macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-09-25
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill to amend title 18. United States Code. to provide for more effective prosecution of cases involving child pornography. and for other purposes.
Date: 2008-09-25
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may con-. sume. Mr. Speaker. the bill we are considering today combines two bills the House passed last November to strengthen the Justice Departments ability to prosecute child pornography. The first fixes a glaring loophole in the Federal statute prohibiting possession of child pornography. which a Federal appeals court last year said requires as an essential element of the offense proof that the images. here kept on a computer desk. had actually crossed State lines. Our colleague. NANCY BOYDA of Kansas. introduced H.R. 4120 to clarify that this statute covers conduct "in or affecting interstate commerce." not just"in commerce." This small change will have great legal significance. allowing that statute to reach the full extent of Congress commerce clause powers. Trafficking in child pornography is national and international in scope. and even conduct that may appear wholly intrastate necessarily affects interstate commerce. This will ensure that our laws reach to their maximum extent. and it is important. because child pornography is one of the worst things that exists in our culture. The Senate also inserted another Housepassed bill. H.R. 4136. introduced by CHRIS CARNEY of Pennsylvania. It adds child pornography proceeds to the money laundering statutes and fixes another loophole that allowed Internet users to get around the laws against possessing child pornography simply by not downloading or saving the images. Mr. Speaker. these two combined measures will be a tremendous help in the effort to put a stop to this disgusting. abominable exploitation of children and to bring to justice those who traffic in it. I want to commend Congresswoman NANCY BOYDA and Congressman CHRISTOPHER CARNEY for their sustained commitment to pursuing this effort so that we can see it enacted into law now. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2008-09-25
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the comments made by the gentleman from Utah. I enjoy working with him. as he knows. I urge Members to support this bill.
Date: 2008-09-25
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I want to thank the chairman of our Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce for his patience with me over the last year and a half. and I think I sometimes wear out my welcome on hearings and on moving this bill. I rise in strong support of H.R. 1343. the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2008. I would first like to thank Senator KENNEDY and Senator HATCH for sponsoring and moving this reauthorization through the Senate. and also our fellow Energy and Commerce Committee member CHIP PICKERING for his work on this bill and his service to both his State of Mississippi and our country. The Community Health Centers Program is one of the great health care successes of our country. Forty years after the program was first enacted at the urging of President Lyndon Johnson. health centers are located in 6.000 sites in all 50 States and serve as the medical home and family physician to 17 million people in medically underserved areas nationally. Community health centers have helped fill the medical void for lowincome and uninsured individuals and in 2006. community health centers provided care for over 700.000 Texans. But communities like my district in Houston are in dire need of more community health centers. Houston has approximately 1 million uninsured. but only 10 federally qualified health centers and is desperately in need of more community health centers. We are not the only district in the country facing a medical crisis with the uninsured and underinsured. The Health Centers Renewal Act of 2008 will reauthorize the Health Centers Program and provide over $2 billion a year for health community centers throughout the United States. This increased funding will allow more medically underserved communities to build new health centers. expand their health centers. and provide more services like dental and mental health care. In fact. this bill would allow health centers to expand their services to over 22 million patients in the next 5 years. which is almost 50 percent more than they serve today. Thats exactly why every Member of this House should support this bill. Community health centers have demonstrated time and again that if properly funded by Congress. they can meet the Nations tremendous need for quality. affordable health care. Community health centers are a vital safety net for the uninsured and underinsured in the country. With nearly 40 million uninsured and a health care crisis in our country right now. it would almost be irresponsible for anyone to vote against this bill. I thank you for this time.
Date: 2008-09-25
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. Im glad that we have a member of our Energy and Commerce Committee in the chair. and this is a great example of working together. I know my colleagues. both from Mississippi but also from Pennsylvania. we worked on other issues in this bill. and I would be more than happy to see what we can do next Congress. But this way. we have a reauthorization of the community health centers. and we can always improve on them and look forward to working with them again. bipartisan. across th6 aisle. because all of us look forward to expanding health centers for our community.
Date: 2008-09-25
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Madam Speaker. on rollcall No. 642. had I been present. I would have voted "aye." On ro/lcall No. 643. I would have voted "yea."
