macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2011-05-25
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. decades of a spending party by both parties have led to the point where we are today. Were under crushing amounts of debt. Now we are borrowing about $58.000 per second-$58.000 per second. As some of my colleagues have shared. Im going to read this as well. Its a quote for those who cant see it: "Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead. Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem. America deserves better." Senator Barack Obama in 2006. Now the President has asked those of us in this Chamber to vote to increase the debt limit without any structural spending reforms. Let me repeat that. He has now asked us to send a bill to him that has no structural spending reforms. We are borrowing $58.000 a second. Does that sound like a failure of leadership? I think it does. Here is what thats like. Its like an irresponsible teenager taking out a credit card in your name. They fill it out. The bill will come to you. You get that bill and you see that your irresponsible teenager has run up that credit card. and now the bill is coming due. You have a couple of choices. You could pay that credit card and let it be. Thats what the President is asking us to do. pay the credit card and then walk away. I dont think very many parents would say okay to that. Or you could not pay the credit card. Thats going to impact your credit. Or you could pay that credit card and then cut it up. Those are the choices before us. I would agree with the 2006 Senator Barack Obama when he said that the buck has to stop here. The buck does stop here. which is why House Republicans have put forward over $6 trillion worth of spending reform ideas. We actually dont need them to enact all $6 trillion of those. We could enact $2 trillion of those and avert a debt crisis. But the President and some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have said. no. no. no. thats irresponsible. Coming back to this quote. I would agree with the thenSenator Barack Obama that those bad choices are being shifted onto our children and our grandchildren. and the buck does have to stop here. Since 1964. Congress has voted to raise the debt limit. the debt ceiling. 74 times74 times. I suggest to you that unless we require a cutup of the credit card. unless we require structural spending reforms. 20 years from nowif our economy can subsist that longour children are going to be asking why did no one do something about this? Because we are under crushing. crushing debt burdens. And its going to impact jobs not just today. Were talking about our future and our childrens ability to grow. prosper. and thrive. In an America where we had those opportunities. they are not going to have those same opportunities. I refuse to make it easier to allow our debt to get so crushing that economic recovery is permanently beyond our reach. Its time for a culture change in Washington. DC. and that starts with real spending cuts accompanying any debt limit negotiations.
Date: 2011-05-31
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and concur in the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 16) authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for an event to celebrate the birthday of King Kamehameha.
Date: 2011-05-31
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
Date: 2011-05-31
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am pleased to support this resolution authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall on June 5 to celebrate the birthday of King Kamehameha of Hawaii. King Kamehameha. often called Kamehameha the Great. is a legendary figure in Hawaiian history and culture. and rightly so. He fought heroically for its unity and independence at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. His law. or Rule of the Splintered Paddle. protecting noncombatants during wartime has been commended for its justness and established a human rights benchmark that would later be built upon in the Geneva Conventions. An illustrious statue of King Kamehameha is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. and it now sits in the Capitol Visitor Center. visible to millions of our fellow citizens. On June 11. the people of Hawaii will celebrate the 95th annual King Kamehameha Day in Hawaii. In adopting the resolution. the Members of the House will join our colleagues in the Senate in authorizing the use of the Capitol Visitor Center for a similar celebration here in Washington. D.C. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this resolution.
Date: 2011-05-31
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. in closing. I would just say that it gives me great pleasure to join my colleague from Hawaii in bringing this resolution to the floor. particularly because my daughter. who was married in this town on Sunday. is on her way to Hawaii to celebrate her honeymoon and I believe will actually still be there on the 5th of June. so that she will see that up close and personal. I would urge all my colleagues to support this resolution.
Date: 2011-06-01
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. you know. since this President has taken office. we have had the failed stimulus. omnibus. TARP II. Government Motors. the government takeover of health care. Well. the buck stops here. Literally. House Republicans refuse to give the spenderinchief a blank check to pay for his reckless ways. If the President even wants to think about moving forward with the debt limit increase. he needs to know that Americans want Congress to drastically cut spending. Across the Nation. people have cut back and stretched their hardearned dollars in order to make it through these tough times. The government must do the same. Were facing a debt crisis because Washington spends too much and wastes too much. Raising the debt limit without a deep spending cut amounts to a Barack Obama biggovernment bailout. Enough is enough. Stop the Obama bailout now.
Date: 2011-06-14
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise to celebrate the newly crowned NBA champions. the Dallas Mavericks. They came together. persevered. and played exceptionally well as a team. The MVP of the series. Dirk Nowitzki. will go down in history as a tireless worker and humble team player who shined both on and off the court. Im proud of the Mavs firstever NBA championship title and hope there are many more to come. It is Flag Day. and I think its noteworthy that this team is emblematic of the American spiritas individuals they are good. but when they come together. they are great. God bless Texas. God bless the Mavs. I salute you.
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: AUSTIN SCOTT (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Madam Chair. I know that $250.000 sounds like a lot of money. It will buy you a third of a new John Deere cotton picker. From our standpoint as a country. agriculture and manufacturing have been the foundations of our economy. The things that we need to get our economy back on track are access to capital and regulatory certainty. And when you make changes that are this drastic on the floor through an amendment process instead of going through the committee process where it should be done. then you hinder those two things. Farmers lose confidence. and their lenders lose confidence in Federal policy. and that does away with the stability and predictability that some of these issues are designed to provide. The loans necessary to operate the business may become harder to come by if we start to make amendments like this and allow amendments like this on the floor. I simply rise to say this: Agriculture has been strong. Its been one of the bright spots in America. and it will continue to be one of the bright spots in America because of the work ethic of the people involved in the agricultural industry. I would ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment and allow us to deal with this in the Agriculture Committee in the farm bill that we will be starting over the next couple of weeks. Madam Chair. I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Arizona .
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on House Administration be discharged from further consideration of the joint resolution (S.J. Res. 7) providing for the reappointment of Shirley Ann Jackson as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on House Administration be discharged from further consideration of the joint resolution (S.J. Res. 9) providing for the reappointment of Robert P. Kogod as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent the committee on House Administration be discharged from further consideration of House Resolution 299 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I call up the bill to improve certain administrative operations of the Library of Congress. and for other purposes. and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration in the House.
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on Senate Joint Resolution 7. Senate Joint Resolution 9. House Resolution 299. and H.R. 1934.
Date: 2011-06-16
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today. it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. on Monday next.
Date: 2011-06-21
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

