macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4437. the Border Protection. Antiterterrorism. and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. I am proud to be a new member of the Homeland Security Committee and appreciate this opportunity to work with Chairman KING on this legislation. Every weekend. when I go back home to Florida. I hear from constituents that our country is being overrun by illegal immigrants. Today. we truly show our constituents that Congress is listening to them and that we mean business. For starters. the bill requires mandatory detention of illegal aliens. eliminating the Department of Homeland Securitys dangerous catchandrelease policy. Catch and release does nothing other than allow the Border Patrol to apprehend illegal immigrants then release them with nothing but a flimsy promise that they will return for a deportation hearing. Ha. ha. It does not happen. As Members may guess. 75 percent of them do not show up for their court date and are free to roam throughout our neighborhoods. That policy has existed for far too long. This bill requires that law enforcement hold illegal aliens until they are deported. I am also pleased that the chairman was able to include some language in the bill that authorizes Homeland Security to engage in competitive contracts with companies to help manage the transportation of illegal aliens. Allowing the Secretary to engage in these contracts will free up these resources and assist the department as it eliminates the harmful catchandrelease policy. Mr. Chairman. our Nations lawmakers did not craft our immigration laws as suggestions or reading material for insomniacs. Our laws were made to ensure proper. secure and legal entry into our country. This bill helps to accomplish exactly that. and I urge my colleagues to support it. �
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself 4 minutes. Listen up. According to the 9/11 Commission. up to 15 hijackers should have been deported. but our immigration laws are not being enforced. We cannot sit here. as a body that makes laws and just watch them collect dust as our enemies plot agailist us. My amendment expresses a sense of Congress that immigration laws enacted by Congress must be enforced. This amendment sends a simple message from the Congress to the administration: Enforce the law. * We can debate how to solve the illegal immigration problem until we are blue in the face. and I see some very blue faces around the room. but if the laws we enact are not being enforced. then it is just a bunch of hot air. I have got a fourpage list of immigration laws in front of me that are currently being ignored. This is unacceptable. This nonenforcement must end. The United States Congress must demand it right now. Let me give my colleagues a couple of examples. In 2002. we enacted a law requiring implementation of a system known as Chimera. This means there will be information sharing from Federal databases in the intelligence community to any Federal official considering an immigrants admissibility or deportability. Well. you knew as you heard information sharing. it is not happening. Did you know we have a law forbidding public colleges from giving inState tuition to illegals unless they offer it to every citizen in the United States? It is going on in nine States. Federal law is being violated. and guess what. the Federal Governments doing nothing about it. Do you know that all registered aliens are required to notify DHS within 10 days of changing address? Failure to do so is a deportable offense. This has tremendous national security value. and it is not being enforced. � In 1996. we made a law requiring the Department of State to suspend all visas to any country who refuses to receive a national who has been deported from the United States. So. hypothetically. if China would not accept people we are deporting back to China. which they are. then the Federal Government is not allowed to issue anymore visas to people coming from China. Who here thinks we are not giving visas to people from China? The list goes on and on. r will submit it for the RECORD at this point.
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentlewoman from Houston for her comments. I appreciate it. Mr. Chairman. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia .
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I yield the remaining time to the gentleman from New York . the chairman of the committee. [ 1915
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. the reports of the lawlessness along our borders are unprecedented. Stories about the number of young girls and women who smugglers and societys dregs rape as they attempt to cross the border are widespread. Numerous recent articles have told stories of Minuteman members who are haunted by cries of women who are being raped and abused. who when they first heard the cries. they actually thought they were coyotes wailing in the desert. These are women and young girls being raped. All along the southern border. the sight of womens undergarments hang from border fences as trophies. This is appalling. and yet it is also very telling. There are stories of mattresses tucked -in caves for more convenient access to rape young girls as young as 8- and 9yearsold crossing the border. Violent acts against females in this manner are despicable. Congress cannot and should not tolerate this behavior. H.R. 4437. the Border Protection. Antiterterrorism. and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. takes decisive action to reduce and eliminate this criminal activity. My amendment to the bill is a declaration that Congress condemns these rapes along the United States border. Additionally. my amendment urges the Government of Mexico and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to work together to take immediate action to prevent such rapes from continuing. We all understand that the best mechanism for preventing these rapes is to encourage legal citizenship and to stop people from crossing our borders illegally and therefore putting themselves in harms way. By including my amendment in the underlying legislation. this House is sending a loud and clear message of its dedication to improving all aspects of border security. Urging both the United States and Mexico to take action is a good first steptoward a peaceful. safe. and secure border. The bill also provides a tremendous overhaul of the United States immigration policies. and I am. very pleased that the House is debating this issue before we adjourn for the year. As a member of the Committee on Homeland Security. I look forward to implementing these measures. and I also look forward to the time when reports of rape and cruelty to young girls and women are not an issue on our border. Mr. Chairman. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment. and I thank the gentleman for his recognition of this amendments merits. Mr. Chairman. I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Florida .
