macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-02-12
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

MS. SCHWARTZ. Ms. duty on in line ground fault circuit interCASTOR. Mr. COHEN. Mr. ELLISON. Ms. rupters. to the Committee on Ways and GIFFORDS. Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Means. HILL. Mr. HODES. Ms. HIRONO. Mr. By Mr. ACKERMAN: JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. KLEIN of H.R. 5365. A bill to suspend temporarily the Florida. Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. SAR- duty on ground fault circuit interrupter reHANES. Mr. SIRES. Ms. TSONGAS. and ceptacles of greater thaif 15 amps. to the
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 966) honoring African American inventors. past and present. for their leadership. courage. and significant contributions to our national competitiveness.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on H. Res. 966.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I would simply ask for support of H. Res. 966 and thank the Speaker. as well as the gentleman on the -other side and all the staff for assisting. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I would like to express my svpport for H. Res. 917. supporting the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week. Engineers are important to Texas. The petrochemical. space. hightech and transportation industries are integral to Texans livelihoods. In fact. Texas ranks first in the nation in industries such as petrochemical. computer. and organic chemical manufacturing. Engineers have contributed to that success. As a Member.of the House Committee on Science and Technology. I am glad to see my colleague. Mr. Lipinski. offer this resolution. It is important to acknowledge engineers for the valuable work that they do. The Texas Society of Professional Engineers works to foster a diverse arid skilled workforce. I want to commend the Society for its work to empower students by educating them about careers in engineering. providing materials for use in classrooms. participating in afterschool programs. disseminating scholarship information. and holding math and science competitions. I would also like to thank the Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology. Chairman GORDON. for his leadership on issues of national competitiveness. I support this resolution and urge my colleagues to support it also.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I rise today in support of H.R. 5349. a twenty one day extension of the Protect America Act. I believe that this short term extension is necessary to achieve a long term solution to update our foreign surveillance laws in a manner that will protect the civil liberties of Americans. I voted against the Protect America Act last August because I believe that it seriously compromises the civil liberties of Americans. I am still opposed to it as a permanent solution to our need to conform our surveillance laws to changes in telecommunication technology. Fortunately. it was scheduled to sunset in 6 months to provide additional time to correct our foreign surveillance law in a balanced manner. The House passed such a balanced bill. H.R. 3773. the RESTORE Act. in November. I voted for this bill because I believe that it establishes the proper balance between the protection of civil liberties and the needs of our intelligence agencies to have access to critical information. Unfortunately. the Senate passed their bill yesterday giving us no time to reconcile the differences between the respective bills. Moreover. I have serious objections to the Senate bill which is dramatically different than its House counterpart. Significant work must be done to harmonize these bills in a manner that will be acceptable to me. Consequently. it is necessary to provide additional time for the committees of jurisdiction to craft a balanced bicameral solution.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: AL GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the gentleman for the time. I would like to thank Chairman CONYERS for being there and making this resolution possible and bringing it to the floor. I also would like to remember Mr. SENSENBRENNER. who at the time we first introduced this piece of legislation was the chairperson of the Judiciary Committee. And I recall how he made a great effort to get this legislation to the floor and to get it passed. I am grateful to the Honorable STEVE COHEN who is our floor leader today. a lawyer par excellence who does an outstanding job on the Judiciary Committee. Thank you so much. I am grateful to Mr. STEVE CHABOT. Thank you for your very kind words. What you said about the NAACP is entirely correct. but it is also something that means a lot to a lot of people. And I think the people across the length and breadth of this country appreciate what you have said and how you have made it clear that the NAACP is important to us in the United States Congress. I also want to thank the many persons. about 45 of whom signed on to this piece of legislation so that we could bring it to the floor this year. This is the 99th anniversary of the NAACP. having been founded February 12. 