macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-07-30
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I think the American people just heard a new definition of compromise: Paying your bills is a compromise. The American family cant wake up one morning and say. Boy. its a compromise to pay for what Ive already incurred. Its a compromise to pay my mortgage. Thats a new one for the American people. And its part of a reckless pattern that weve seen emerging here. First our Republican colleagues walked out of the Biden talks. Twice they walked out of talks with the President of the United States. Then. when the Republican leader in the Senate put forward a proposal. they ridiculed it. Then. Thursday night. in this very House. they said "no" to the proposal by the Republican Speaker of this House until he amendedthe same Speaker who said we need to have an adult moment. Heres the concluding paragraph of todays Wall Street Journal: Republicans are not looking like adults to whom we can entrust the government. The American people are looking for that adult moment. If youre not willing to compromise on critical things for the country. you are not fit to govern. And that is why Senator REID put forward a compromise proposal. He doesnt like his own proposal. He would be the first to tell you that. But you know what it did? It met the criteria our Republican colleagues put forward-$2.4 trillion in cuts. And even if you take out the war savings. more guaranteed cuts. according to CBO. than the Boehner proposal the other night. It also incorporates McConnells proposal. Heres what it doesnt do. It doesnt end the Medicare guarantee. It doesnt cut Social Security. And it doesnt protect tax breaks for special interest corporations. What were seeing here is people are holding the American economy hostage. You have to stop playing kamikaze pilot with the future of the American people in order to extract a hundred percent of demands for budgets your way. Compromise is necessary. And that is what Senator REID put forward. a compromise proposal. Lets show we can govern together.
Date: 2011-07-30
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the chairman for yielding. If you look at the Boehner proposal. it says weve got to cut $1.8 trillion. The Speaker of the House has already said that you cant have any revenue as part of that. that you cant close one corporate loophole. In fact. he said that the majority would override any proposal. so the only other way to get it mathematically is to start slashing Medicare and to start going after Social Security.
Date: 2011-07-30
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Just to be very clear. what we did was eliminate the overpayments to some of the Medicare Advantage plans. Listen. we used much of those savings to close the prescription drug doughnut hole. In your budget. you took the whole $500 billion. but you reopened the prescription drug doughnut hole at the same time you were eliminating the Medicare guarantee. Thats the difference.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

It really is about justice for all. The question becomes as we go into our conferences and caucuses to discuss this new debt ceiling legislation: Who will this help? Will it help the small businesses. which are the backbone of America? Will it help the students who are now standing at the doors of colleges and seeing them slam shut? Will it help those in nursing homes who now. because of drastic cuts in Medicaid. will see their places of abode lost? Will it help the hospitals. which care for the sick. because there is no Medicare reimbursement or Medicaid? We are going to be looking at this to see how it helps or hurts the American people. but I tell you who it helps: big businesses. Are they going to now step in and create jobs? Because. when we cut across the board. public sector jobs will be cut all across America. It has always been the government that stoops and comes in to raise the American people up when there is a need. Are we going to help the returning soldiers. 160.000plus. who have PTSD? For those who want to come into the workplace. will the corporate sector now stand up and be counted? Will only the friends of the Republicans be helped and not the poor and working Americanswhere is the justice for all. Thats where we needed bipartisanship on something that has already been done a hundred times: the simple raising of the debt ceiling. instead we have put the burden now on the backs of those who cannot speak for themselves.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. As the author of H.R. 398. I support this bill. Its a small measure to help support members of our Armed Forces who are serving overseas and their families here at home. Our troops. who take up our countrys call to service and volunteer to place themselves in harms way. face uncertainties every day. For countless soldiers. the peace of mind that they get from family back home helps to keep them focused on the important job at hand. For that reason. it is critical that we not add to their burdens and instead seize the opportunity to alleviate even a small amount of the anxiety they feel. As the chairman has indicated. there is a conditionality placed on residents gained through marriage. Couples are given a 90day period just before the second anniversary of the grant to file to remove the conditions. and then they get only 90 days to appear in person for an interview. Now. only after this is done are the conditions removed. And if the conditional status is not removed in this way. the residence is terminated and the foreign national spouse could be deported. That means that either the spouse of one of our soldiers could be deported or the soldier himself could be deported. Now. its pretty hard to appear for the interview if youre serving in Iraq. and we certainly dont want our soldiers or their spouses to be deported. So I support this measure. In 2008. as chairwoman of the House Immigration Subcommittee. I convened a hearing on the immigration needs of Americas fighting men and women. At the hearing. we heard from members of the Armed Forces about countless challenges that they face because of our