macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-10-02
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

If the gentleman would yield. as we both know. because we were on the same conference call with one of the foremost authorities in the United States on this subject. the expectation is. in the natural course of events. that about 20 percent of the acquisition of securities would result in owning all of the rights in order to do a negotiation. So when you look at the entire package. its not what we want. but its not nothing either. I mean. if you could actually renegotiate 20 percent of the reset. it would have a market impact. What youre suggesting. I think. makes sense. And I think. also. that the bill thats coming back would allow the Secretary to actually do what you have suggested because there is that discretion in the measure. If we did what youve suggested. if the experts are correct that we will have 20 percent of all ownership to renegotiate as provided for in the bill. were still going to need an additional tool which were not going to get in this bill. but to do a narrow carveout for the subprime markets to be able tofor judicial intervention for those areas that we cannot get the rights for. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Date: 2008-10-02
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

If the gentleman would yield. If I may. Im glad you did that explanation. And for people listening who dont have a subprime. its going to affect them as well. Because if you have a prime mortgage but every neighbor in your entire neighborhood has had their property values collapse. your property value is also going to collapse. So this is everybody.
Date: 2008-10-02
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H

for his outstanding work on behalf of homeless people. and for working with our Financial Services Committee to recognize the educational and housing needs of homeless children and youth. I would also like to thank Representative MCCARTHY and Representative GEOFF DAVIS for their work as well. As you know. the Education and Labor Committee has jurisdiction for the McKinneyVento Education For Homeless Children Act. the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and Head Start. H.R. 7221 will broaden HUDs definition of homelessness to include a subset of children and youth who meet the definition of homelessness used by other Federal statutes. We appreciate the inclusion of these children. and believe it is a step in the right direction. In particular. it covers those children and youth who. either on their own or as part of a family. have experienced a longterm period without living stably or independently in permanent housing. Madam Chairwoman. as this term "longterm period" is open to interpretation. is it the committees intention that any regulation that interprets this provision would acknowledge that "longterm period" should be viewed from the perspective of children and recognize their unique developmental needs?
Date: 2008-10-02
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to express my reluctant support for the United StatesIndia Nuclear Cdoperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act. I support this legislation because. on balance. I think it advances U.S. national security and other national interests. I do so reluctantly because of the risk that. it weakens our efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear material and nuclear technology. I ultimately support this measure for three major reasons: First. this agreement will create more international supervision of Indias nuclear fuel cycle than there would be without it. India and the International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed to new safeguards for Indian civilian nuclear plants. In addition. over the last 30 years India has voluntarily imposed safeguards on its nuclear program and has established an excellent record on nonproliferation. While India is not a party to the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT). it has maintained strict controls on its nuclear technology and has demonstrated that it is committed to being a responsible nuclear steward. That is one the reasons that the 45 nation Nuclear Suppliers Group granted India a waver to permit it to purchase fuel and technology. Second. India is a country with a large. wellestablished. multicultural and multireligious democracy. Building a strategic relationship with India will further our. interests in the region and send a strong signal that responsible conduct is recognized. Indias conduct stands in stark contrast to that of North Korea. which is a signatory of the NPT but has violated its responsibilities under that agreement by building and testing nuclear weapons. Third. this bill is important for how it may impact Indias growing contribution to global warming. Indias economy is growing rapidly. swelling at more than 7 percent per year. That economic growth is fed by a voracious appetite for electricity. More than half of Indias new power supplies come from coal. Displacing coal use in India with nuclear power could prevent the release of millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year into the atmosphere. Last. in recent weeks. secret correspondence between the White House and Congress has further clarified the U.S. position on many important questions about this deal. Assistant Secretary Bergner wrote Representative TOM LANTOS in January of this year and .stated in no uncertain terms that the United States will not sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and would immediately terminate the agreement if India conducted a nuclear test. For these reasons. I will support this agreement. But I support it with the caveat that. in the event that India tests a nuclear weapon. I will actively and strongly work to terminate the agreement. f Remarks E2211
Date: 2008-10-02
Speaker: PATRICK J. MURPHY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

Madam Speaker. I rise today to join thousands of families in my district who are struggling in this economy and frustrated at how this Congress is handling this rescue package. A few days ago I stood shoulder to shoulder with Democrats and Republicans in this chamber and the families and businesses in my community to try and prevent an economic disaster. While the bill we considered on Monday and the one we are voting on again is neither perfect nor popular. we have to do something on behalf of our Nation and its citizens. We have to fight for the families now at risk of losing their homes. the seniors who could lose their pensions and the students who are losing their shot at a college education. Madam Speaker. I hope that our chamber can change the Senates bill so that it does not include extraneous provisions that are unrelated to rescuing our economy. We worked through the weekend last week and I am willing to do it again. We have the opportunity to do this right. I believe this bill will ultimately protect middle class families. seniors on fixed incomes and students who want to go to college. I believe it also provides property tax relief. incentives for altemative energy and help for small businesses to create jobs. f Remarks October 2. 2008 These are provisions that will help families back at home and put our economy back on track. On Monday we were derailed by too much bitter partisanship and the Senates decision to tack on tax cuts for things like wood arrows. rum and race tracks will only make it harder to achieve the unity we need to help this great country. I am for tax cutsand have cosponsored more than two dozen in the last 22 months. but as I have said before. unrelated spending has no place in emergency legislation. Madam Speaker. I urge the leadership of this House to strip the unnecessary provisions. pass this bill and send it back to the Senate with a message: we cannot afford to wait to do whats right.