Date: 2008-09-26
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Tax Act of 2008 for the innovation it will drive and the fiscal responsibility it represents. In our efforts to fashion a bicameral way forward on these important incentives. I sincerely hope that my colleagues in the Senate will take yes for an answer and forward this compromise package to the President without delay. This progrowth legislation provides $15 billion for tax incentives in the areas of renewable energy. energy efficiency and conservation. It extends the production tax credit for wind. biomass. geothermal and hydropower facilities and expands that credit to include the promising field of marine renewables. It extends the investment tax credit for solar energy. fuel cells and microturbines for eight years and similarly extends the residential solar property credit for another eight years while removing the existing $2000 cap. And it extends important energy efficiency incentives across the residential. commercial and industrial sectorsincluding accelerated depreciation of smart grid systems and related equipmentwhile expediting next generation transportation technologies like cellulosic ethanol and plugin hybrids. On the extenders side of the equation. this legislation maintains important provisions in the code ranging from the R&D tax credit to encourage business innovation to IRA charitable rollover provisions that support the good works of our nonprofit sector to an abovetheline deduction for tuition costs and an enhanced child credit to help our families budgets during these challenging economic times. Moreover. to meet our colleagues in the Senate halfway. this legislation extends these provisions for two years. as in the Senate bill. and then pays for it by delaying the effective date of an offset the Senate has in principle already agreed to. Mr. Speaker. this is important. broadly supported. fiscally responsible legislation that needs to be enacted into law this year. I urge its immediate adoption.
Date: 2008-09-26
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. because our country urgently needs to create new jobs and provide vital relief for struggling families to get our economy moving forward again. I rise in strong support of our economic stimulus package. H.R. Our economyneeds two things right now to help workers and families. First. we must restore the confidence in the credit markets. confidence that was destroyed by the reckless lending and risktaking by banks and Wall Street institutions and the failure of the Bush administration to properly police and regulate those financial markets on behalf of the taxpayers. We must revive the credit markets to help the economy grow again and create jobs so that Americans can borrow at a reasonable rate. to make payroll at small businesses. invest in new equipment and inventory. borrow for college education. start a new business. buy an automobile or protect their pensions. Wall Street and Main Street are joined at the hip. We all share an interest in helping to restore the confidence in these markets that have been so battered by the lack of regulation over the last several years. Secondly. we must invest directly in new infrastructure. roads. bridges. mass transit. clean water and new schools to get America working together. to create good. wellpaying. goodpaying. middleclass jobs for Americans all across this country. Tens of thousands. hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs so far this year. The unemployment rate continues to go up month after month after month as people are looking for jobs to support their families. Our economic recovery package will yield immediate results. helping to get more Americans back to work. It provides for long overdue investment of $3 billion to repair crumbling schools and help children. while also creating construction jobs. muchneeded support for millions of unemployed Americans through extending the unemployment insurance benefits to help cover the basic living expenses of them and their families. a $500 million investment in job training programs to prepare workers for new jobs. to create new recycling projects that are so desperately needed in the parts of our country that are now in persistent drought conditions. and we need to use water more efficiently so that we can continue to have economic growth and the growth of jobs.
Date: 2008-09-26
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

That is what this legislation is about. It is about putting Americans to work here at home by making the basic investments. so that our transportation systems become more efficient. our water systems become cleaner. our recycling of water makes more efficient use of that water. and so that people and goods and services can move across this country as they should. We are not only falling behind the competition in terms of intellectual property. in terms of intellectual capital and science and engineering. we are falling behind in the basic infrastructure that is needed for this country to compete with the rest of the world in the movement of goods. in the education of our children and the improvement in our water systems and the infrastructure of our cities. This is an urgent piece of legislation. and I would encourage all of my colleagues to support it.