rigid and unyielding immigration system. This bill will help to resolve just one of those challenges. It will not excuse military families from the requirements. It will simply allow them to put off those requirements if they choose during overseas deployments. Of course. there are many problems with our countrys immigration laws that this bill does not address. too many to count. And as we know from our 2008 hearing. those problems will continue to unnecessarily tear military families apart. distract from our mission abroad. and betray the fundamental values that we claim to hold dear. But despite this great need. it is only this small bill. a bill that should help a few dozen servicemembers a year. that is on the floor for action. I commend my colleagues LAMAR SMITH. ELTON GALLEGLY. and JOHN CONYERS for joining me in introducing this very modest measure. Our men and women on the front lines are standing in defense of our country. and their loved ones back home stand in defense of them. As Members of Congress. its both a responsibility and an honor to provide whatever support we can. And while this bill may be small. it is important for the few dozen soldiers it may help each year. Therefore. I urge my colleagues to support the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may consume. I will not repeat the information provided by Chairman SMITH. I will simply state that the HIC program was first created in 1999 to address shortages in both rural and innercity hospitals. The 500 visas per year actually only go to 14 hospitals in the United States spread out across America. And of course the program has now expired. As Chairman SMITH has indicated. this bill would reauthorize but reduce the number from 500 to 300. create certain other protections as mentioned by the chairman. and allow the maximum stay to go to 6 years. Because the bill would double the duration of HIC status. I offered an amendment in committee. which was accepted by all. to make the HIC visas portable among the 14 hospitals authorized to employ HIC nurses. Right now. the nurses are entirely dependent on their employers to provide them their immigration status. and visa portability would level the playing field and allow a nurse to switch employers if something was wrong. I appreciate the Chairmans willingness to accept that. and I thank the chairman for introducing this bill and working with me to ensure that H1C nurses are better protected against exploitive situations. I urge my colleagues to support the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: EDOLPHUS TOWNS (democrat)
Chamber: H

from New York. has been concerned about ordinary books becoming an unintended consequence of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Manufacturers of ordinary books and magazines should not be subject to thirdparty testing. Still subject to testing will be books that have plastic parts. like popup books. those with nonpaperbased accessories. or anything else that has inherent play value. I strongly support the consumer product safety information database created by H.R. 4040. and that has been somewhat controversial. But I support the database creation. It went live earlier this year and has been extremely successful in helping to educate the public about potentially unsafe products. This bill takes some sensible steps to make the database even more effective. The bill requires the commission. the Consumer Product Safety Commission. to seek out more information about the products reported by consumers to the database. like a products serial number. a model number. or a photograph of the product in question. I think the more information that is provided. the better and more effective the database will be for consumers and businesses alike. Mr. Speaker. as I said earlier. I support this bill. I believe it provides a strong compromise that will reduce burdens on businesses and continue to protect American consumers. Again. I want to thank our distinguished chairman of the subcommittee. Chairwoman BONO MACK. for working with me in a bipartisan fashion to find solutions. commonsense. practical solutions for the American people. I thank the chairman of the subcommittee. the chairman of the full committee. the ranking member of the full committee. all of the stakeholders who had a part in crafting this compromise. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: DAVID SCOTT (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. this is a challenging day. Its a difficult day. but its a day that were making a decision. a big decision. an important decision that the United States of America will not default on its obligations. This sends stability to the financial markets all around the world. and it really embellishes our stature as the gold standard. And that is very important. It also gives us until 2013 for us to be able to revisit this again. as the President of the United States asked. And I think another important thing that it does is it helps us to hurry up and get this allconsuming issue of the debt and the deficit and the raising of the debt ceiling off the front burner so we can immediately put jobs back on the front burner. So. ladies and gentlemen. we must focus our attention now on jobs. Thats what the American people want us to do. On this Friday. were going to have a jobs report. And I want us to carefully look at that jobs report. and especially look at that side of the jobs report that shows the number of jobs were losing in the public sector. So as we are here engaging. and some of my friends are celebrating. the whole issue of us cutting $2.5 trillion out of our budget over the 10year period. it is important to know that there is a cost for this. my friends. and that cost is a loss of public jobs. So as we set this new commission up. this new committee. we have got to make sure that as these cuts go forward that we understand the sensitivity of trying to make these cuts away from putting more of our people on the jobless rolls. Right now. the greatest contribution that the Federal Government is making to jobs is putting more people out of jobs. So I ask that we take time now. now that we are going to put this issue behind us. to focus like a laser beam on jobs.