macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-09-29
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. I rise in support of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Years ago when I was much younger. I was a lifeguard. And I recall one of the first lessons you learn as a lifeguard is that if you know there is a dangerous undertow. you get the people back on the beach and out of the water. Maybe we can reflect and say we didnt see the undertows coming and we didnt get the people out of the water and onto the beach. But the other thing that I learned when I was a lifeguard was that if you found someone that was in the undertow. you attempted to rescue them. You didnt stand there and curse Mother Nature. You didnt say. Why didnt they do something yesterday? Or. Why didnt we do something an hour ago? Or. Why didnt we blow the alarm 10 minutes -ago? You went and you tried to rescue the individual or individuals who were in distress. Thats where we find ourselves today. We are in distress. I am not an expert on the international financial markets. but when bank after bank after bank appears to be going down in Europe. when we have bank failures here. when it appears to be a consensus of this House and the Senate and the executive branch that we have a difficult time. someone called it crisis. some would say that we are on the verge of a cataclysmic event. that we ought to take note and do something about it. So I would say to my conservative friends. if we want to protect the taxpayer. we ought to try to get the best deal we possibly can under the circumstances. Under these circumstances. as we stand here today. I believe this is the best possible solution we can get. Would I prefer something else. yes. I voted against the previous question because I wanted the Republican alternative. but we dont have the votes for that. So we need to do something to protect the taxpayer. But more importantly. lets bring this down to the very basic level. This is a question of jobs. It is a question about whether people in our districts are going to have jobs supplied by small businesses. mediumsized businesses. Can they go to the bank to get the credit so they can put out the payroll. Now. here is the problem. The chairman of the committee mentioned this awhile ago. We dont have the catastrophe right yet. If we prevent the catastrophe. will anybody notice? But it again reminds me of the time when I was a lifeguard. There were a lot of people who didnt get in trouble because I ran a pretty good pool.
Date: 2008-09-29
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGRE (republican)
Chamber: H

N of California. I didnt allow small children who didnt know how to swim to jump into the pool. I didnt allow people to dive into the pool where I knew it was too shallow and they could break their necks. I didnt get credit for saving them after they dove in the pool and broke their necks. I didnt get credit for saving a little child from jumping in the water and nobody noticing that child and having that child drown. But I know. I did my job. and I prevented some possible tragedies. So I would ask Members on my side of the aisle. think about it. If you truly believe we have the possibility of this economic breakdown. at least attempt to save the people in the pool. It isnt what I would desire. It is not what I would have brought to the floor had I had the unique chance to do it. but it is the best opportunity we have. Lets not miss it.
Date: 2008-09-29
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Fror

ida. Madam Speaker. I rise today because of my grave concern over what is surely one of the biggest bailouts in American history. Make no mistake: A vote for this bailout is a vote to ratify business as usual in Washington. The compromise was crafted with some of the same people who brought us this mess. except this time we have a gun to our head. This isnt legislation. this is extortion. We could actually call it the inout plan. As the FBI is going in. we are bailing out. Thats not what the taxpayers want. Do you like $10 trillion in debt? In one stroke of the pen. Congress will have expanded this debt by another trillion to $11.3 trillion. What happens if this money is repaid. as some are claiming? Certainly there will be all sorts of expenditures. and we will continue to grow that debt. This brings me to another financial mess buried in the pages of this bill. Any premium paid by companies will be put into a fund. kind of like that of the Social Security trust fund. and Americans know that was never. ever. a good idea. If you arent angry enough about this bailout. foreign banks get special treatment right there in section 112. The Treasury Secretary has the discretion to bail out foreign banks at the expense of the American taxpayer. no restrictions and no guarantees. [ 1215 Certainly another point is that it makes two categories of homeowners. those who make every mortgage payment and pay every bill and struggle to meet their commitments. and those homeowners who didnt meet their obligation. skipped out on the bill and now want taxpayers to bail them out. This is so embarrassing. it turns the stomach of most Americans. Make no mistake. a vote for this bailout is a vote to ratify business as usual in. Washington.