Date: 2008-09-26
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of this economic recovery package as a $63 billion shot in the arm for an economy that clearly needs it. As we debate the Presidents $700 billion bailout plan -for Wall Street. we must never forget the struggle on Main Street caused by eight years of failed economic policies. This legislation will grow our economy and create jobs by investing $34 billion in needed infrastructure improvements for our roads. bridges. water resources. schools. public transit. airports and housing.. It provides $1.6 billion to accelerate advanced battery. renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. And it offers a helping hand to our neighbors in need by extending unemployment benefits for an additional seven weeks. increasing food stamp support by $2.6 billion. bolstering our job training efforts by $500 million. and temporarily enhancing the federal match to state Medicaid programs in order to protect health care for our most vulnerable citizens. Mr. Speaker. with the President warning of "financial panic" and 605.000 American jobs already lost this year. this proactive effort to support our struggling economy is a modest. but important step. I urge my colleagues support.
Date: 2008-09-26
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I would like to take a moment to ask the Members to join me in paying a special tribute to one of the most respected and knowledgeable staffers here on Capitol Hill. After more than 30 years of Federal service. Chuck Turner is retiring from the Appropriations Committee today. Chuck is one of the finest examples of a public servant that we have in this institution. He has worked tirelessly on the Legislative Branch Subcommittee for more than 20 years. and leaves behind a record of integrity and service to this institution that few can match. The tremendous expertise and insight he has brought to the daytoday oversight of the House of Representatives and the entire legislative branch will be sorely missed. I have gotten to know Chuck over the past 2 years in my role as Chair of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee. We owe Chuck a deep debt of gratitude for the great contributions that he has made. and this rookie Cardinal owes him a tremendous personal debt. Chuck. we will miss you. We thank you for your service. and wish you good luck with all of your future endeavors. Godspeed.
Date: 2008-09-26
Speaker: COST SHARE (democrat)
Chamber: S

(1) IN GENERAL.-The Secretary of the Interior (hereinafter referred to as "Secretary"). in consultation and cooperation with the City of San Diego and the Sweetwater Authority. is authorized to undertake a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a four reservoir intertie system to improve water storage opportunities. water supply reliability. and water yield of the existing nonFederal water storage system. The feasibility study shall document the Secretarys engineering. environmental. and economic investigation of the proposed reservoir and intertie project taking into consideration the range of potential solutions and the circumstances and needs of the area to be served by the proposed reservoir and intertie project. the potential benefits to the people of that service area. and improved operations of the proposed reservoir and intertie system. The Secretary shall Indicate in the feasibility report required under paragraph (4) whether the proposed reservoir and intertie project is recommended for construction. (2) FEDERAL COST SHARE.-The Federal share of the costs of the feasibility study shall not exceed 50 percent of the total study costs. The Secretary may accept as part of the nonFederal cost share. any contribution of such inkind services by the City of San Diego and the Sweetwater Authority that the Secretary determines will contribute toward the conduct and completion of the study. (3) COOPERATION.-The Secretary shall consult and cooperate with appropriate State. regional. and local authorities in implementing this subsection. (4) FEASIBILITY REPORT.-The Secretary shall submit to Congress a feasibility report for the project the Secretary recommends. and to seek. as the Secretary deems appropriate. specific authority to develop and construct any recommended project. This report shall include(A) good faith letters of intent by the City of San Diego and the Sweetwater Authority and its nonFederal partners to indicate that they have committed to share the allocated costs as determined by the Secretary. and (B) a schedule identifying the annual operation. maintenance. and replacement costs that should be allocated to the City of San Diego and the Sweetwater Authority. as well as the. current and expected financial capability to pay operation. maintenance. and replacement costs.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this bill. While we do need to focus our efforts to combat criminal activity related to intellectual property. the unbounded forfeiture provision in this bill isnt about going after. criminals. its about going after the Internet. The language in the House bill. the bill that we sent over. although problematic in some ways. at least had some measures to ensure that there was a meaningful connection between the property subject to seizure and the underlying offense. This bill. back from the Senate. strips away those assurances. It subjects to seizure "any property used. or intended to be used. in any manner or part to commit or facilitate the commission of an offense." That unqualified language means that virtually anything through which Internet traffic passes is subject to seizure. no matter how incidental the connection to the offense or how