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: DAVID SCOTT (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Ladies and gentlemen of the House of Representatives. this. of course. is a very important day. a momentous decision. a difficult decision for all of us. I am going to vote for this in the best interest of our country and putting us in the stature where we need to be. But I do want to point out one area of weakness that were going to have to look at carefully as we go forward. and that is in the application of this 12member committee. and especially as it relates to the areas of Social Security. Medicare. and Medicaid. My understanding is. and I think this is understanding that we certainly need to make clear. that Social Security and Medicaid. veterans. Pell Grants. are all protected fully under this bill. But when it comes to Medicare. my understanding is that there will be an opportunity in here where they will look at Medicare on the provider side. The question becomes how can you basically separate benefits of Medicare patients when you have the patient. the doctors. and the hospital. and you cant adequately separate that. So I say. we must be very mindful of the Medicare apparatus here.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker. this is a very tough place to put America. Not Members of Congress. we are paid to come here and do our job. But it is a very tough place to put America. So I have a simple state of facts to present today and listen to my other colleagues. which I will. because it is a tough decision to in actuality support legislation that seems to be driven by thoughts that the only way to get something done is to hold a whole country hostage and to hold Congress hostage. That is simply what we have. On the brink of August 2. we are now throwing something on the floor that is arguably supposed to be helpful. I am concerned that there are nuances in this legislation that will hurt people we all care about. but its a tough decision not to say "yes" to having America pay her bills. I hope. for once. that once we get past today that we will not in any way yield again to the voices of 87 Members who care nothing about America but who simply care about their way or the highway.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. we should never have gotten to the point where our troops in Afghanistan had to ask whether they were going to be paid. Thats a scandal. And its scandalous that our Republican colleagues would threaten for the first time in American history to torpedo Americas creditworthiness and American jobs unless they succeeded in enacting a budget plan to end the Medicare guarantee. slash Medicaid. and slash critical investments in education and our future. That was the plan. They wanted to do that now. and they wanted to have this whole debate again 6 months from now. Why? Not to reduce the deficit. If the goal was to reduce the deficit. why refuse to end taxpayer subsidies for the oil companies? If reducing the deficit was the purpose. why refuse to end special breaks for corporate jets and the folks at the very high end of the income scale? That wasnt the plan. The plan was to use this moment to threaten the economy. to try and slash the social safety net and those critical investments in education and innovation in our future. And guess what: They failed. They failed to do that. They failed to end the Medicare guarantee. They failed to slash Medicaid. They failed to slash education. In this measure. we succeeded in protecting Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries. We succeeded in protecting seniors in nursing homes. individuals with disabilities and poor kids who depend on Medicaid for their health care. And we succeeded in providing room for critical investments in education and Americas future. Dont get me wrong. Mr. Speaker. theres much in this plan I dont like. We did not succeed in shutting down special interest tax loopholes that add hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficits. Our Republican colleagues refused to cut those subsidies for big oil companies. They refused to cut the others. And now were going to have a great debate. Were going to have a great debate about how to grow the economy and reduce our longterm deficit. It will be a debate about our national priorities. I hope we will support the balanced approach that the President has called for. one that refuses to put greater burdens on Medicare beneficiaries in order to provide greater tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. In the coming months. our Republican colleagues will be given the following test: Will they choose to protect special interest tax breaks over investments necessary to keep our Nation strong and secure? Will they finally demonstrate a willingness to pay for our national defense rather than put it on the credit card? Mr. Speaker. lets get on with that big national debate. and lets finally focus on jobs and getting the economy going as we reduce our longterm deficit. With that. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker. as I said at the outset. we should never have reached this point in our country. We should never have reached the point when our troops wondered whether they were going to get paid or individuals on Social Security wondered whether they were going to see their earned benefits. That should never have happened. This is the first time in history. the first time in history. that weve seen Members of this Congress threaten to close down the American economy unless they got their particular budget plan through. one that ends the Medicare guarantee. slashes Medicaid and would deeply cut our investments in education and innovation. We protected those investments in this bill. The plan did not work. It didnt work now. and the plan to do it again 6 months from now didnt work. So now we will have that great debate over our priorities. We are looking forward to it. Lets get on to talking about jobs and the economy. With that. I yield 1 minute to the very distinguished Democratic leader. who has been a fighter for Americas priorities. the gentlewoman from California .