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. I have heard the references to the Berlin Wall. There is only one problem: The Berlin Wall was built to keep people in. not keep people out. I do not recall in searching my memory a single example of people trying to jump over the Berlin Wall to get into East Germany. This is for a different purpose. It is a different thing. and your suggestion that this is a Berlin Wall is only off by about 180 degrees.
Date: 2005-12-15
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. it gives me great pleasure to be involved in this bipartisan amendment with my friend from Oregon. The amendment addresses" a dangerous flaw in our current system. Under current practices. Customs and Border Protection does not receive the names of passengers on board international flights bound for the U.S. until after the flight is in the air. as the gentleman explained. When CBP finally gets the passenger manifest. it sends it over to the Transportation Security Administration. TSA. so they can compare it against the terrorist databases. At that point. if they find a name match. there is no way to reconcile the situation. This has resulted in numerous highprofile instances where a plane was forced to divert from its intended destination. I believe in almost every case while over the Atlantic. This inconveniences passengers and costs the airlines hundreds of thousands of dollars per incident. There have been. as I understand. seven diversions this year alone. What is worse. since CBP and TSA have been operating this program. there have been two occasions on which the individuals flagged turned out to be the dangerous individuals on the watch list. Fortunately. there is a commercially available system in use for flights to Australia that provides the airlines with a cleared or not cleared decision for each passenger in realtime. not 4 hours before or not 2 hours after they have taken off. but in realtime. at the time of checkin. The system has been offered free of charge to CBP on a pilot basis. They have declined the offer and have yet to conduct any tests. Instead. they have been trying to internally develop a new system for over a year now. I believe we are wasting valuable time. This amendment. at a minimum. will force CBP to conduct a test of the commercially available systems within 90 days of the date of enactment. If CBP can complete the development of its own proprietary system. we will also .get a real applestoapples comparison of the various products. Ultimately. Mr. Chairman. this amendment will speed implementation of this vital program to ensure that the airlines will know who can board the plane safely and who cannot long before the plane leaves the ground. I believe everyone agrees that is the best possible situation. We have. on a bipartisan basis I think. been frustrated by the responses we have received as to why they cannot develop their own program and why they then resist conducting a pilot program utilizing something that has .already been done in another country. The only question it seems to me is scaleability: Can they scale up to the volumes we have in the United States because obviously Australia is a smaller country with a smaller number of people? But in this computerized era in which we live today. I do not believe that scaleability is a problem. That is the reason for this pilot project. I would like to thank the gentleman from Oregon for his efforts and his willingness to work with me on this language. I would urge all Members to support this amendment. -Mr. Chairman. I .reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2005-12-17
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I thank Chairman SENSENBRENNER very much for his leadership on this bill. I rise today very proud that the House is considering the conference report of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization and so happy that it was recently agreed to by the Senate. I would like to specifically thank a champion of this. and that is Chairman SENSENBRENNER. for his excellent leadership and hard work to make sure that this happened this year. I know many of us. when we went back to our districts. heard from various womens groups. various volunteers in domestic violence shelters. and they were fearful that we were going to end without continuing the Violence Against Women Act. I am very proud that it is in there. While domestic programs would have continued without this program today. had VAWA not reauthorized. the new ideas and some of the great programs in there and improvements would not have been instituted for quite some time into the future. As I said. my constituents involved in the fight against domestic violence are so happy that we were able to come to an agreement on this. When Members go back to their districts during the weekends and the holidays. it is going to spread the word that Congress has kept its word to women and reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act. It is my hope that if Members of Congress continue down this path in raising awareness about the many types of violence faced by women. men. young and old. from all walks of life. that we will eventually rid our Nation of this appalling crime. Vicious acts of violence can be combated effectively through education. support networks. increased law enforcement programs and family counseling. It has been an honor working with all those involved in this very important legislation. and I certainly encourage my colleagues to support this very important piece of legislation. I. again. commend the chairman for his countless hours. and the committee members and the people who served on the conference committee. the countless number of hours that they worked to come to this agreement.