Date: 2008-10-03
Speaker: ZOE LOFGREN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Speaker. theres much not to like in this bill and theres a lot to be angry about how we got here. and if this passes. our job will not be done. We will have further efforts that will be required. especially to stabilize the housing market. I chair the California Democratic Delegation. I want to share with Members the communications we have received from Californias Governor and the Treasurer of the State of California. The Governor tells us. and this is a quote. "It is daunting that California. the eighth largest economy in the world. cannot obtain financing in the normal course of its business to bridge our annual lag between expenditures and revenues. This means that California may soon be forced to delay payments for critical services. such as teachers. law enforcement. and nursing homes. The same thing would happen to California cities and counties." Our Treasurer. Bill Lockyer. has told us. "For 10 days. State and local governments have been closed out of credit markets--longterm and shorttermin spite of the fact they represent no default risk and provide a good tax return to investors." He says. "Without prompt Federal action to address the economic crisis. we may have no market access. That means the States cash reserves will be exhausted near the end of October. Payments for teachers salaries. nursing homes. law enforcement. and every other Statefunded service would stop or be significantly delayed. Californias 5.000 cities. counties. school districts. and special districts would face the same fate." There is a $7 billion revenue anticipation notethat the State needs to float to meet cash flow needs. and they cannot sell those revenue anticipation notes because of the credit freeze. Folks. what this means is that the State of California. the eighth largest economy in the world. will not be able to meet payroll by the end of this month unless we take action to unfreeze these credit markets. I wanted to make sure that every Californian and. really. every American knew.
Date: 2008-10-03
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. many of my constituents are current or former employees of Government Sponsored Enterprises. GSEs. that provide residential mortgage services on behalf of the Federal Govemnment. These employees are concerned that the Treasury Secretarys newly authorized control over their organizations may compromise their retirement benefits. I have consulted with Congressman BARNEY FRANK. the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee. regarding this issue. Chairman FRANK has assured me that in drafting this legislation he was careful to ensure that the Secretarys control over these GSEs will have no impact upon the retirement benefits of the rankandfile employees who are not regarded as "executives" under the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. I greatly appreciate the Chairmans work to protect the benefits of these hard working employees.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 7311. the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and applaud its passage in the House. This Act will allow for appropriations through 2011 to assist in combating human trafficking and to further provide protection for victims of human sex trafficking in the United States. I As the Chairwoman of the Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border. Maritime and Counterterrorism. I held a series of hearings entitled "Crossing the Border: Immigrants in Detention and Victims of Traf.ficking." These hearings identified and discussed many urgent issues related to the prevention of human trafficking and assistance for victims of human trafficking. These issues impact countries around the world. whether they are a source of or destination for trafficked persons. Official estimates show that between 2 to 4 million persons are trafficked each year. including approximately 17.500 individuals who are trafficked into the United States. The United States must also work to improve its efforts to combat trafficking within our own borders. This bill will assist with enhancing the rights of victims. who are trafficked into the United States. and will provide special protections to child victims. At the same time. we must continue to work on this issue in our local communities. In my district. a number of agencies. including law enforcement. service providers. and community organizations have joined together to form the Orange County Human Trafficking. Task Force (OCHTTF). I am very proud of the Task Forces work to reduce human trafficking in southern Califomia. and I urge my colleagues to support these types of task forces as communities around the country work to stop human trafficking H.R. 7311 also provides critical assistance to victims seeking relief and access to special U.S. visas to protect them from their traffickers. I am proud to support this legislation which is an important step in the worldwide fight against human trafficking.