Date: 2011-08-01
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I was absent earlier today due to a prior commitment scheduled before we knew the House would be in session. On the votes I missed. on H.R. 2715. to provide greater authority and discretion to the CPSC in enforcement of product safety laws. had I been present. I would have voted "yes." On H.R. 398. to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to toll during national and active duty service abroad in the Armed Forces. I would have voted "yes." On H.R. 1933. to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify requirements. I would have voted "yes." While I do recognize the shortage of nurses in our country. I would hope that we should focus on providing more incentives to students here to become nurses. On the motion on ordering the previous question on the rule for S. 365. I would have voted "no." On H. Res. 384. the rule providing for consideration of S. 365. I would have voted "no." On the Journal vote. I would have voted "yes."
Date: 2011-09-07
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor George Kalogridis. who is the president of Disneyland in my hometown of Anaheim. George will be celebrating 40 years on September 11. in just a few days. and I wish to offer him my heartiest congratulations for his 40 years with the Disney Corporation. George started as a busboy at the age of 17 at Walt Disney World. and he has worked his way up to numerous positions including being the chief operating officer for Disneyland in Paris. and now hes the president of Disneyland in Orange County. California. where he oversees 21.000 employees. Georges outstanding record of achievement has increased the value of Disneyland to our community in Orange County. and I know that he continues to try to improve and to provide the leadership that that wonderful worldknown resort needs. The story of Georges rise from a busboy to the president of Disneyland is really the accomplishment of the American Dream. and I am proud to extend him my best wishes and congratulations.
Date: 2011-09-07
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Let me thank my good friend from California for carrying on. if you will. the clarion cry that all of us heard throughout our districts and around the country. To my good friend from New York. let me just turn and say to you what deep concern the American people have. Do not listen to the jangled noises of cuts and not having the potential to assist our fellow Americans. We were all pained to see Prattsville and to see what had happened to unsuspecting people. Thats Mother Nature. To see what happened to Vermont and all up and down the coast as we listened to our colleagues. And as I was driving in Texas. I want you to know that I saw the smoke. This is not something that is distant and far away. Weve seen the pain of Congressman DOGGETTS district. and I want to thank him for his leadership there. as I mentioned the leadership that the Members have given. that you go to a place where 500 homes are gone and more and. as he indicated. maybe even a thousand. So I happen to be proud to be an American. And when I listened to my friend from California with the list of assets and credentials that you bring to the table. your leadership in the State of California. the leadership of
Date: 2011-09-07
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I mentioned Congressman DOGGETT. but what I wanted to say on this point that I think is so important. and I will state. it is documented that our Governor has cut the volunteer firefighters. Those are great heroes. We even lost a firefighter just a few months ago when our wildfire started in the spring. Of course. it sort ofI wont even say the term died downbut it has now risen again and attacked a whole new area. We are going to have to ask for Federal aid and we have just. as I understand the facts. through Congressman DOGGETT. the Governor has just indicated. Governor Perry. that the Federal Government has a role. He has just asked that Texas be declared a national disaster. My question to my fellow colleagues is. then. what will be our response? Prattsville was washed away. There is nothing but ashes. They cant even find a picture book. So are we going to tell them its off budget. that were not able to fund it. that its deficit spending? I think not. I thank you for reminding the American people that Texas is facing its own mount of decline. and those fires. by the way. have not yet been extinguished. They are visible to all of us.