Date: 2006-01-04
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

I thank my dear friend. and. Mr. Speaker. I was very pleased that my friend and dear chairman of the Rules Committee. Ms. SLAUGHTER. pointed out as she spoke. I heard her speak that most of the ethics package was precisely the one that we had proposed last year. What is very disturbing. however. and really disappointing. Mr. Speaker. are a number of the items that have been included that Mr. DREIER referred to previously. It is extremely disappointing to see that one of the great advancements of this Congress over the last two centuries. which has been to bring a transparency to our votes. because you know. Mr. Speaker. it used to be even on the floor of the House votes would take place that were not roll call votes. they were not noted for the record and. thus. for the people. yet we moved forward and we changed that. And also in committee. votes had to be recorded. That has been one of the great advancements in the last two centuries in this Congress. And to see in the Committee on Rules.. that I love so much. where we now in this rules package are faced with such a reversal of that progress and that great advancement of openness and transparency on the record. the requirement that the people will be able to see how the members of that committee vote. that has been eliminated. is being eliminated in this package. that is extremely disturbing. And everyone. Mr. Speaker. who loves this Congress should be saddened by what our friends on the other side of the aisle have included. specifically what I have just mentioned. that great reversal of progress in the rules package that has been brought forward today. So in the hope that that will be remedied and that our friends on the other side of the aisle will realize how sad that is. I rise today with great disappointment.
Date: 2006-01-31
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

it is with great sadness that I rise today to honor the life of Coretta Scott King. Born April 27. 1927. in Marion. Alabama. Mrs. King led a life of activism beside her husband during the civil rights movement. and carried on his work after he was killed in 1968. Coretta Scott King is a great American heroine who possessed the determination to ma ke the seemingly impossible. possible. Soon after her husbands death. she stated. "Im more determined than ever that my husbands dream will become a reality." Mrs. King came from humble beginnings. her father ran a country store. and she worked as a waitress to put herself through college. Her strength and resolve guided her through many difficult times as a young widow left to raise four children on her own. but her determination propelled her to achievements of great significance. For almost a decade. she pushed Congress for a national holiday in observance of her late husbands birthday. She was ultimately successful in 1983 when Congress passed and the president signed legislation creating the holiday. Tlhe first national celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Day occurred in 1986. In 1969. she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta to serve as a living memorial to the Rev. Dr. Kings legacy. Additionally. she spoke out against the promotion of violerce by movie and television companies. Mr. Speaker. in closing. I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the King family and call upon my colleagues to forever remember her legacy and message.