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaqker. I rise today in support of our Nations workers. The workers who built this country following depression and war. I rise in support of this loan program for our Nations automobile manufacturers. Just last Friday the Department of Labor reported that employers slashed 533.000 jobs in November: the most jobs lost in 34 years. As a percentage. this figure now jettisoned our Nations unemployment rate to 6.7 percent. the largest onemonth decline since December 1974. Overall. since the start of the current recession. the United States has shed. 1.9 million jobs. 1.3 million of which has disappeared in the last 4 months. In the manufacturing sector. manufacturing jobs lost in November alone come to a total of 85.000. In fact. in the last 4 months we have witnessed the disappearance of 258.000 manufacturing jobs. and since the outset of the recession last December. over half a million (604.000) manufacturing jobs have been lost. So with regard to the question of whether or not to assist our Nations domestic auto manufactures. given that the Big Three automakers generate one out of every 10 jobs in our Nation. merely letting these businesses go bankrupt is simply not an acceptable option. Indeed. General Motors. Ford and Chrysler account for roughly 70 percent of U.S. auto production and are estimated to support around 5 million jobs across all 50 states. And according to a report released last week by the Center for Automotive Research. the failure of even one U.S. automaker would mean the loss of millions of jobs and cost our economy hundreds of billions of dollars. Employment for millions of hard working Americans depends on a strong domestic auto industry. And nations throughout the world. such as Japan. South Korea. and France support their domestic auto industries. so we certainly would not be creating a precedent or an unfair playing field with respect to international trade. Indeed. Presidentelect Obama stated just last week that "the auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil .. " Given that our government recently provided a tremendous amount of financial assistance ($700 billion) to sustain our countrys financial sector. I believe that to provide assistance with strong federal oversight to our Nations automakers is critical to our workforce.
Date: 2008-12-10
Speaker: AL GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. for yielding. And I especially thank the chairman for the outstanding job that hes done on the broader bill. I thank Mr. LAToURETTE for the service that he has rendered with reference to putting this amendment together. While I take a small amount of assurance in knowing that I may have been there. it was really his stalwart work that made the difference in getting the amendment through. Mr. Speaker. I am honored to say that this amendment is one that should please persons on both sides of the aisle. Today in the Financial Services hearing there was much talk about transparency and talk of how We should be able to acquire the empirical evidence to ascertain whether or not new lending is taking place. This piece of legislation. this amendment. will. in fact. allow us to get some idea as to whats happening with the money as it relates to transparency. So I thank the chairman for allowing this opportunity to speak on the amendment. and I thank Mr. LATOURETTE for his outstanding work on the amendment.
Date: 2015-01-06
Speaker: WATSON COLEMAN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. on rollcall No. 3. I was detained in meeting. Had I been present. I would have voted "no."
Date: 2015-01-06
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank my colleague. Mr. Speaker. it is absolutely astounding that within minutesminutesof our being sworn in. our Republican colleagues want to pass a rule that will stack the deck in favor of trying to give another big tax cut not to the middle class. but to millionaires. the folks at the very top. That is what their budget does. What is equally astounding is that this economic theory of trickledown economics crashed and burned in the real world between 2001 and 2008. Our Republican colleague says that if you give millionaires these tax cuts. they are going to spend them. and a little bit will trickle down to the middle class and people who aspire to the middle class and boost everybody up. That is not what happened. What happened? Sure. the folks who got the tax cuts at the top. they did better. Nobody else did. In fact. real wages went down. What went up? The deficitand everybody has to pay for that deficit. Now. I heard the Speaker this morning say he wanted to deal with the issue of wage stagnation. That is what we should be focused on. We shouldnt be talking about tax cuts for the wealthy and a trickledown theory. We should try to build this economy from the middle class out and from the bottom up. I am glad the Speaker said that because we are going to give him an opportunity to vote for something that will address wage stagnation. I am going to offer a motion at the end of this debate. It is called the CEOEmployee Paycheck Fairness Act. and it addresses this issue. If you look back in the 1960s and 1970s. when workers were working hard. they got paid more. but beginning around 1979. they kept working hard. productivity kept going up. but their wages got flat. What happened during the same time? CEOs took care of themselves. Their pay started to go up and up and up. It used to be about 20 times that of the average worker. In other words. the CEO and the folks at the top got about 20 times what they were paying their employees. but as you can see. it has now shot up so that CEOs and the top guys get paid about 300 times what their workers are getting paid. We have a simple proposition: that corporations should not be able to deduct the bonuses and compensation for their CEOs and other executives over $1 million unless they are giving their employees a fair shake. a fair wage. Right? Why should the taxpayers be subsidizing that? Between 2007 and 2010. they took about $66 billion. thereabouts. in deductions for bonuses for performance pay when they were sometimes laying off employees and cutting their paychecks. so we say: "Hey. okay. pay yourselves what you want. but if you want the taxpayers to allow you to deduct your bonuses and performance pay. for goodness sakes. you had better be giving your employees a fair shake." Over time. that would close that gap in worker productivity and wages and do what the Speaker said he wanted to do this morning. which is deal with wage stagnation. Lets help the workers. not just the CEOs. Lets vote for the CEOEmployee Paycheck Fairness Act.
