macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2003-11-21
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. today the Republican party will finally do what It has been trying to do for 35 years. destroy Medicare. Claude Pepper. my mentor on health care issues. the most well known advocate for seniors. a man who fought for years and years to strengthen Medicare and Social Security. would be rolling in his grave if he were here today. This is a life and death Issue for many of our senior citizens. and this hollow bill does nothing for them. A snake is a snake. no matter what color it Is. And AARP is getting into bed with a snake. the Republican party. in supporting this bill. To the AARP leadership. I have some sage advice that my Grandmother used to tell me: "Those who sleep with dogs. wake up with fleas". Each provision In this bill Is one more nail in the coffin of a program that has guaranteed health care for this Nations seniors for 38 years. Under the Republican plan. HMOs that offer an alternative to Medicare will pick and choose their customers. and get paid more than Medicare to do it. And yes folks. these are the same Plus Choice providers that are fleeing your districts in droves. and leaving your seniors with absolutely no healthcare options. Even more disturbing is the fact that this bill prohibits. yes. prohibits. Medicare from using Its bargaining power to cut drug prices. What happened In the 2000 election is a U.S.A. coup detat. This is what happens when you dont have fair elections. Folks. it matters who is in the White House. This Is entirely a Republican Initiative. and their goal is to destroy Social Security and Medicare entirely. Their goals is not to modernize it. but to have it wither on the vine.
Date: 2003-12-08
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. on rollcall No. 672. I missed due to unavoidable circumstances. Had I been present. I would have voted "nay."
Date: 2003-12-08
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. earlier today I was unavoidably detained and missed two recorded votes on the House floor. I ask unanimous consent that my statement appear in the RECORD that had I not been unavoidably detained earlier this morning. I would have voted "no" on rollcall vote No. 672 (Previous Question) and "no" on rollcall vote No. 673 (Passage of Martial Law Rule).
Date: 2004-01-28
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of this motion to recommit this bill with instructions to ensure that members of our military. veterans and their families are afforded bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7. Every American knows that our Nations greatest debt is to the men and the women who have worn the uniform of our country so that we can live in freedom and prosperity. Unfortunately. this has come at a very high price to many of the service members and to their families. The war on terror is taking an entirely new toll. and a considerable portion of the burden is falling on our reservists. Never before have we asked so much of our troops. Nearly 250.000. including 120.000 reservists. have been fighting or are scheduled to begin service. Nearly 40 percent of the reservists suffer a major loss in income during this time. For many. the difference can amount to tens of thousands of dollars. As a result. service members are falling behind in their mortgages. depleting their life savings. losing personal businesses and racking up significant credit card debt. My colleagues might be surprised to know that some that are suffering the worst -are medical doctors. selfemployed -doctors who were in private practices. but now have to leave them. have to keep the fixed overhead and pay that and come back. Their patients are gone. their nurses are gone. and they have thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. Mr. Speaker. this country has a history of undertaking efforts to secure legal protections so that service members can devote their energy to the defense needs of our Nation. This motion would continue those efforts. I urge all of my colleagues to vote "yes...
Date: 2004-01-28
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. on January 28. 2004. due to an illness. I unfortunately missed four recorded votes on S. 1920. I would like the RECORD to reflect that had I been present. I would have voted in the following manner: Mr. Speaker. on Rolicall No. 8. I would have voted "aye." Mr. Speaker. on Rollcall No. 9. I would have voted "aye." Mr. Speaker. on Rollcall No. 10. I would have voted "aye." Mr. Speaker. on Rolicall No. 11. I would have voted "aye."