1909. The NAACP has always been an integrated organization. It has fought for integration. But it has from its genesis been an organization that has been integrated. And while we remember many of the names of the great NAACPers. James Weldon Johnson. of course. who was one of the great executive secretaries of the organization. we will remember always the name Roy Wilkins. who was a labor leader and executive secretary of the NAACP. W.E.B. DuBois. who was one of the great intellectuals of his time and of all time. We remember Julian Bond who today is the chairperson of the organization. and Dr. Benjamin Hooks who was an FCC board member but also a lawyer and executive director of the NAACP. But some of the names we dont always remember are names of persons who are not African Americans who were there at the genesis of this organization. Mary White Ovington. this lady held one of the very first organizational meetings of the NAACP in her living room at a time when it was not popular to host a meeting for an organization like the NAACP. I also would remember. if we would. William English Walling and Oswald Garrison Villiard. These persons were not African Americans. but they literally put their lives on the line so that African Americans could have the types of rights and privileges that we enjoy today.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on its 99th Anniversary. In 1909 the founders of the NAACP came together with the purpose of promoting the rights guaranteed under the 13th. 14th. and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Today. the NAACP works to ensure that all individuals have equal rights and to end racial hatred nd discrimination. The NAACP has influenced some of the greatest civil rights victories of the last century. including: the integration of our nations schools and the Brown v. Board decision. the Voting Rights Act. striking down segregation. and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Despite the advancements of the past 99 years under the leadership of the NAACP. there is still much work to be done.
Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: LINCOLN DAVIS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Tennessee

I thank the gentleman from Memphis. and deeply appreciate your management today of this resolution that we are discussing here on the U.S. House floor. The tornados and storms and winds that recently tore across the South -wrought upon each of our States the tragedy of loss of lives and families being separated. By now all of us have seen the images of fallen trees and toppled homes and. one by one. Tennesseans and other Southerners affected by this disaster have begun the seemingly impossible task of piecing their lives together. clearing wreckage. mourning the lost. and recovering whatever the storm failed to claim. Our planet. for all its blessings. chooses indiscriminately at times to affront our shores. plains. valleys and farmlands with terrible acts. Im proud to say. though. as we face the worst of the forces we cannot control. we continue to see the best of the humanitarian spirit that is very much within out power to command. In this time of need. volunteer associations from the United Way to the Red Cross helped bring aid and comfort to the affected. Within days of the tornados passing. the Red Cross alone helped provide shelter. comfort and over 44.000 meals with the help of nearly 1.600 Red Cross- staff and volunteers in Tennessee alone. Our local sheriffs departments and volunteer fire departments. neighbors. friends. those from the farm next door or the neighbor next door that may not have lost their home gathered together to offer a shoulder of condolence. hope for the future. and concern and compassion for those affected. It was not long ago that the people of New Orleans endured the worst of what can happen when we fail to act. And in the wake of the storms in Tennessee and the South. we have shown that we will never commit the sin of inaction again. This week and last. we have shown there is no tornado so powbrful. no storm so terrible that the winds of compassion cannot restore and repair any damage brought upon us. We rise today to honor the losses of those affected. to grieve for those who were so callously and abruptly taken from us that night. and we placed a renewal of our great country and our States in the wake of this storm.
Date: 2008-02-14
Speaker: LINDA T. SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. we have reluctantly reached todays vote to hold former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten in contempt of Congress. Since March 9 of 2007. Chairman CONYERS and I have patiently negotiated in good faith to reach an accommodation with the White House for documents and testimony relevant to the U.S. Attorney investigation.