As the youngest woman in the U.S. Congress. Im proud to be here tonight joined by my colleagues from across the Nation. And Im here tonight to politely decline the antiwoman label that some who must not have better things to do have pushed our way. because the women here in this Chamber. the Republican women on this side of the aisle. as youve heard. are incredibly diverse. Theyre cops. attorneys. Theyve served. theyre moms. some of them have served in public office like myself. Theres a tremendous group of problemsolvers here and thats what we need. We know that we need solutions. and the most important solution we can find right now has to do with bringing more jobs to folks at home. making sure that we have good. strong American jobs that will support our families. And as Congress looks for the job creation solutions that so many Americans are craving. I believe that we Republican women possess or bring a special skill to the table. One of my woman colleagues summed it up best when she said. women take technical problems and come up with creative solutions. Were simply better at looking at the issues from outside the box. I believe much of what she said. and I think thats one of the reasons that you see us here tonight fighting for the families back home. whether its home in southwest Washington. where theyve been out of work. where its the mom who knows how much it costs to put gas in the tank. how much it costs for health care. for the education bills. whos worried about her older parents and making sure that they have access to health care. or thinking about her children and her grandchildren. Its these women in and throughout our Nation who have really borne the brunt of this economy. So its very important that were at the table here tonight pushing back on that label. because we do represent those American women. and the solutions that were bringing and that were fighting for are going to make it so that those women who have dreams to start their own business. to plan for retirement. who want to see less of their hardearned dollars going into the gas tank. those are the women were standing up for tonight. and the solutions that were bringing forward are going to help them help their families. help our communities. and help our country. I recognize we have limited time here tonight. and I thank you for allowing me to share and stand up with these tremendous ladies.
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. I might just say that. in answer to the question raised by my friend from Virginia "why would anyone oppose this?" it is because of the Constitution. This provision. section 18. is clearly violative of the Constitution. It would have you believe that you could go to court. an article III court. and have a final decisiona final judgmentrendered by a court. including a jury. Then after that. theres not an appeal to an appellate court but an appeal somehow back to an administrative agency? Does anybody sense there is a violation of the separation of powers? Does anybody understand what the Court said in the Plaut case. which said that the Constitution gives the Federal judiciary the power to not merely rule on cases but to decide them subject to review only by superior courts in article III hierarchy? You can argue all you want. but thats what the Supreme Court says. This is an obvious. blatant violation of the Constitution. Thats the answer to my friends who say we have to have this provision. Yes. it may be that the U.S. Constitution is the inconvenient truth here. We are not allowed to violate it even though we do it with the best of intentions. The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Illinois is recognized for 30 seconds.
Date: 2011-06-23
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

You know. its really interesting. There are two different philosophies competing here. One is government does it best. and the one you hear tonight is that the American people do it best. This last week in the Small Business Committee. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was there defending how slowly they have moved to make credit available to small business. When I think about small business ownersSteak Burger in Vancouver. you can get a great steak burger there. steak sandwichyou know. these are small businesses that are hiring young people. high schoolers. kids in college. And as they are trying to keep some of these parttime. minimumwage kids in jobs. right. its making it harder for them when the Treasury Secretary believes that raising taxes is how we meet the spending binge here. Its just ridiculous. Its two fundamentally different beliefs. We here on the House floor tonight believe that Americans can grow jobs and manage their own money much better than the Treasury Secretary or than Washington. D.C. Its just plain simple. So. thank you.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I move to strike the last word. The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman from Washington is recognized for 5 minutes.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

