mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
The Green New Deal (Executive Session)
Brian Schatz (Democrat, HI) \u2014 2019-3-26

I got my first taste of politics when I was 16 years old. I was worried that my favorite surf spot was going to be turned into condominiums, so I joined the Save Sandy Beach Coalition. Adults around me told me that I was too young to take action. They told me that the adults had it under control, but I didn't listen. It took several years, but with lots of grassroots energy, the Governor of the State of Hawaii eventually signed legislation that preserved the Sandy Beach coastline for generations. prgtoken America's proud history of social change is about young people who don't take no for an answer; they take action. Some of the most inspiring movements in our history have been led by young people. They were the ones who first refused to leave their seats in segregated lunch counters, who filled campus squares demanding an end to apartheid, who marched in the streets against police brutality, and staged walkouts to protest gun violence. prgtoken Once again, young people are standing up because the adults are blowing it. On March 15, tens of thousands of kids walked out of school in hundreds of cities and 130 countries demanding action on climate. This isn't a school project for them. It is a fight for the world they will inhabit. They see what is happening around the world. The climate is changing, and it is getting worse, and we need to take action. prgtoken In 2017, the United States experienced 16 disasters that cost $1 billion or more: 9.8 million acres burned by wildfire; 30,000 people homeless; 200,000 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Harvey; the Florida Keys devastated by Irma; thousands dead, and an entire island's infrastructure destroyed by Hurricane Maria. The year 2017 set a new record for the cost of extreme weather events. prgtoken Last year was not better. There were 14 separate disasters that cost $1 billion or more, including the largest, deadliest wildfires that California has ever seen. According to NOAA, the wildfires did more than $40 billion worth of damage. So in these two record-setting years, climate change has cost billions in personal property and taxpayer dollars. And they have cost lives. prgtoken Now the Midwest is flooding. I don't mean that as a political statement or a rhetorical flourish. The Midwest is prgtoken flooding. In another once-in-a-lifetime storm, which is happening more and more frequently, the levees and systems built to deal with flooding have failed because they were built for a climate that no longer exists. Communities are underwater, and people are stranded in their homes right now, at this very moment. In Nebraska alone, the damage is already more than $1 billion. Livestock, crops, infrastructure have been destroyed. Soil that is needed not just for this season but for the future has been destroyed. This is the moment at which Congress should be examining the costs of climate change and what to do about it. prgtoken I hav
EMERGENCY FUNDING AND MILITARY PROJECTS
Ann Kirkpatrick (Democrat, AZ) \u2014 2019-3-26

. Madam , the Department of Defense published a report revealing the dire impacts of the President's unlawful emergency declaration. It threatens to steal nearly $150 million of urgently needed Arizona military construction funds critical to the security of our Nation and the well-being of our men and women in uniform and military families. prgtoken Both military bases within my district, Fort Huachuca and Davis- Monthan Air Force Base, are on the list that could be directly affected by these cuts, and I am here today to say, no way. prgtoken I represent a border district in southern Arizona, and we don't want the expensive, ineffective wall. We want our military bases funded. prgtoken Madam , 59 percent of Americans reject this emergency declaration. I will continue to take action to block this brutal decision and fight to protect Arizonans from the drastic consequences of this dangerous, unlawful declaration.
TERMINATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED BY THE PRESIDENT ON FEBRUARY 15, 2019--VETO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Jerrold Nadler (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2019-3-26