Date: 2008-02-14
Speaker: LINDA T. SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. we have patiently negotiated in good faith to reach an accommodation with the White House for documents and testimony relevant to the U.S. Attorney investigation. Unfortunately. the White House has stubbornly refused to move off its opening position. an unreasonable offer that testimony be given without an oath or a transcript and that any testimony and documents provided exclude internal White House communications. To have negotiations. concessions by both sides are necessary. Otherwise.. its just capitulation. I was extremely disappointed that Ms. Miers. Mr. Bolten. and the White House based their refusal to comply with our subpoenas on sweeping claims of executive privilege and immunity that some experts have called "Nixonian in breadth." The subcommittee carefully considered these claims in two separate meetings last year. In detailed rulings. I found that these claims were not properly asserted and were not legally valid. Even if the claims were properly asserted and legally valid. the strong public need for information about the U.S. Attorney firings substantially outweighs the assertion @f executive privilege here. I was also very disappointed to hear from Attorney General Mukasey in testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week that he will direct the D.C. U.S. Attorney not to comply with the contempt statute. which provides that the U.S. Attorney "shall" refer the contempt citation to a grand jury for action after receiving it from the Speaker. Members on both sides of the aisle should recognize the gravity of this vote. If the executive branch is allowed to simply ignore congressional subpoenas while Congress stands idly by. we will have abdicated our role of oversight of the executive branch and undermined our system of checks and balances. Further. our lack of action will be cited by future Presidents as justification for questionable claims of executive privilege. I hope that my colleagues on the other side will stand together in support of this bodys institutional prerog-. atives. Time is long overdue for Congress to reassert itself as a coequal branch of government. I urge support of the rule and House resolutions 979 and 980.
Date: 2008-02-14
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I rise today in support of this resolution. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as Members of a coequal branch of government to issue these contempt citations to members of the Bush administration who
Date: 2008-02-14
Speaker: HERSETH SANDLIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I plan to vote in favor of this resolutionfirst and foremostbecause of the essential imporfance of maintaining the constitutional role of the Congress as a coequal branch of government with the executive. However. the partisan division over this resolution is highly regrettable and serves to obscure the vital principles at stake. As my colleagues are well aware. the House Judiciary Committee has initiated an inquiry into the unusual firing of several*U.S. Attorneys. The impartial administration of federal law around the nation depends upon the integrity of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys. The decisions of the department and the officials who implement its vast legal authority should be free of even the appearance of impropriety. and free of politics. This is true under any administration. regardless of party. The importance of the committees inquiry into this matter is clear. In order to secure the facts necessary to make an informed judgment regarding the propriety of those firings. the committee first sought the voluntary cooperation of the administration in producing all of the information the committee needed to form a fair assessment. When that cooperation was not forthcoming. subpoenas were duly issued to Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. On the basis of an assertion of executive privilege. neither complied with the subpoenas. In the face of the White Houses inflexibility and refusal to cooperate. the committee ultimately voted to approve a contempt citation and bring the matter before the House. I still believe- that focusing on civil proceedings as a way to resolve the dispute could have garnered bipartisan support. and thereby avoided much of the partisan division we have witnessed regarding this resolution. However. that is not the choice before the House today. We must choose between recognizing and supporting the constitutional role of Congress. or allowing the administration to direct officials and former officials to ignore an important inquiry under way in the House. At this crucial moment in our nations history. its more important than ever to maintain the balance of powers between the federal governments executive and legislative branches. That balance was carefully designed by the Founders. and we have consistently seen through the years the wisdom of that arrangement. Over the lasf several years. we witnessed firsthand the unfortunate and regrettable consequences when that balance was. disturbed. and Congress failed to carry out its oversight responsibilities. The American people deserve better. Thus. I cast my vote today not only to support the centuriesold role of the House under the Constitution. but for greater transparency. greater accountability. and to ensure the fair administration of federal law. Once the facts are known. the House can make an informed judgment about what course of action is best. Until we learn what the administration knows. but isnt willing to share with the Congress. we cannot form a final judgment in this matter.