Date: 2004-02-03
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. let me hasten to thank the leaders of this resolution and all of the cosponsors and our esteemed leaders of the committee. I rise today in support of House Resolution 507. expressing the profound sorrow of the House of Representatives on the anniversary of the accident that cost the lives of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Let me express my appreciation to all of the members of the committee that has been nonpartisan and cohesive in considering all of our concerns coming before that esteemed committee. I am very certain that the lives of these people have not been lost in vain. This space exploration research program has been one of the most successful research programs in the history of our country. We know that because we have investigated. we have listened to reports that we will improve upon what caused this accident. and we can hopefully say that this will never happen again. Over 40 years ago the foresight of persons that came along before us caused us to get into this type of research. We also owe those leaders some homage for their foresight. and I am hoping that we will then have the foresight to continue the research. Human space exploration is inherently risky. Distance. speed and environment that cannot support human life combine to make human space flights particularly precarious. Unfortunately. the world has new evidence of the dangers associated with space exploration. Millions watched as images of a singular. brilliant point of light in the sky became two. three and four points of light as the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over my home State of Texas and my hometown of Dallas.
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. I want to begin by thanking the gentleman from Nebraska
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. we have no further speakers. and I yield back our time. We can move -right to the substitute. I think we were debating the substitute in any case.
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I want to make a point because I think the previous speaker in the well completely misstates history. This is not about driving anybody away who wants to help our communities. One of the other speakers talked about rolling back time. We have 30 years of experience where faithbased organizations have stepped up to the plate to help our communities. to help our families. to help our children. to help our homeless. and they have been doing it all along. They were there before the government programs were there. They were there with the initial programs in the 1960s. It was the only way we could get services delivered. Now. to suggest that somehow because we do not think that they should discriminate in the hiring that we are chasing them away. they were there before this was the law. I was building houses with Habitat for Humanity before 1998. This is not about that. This is about whether or not people in good faith who walked through the front door who need a job who have a talent are going to be chased away because of their religion. That is what this is about. whether or not a completely wellqualified individual who walks in and asks for a job to help out. and is told they cannot have that job because of their religion. that is who is being chased away. people of good faith and intentions who need help in our community who need a job and who are qualified to do the job.
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I move to strike the requisite number of words. So would the Jewish and Muslim citizens of this country be amazed. I yield to the gentlewoman from California .
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I rise in support of this substitute to H.R. 3030. which will improve the Community Services Block Grant. In the Republican version of H.R. 3030. a church could decide that an individual is not qualified to work in a federally funded community services program. simply because that individual does not hold the same religious beliefs. There is no question that this is a clear violation of civil rights. It must be amended. Religious organizations provide essential community services around the country. However. we must not allow these organizations to discriminate against people who want to work in federally funded social service programs. The Democratic substitute would forbid such discriminatory practices. Dont misunderstand me. I absolutely support the amazing work that local religious organizations do to help poor and disadvantaged families. In Orange County. the Orange County Rescue mission provides food and shelter to disadvantaged men and women. This work is necessary. and appreciated. Indeed. this good work should continue. Religious organizations should receive funding for community programs. The Democratic amendment would allow churches and other religious organizations to receive federal funds for community programs. But religious groups should follow the same civil rights protections secular organizations are required by law to follow in order to receive Federal dollars. Religious and civil rights groups support this effort. too. because they understand that discrimination based on religion has no place in the Community Services Block Grant program. These groups also know that Democrats support programs that help povertystricken individuals. whether those programs are operated by secular or religious organizations. The Democratic amendment will preserve Federal support to religious organizations providing critical community services. It only serves to strengthen those programs by holding them to the same standard of civil rights in employment practices that all other organizations must follow. Please join me in supporting this amendment.
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. we have a remedy today. You vote for this amendment. and we can tell the 61.000 people from North Carolina who are expected to lose their jobs over the next 6 months that we will help them ard their families until they find a job. You can tell the 66.000 people in Florida that we will help them and their families and their children until they find a job. or the 51.000 people in Georgia or the 314.000 people in the State of California that this government will help them until they can find employment. Compassionate conservatism? Sounds pretty good to me. Where is the compassion? These are breadwinners. These are providers for families. Where is it that we cannot help them? There is $17 billion in the Unemployment Trust Fund that was put there by the work and the sweat and the toil of Americas workers. and what we are asking you today is to authorize that those funds be released for the next 6 months so that these people.can have an opportunity to hold on to their house. to hold on to their health care. to hold on to their children. because that is what happens when you lose all of your financial support: you start to lose your family. you start to see divorce is a possibility. you start to lose your mortgage. you start to lose your car. and you have got to start all over again and you are 50 years old. That is an America of compassionate conservatism? That is the America of Bush compassionate conservatism? No. that is a very meanspirited America. But you have an opportunity to turn that around today. You have an opportunity to turn it around immediately. Pass this amendment and ask for a supplemental to take those hardearned worker funds that are in the trust fund. that are there for their benefit. for exactly this purpose in this economic emergency and help those 375.000 people that this administration pushed off the employment cliff and the economic cliff in this country last month.