Date: 2015-01-06
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Actually. what we are talking about. Mr. Speaker. is a Republican plan that actually cuts the top rate for folks at the top from 39 percent to 25 percent. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has said that will actually leave the middle class familytypical familypaying another $2.000. so that you can give the folks at the very top another tax break. When you increase the deficit. guess who pays the bill? Everybody. all the taxpayers do. So you give a tax break to the folks at the top. increase the deficit. and everybody else is left to pay the bill. That is not the right way to go. Vote for this motion.
Date: 2015-01-06
Speaker: WATSON COLEMAN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. on rollcall No. 6. had I been present. I would have voted "nay." Norcross ORourke Pallone Pascrell Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Peterson Pingree Pocan Polls Price (NC) Quigley Rice (NY) Richmond RoybalAllard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Sanchez. Linda T. Sanchez. Loretta Sarbanes Schakowsky Schiff Schrader Scott (VA) Scott. David Serrano Sewell (AL) Sherman Sinema Sires Slaughter Smith (WA) Speier Swalwell (CA) Takai Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Torres Tsongas Van Hollen Vargas Veasey Vela Viscosky Walz Wasserman Schultz Welch Wilson (FL) Yarmuth Yoho
Date: 2015-01-07
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. Houstonians and baseball fans all across the country today are celebrating. The Houston Astros have their first person into the Hall of Fame. Craig Biggio. He is called the greatest Astro because. for his 20year career. he spent his total time with the Houston Astros. We have a number of other players in the Hall of Fame. but they didnt spend their entire career with the Astros. The Houston Astro franchise started in 1962. 52 years ago. as the Colt .45s. In 1965. they changed the name to the Houston Astros and played in the Astrodome for many years. Now they play at Minute Maid Park. The famed Astrodome is still there. although we need to refurbish it. But it is historic. The Astros organization and Houstonians today are celebrating Craig Biggio. who was a great mentor to a lot of baseball players. Mr. Hustle. as he was known in the Houston area. is now a member of the Hall of Frame.
Date: 2015-01-07
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of a Democratic legislative agenda that would improve our Nations infrastructure and focus on job creation and support of the American people. Instead of taking backward steps and undermining existing law that protects and helps our fellow Americans. we must concentrate on fair wages. scientific advancement. and allowing individuals to access health security. We must begin to work on reauthorizing the highway trust fund immediately. moving beyond the alltoofamiliar recurring nightmare of shortterm. piecemeal highway reauthorizations. Instead of providing giveaways to special interest groups. we must strengthen protections in public health. the environment. food safety. and consumer safety for hardworking Americans. We must support access to quality. affordable health insurance for millions of Americans instead of slowly chipping away provisions of the Affordable Care Act. And Congress must think in the long term by leading efforts to curb climate change.
Date: 2015-01-07
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

The bill also includes the NARAB billthe National Association of Registered Agents and Brokerswhich has passed this Congress multiple times. many. many times. and this would merely recognize insurance brokers and agents licensed in other States across this country. increasing efficiency and saving and reducing costs for these businesses. I urge my colleagues to vote for TRIA because it is the right thing to do for America. and I reserve the balance of my time.