Date: 2008-02-27
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for his leadership on this very important national issue. The legislation before us today presents a very clear choice: Does the peoples House stand with the American consumer or do we stand with big oil companies and the special interests? With gas prices now more than twice as high as they were the day President Bush took office. the American people can simply not afford a continuation of those failed policies that brought us to this point. Theyre looking to us to take specific steps towards strengthening our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. cleaning up our environment. and creating millions of goodpaying green collar jobs and saving on their costs at the pump. Now the energy bill that this Congress passed last session was a very important step in the right direction. We improved automobile efficiency standards and provided greater incentives to renewable fuels and new economywide efficiency standards. and that will help ease the demand for fossil fuels and spur important energy alternatives. However. we left a very important piece of that on the table because Senate Republicans and the White House refused to accept a very simple proposition. We want to take the $14 billion in taxpayer subsidies that the Bush administration and the earlier Congress gave the oil and gas companies and we say lets reinvest them in a new energy strategy that focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency. And now on the other side they say no. we dont want to make that choice. We think the taxpayers. all of us and all the people around this country. should continue to subsidize oil and gas companies that are making record profits rather than making this choice. Well. thats what this bill is about: lets make a choice. Lets use those resources to invest in over $8 billion in electricity generated from clean. homegrown renewable sources. Lets expand production of homegrown fuels like cellulosic ethanol and renewable biodiesel so that we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And lMts empower consumers interested in being part of the solution by incentivizing the purchase of energyefficient appliances and advanced plugin hybrid vehicles. There is a whole new energy frontier out there for us to seize upon if only we will make the right choices. And instead of looking backwards and continuing to subsidize companies with the hardearned dollars of the American people. lets instead invest in an energy future that puts millions of people back to work in green technologies. that advances our national security interests by reducing our reliance on foreign.oil. and which addresses major environmental concerns that we all face with respect to climate change. That is the fundamental question at stake today. Lets make the � right choice. Lets make a choice that the peoplA Ruscaanrbe proud of and support theiAmericau. consumer and the Ameriuan. peopie. and not th special interests. I
Date: 2008-03-04
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. had I been present today. I would have voted "yea" on rollcall No. 88. "yea" on rollcall No. 89. and "yea" on rollcall No. 90.
Date: 2008-03-05
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank my colleague. Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of this long overdue bipartisan legislation. and I want to commend and thank our colleagues. PATRICK KENNEDY and JIM RAMSTAD. for their leadership. their passion. and their perseverance on this very important issue that is so important to millions of Americans around this country. Last year. they traveled across this great land. holding a series of field hearings. listening to Americans in communities across the Nation. people from every walk of life. I had the privilege of hosting one of those hearings in my congressional district. The message from that hearing. as with the other hearings from around the country. was very clear. Congress needs to end insurance discrimination in mental health care. Both common sense and simple fairness require that mental health diseases be treated on an equal footing With other health conditions. According to the National Institute of Mental Health. an estimated 26 percent of Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year. and approximately 6 percent of our fellow Americans suffer from serious mental illness. Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability for individuals between the ages of 15 and 44. The good news is the science tells us that treatment works. The sad truth is that. for most Americans. health insurance coverage does not now cover the full range of their needs. We know- that for years. for years. employerprovided health care set stricter treatment limits and imposed higher outofpocket costs for mental health care. Congress took an important step in 1996 to correct that inequity through the Mental Health Parity Act. But problems remain. and that is the reason we have this very important legislation before us. because insurance companies were setting rigid. arbitrary caps on how they cover mental health. This legislation will finally stop those practices. Mr. Speaker. Members of Congress have good health care coverage and mental health coverage. Lets give the same thing to the American people.
Date: 2008-03-05
Speaker: PATRICK J. MURPHY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Penn

sylvania. I thank my colleagues for taking the fight and leading the fight here. Mr. Speaker. I rise today on behalf of a teenager from Bensalem. Pennsylvania. for whom mental health care came too late. I rise in favor of a health care system that works for those in need. This legislation not only promotes fairness for those with mental illness. it also will not preempt stronger State laws. laws such as Pennsylvanias Act 106. which has saved countless lives. I stand with the Republican State Representative from my district. Gene DiGirolamo. as we fight together to preserve these critical laws in conference. Mr. DiGirolamo of Bensalem is a leading advocate for mental health parity. and has worked tirelessly for health care laws that are fair and just. Mr. Speaker. this bill is bipartisan and long overdue. I urge my colleagues to join us in voting for it.