We are working on making this amendment something that can be passed as a part of this bill. but I just want to speak in support of it and share part of the reason I am very honored to be working with the gentleman from Vermont on this. Basically. we are in Afghanistan right now helping to rebuild. or in many cases build from scratch. infrastructure. And when we leave that countryand I do hope it will be soonwe will leave that infrastructure behind. Power grids. water systems. trained law enforcement are the building blocks of a functioning society. We will spend or have spent hundreds of millions. if not billions. of dollars on improvements meant to better the lives of the people in Afghanistan. The reason I supported this amendment is we dont need to also be paying taxes to the Afghan Government for the privilege of rebuilding that country. and thats why I cosponsored the amendment. The Department of Defense funding should be focused on providing soldiers training in the field and on the front lines with the tools they need to protect themselves and defend our country. This amendment would uphold or. as it was offered. as we attempted. would uphold existing law and clarify existing agreements between the U.S. and Afghanistan. prohibiting Afghanistan from taxing U.S. subcontractors doing work in Afghanistan. So this ban on levying taxes would also apply to all subcontractors that may not have direct contracts with Afghanistan. In other words. if a company is working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. whether that company is a prime contractor or a subcontractor. that company should not be subject to taxes from the Afghan Government. It seems pretty simple. These are the contractors doing the work of rebuilding in Afghanistan. helping rebuild the infrastructure and hopefully allowing them to one day thrive independently. So common sense and financial prudence says the U.S. should not be subject to taxation for the rebuilding efforts it is paying for. That was what we were getting at with this amendment.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

Very good. We will continue to work on this issue. and I thank you for hearing my point. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2011-07-07
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

Madam Chair. we are in Afghanistan right now. helping to rebuild. or in many cases build from scratch. infrastructure. And when we leave that country. and I do hope we will be leaving soon. we will leave that infrastructure behind. power grids. water systems. trained law enforcement. the building blocks of a functioning society. We will spend billions of dollars on improvements meant to better the lives of the Afghan people. We dont need to also pay taxes to the Afghan Government for the privilege of building or rebuilding their country. And thats why I am happy to bring this amendment to the floor tonight for consideration. The Department of Defense should be focused on providing soldiers in training. in the field. and on the front lines with the tools they need to protect themselves and defend our country. This amendment would uphold existing law and clarify existing agreements between the U.S. and Afghanistan prohibiting Afghanistan from taxing U.S. contractors doing this rebuilding work in Afghanistan. Now. this ban on levying taxes would also apply to all subcontractors that may not have direct contracts with Afghanistan. In other words. if a company is working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. whether that company is a prime contractor or a subcontractor. that company should not be subject to taxes from the Afghani Government. These are the contractors doing rebuilding work in Afghanistan. helping rebuild the Afghanis infrastructure. and hopefully allowing them to one day thrive independently. Common sense and financial prudence says that the U.S. should not be subject to taxation for the rebuilding efforts it is paying for. Hardworking Americans send their tax dollars to Washington so that soldiers on the front lines have the tools they need to protect themselves and our country. not fill the coffers of a foreign government. So I urge its adoption. With that. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2011-07-15
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. the President wants Congress to raise the debt ceiling without a corresponding plan to cut spending and balance the budget and insists raising taxes is the only way forward. The reality is that doing so amounts to a Barack Obama bailout for his outofcontrol spending that got us here in the first place: a bailout for his $1 trillion ObamaCare. a bailout for the failed stimulus. a bailout for "Government Motors." a bailout for Fannie and Freddie. According to a new poll in Politico. voters expressed significantly more support for spending cuts. and only 11 percent of voters see tax hikes as the main way of closing the deficit. America has got it right: its time to cut spending. balance the budget. and pay down the debt for our children and our grandchildren without raising taxes. Just say "no" to a Barack Obama bailout. Even his bailouts need a bailout.
Date: 2011-07-20
Speaker: SUE MYRICK (republican)
Chamber: H

She has been a mentor to me but mostly a friend. I thank you. SUE. for coming today and sharing your thoughts.
Date: 2011-07-22
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. last night I had a town hall. Obviously I wasnt there. I had to be here. So we did it by way of Internet. And it was amazing how the consensus of those who were there was a request for those of us to take seriously our leadership responsibilities and do something about the fiscal mess we are in. In answering them. I was thinking about what the Presidents bipartisan deficit commission leaders said about the plan we passed here in the House. They called it a serious. honest. straightforward approach to addressing our Nations enormous fiscal challenges. It sounds like thats the answer to the questions that were being asked last night by our constituents. Interestingly enough. there is a poll out. rendering an opinion by the American people on the Cut. Cap. and Balance bill that we passed here in the House. Over 60 percent of the American people happen to think its a good idea. Perhaps we ought to stop the name calling and look at what the American people are telling us to do and get serious. as the Presidents bipartisan deficit commission said. and come up with a serious. honest. straightforward approach to addressing our Nations enormous fiscal challenge.