Date: 2008-09-29
Speaker: TIM MURPHY (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

Madam Speaker. as we pursue this. there are several things that still are of concern to me. We need to make sure we enact real consequences for those who are accountable for this mess and make sure that we enact real change to the system. We need to make sure that we say loud and clear to those who gamble with public funds that they have an obligation to the taxpayer. We need to also make sure that those who are offered loans with a wink and a nod who have no ability to pay. no identification. no credit. and no money down cant get these loans anymore until we get this system fixed. We. also need to understand that what were talking about is a $700 billion bailout. It happens to be- the same amount of money. $700 billion. that we send every year to foreign oil. If this Congress had taken care of our energy problems and had allowed drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and of the Colorado shale oil. we would have had a real commodity to sell. We would -have had real investments in the market and not just paper that we would have been shuffling around and would have been hoping that someone would have bought at auction. Trillions of dollars in our economy and hundreds of thousands of jobs. thats what we should be doing to fix our economy. not just selling more paper.
Date: 2008-10-03
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Speaker. I rise to say I absolutely support free market principles. I have no interest in bailing out Wall Street. I think that we need to reduce the size of government. and I believe that government intervention should not occur. But this is not a normal situation. I have not seen anything like this. I wasnt around during the Great Depression. but having read about it. I have not seen anything like this in our financial services industry since then. Banks are not lending to banks. and if banks dont lend tobanks. the access to credit in the private sector really is going to dry up. because if they wont lend to each other. they are not going to want to lend to the private sector. Small businesses in this country are starting to hurt now. I spoke to a friend I have known for over 30 years who is a contractor who works for a very large company. and the company doesnt know right now. the employees. that many are going to get laid off. because their lines of credit have been dramatically reduced. and without credit in this country. it is going to have an impact on businesses. and if businesses are impacted. they are not the bad people. they are the ones who provide jobs in this country. This bill. I will say. is not perfect. but there are not many options we have today. and the last thing we can afford to do is do nothing and let the system start to crumble. Small people. I say "small" because they are not business people. they are tryihg to work for a living. and I take the word "small" back. average people out there who are just workingfor a living and trying to make ends meet. supporting their families and paying their bills. they are the ones that are going to get hurt. This is not to bail out a bunch of fat cats on Wall Street. The people who made their money two or three years ago. they made their money. You cant impact that. We can change things in the future to change the law to make sure people are protected and their investments are protected and people dont take advantage of the system. and that has to happen. Now. this bill has grown in size. but much of it has to do with tax extenders. It is not pork. When you are talking about allowing .child tax credits to continue. like we have in the past. the alternative minimum tax patch to continue. research and development tax credit. teacher expense deductions. those things. have been added to this bill and the bill has absolutely grown in size. But lets not lose the focus on what we are trying to do here today. The thing we are trying to do is stabilize the economy. not bail out individual businesses. make sure the economy can continue to run. people can work and businesses can operate. That is why I am rising in support of this bill and ask for an "aye" vote.
Date: 2008-10-03
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Madam Speaker. earlier this week on Monday. America hated this bill at $700 billion. Today they despise it at $850 billion. On Monday. apparently a majority in the House agreed with the callers and voted it down on a bipartisan basis. Yesterday I was very proud of the efforts of Representative SPENCER BACHUS who tried to bring to the floor a bill that would have slowed down this process. would have been something that I think the American public could have understood and fully supported. However. what we have before us today is the bill that the Senate sent to us. They sent us the same exact bill that the House rejected. but they added another $150 billion. It still bails out foreign banks and raises the debt limit $1 trillion. That is what people believe is business as usual here in Washington. The bill still does not address the issues of fear and diminished financial capacity. Democrat Senator BILL NELSON from my home State of Florida actually voted against this bill in the Senate. Like Senator NELSON. I wanted to see an extension of the deductibility of State sales tax and an AMT patch. but that should have been in a separate bill. Instead it was added to this piece of legislation. Again. this is not a bill that I believe that I can vote for on behalf of my constituents. I said before that a vote for this bill is a vote to ratified business as usual in Washington. The added sweeteners and earmarks were only to get more votes. If you didnt take my word on that then. please look at the bill now and you will have proof.