Date: 2006-02-01
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I thank the distinguished chairman for the time. I was walking by here and then stumbled here on this interesting debate. I think. our friends have to decide which of two arguments that have been propounded is really the argument they have to come down upon in support of. One is. we have heard. that we offer lack of democracy. We just heard that. I guess that means insufficient input. ability for Members. et cetera. Another debate we just heard is that the legislation that we brought forth should do more. We have presented this resolution the first day that we are back to do what we are able to do on the first day we are back. having done it through regular order. In other words. the Rules Committee had a hearing on this resolition and brought it forth yesterday for the consideration of the floor today. With regard to�.theother aspects that have been mentioned here. it is precisely because of our offer of full democracy. regular order. the committee process that the Speaker has instructed that this legislation go through. the ethics reform go through. that it is not before us in its cQmpletion today. In other words. with regard to all these other ideas that have been mentioned. precisely they are going to be considered. not only under regular order by the appropriate committees. but the Speaker has asked that all of those committees act with great promptneSs. in other words. that they report back within 4 to 6 weeks. So we are offering what we are offering today. which is important. which I. am glad as my friend from Massachusetts says he is going to vote for and I will join with him in voting for. In ad-. dition. we are offering so much democracy that we are submitting to the regular order the consideration of all of these ideas that have been mentioned by the distinguished Member from Massachusetts and oth-. ers. So substantive ideas of .impoitance. the first day we are back we have brought forth to the floor. due to the leadership and instruction. of the Speaker. who has demanded that we act immediately. and with regard to input ability. ability for discussion. for thought. et cetera. in other words. plenty of democracy. we are also offering that. Mr. Speaker. with regard to all of these. other important ideas which our friends on the other side of the aisle have mentioned. They have mentioned some of them. So in summary. .Mr. Speaker. this is an important piece of legislation thatI am glad we are bringing forth today. It shows the seriousness of the Speaker of the House. of the chairman of the Rules Committee. of the Committee of Rules generally and the leadership to. consider this important issue. So I am glad we are considering it the first day -we are back.
Date: 2006-02-14
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. this country is in dire need of immigration reform and tighter border security. Officials at all levels of government and across party lines have felt this need. However. instead of acting. we are sitting back and debating the details of amnesty or no amnesty. guest- worker or no guest worker. et cetera. I call on my colleagues in both the House and the Senate to move political positioning and think about the men and women that they represent. There will undoubtedly be areas of disagreement. yet this must not stop us from moving forward to secure our borders this year. Our constituents deserve to know that they are safe and that they can live out their lives without the threat of terror at their doorstep. and they deserve nothing less.
Date: 2006-02-15
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time to consider in the House thte concurrent resolution . that the concurrent resolution be considered as read. and that the previous question be considered as ordered on the concurrent resolution and 1reamble to final adoption without intervening motion or demand for division of the question except (1) 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on International Relation and (2) one motion to recommit which may not contain instructions.
Date: 2006-02-15
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I would like to bring to everyones attention that Customs and Border Protection has recently begun confiscating and destroying prescription drugs intercepted at the U.S.Canadian border. Unfortunately. CBP is offering no recourse to appeal this action. While we all know that reimporting prescription drugs from Canada has not been legal in the United States for decadbs. this practice is not helping our seniors. However. if Border Patrol is suddenly going to enforce a law that many believed that government was no longer interested in enforcing. then they certainly should notify shippers and purchasers. Instead of simply confiscating and destroying these prescription drugs. they should include a warning in the first instance. The majority of the people purchasing these drugs are seniors on fixed incomes and likely do not have the money to repurchase them once they are destroyed. I urge Customs and Border Protection to at least warn customers when agents intercept. these packages. A simple letter would save a lot of grief for many. many seniors who use this procedure and not just seniors but other Americans who choose to purchase their drugs from a Canadian connection..
Date: 2006-02-15
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for Februa ry 15. 206 and Response to Hurricane Katrina (Rept. 109377). Referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union.
Date: 2006-02-28
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. tomorrow is March 1. and each March we celebrate the achievements of our American women during Womens History MQnth. This year I want to take the opportunity to honor Margaret Rogers Ghiotto from Brooksville. Florida. A decorated and accomplished business leader and humanitarian. she deserves special recognition for her good work and deeds throughout her 89 years. She .was a pillar in the Hernando County community until her death earlier last month. Her story is an inspiration to all Americans. but especially women. Known by her friends and family as Weenie. her success as a businesswoman came at a time when a womans place was supposed to be in the home. She owned and managed Rogers Christmas House. as well as Jennings House in Brooksville. Florida. that is on the National Register. It was with great reverence and admiration that friends. family. and members of the community paid their respects to Margaret on February 18. 2006. Margarets story is an inspiration not only to women business owners but to all residents throughout the Nation.