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

When would we have that debate? When is that bill coming to the floor? Why did it not come to the floor just before we went home for Christmas? Why did it not come to the floor before these people fell off the edge?
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield 1 minutes to the gentleman from Washington . a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.
Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield 1 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu). (Mr. WU asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. WU. Mr. Chairman. recently I held town hall meetings across the congressional district that I am privileged to represent in Oregon. In Scappoose on Monday night. the first person to speak was a woman who told me that she had been unemployed for a long time. Her benefits had run out. She is terrified of losing her health care. And most galling for an Oregonian. she is thinking about moving to California and taking a job while leaving her children and family behind. Oregon has a jobless rate of 7.2 percent. Scappoose. located in Columbia County. has. an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent. But these are not just naked statistics. Each one of these unemployed people risks losing their car. their home. of being unable to afford college payments or vital health care for their family. So today we are called upon to show some compassion and extend unemployment benefits. At the end of the same town meeting in Scappoose. a fellow got up and asked. "Who can solve this? Who can make a difference in this?" He asked a straight question and I gave him a straight answer. If the President of the United States picked up the phone and asked for a straight extension of unemployment benefits. it would happen this week. And I said that before I knew that the Miller amendment would be up for a vote today. So today I would like to say to the President of the United States. it is time to phone home. It is time to phone home so that you feel the passion. the anger. and the pain of millions of Americans who have been without work for a long time and are now without unemployment benefits. I ask for an "aye" vote on the Miller amendment.
Date: 2004-02-10
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. it is indeed a great honor to rise before this body as a strong supporter of the H. Con. Res. 357. I first want to thank my distinguished colleague. Ms. WATSON for her diligent work on this resolution. And I also wish her a speedy recovery. Mr. Speaker. it is because of people like Dorothy Height that wecan all enjoy the freedom that America bestows upon her people. Ms. Height is a pioneer and trailblazer. Like other pioneers. both celebrated and unknown. she has opened the doors of opportunity to all. making America the free country it is today. From the very beginning. Dorothy Height was a crusader. During the depths of the Great Depression she managed to do something very few of her contemporaries were able to accomplish. She knew that education was a key to making ones way in the world and the way to enlighten the path for others. She graduated from New York University with a bachelors and a masters degree in Education in 1933. Immediately afterward. she launched a career in civil rights. She has remained on the battlefield for six decades. Her first venue for advocating the rights of others was the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA). Here she led an advocacy movement aimed at improving conditions for black domestic workers. Within the YWCA. she worked to integrate an organization that still had separate facilities for blacks and whites. Because of her determined and dogged efforts. women of all racial backgrounds could use the same facilities with the same privileges. Her leadership. at the national level resulted in the YWCA adopting an interracial charter in 1946 that called on the organization and its members to stand against racial injustice in the United States. After her work with the YWCA. Ms. Height became president of the National Council of Negro Women. She steered the organization through the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. She helped organize voter registration in the South. at a time when it was dangerous and nearly impossible to be an AfricanAmerican voter below the MasonDixon line. Ms. Height also organized voter education programs and scholarship programs for student civil rights workers. In 1970 Dorothy Height expanded the goals of the NCNW to encompass vocational training and assist women in opening businesses. forms of education that were not readily available to women at the time. Since then. Dorothy Height has served as a social services expert on local. state. and federal governmental committees concemed with womens issues. She has also led numerous campaigns for the war on drugs. encouraging youngsters to take advantage of education and vocational training. Mr. Speaker. in 1996. the United States Government recognized Dorothy Heights achievements with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I am pleased. Mr. Speaker. to join my friend. the gentlewoman from California. Ms. WATSON. in support of this most appropriate use of the rotunda of the Capitol of the United States.