Date: 2008-10-03
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. in a former life as Attorney General of California. I was required to sign off on any of the debt instruments that went to market to make sure that they followed the laws and the Constitution of the State of California. Never did we have difficulty floating shortterm loans in California in anticipation of the income revenues that would be coming in. However. just last night the governor of the State of California wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury indicating that California may very well have difficulty floating $7 billion in shortterm loans to cover expenses. I cant recall when that ever happened before. The reason is the squeeze on the credit market. That ought to bring us some pause here. But more importantly. over the last 2 days I was home in my district and I talked with people involved with hospitals. banks. automobile dealers. simple folks. my 91yearold mother whose entire future is wrapped up in the investments my dad left her. She has no pension. She has what my dad left her. When you see the volatility of the market and the uncertainty out there. that spreads fear among our folks back home. This is not a perfect bill. Certainly I dont ever argue this is a perfect bill. but it is the best we have right now. I would ask my colleagues to please support this bill. Those of you talking about the additional cost on the Senate side. the largest additional cost is fixing the AMT. It is the first time I have heard some of the people on my side of the aisle refer to that as a cost. That is giving taxpayers the kind of relief they deserve and preventing them from being put into higher tax brackets unnecessarily.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

I thank my friend. Mr. DREIER. and echo his words. Madam Speaker. I was hoping that we would not see this legislation brought forth under a martial law rule that is going to change. is going to waive. is going to waive the rules of the House so that legislation that was filed just a little while ago does not have 24 hours for the American people and the membership of this House to review and study. I think that it was not necessary to do this. I think its unfortunate for the martial law rule to have been brought forth to close down this process absolutely. The legislation that the House would be considering. obviously. with regard to the automobile industry. deals with a very important industry. I also beUeve that. as Mr. DREIER has stated. the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is one step that this Congress could and should take that would creo ate jobs for the American people. and it would create jobs throughout the entire Nation. I was hoping. Madam Speaker. that after the election. and the decibels of the electoral debate have been turned down. that we could have had consideration and a vote on that important. implementing legislation. legislation to implement the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. It is most unfortunate that the majority leadership has decided. in effect. to continue its policy. really. that offends our relationship with our best. best ally in South America. It hurts that relationship at this critical time. in addition to preventing in this delicate economic time. the creation of many. many jobs in the United States. So its most unfortunate that the majority leadership has decided to act in this irresponsible manner. not only closing down. unnecessarily. the process with regard to the legislation brought forth today. unnecessarily. but failing to consider that most important implementary legislation with regard to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. I am disappointed. Madam Speaker. and would have hoped that we would have seen another attitude after the election.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. I rise in opposition to this rule because it does not recognize that occasionally Congress does something right. I remember being on this floor some 20 years ago and debating with then the distinguished chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Peter Rodino. about reform of the Bankruptcy Code and specifically chapter 11. The question at that time was whether or not we are going to adapt the Bankruptcy Code so that chapter 11 would allow companies large and small to restructure themselves so that they could go on as enterprising entities. but now we are told that somehow there is something special about the Big Three auto manufacturers in Detroit that will not allow them to go through the process that we had Delta Airlines go through. that we have had very. very many companies go through. Somehow. it has been asserted that chapter 11 means death and destruction. Chapter 11 doesnt mean death and destruction. it means restructuring and rebirth. What happens is. when you go into bankruptcy court. everything is on the table. What we have heard discussed around here. and whats being presented to us is bankruptcylite. Its like bankruptcy. but we are not going to require it to be bankruptcy. Why? Because. somehow. that doesnt work. Well. ladies and gentlemen. it does work. And it doesnt put the American people. the taxpayers. behind promises that cant be kept. Because in a bankH1fl873 ruptcy court. the judge requires everybody to put their cards on the table. and then a decision is made as to what is the best interest of the entity so that they may continue to operate. So you have to ask yourself. why do people not want to go through bankruptcy? Perhaps its so that they dont have to do those things that would be required to make them enterprising entities. Now we have a circumstance where we are going to create a car czar. or czarina. to tell the manufacturers how they ought to operate their businesses. the ultimate irony. Congress telling somebody else how they ought to operate their .businesses in an economic fashion.