innocent the owner. This provision shifts the liability for infringementand thus responsibility from enforcementonto innocent intermediaries. whether they are ISPs. businesses. schools. libraries. or consumers. We have seen this before this year and will likely see it again as time goes on. We saw the same type of provisionsalthough not as wildly extravagantin the Higher Education Act. even after colleges told us it would divert resources from their primary mission of education. Were seeing it in the secret negotiations on the AntiCounterfeiting Trade Agreement that apparently is going to. in some manner. require ISPs to police the conduct of their users. potentially in violation of their privacy rights. I understand why the content industry pushes for these measures. Theyre trying to protect an analog business model in the digital environment. and thats difficult and expensive. and treating ones customers like criminals is bad for PR. Accordingly. the content industry has every incentive to make others do the work for it. What I dont understand is why Congress goes along with these proposals. With each successive Congress. copyright law and policy becomes less of a balanced system of rights to promote creativity and innovation and more of a set of tools by which certain corporate interests protect themselves. In our unbridled zeal for IP enforcement and utter indifference to the rights of users and consumers. we are losing sight of the underlying principles of our copyright system. This bill takes us further away. from those principles. And I would add that I cant think of a single other circumstance where civil libertarians would even consider the concept of seizing the property of innocent bystanders in any other legal scheme. whether it was fraud or any other matter. We wouldnt permit that. and we should not permit it in this case. I urge that we defeat this bill. And although there are some provisions in it that are meritorious. there is consensus for those. we can certainly adopt them next year. I urge defeat and yield back to the chairman with thanks.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I would certainly like to commend Congressman RODRIGUEZ and Senator SCHUMER. This is a measure that I support. Mr. Speaker. I would just like to note there is another measure that we have marked up in the Judiciary Committee that would broadly assist our American soldiers and their families. I hope that in the same spirit of collaboration we see this evening. we will be able to achieve that wonderful advance for the fathers. mothers. wives. -spouses. and sons and daughters of our brave American soldiers.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill to amend the Improving Americas Schools Act of 1994 to make permanent the favorable treatment of needbased educational aid under the antitrust laws.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may consume. The NeedBased Educational Aid Act. sponsored by our colleagues BILL DELAHUNT of Massachusetts and Ranking Member LAMAR SMITH of Texas. extends an antitrust exemption that permits colleges to agree to award financial aid on a needblind basis and to use common principles of needs analysis in making their determinations. This exemption also permits the use of a common aid application form in exchange of student financial information through a third party. In 1992. Congress passed the first exemption. It has expired several times. and it is now set to expire in -4 days. We hope to avoid that by passing this bipartisan legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. the exemption that we are renewing today has worked well. It makes sure that schools dont have to compete for the very top students. which could result in some students. the top students. getting excess aid while the rest of the applicant pool receives less or. in some cases. none at all. As mentioned by Mr. SMITH. it was sent back to us by the Senate. The exemption is extended to 2015. Enacting this today protects needbased aid and needblind admissions. and it will help preserve the opportunity for all students to attend one of the Nations most prestigious schools. As Mr. SMITH has noted. we hope someday to have a permanent extension. but for now. we need to pass this bill. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill to extend the special immigrant nonminister religious worker program and for other purposes.
Date: 2008-09-27
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may consume. S. 3606 reauthorizes the Special Immigrant Nonminister Reigious Worker Program. which provides an avenue for nuns. monks and other religious workers to come to the United States to do their important work. If we do not act. this program will sunset in just 4 days. On April 15 of this year. we passed H.R. 5570 to reauthorize the program for 7 years. As sent over from the Senate. the bill allows the program to expire on March 6. 2009. While this unfortunate limitation will require Congress to revisit this issue promptly next year. I believe the program is too important to let expire. The 5.000 religious workers eligible for these visas each year are called to a vocation or are in traditional religious occupations with bona fide nonprofit religious organizations. They are missionaries. counselors. religious instructors. and other pastoral care providers. There is a bipartisan consensus around this program. It has been extended four times since first enacted in 1990. We haveworked with Mr. SMITH to craft provisions to guard against potential fraud. The Senate bill incorporates those protections. I think this is a sound bill. and I hope that were able to pass it tonight. I reserve the balance of my time.