Date: 2004-02-11
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. first of all. let me commend both the gentlewoman from Texas and. of course. the gentlewoman from. California and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Members for forging these kinds of debates and discussions on the floor of the House of Representatives. the peoples House. I have got to just take a moment to remind everyone that I am the congresswoman from Florida. the Third Congressional District of Florida. I. along with the gentleman from Florida
Date: 2004-02-11
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

As the gentlewoman said. as far as HUD is concerned. with the cutting out of the programs. prevention programs that were supported. and in addition we are cutting the COPS program that helped the community.
Date: 2004-02-11
Speaker: BEN NELSON (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. munity. today I would like to share with my And the community of McCook was colleagues and the nation a tribute to there again for Scotts family when a friend of mine from Nebraska. news. spread that he had passed. The On Sunday. February 8. 2004. Scott letters. phone calls and testaments to Hoffman of McCook. NE. passed away. Scott have poured in from Nebraskans His family lost a loving husband and across the State and as far away as Affather. I lost a friend and trusted mem- rica. It is overwhelming. but comber of my staff. And the State of Ne- forting. because we know that albraska lost a proud native son and though Scott is gone. he will not be someone who embodied the attributes forgotten. In his 33 years. he has left often used to describe our State- his mark in McCook and his friends strong. hard working. caring and deep- and neighbors will ensure that his ly invested in his community. memory lives on. We are deeply saddened by the tragic Scott was a good friend to many in loss of our coworker and friend. Our the McCook area and across Nebraska. thoughts and prayers are with Scotts including me. Diane and everyone on wife Darcey. their sons Christian and my staff. He will be missed and rememStephen. his daughter Danae. and the bared fondly by all who knew him. esentire Hoffman family. pecially those of us who had the pleasScott was a devoted family man. a ure of working with him. Personally. I dedicated public servant and a true am going to miss his advice. his hard friend. Scott seemed to always have his work on behalf of Nebraska. and most finger on the pulse of Southwest Na- of all. the friendship I was so fortunate braska. There isnt a community or a to share with him. He will be deeply cause that isnt familiar with Scotts missed 63y all of us. work advocating for -the entire region. A friend of Scotts at the McCook GaBack when I was considering running zette wrote this week of Scott that he in the 2000 Senate elections. I visited "spent his time well." His activities on the local paper. the McCook Gazette. his last day with us bear that out. He for an editorial board meeting. Scott took his sons Christian and Stephen was a member of the newspaper staff at sledding. He went grocery shopping for the time. After the meeting he walked his family. He took his beloved dogs for me out to the car and asked if he could a walk. In some ways it seems that he join my campaign staff. We hired him was called from this life at a moment and that was one of the best decisions of great peace. having fulfilled his duI made. ties to protect and provide for his famScott had a knack for working with ily. His loss leaves us with unanswered people. He could as easily commu- questions but also fills us with the satisfaction of knowing Scott loved us. and was loved in return. And that is what makes life fulfilling. I ask that two articles in tribute to Scott from his hometown paper the McCook Gazette be printed in their entirety in the RECORD. The documents follow: [From the McCook Daily Gazette. Feb. 10. 2004]
Date: 2004-02-24
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. as a Member elected from Florida. I have always supported the citizens of Haiti. and I was one of the ones that went and witnessed the fair election of Mr. Aristide. Let me just say that it was just as fair as the election that took place in Florida. But sadly. even though Haiti is right off the shores of Florida. this administration has treated Haitians and the Haitian people like unwanted stepchildren. Right now in Haiti. people are starving to death and being slaughtered in the streets. and the U.S. is nowhere to be found. U.S. policy has undermined the Government of Haiti. Let me say again. the U.S. policy has undermined the dulyelected Government of Haiti and continues today to threaten the very lives of the Haitian people. I ask this President. how can he justify our attack of Iraq by claiming we are building a democracy while he sits idly by and watches a democracy in Haiti being destroyed by thugs whose only goal is to steal power from a dulyelected President? Shame on you. Mr. President.