionary spendink including the military. Think of that. We have come to a position now where the burgeoning of the entitlement programs is such that in another generation what the Constitution calls our first obligation. common defense. we will have no money for it. Now. how can this budget be so terrible? How can it be stifling? When I left -here before. if we had just frozen spending for a year. receipts would have caught up with spending. Now we are in a position that it would take 3 years of a freeze to catch up. This budget is not slashing. cutting. We are doing a little bit of trimming. Many Americans do not think we are doing enough. And.the whole idea on the other side. is all we have to do is tax more. Look at what these tax policies have given us. We have a robust economy. We have lower unemployment rates. Our rates of unemployment now are below what economists told us when I was here before we could ever sustain. They talked about 6 percent unemployment being full employment. Now we are below 5 percent. We should not sacrifice jobs on the mantra of increasing taxes. as my friends on the other side would have us believe.
Date: 2006-04-06
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that it shall be in order at any time to con-. sider in the House the resolution (I. Res. 764). that the resolution shall be considered as read. and that the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the resolution and its preamble to its adoption without intervening motion except 10 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled by -the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Government Reform.
Date: 2006-04-06
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. pursuant to the order of the House today. I call up the resolution (H. Res. 764) recognizing and honoring firefighters for their many contributions throughout the history of the Nation. and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
Date: 2006-04-06
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H. Res. 764. Each year in this country heroic firefighters respond to more than 24 million calls. These brave men and women provide all kind of lifesaving services such as emergency medical care. life safety education and fire prevention education. Many of these firefighters are volunteers and risk their lives every day. For this reason it is important that we adopt this resolution and honor the bravery and perseverance of these individuals that they show on a daily basis. I congratulate the gentleman from Pennsylvania on. bringing forth H. Res. Mr. Speaker. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania .
Date: 2006-04-06
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. I just would add that I want to give my thanks once again to Mr. WELDON for bringing this to our attention today and to Mr. HOYER for his continued leadership on this issue. We are happy to expedite this and move it through the House. and I urge its adoption. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2006-04-26
Speaker: JO ANN DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Chairman. I rise in strong support of H.R. 5020. the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2007. and I applaud Chairman HOEKSTRA for presenting a bill that addresses the funding needs for the global war on terrorism and .ongoing intelligence operations in Iraq. Mr. Chairman. as chair of the Terrorism. Human Intelligence. Analysis and Counterintelligence Subcommittee. I have been directed to ensure that the intelligence community has the resources necessary to complete the thousands upon thousands of intelligence operations conducted each year in direct support of our Nations diplomatic and military efforts worldwide. all during a time of war. Although the risks involved in intelligence operations are inherently high. they are significantly greater when conducted against bloodthirsty insurgents and radical extremists. both of which accept that the mass murder of innocent men. women and children is justifiable. When faced with an enemy that is so brutal and remorseless. we must ensure that the intelligence community has .the personnel and the operational tools needed to collect. analyze. and disseminate the type of intelligence that allows us to disrupt the activities of such an enemy. H.R. 5020 does this as it provides the resources needed to increase human intelligence operations. enhance analytical capabilities. and sustain intelligence collection platforms. Insightful. accurate and timely intelligence has always been the key to understanding the plans and intentions of our adversaries. It is not a secret that some of these adversaries have little respect for human rights or the internationally accepted rule of law. They are determined to destroy growing democracies and strip their citizens of the liberties we as Americans often take for granted. They are committed to bringing the war back to the homeland. where our .families and friends might be subjected to similar horrors as were experienced on 9/11. We cannot and we will not let this happen. We cannot appear irfesolute in our goal to ensure our political and military leaders have the best intelligence possible while we are waging this war. It is our duty to ensure that the Nation is protected. and H.R. 5020 strives to guarantee that the right type of intelligence is provided to our leaders so that they may protect our Nation. It is also our duty to provide resources to improve the ability of our servicemembers and intelligence officers as they confront terrorism worldwide and combat insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorizing any amount less than the full funding requested for the global war on terrorism or operations in Iraq would place members of our armed services and our intelligence community under greater peril than they are today. Not authorizing the full amount would be tantamount to compromising our national security. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. and. once again. I congratulate my chairman on his outstanding effort.
Date: 2006-04-26
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. on rollcall vote No. 108. final passage of the Intelligence Authorization Act. I am recorded as not voting. Although I was present in the Chamber. my vote was not recorded. I intended to vote "aye" and would like to be recorded as such.
Date: 2006-04-27
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I thank the chairman for the time and for his hard work in bringing forth this piece of legislation today. The Speaker of the House announced last January that this difficult subject. difficult but important. and it is difficult. Mr. Speaker. because any time that you deal with institutional reform. you deal with reform of the practices of Congress. obviously there is much tension and controversy and difficulty. And we are seeing it in the debate today. and we are going to continue to see it in the debate today. So it is not an easy task. But the Speaker in January announced that he Was going to deal. and we were going to. pursuant to his instruction and his leadership. deal with this issue of further creating transparency in this process and in this House. this respectable. this House that needs to be respected because it merits it. And yet. obviously. it can be improved. And Chairman DREIER. pursuant to the instruction of the Speaker. has done tremendous work in listening time and again to the concerns of Members on both sides of the aisle and formulating this piece of legislatibn that is before us today that seeks to be before us based on this rule with.which we bring it to the floor today. So I urge all colleagues. first. to realize that their vote on the rule is going to be a vote on whether they are serious about considering lobbying reform. This is the vote on the record of whether or not one is serious about considering. about dealing with the issue of lobbying reform. and we will have an opportunity to go on the record. We can always talk about how we would prefer to do other things. But perfection is sometimes. Mr. Speaker. the enemy of progress. This is the real thing. the real vote. If you are for lobbying reform. you will vote for the rule. If you are not. even if you have all sorts of excuses. then you vote "no." I am confident that the majority of this body will vote for this rule so we can further consider and further improve this important piece of legislation that we bring to the floor today.
Date: 2006-05-03
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. This is one of those bipartisan moments in our consideration of a lobbying reform bill. Congressman GEORGE MILLER. Congressman HOWARD BERMAN. TOM COLE. Doc HASTINGS have joined me as cosponsors of this amendment. and Congressman JEFF FLAKE worked with us in crafting this proposal. Mr. Chairman. if it is in order. I would ask unanimous consent that his name be added as a cosponsor to the amendment.
Date: 2006-05-03
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. it is essential to those of us who have been elected to serve in this body to have confidence that the interests of the constituents are being served. The democratic process as well as the integrity of the peoples House require no lessAs the Supreme Court recognized in Buckley v. Valeo. it is both corruption and even the appearance of corruption which threaten the public trust and warrant congressional regulatory action. The safeguards contained in this amendment will protect the integrity of the process by allowing private travel which has nothing to do with corruption and which in fact contributes to our ability to effectively represent those who have elected us. This bipartisan compromise provides that the Ethics Committee shall have until June 15 of this year to develop a permanent plan governing future private travel. In the interim. private travel would be allowed if. after its review. twothirds of the Ethics Committee approves the trip. That requires bipartisan approval. Our amendment will protect legitimate travel which relates to our ability as. Members of this body. and I ask for support of this amendment.