mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
A THREAT TO LABOR UNIONS
Keith Ellison (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2018-1-29

. and Members, it is important to understand the big picture here. prgtoken When the Supreme Court takes up Janus, yes, they are going to be talking about fair share. Is it legal, is it constitutional, for someone to benefit from being represented by a labor union that has to fight for them and then still not have to pay anything to help at all. That will be the question before the Court. prgtoken But that is just a very small part of what is really going on. What is really going on, , is that we see the deconstruction of the American middle class. The question is: Will America be a land of opportunity; or will it be a land of stagnation where you can work as hard as you want to, but you are never going to be able to make enough to really make it? prgtoken What is going on here, , is that the conservative movement in our country is trying to break the link between hard work and prosperity as they rifle money and channel it to the very richest among us, and working people just have to hope for the best and work hard just to get back to work for whatever they can scrape together. prgtoken Because at the end of the day, labor unions have given workers a voice which has helped create the great American middle class. The lightbulb and the semiconductor are not the great inventions of America. They are great inventions, but the greatest invention of the United States of America is this big, giant middle class which you can work hard and get into. prgtoken This is what is under threat. This is what we are fighting to uphold tonight. prgtoken Now, Janus is a decision that takes place within the context of other decisions. Let us not forget Shelby County, a case which attacked our right to vote. Let's not forget Citizens United, a case which says corporations are people and they can spend as much money on elections as they choose. Let's not forget these tax cuts passed just about a few weeks ago which rifle money to the richest among us and undermine American workers. prgtoken We are in the middle of a battle over whether or not the United States will continue to be a place where hard work pays. That is what this fight is about. And that, , is what we invite everyone to understand the union difference. If you are Black, being in a union means you are going to make more money than other folks. If you are a woman, it will mean the same thing. If you are a veteran, it will mean the same thing. Unions have always done more for the people who are in them, and we want to get more people in unions, not fewer. prgtoken The attack that we see tonight in the form of this Janus v. AFSCME is an attack on that union advantage. But unions have helped everybody, . If you look at wage stagnation in America, what you see since World War II, right up until the 1970s, is pay going up and up and up for working people until we see union density begin to break down, and it is at that point that we begin to see wages flatten out and stagn
A THREAT TO LABOR UNIONS
Louise McIntosh Slaughter (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-1-29

today I join my colleagues in calling attention to an attack on one of our most basic fundamental rights as American citizens--the right to organize in our workplace. prgtoken The impending Supreme Court case, Janus v. AFSCME, is nothing more than a continued attack by corporate CEOs on American workers' right to unite and advocate for fair labor standards. This critical right offers working people the opportunity to get ahead through bargaining with their employers for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. prgtoken Wherever you work, if you appreciate a 40 hour work week, sick leave and vacation days, guaranteed safe working conditions, then you have unions to thank. And the outcome of this Supreme Court case will impact you. It was not a benevolent employer who brought fair labor standards to the American workforce; it was American workers. And an attack on the ability to organize in the workplace is an attack on all of them. prgtoken Since the inception of labor unions, American workers--both unionized and non-unionized--have enjoyed substantial gains in wages, safety, and stability. In fact, throughout the 20th Century, the growth of unions gave rise to the creation of the great American middle-class, who has contributed immensely to our great nation. Over the years, however, a change in global economy, unfair trade agreements, and a deliberate effort to weaken unions have made life much harder for the middle class. In fact, for far too many middle-class families, the American dream has sadly now become nothing more than a memory of time passed. prgtoken This decimation of the middle class coincides with the Majority's relentless attacks on labor unions. The Majority has pushed right-to- work legislation, tried to weaken enforcement of workers' collective rights, and has even tried to repeal prevailing wage laws. They are working hand-in-glove with the administration, which supports a national right-to-work bill. We are seeing many dangerous attacks on the state level, too. prgtoken I continue to fight against these attacks on our workers. All the while, I will also keep fighting to overhaul NAFTA, which has caused my district to lose half of its manufacturing jobs. In holding our trading partners to a higher standard, it is critical that we practice what we preach. That means promoting strong labor standards here at home and protecting American workers against unyielding efforts to weaken their right to organize.
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2018-1-29

climate change is a clear and present danger, but we can confront that danger in a way that presents new economic opportunities. While the Administration has abdicated American leadership on this critical issue, Congress must fight back, which is why today I am introducing the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act for the first time in the U.S. Senate. prgtoken Two of the most pressing challenges we face as a Nation are the need to address the economic costs and public health risks associated with climate change, and to strengthen the middle class. We do both in this bill. By capping carbon emissions, selling permits, and returning 100 percent of the revenue to everyone equally, this `Cap and Dividend' approach achieves necessary greenhouse gas reductions while boosting the purchasing power of families across the country. prgtoken , the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act is a simple, effective, and transparent way to combat climate change while supporting economic growth and a thriving middle class. The solution is market based, pro-growth, and is built to last. prgtoken The bill achieves reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while increasing incomes for Americans. It places a declining cap on carbon pollution each year to reach 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. A polluter pays principle is then applied by requiring the first sellers of carbon to buy permits for emissions within those caps. Finally, 100 percent of the revenue raised from the sale of those permits is returned straight to the American people through a Healthy Climate Dividend. On an economy-wide level, the price signal placed on carbon pollution will accelerate innovation and incentivize both greater energy efficiency as well as greater use of lower-carbon energy alternatives. And the bill's robust border adjustment protections ensure that U.S. companies are not disadvantaged against foreign competitors at home or abroad. prgtoken In sum, this legislation puts a price on carbon pollution and returns the proceeds directly to the American people at the same time it accelerates the growth of good paying jobs in clean technologies. It is a win-win-win, boosting middle class pocketbooks, growing good paying jobs, and reducing our carbon footprint. prgtoken , I am pleased that Representative Don Beyer of Virginia, a strong advocate for the environment, is introducing a companion measure in the House. I want to thank Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, who has been helpful in developing this legislation. Other organizations such as the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club are supportive of this approach. I look forward to working together to address the most pressing environmental problem of our time: climate change.
TRIBUTE TO THE ARMENIAN RELIEF SOCIETY ``MAYR'' HOLLYWOOD CHAPTER
Adam B. Schiff (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-1-29

I rise today to honor the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) ``Mayr'' Hollywood Chapter upon its one-hundredth anniversary. The ARS ``Mayr'' Hollywood Chapter, named ``Mayr'' as the mother chapter in Southern California, has made many strides since its founding in 1918, including establishing an Armenian Center, helping numerous displaced persons from Armenian-populated camps in Germany to move to the United States following the Second World War, and providing aid to areas in Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk. The ARS ``Mayr'' Hollywood Chapter became the inspiration for the inception of the Anahid Chapter in the San Fernando Valley and the Ani Chapter in Montebello, established in 1958 and 1960 respectively. In addition, the chapter founded the first ARS social service office in 1980, leading to the establishment of a network of more offices throughout the southland. The ARS ``Mayr'' Hollywood Chapter has been a steadfast supporter of educating students and preserving the culture and language of the Armenian people through its Saturday School program at the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in Los Angeles. In addition to this program, the ``Mayr'' Chapter provides the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School with financial support and student scholarships and collaborated with the school to open the Rose and Alex Pilibos ARS ``Mayr'' Chapter Mary Postoian Armenian Preschool in 1992. The time, effort, and care that the ARS ``Mayr'' Hollywood Chapter has given to the community is outstanding, and the Armenian-American residents of Los Angeles have benefited greatly from their dedicated work. I ask all Members to join with me in commending the ARS ``Mayr'' Hollywood Chapter for one-hundred years of committed service to the Los Angeles community.
PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED
Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2018-1-29

today is a proud day but also a painful one for me. I am proud because I am honored and proud to join my distinguished colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Shaheen, and others on the floor. I was proud to join Connecticut organizations and advocates this morning in Hartford for a rally that involved Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut, the Women's March of Connecticut, AIDS Connecticut, and the Center for Medicare Advocacy. These groups are proud and steadfast and have strong activists who joined me to support a woman's right to determine her medical future, the right of privacy, and the constitutional right to be left alone, as one of the Supreme Court Justices once called it. prgtoken It was a proud moment for me also because it reminded me of my days as a law clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun, who was the author of Roe v. Wade and who taught me the constitutional principle that underlies a woman's right to determine her own healthcare decisions. prgtoken Harry Blackmun was a appointee. He was a before he became a jurist. But there was nothing partisan for him--and there should be nothing partisan for us--about this decision. I am tempted to call this 20-week abortion ban a proposal, but when I think about the s I know--and especially Justice Harry Blackmun, whom I revered--there is nothing about this proposal. There is nothing partisan about a proposal that seeks to interfere in this fundamental right of privacy. It is an extremist, rightwing proposal that happens to have been brought here by 46 of our colleagues--all of them men, except two--who are essentially trying to tell the women of America what to do with their own bodies, when to have children or not. That is fundamentally unconstitutional. It flies in the face of Roe v. Wade and all of its progeny. It is a restriction that has been struck down when adopted at the State level in at least two courts, and the others that have adopted similar proposals will be struck down, in my view, as well. prgtoken The consensus of the medical community, the legal community, and ordinary citizens, particularly women, is that women have reproductive rights that would be violated, dramatically and directly, by this proposal. It violates those rights for totally baseless reasons-- policies founded on falsehoods. It is another excuse for rightwing dogma and ideology, out of touch with America, to seek to put opponents at a political disadvantage. It is transparently a political ploy. prgtoken The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists--the doctors who are most qualified to present scientific, evidence-based facts-- disagree with the assertions and falsehoods that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wrote--and I am quoting directly from medical experts on fetal health:
PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-1-29

I know we have a vote coming up soon. prgtoken First, on the judge vote, today the Senate will vote on cloture on the nomination of David Stras for the Eighth Circuit in Minnesota. Senator Franken opposed this nomination and did not return his blue slip, but Senator Grassley scheduled the confirmation hearing and a markup anyway. It is my understanding that the new Senator from Minnesota, Ms. Smith, intends to vote against his nomination. prgtoken If Judge Stras is confirmed, it will mark the first time since 1982 that a circuit court nominee was confirmed without both home State Senators returning blue slips in support of a hearing. ic and chairs have stuck to the blue slip rule, despite the tensions in this body. So this is a major step back--another way that the majority is slowly and inexorably gnawing away at the way this body works and making it more and more and more like the House of Representatives. It is not a legacy, if I were the leader or a Member of that party, that I would be proud of. Tax Bill prgtoken , tomorrow President will address the Nation in his first State of the Union. We all look forward to hearing what the President has to say. One thing we can expect is for the President to link any good piece of economic news to the tax bill, as the majority leader does most days and did again today. Of course, the reality of the tax bill is much different than the image painted by the leader's cherry-picked examples. prgtoken One of the real impacts of the tax bill has been massive giveaways to wealthy investors and corporate executives. The very wealthiest and the most powerful got the overwhelming majority of the breaks. As for individuals, some got increases, some stayed the same, and some will get a little bit. prgtoken Companies have announced multibillion-dollar stock-buyback repurchasing programs, which benefit wealthy shareholders, not workers. According to Morgan Stanley, ``83% of analysts indicated that companies would put gains from lower taxes to use for share buybacks, dividends, and mergers and acquisitions.'' So we will have less competition because this tax bill has given the big corporations money so they can buy other corporations and reduce competition. prgtoken Even though s sold it as a job creator, there have been a slew of layoffs in this country just after the tax bill passed. Walmart, which made a big to-do of what it was doing for its workers, is shuttering 63 Sam's Club warehouses and laying off 1,000 workers at their headquarters. Macy's will cut 5,000 jobs. Carrier, a company the President promised to save, is still bleeding jobs. Kimberly-Clark will cut up to 5,500 jobs, and their chief financial officer said the savings from the tax bill gave them the ``flexibility''--his word--to make these reductions. So the tax bill is actually le
PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED
Patty Murray (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2018-1-29