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. there is an old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. and I think. today. we realize that the wellintentioned road may lead to bankruptcy. not just for the automakers but. perhaps. for the U.S. Treasury. Today. we have heard from wellmeaning Members of this House that. unless we send $15 billion to the Big 3. the American economy will fail. I dont doubt their sincerity. but I do disagree with their conclusions. Some of my constituents support the bailout. but most of them dont. As you can see from the picture next to me. the American citizens are hurting right now. The car in this picture is a Dodge Dynasty. Bythe way. this car has not been produced since 1993. so you can understand the angst of the car owner who realizes that his hardearned tax dollars and those of his children and grandchildren are going for these bailouts. His message is very clear: Where is my bailout? The bill before us today does nothing to address the real pain being felt by American citizens. Nothing helps to lower health care costs or to protect the mortgages on their homes. I would also like to say that we had. again. a rush to judgment. a rush to bringing the bill to the floor. and we need to be concerned about that process. Please remember that Chrysler is a privately owned entity by a massive hedge fund firm in New York City. This hedge fund firm is not willing to invest one cent more in Chrysler. and yet we are asking our cashstrapped taxpayers back home to do it for them. Like we saw with the last bailout boondoggle. there are not enough safeguards here. We have to remember. too. that the loan and the conditions that are attached to it do not correct the structural weaknesses at these companies. They merely postpone the consequences for a short while. They will be back for more and more and more.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. please let the record reflect that had I been present to vote on final passage for H.R. 7321. the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act. I would have voted "nay." This bill is a vague and ambiguous attempt to restructure the domestic auto industry and lacks the specificity necessary to protect taxpayers. This bill does nothing to guarantee that once domestic automakers receive billions of dollars in taxpayer money that they will become independent of government funding. The bill was introduced after 11 a.m. on December 10. 2008. However. the House began consideration of the bill at 2:30 p.m. the very same day. It is unreasonable to expect Members of Congress to take their first vote in less than five hours after a bill has been made public. If this language would have been made available at least 24 hours before being voted upon. I would have had adequate time to travel to Washington to cast this important vote. This is not the "open and fair government" that Democrats have promised. Other than being in Washington waiting for lastminute legislation to be introduced and voted on. Members of Congress have additional responsibilities and other obligations to their constituents that are just as important. This week. I have been in my district meeting with my constituents on various issues including ongoing international conflicts. I am disappointed and appalled that Democratic leadership has treated American taxpayer money in such an irresponsible manner.
Date: 2015-01-09
Speaker: JODY B. HICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

" or by conventions in three fourths thereof. as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress. provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article. and that no State. without its consent. shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."
Date: 2015-01-09
Speaker: MIMI WALTERS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Amendment XIX: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Date: 2015-01-13
Speaker: JODY B. HICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor the life of Mr. Hugh Tarbutton. Hugh will be fondly remembered and sorely missed. During his life. Hugh was many things: a husband. a father. a philanthropist. and an entrepreneur. Mr. Tarbutton attended the Sandersville high school and went on to Emory Oxford College. Among his many accolades. Hugh received the Emory Medal. which is the highest medal given and honor granted to Emory alumni. In addition to advancing education. Mr. Tarbutton championed economic growth in Georgia while serving as president and CEO of the Sandersville Railroad Company. Mr. Tarbutton is survived by his wife of 53 years. Gena. and their four childrenHugh. Jr.. Charles. Ben. and Loulieand their eight grandchildren. Hugh will be remembered in many ways. but to those who knew him best. he will be remembered as a great friend. Mr. Speaker. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life and legacy of Hugh Tarbutton.
Date: 2015-01-13
Speaker: JODY B. HICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I rise in strong support of this rule and the underlying bill. H.R. 240. the fiscal year 2015 Homeland Security Appropriations Act. Mr. Speaker. the primary responsibility of the President of the United States is to faithfully carry out the laws sent to him by Congress. Unfortunately. this President. over the past several years. has chosen time and time again to ignore our immigration laws in order to achieve his executive amnesty objectives. His actions continue to fundamentally threaten the separation of powers set forth by the Constitution that was read on this floor last Friday. and it needs to stop. This rule will provide the House with the opportunity to completely defund and end this executive amnesty. With the adoption of the amendments made in order under this rule. H.R. 240 will responsibly fund the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year and ensure the protection of our borders. while. at the same time. restoring the boundaries between the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government. In addition to defunding this power grab by the President. we will also consider an amendment that will express the sense of Congress that we should stop putting the interests of illegal immigrants above legal immigrants. who are being punished for simply obeying the law. Mr. Speaker. I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill.