mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
FIXING OUR BROKEN NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
Joe Courtney (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2018-3-5

I thank Mr. Shimkus for yielding. Again, I am here tonight to join a bunch of my colleagues to speak in strong support of H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, which Mr. Shimkus has skillfully guided through the Energy and Commerce Committee, again, a 49-4 vote on a committee which basically is challenged, in many instances, with other issues from healthcare and energy policy, you name it. prgtoken It is really just an amazing accomplishment on his part dealing with one of the thorniest, toughest issues, which, again, has been out there for 30 years, which is, again, how we, as a nation, deal with the tons of nuclear waste that is now piled up and accumulating in over 100 communities around the country. prgtoken Again, I represent the Second District of Connecticut, the eastern half of the State, which has two operating nuclear facilities. One has been decommissioned, the old Connecticut Yankee facility, which sits very close to the Connecticut River. Again, it has been closed for over a decade. The plant itself has been cut up, dismantled. It is now pretty much, you know, just overgrown with vegetation. But still sitting there is dry cask nuclear spent fuel rods, which, again, are being patrolled every single day, literally, as we are here tonight, by heavily armed guards, which makes perfect sense, because, as has been said by other speakers, again, this is still very dangerous material, and again, very close to one of the largest bodies of waters in new England, the Connecticut River. prgtoken We also have the Dominion nuclear power plant in Waterford, Connecticut, which today is in full operation. Over 45 percent of the energy consumed in the State of Connecticut is generated at Dominion. It is about 15 percent of New England, because, again, it provides a supply for the rest of the region that is there, and again, this is a plant that goes back decades. prgtoken We are also the home of the Groton sub base, which is a base where, again, we have 15 attack subs that are deployed there. Again, the Groton sub base was where the USS Nautilus was launched 62 years ago. Admiral Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, actually designed that first sub, which was christened by Mamie Eisenhower. prgtoken Again, that sub was built 5 years after the first lightbulb was powered by nuclear power as a nation; again, a pretty amazing accomplishment that Admiral Rickover was able to build and launch a nuclear submarine, something which the folks at the Navy at the time told him wouldn't happen for 75 years. Yet, today, the nuclear force, both in terms of submarines and carriers, are the backbone, again, of our away team, the U.S. Navy. prgtoken So, again, we have a lot of history and experience with the fact that we have got really smart capable people who do amazing things in terms of providing the energy needs but also the national security of this country. But, as has been said, again, a bypr
TRIBUTE TO KATERI CALLAHAN
Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2018-3-5

I want to recognize the leadership of Kateri Callahan, who has served as president of the Alliance to Save Energy since 2004. As the honorary chair of the alliance, I have been a firsthand witness to many of Kateri's most recent accomplishments. Before Kateri starts the next chapter of her career, I want take this opportunity to look back upon her 14 years with the alliance and thank her for her contributions to Federal energy-efficiency policy. prgtoken In 1977, Senators Charles Percy and Hubert Humphrey--a from Illinois and a from Minnesota--founded the alliance as the leading energy-efficiency coalition of businesses, governments, environmental groups, and consumer advocates. The goal of the Alliance from the start has been simple: ``Use less and do more.'' In the wake of the oil embargoes and energy shortages of the 1970s, that message resonated loud and clear, and it still does. prgtoken Energy efficiency saves money, improves national security, reduces pollution, encourages innovation, boosts U.S. competitiveness, and creates jobs. Without the economywide improvements in energy efficiency made since 1973, it is estimated that today's economy would require 60 percent more energy than we consume now. In fact, savings from energy- efficiency improvements over the last 40 years have reduced our national energy bill by an estimated $800 billion, all while growing and expanding our economy. prgtoken Since its establishment, the alliance has taken great care to cultivate and maintain bipartisan support for policies supporting energy efficiency. While doing so, the organization has been led by a distinguished groups of energy efficiency thought-leaders and advocates like Kateri. prgtoken For my colleagues who have not met Kateri, you need to know she is persistent and tenacious. Once she gets ahold of something, believe me she never lets go and sees it through to the end. I am thankful for Kateri's leadership, and on behalf of my House and Senate colleagues who are also part of the alliance, I am thankful for the coalition's support for my proposals over the years. prgtoken Highlights abound during Kateri's tenure at the alliance. She was a key negotiator on many of the most impactful energy-efficiency provisions of the 2005 and 2007 energy bills that passed Congress with strong bipartisan support and were signed into law by President . She helped ensure that the 2009 stimulus package provided significant investments in energy efficiency and encouraged states to adopt updated building energy codes. In 2015, she stood with me and my colleagues, Senator Rob Portman and Representatives David McKinley and Peter Welch, as President signed our bipartisan and bicameral bill, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, which was the first significant energy-efficiency legislation to pass Congress in nearly a decade. prgtoken In addition to her work in Washington,
DACA (Executive Session)
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-3-5

today is the day--March 5--the deadline imposed by President on those who are being protected and allowed to stay in the United States under the DACA Program. prgtoken It was last September 5 when President 's Attorney General held a press conference and said: That is it. The protection that is currently given to 780,000 young people in America to allow them to stay in this country and pursue their dreams will end on March 5 of 2018--today--780,000 who were brought to the United States as infants, toddlers, children, and teenagers, who have lived their lives in this country, who have gone to school, who have never had a serious run-in with the law, who have gone through criminal background checks, come up with $500 filing fees, and who were given permission under an Executive order by President to legally stay in this country for 2 years at a time. During that period, they would not be deported, and they would be allowed to work. prgtoken Who are these young people? They are known as the Dreamers, although President hates that term. They are known as the Dreamers because they represent young people who went to school in America, stood up in their classroom every day and pledged allegiance to that flag. This is the only country they have ever known. This was to be the country of their future, but at some point in their lives, a member of their family sat down and said: We have to have a serious conversation. You see, we never filed the papers when we brought you to this country as an infant, and right now you are undocumented in the United States of America. prgtoken What that means is that any minute, there could be a knock on the door and you and perhaps your entire family would be asked to leave. I introduced a bill called the DREAM Act 17 years ago. Senator Hatch was my cosponsor when I introduced it. The purpose of the DREAM Act was to say to these young people: We will give you a chance. Though you are illegal in the eyes of the law in the United States--undocumented--we will give you a chance to earn your way to legal status, give you a chance someday to be a citizen of the United States. It will not be easy. There is no helping hand for you. If you want to go to college, there will be no Federal assistance for you. You are going to have to make it on your own. You will have to work and work harder than perhaps the person sitting next to you at their desk in high school. See if you can do it. If you can, we will give you your chance. prgtoken That is what the DREAM Act said. It passed with a majority vote in the Senate many times, but it never quite made it to 60 votes, which it needs to become the law of the land. prgtoken President , when he was a Senator in this Chamber, was my colleague from Illinois. He cosponsored the DREAM Act with me. So the time came when he was elected President, and I wrote him a letter. Dick Lugar, of Indiana, joined me
Gun Violence (Executive Session)
Bill Nelson (Democrat, FL) \u2014 2018-3-5

since I see no other Senator who seeks recognition, I thought I would take the occasion to bring the Senate up to date on what is happening down in Florida in the aftermath of 17 people being gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. prgtoken As we know, we have seen those students speak out with a boldness and clarity that is rarely seen, and they are not being intimidated at all as to what needs to be done. As a matter of fact, in the aftermath of the shooting--and while some of the funerals have still been going on-- since our Florida State Legislature is in session, over the course of 2 weeks, the students have gone to the capital city of Tallahassee and have held individual meetings with State legislators. They have held a rally outside of the capital and insisted that maybe--just maybe--this might be a time that the State legislature should confront this issue head-on: that, in fact, there was something to the fact that a weapon that was originally developed for the military, an AR-15--the semiautomatic version of a military weapon--could do such damage and quickly go about killing so many people. It was 17 in the case of the high school. prgtoken Just 2 years earlier, it was 49 people in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub. In between, we saw several mass killings with high-powered, military-style assault rifles in Texas, as well as 59 people being gunned down in Las Vegas. prgtoken Last week, I talked about the assault weapon, and I have since had, over the weekend, constituents in Florida ask me to come back and speak on the floor of the Senate about the difference in the damage--the mayhem, the carnage, the slaughter--that occurs as a result of an assault rifle as compared to a handgun. You don't have to take it from this Senator. You can talk to the trauma surgeons. You can talk to the radiologist in the trauma center. As a matter of fact, several articles in the past week have been written in various publications in Florida and in the national press, along with there being prgtoken photographs to show the difference. Let me paraphrase the words of one of the trauma surgeons in Broward County who attended to some of the victims. prgtoken He cited that on any normal night, particularly on a weekend, they have to treat gunshots. If that gunshot is from a handgun--say, a .22 pistol or, say, a .9 millimeter pistol--the bullet will enter the victim, and unless that bullet goes to a critical organ, such as the heart or, for example, to the blood supply going into the liver, that bullet will continue through. If it comes out the other side, it will come out with a hole that is the same size as when it penetrated the body in the first place. It is not so with a bullet from an assault rifle because those weapons, which are developed for the military, are clearly for killing. prgtoken The bullet, first of all, comes out at three times the speed--three times the velocity. Therefore, when
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Kennedy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2018-3-6

sometimes--not always--but sometimes Congress operates under the principle that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, and that, to some extent, is what happened with Dodd- Frank. prgtoken It has been almost 8 years since Dodd-Frank took effect, and in that time, well over 1,700 community banks have consolidated, merged, or shut their doors forever. We are going backward. That is an average of one every 3 days. prgtoken I was reading this morning that in the last 3 years, only 13 new banks have been formed in America. That is not 13 per year, that is 13 total. Before Dodd-Frank, we averaged about 100 a year. Across America, banks of all sizes have closed more than 10,000 branches. Acknowledging the damage Dodd-Frank has wrought for our local economies is long overdue, and it is high time we did something about it. prgtoken In my State of Louisiana, out-of-control compliance costs have led to banks boarding up their windows. That means, at this point in time, in at least 15 communities in my State, folks do not have access to a bank or to a credit union. For Louisianians living in these banking deserts, getting a check or a savings account may be little more than a pipedream. prgtoken I am not suggesting to you that everything in Dodd-Frank was misguided. I think we had a handful of institutions that precipitated, in part, the meltdown in 2008, and Dodd-Frank regulates those institutions, but not every financial institution, particularly a community bank and a small credit union, should be lumped in with the larger financial institutions. prgtoken To return to my point, even the ordinary act of cashing a paycheck-- something that goes sight unseen for most Americans--is next to impossible without paying high fees at the convenience store, a pawn shop, or a payday lender. Because of the shrinkage in the banking community in Louisiana, every day, ordinary Louisianians are being told to participate in the economy, manage their finances, save for their kids' future, and plan for their retirements when, thanks to Dodd-Frank and its overregulation of medium-sized and community banks and credit unions, too many Louisianians don't even have a bank branch in their community. prgtoken I think it is time to swing the pendulum back toward simple, sensible regulations. We have legislation that will be on the floor this week in the Senate that will do that. It is called the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. I call it the Dodd- Frank fix bill or the Dodd-Frank reform bill. It doesn't destroy Dodd- Frank. It doesn't eliminate it entirely. It just brings some common sense to the legislation. I think it is a vital step in the right direction. Dodd-Frank, to some extent, particularly for medium-sized and smaller financial institutions, was like using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat. All our reform bill does is suggest that we ought to try using a flyswatter instead of a sledgehammer. <|
COMPREHENSIVE REGULATORY REVIEW ACT
Jeb Hensarling (Republican, TX) \u2014 2018-3-6

I yield the gentleman from New Jersey an additional 30 seconds. prgtoken Mr. GOTTHEIMER: It requires regulators to consider tailoring regulations when appropriate. In short, the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act will cut bureaucratic red tape and help our economy thrive without putting consumers at risk. prgtoken There should be nothing partisan about helping entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes grow, create jobs, and expand the economy. With this measure, and s join together to ensure outdated, unnecessary, and burdensome regulations are eliminated or reformed to better fit the needs of individual financial institutions, which ultimately saves Americans money, helps consumers and families grow--and businesses, too--and it protects, always, American consumers.
NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR COMBATING THE FINANCING OF TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS ACT
Keith J. Rothfus (Republican, PA) \u2014 2018-3-6

I thank Chairman Barr for yielding me time. prgtoken , I rise today to express my support for the National Strategy for Combating the Financing of Transnational Criminal Organizations Act. I want to thank my colleague Representative Kustoff for his work on this important issue. prgtoken The Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance has been examining global criminal organizations and the threat they pose to the United States financial system. prgtoken These sophisticated and dangerous organizations, like drug cartels, increasingly pose a direct threat to the safety and security of all Americans. They have fueled the opioid crisis that continues to kill tens of thousands of Americans each year, including the spread of human trafficking, among a host of other illicit activities. prgtoken I want to remind my colleagues that entire communities are still plagued by this crisis, including hard-hit communities in western Pennsylvania. prgtoken Beyond the opioid crisis, though, I want to highlight an exceptionally dangerous situation in which the United States finds itself. prgtoken Some of the cartels are now working directly with organizations like Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, as reflected in a recent Politico article. Fortunately, the new administration is taking a tougher stance now with the announcement of a newly created Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team. prgtoken , it is about time America fought back against this growing international threat, and this bill will help ensure the government has a strategy to stay in this fight. Lives depend on it. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
TAX REFORM
Darin LaHood (Republican, IL) \u2014 2018-3-6

I think we acknowledge that small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. They create the most jobs in our economy. So when we looked at comprehensive tax reform, we obviously talked to those small businesses, those independent folks, and said: What can we do to help you in terms of lowering the rates, depreciation, expensing? prgtoken We took that into account, and now you are seeing the results of that. So when you talk to small businesses on the real effect, what does that mean? What do they do with those savings? prgtoken Well, they are hiring more people, they are investing in higher wages, they are investing back into their companies, which has a downstream effect throughout this country, and those are real results; and, again, that is a positive nature, which will continue into the future, and we are awful proud of those provisions.
REPACK AIRWAVES YIELDING BETTER ACCESS FOR USERS OF MODERN SERVICES ACT OF 2018
Steve Scalise (Republican, LA) \u2014 2018-3-6

I would like to also thank Chairwoman Blackburn for including the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act that I worked so closely on with Senator Heller for years to try to get this legislation passed. This is included as part of this legislation. This will provide relief to so many job creators and to the FCC by consolidating and eliminating so many outdated reporting requirements. prgtoken What do I mean by eliminating outdated reporting requirements, Mr. ? prgtoken How often do we hear about things that are on the books, laws that are on the books that are so outdated and so unnecessary? This is one of the reports that we are outdating in this bill. prgtoken Right now, there is still, on the books, a requirement that the FCC report on the annual competition within the telegraph industry. Mr that is right. prgtoken Since Samuel Morse invented the telegraph back in the 1830s, that might have been important in the 1800s, even in the early 1900s; but the fact that today, in 2018, there is still a requirement that the FCC issue a report on competition within the telegraph industry is a glaring example of why it is so important for us to update our laws and eliminate outdated laws. prgtoken We are getting rid of this ridiculous requirement and a number of other unnecessary and ridiculous requirements like that so that we can free the FCC up to do the important work they need to do. prgtoken So, again, I commend the chairman for the work that he has done in a very bipartisan way to bring forth the RAY BAUM'S Act, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
TAX REFORM
Paul Mitchell (Republican, MI) \u2014 2018-3-6

I thank Mr. Shimkus for the enthusiasm, the detail on the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. prgtoken , we are going to continue on this conversation and talk a little bit about the trade States, because it has had a great impact not only on Illinois, but also on Michigan. prgtoken Joining us at this point is Congressman Mike Bishop, a neighbor of the 10th Congressional District, a member of the Committee on Ways and Means that had a direct impact on this bill. He has been a leading advocate for a fair and simple Tax Code. He represents the Eighth Congressional District. prgtoken , I yield to Congressman Mike Bishop.
TAX REFORM
Adam Kinzinger (Republican, IL) \u2014 2018-3-6

I thank the gentleman for yielding. This was a great thing we did. It had been--I was 8 years old the last time the Tax Code was reformed, and I think this is something we, frankly, ought to do every decade; at the worst case, every two decades; definitely not every 30 years. So it is about time to get it done. prgtoken I wish this could have been bipartisan. I think there are a lot of fantastic things in here, and I think it is quite obvious that the economy is showing some really big benefit as a result. I think it is hard to hide that. It is hard to pretend that that is not the case, even though some of our friends try to do that, but it is quite obvious it has worked. prgtoken I just want to tell a few stories of my district, the 16th District of Illinois. I was at a tax reform roundtable last month at the Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce, and I heard from my local business community about how this bill affects them and what they would like to see moving forward. One gentleman from Walnut, Illinois, in Bureau County, was really excited about the tax cuts his small business would receive. He plans to increase hourly wages and hire 7 to 10 new employees over the next 2 years. That, my friends, is not crumbs. That is important. prgtoken The tax relief for businesses, large and small, is being shared with employees all over. Over the last few months, more than 300 companies, and counting, have announced plans to add people, add bonuses, add to retirement benefits, and give back to the U.S. economy. prgtoken Employees at UPS in my district, Home Depot, Bank of America, Ryder, AT&T, U-Haul, and many others with Illinois locations will receive these bonuses and benefits. prgtoken A few weeks ago, I went to the Fiat Chrysler plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and I met with employees who were excited and encouraged by the $2,000 bonus they will receive in the second quarter of this year. prgtoken According to the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 85 percent of Illinoisans will see a tax cut next year, and the nonpartisan Tax Foundation has estimated that the State of Illinois stands to gain tens of thousands of jobs from this reform. prgtoken This is great news. By bringing the Tax Code into the 21st century to reflect current day is real and tangible in terms of the benefits it will put into our economy. prgtoken Our future is bright, our economy is growing stronger, and, with tax relief, the American Dream is once again on the horizon for folks in my district and across the country. I thank the gentleman for yielding.