today in communities across our country, young people are asking whether they will be able to stay in the only country they have ever called home. Struggling patients and veterans are wondering whether their local community health center will be able to stay open and provide the care that they can't otherwise afford. Workers and business owners are wondering--again--whether the government will even be open in a week or two. prgtoken Instead of addressing the serious and pressing challenges that people are facing, leaders today are debating whether to trust women to make their own healthcare choices. That is right. While this country is waiting for us to come together and solve problems, s are wasting precious time with a politically motivated, partisan bill that is engineered to drive us apart and hurt women. prgtoken I have come here today to oppose, in the strongest terms, the extreme, ideological abortion ban that leaders have brought to the floor today. It goes against the Constitution, against medical experts, and against the rights of women across the country. However, I don't merely oppose this partisan bill. I oppose the very fact s are once again bringing this bill--which they know is a nonstarter--to the floor. prgtoken I oppose the very idea that in the 21st century, we are going to waste time on a question that has already been answered and shouldn't even be up for debate. I oppose the fact that we are still voting on whether women and doctors are best equipped to make healthcare decisions--or politicians here in Washington, DC. We are still voting on whether we should criminalize doctors for making sound medical decisions. We are still voting on whether we should turn back the clock and put women's lives at risk. prgtoken Roe v. Wade was decided 45 years ago. We celebrated the anniversary of that historic decision last week. I would like to think that after almost half a century, we could move on from debating this settled issue. Yet here we are. prgtoken In 2015, the leaders stated quite flatly that a vote to defund Planned Parenthood would be an exercise in futility because there was no way it was going to pass. The same is true of this extreme, harmful legislation. Yet here we are. prgtoken Bringing this bill to the floor is an exercise in futility, and passing it would be an exercise in cruelty. Just look at the story from a Washington State mother, Judy Nicastro. A few years ago, she wrote an op-ed in the New York Times, and she courageously shared a story that is every expecting woman's worst nightmare. Judy shared her experience of learning that one of the twins she was carrying had a lung condition. One lung chamber had not formed at all, and the other was only 20 percent complete. She wrote: My world stopped. I loved being pregnant with twins. . . . The thought of losing one child was unbearable. prgtoken She
PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED
Elizabeth Warren (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2018-1-29

I want to thank the senior Senator from Washington for her leadership on this important issue and for gathering women to come to the floor today to talk about the bill that has been proposed and that we will be voting on soon. prgtoken When I was a girl growing up in Oklahoma, women got abortions. Make no mistake, abortions were illegal back then, but women got them. Desperate women turned to back-alley butchers, and some even tried the procedure on their own, using coat hangers or drinking turpentine. Some were lucky, but some weren't. Some women bled to death. Some died of infection. Some were poisoned. And they all went through hell. prgtoken In 1973, the Supreme Court stepped in. Forty-five years after Roe v. Wade, abortions are safer than getting your tonsils out. A lot of women are alive today because of Roe. Nearly 70 percent of Americans agree, Roe v. Wade is worth celebrating. prgtoken I wish I were here today to acknowledge the impact of Roe. Instead, I am here to defend it from attack. prgtoken Last week President marked the anniversary of Roe v. Wade by calling for a ban on a rare category of abortions--ones that take place after 20 weeks of pregnancy. So today, the Senate is voting on a bill to do exactly that. prgtoken Let's be honest about why this vote is happening now. Today's vote is happening because politicians who have never been pregnant, who have never had an abortion, who have never had to make a wrenching decision after learning that the child they are carrying will not survive childbirth--those politicians want to score political points at the expense of women and their families. prgtoken We are having this vote today because President asked for it. If it passes, this unconstitutional bill would put women's lives and women's health at risk. Government officials who seek to insert themselves between women and their doctors ought to listen to the women whose lives are on the line and the doctors who care for them. If they were listening right now, we wouldn't be holding this vote. prgtoken Only 1 percent of abortions take place at 21 weeks or later, and the reasons are heartbreaking. I have heard from people across Massachusetts who shared their devastating stories. The Senate should hear these stories. prgtoken One woman who wrote to me explained that she was ecstatic to have a second child but learned late in her pregnancy that her daughter's brain was severely malformed. She said: Being a grown woman with a husband and daughter, I never imagined that I would need to [get an abortion]. But when I learned that the baby I was carrying suffered from a set of severe brain malformations, I faced a binary choice for her: peace or life. . . . I am deeply grateful that I was able to give her the gift of peace. prgtoken She and her husband did what they thought was best for their baby girl. They got an abortion in the third tri