. Madam , I thank the gentleman for yielding. prgtoken Madam , I rise in strong support of overriding the President's veto of H.J. Res. 46. prgtoken One month ago, the House passed a bipartisan resolution to terminate the so-called national emergency declared by President . The Senate has likewise voted on a broad bipartisan basis to reject that emergency declaration, leaving President to issue the first veto of his Presidency. prgtoken I am more convinced than ever that the President's actions are not only unlawful, they are deeply irresponsible. A core foundation of our system of government--and of democracies across the world going back hundreds of years--is that the executive cannot unilaterally spend taxpayers' money without the legislature's consent. prgtoken The President shredded that concept when he declared an emergency after he failed to get his way in a budget negotiation. As he often does, he announced his intention to ignore Congress in plain sight for all the world to see. prgtoken Meanwhile, hundreds of Americans have started receiving letters from the Federal Government demanding entry prgtoken onto their land. Soon our fellow citizens' backyards may be seized in order to build a medieval border wall that Congress and the American people do not want. prgtoken The senseless diversion of military resources to the southern border has also created concerns about our troops' combat readiness and their ability to implement other key priorities, and the administration appears to be deciding on the fly which military construction projects they are planning to raid, leaving our men and women in uniform and everyone else who might be affected in a prolonged state of uncertainty. This type of chaos and confusion is the inevitable result when the President ignores the express will of Congress. prgtoken The Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing to discuss the National Emergencies Act and to begin considering reforms to check abuses of this power. I was heartened by the enthusiasm on both sides of the aisle for such efforts, and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on these proposals. prgtoken But these longer term reform efforts should not detract from our responsibility to address what the President is doing right now. President 's invention of a so-called national emergency to suit his political goals and to get around Congress' refusal of the funding request is intolerable, and I will be proud to cast my vote to override his veto.
ISSUES OF THE DAY
John Garamendi (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2019-3-26

there are a couple of other things that I do want to speak to today. prgtoken Today, the House Armed Services Committee had before it the Acting Secretary of Defense as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Issues were raised during that committee hearing about readiness, specifically about the efforts of the President to circumvent the Constitution of the United States and to take unto himself the appropriation power, which is clearly laid out in the Constitution as the power of Congress. prgtoken Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution clearly says that there shall be no money taken from the Treasury except by appropriation law. That is the power of the purse that is given to Congress. prgtoken The Founders were very clear that, if the President would have not only the power of carrying out the law, but also the power of appropriation--that is, money to carry out the law--we would have a completely different system. In fact, we would have an imperial presidency. They didn't want that, and they wrote very clearly into the Constitution that no money shall be taken from the Treasury without an appropriation. prgtoken Now, the Congress acted on this issue, acted on the issue with an appropriation bill, and Congress did not agree with the President. Instead of the $5 billion, $6 billion that the President wanted for his border wall, Congress said no and provided $1.3 billion for border security, including some fences in some locations. Very clearly, Congress said no to the President, and Congress appropriated money for a specific purpose. prgtoken No sooner was that legislation signed by the President than the President attempted to usurp the power of Congress and to appropriate for himself some $8 billion by manipulating the existing emergency laws that allow the declaration of emergency and money to be spent for that emergency. prgtoken Okay. That is what he wanted to do. Be clear in understanding that this is the attempt by the President to appropriate money in an unconstitutional and, I believe, an illegal way. prgtoken Now, it is not just a constitutional issue; it is also an issue of readiness for the military. We are talking about tens of millions of dollars to rebuild Offutt Air Force Base, the home of the Strategic Air Command. prgtoken We are talking about $3 billion to $4 billion to rebuild Camp Lejeune, one of the two major domestic bases for the U.S. Marine Corps. prgtoken We are talking about $3 billion to $4 billion to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, the home of the F-22 fighter jets and the new and presumed home of the new F-35 multitask fighter. prgtoken So we should ask: If the President is able to divert $6 billion to $8 billion from the military construction account, which we call MILCON, and use it for his border wall, where are we to find the money, the $3 billion to $4 billion to rebuild Tyndall, the $3 billion to $4 billion to rebuild Camp Lejeune, and all of the ot
SUPPORTING PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT
André Carson (Democrat, IN) \u2014 2019-3-26

. Madam , on April 2, just a few days from now, we will observe Equal Pay Day in the United States. This commemoration represents the amount of time into this new year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in 2018 alone. prgtoken As long as this continues, we are effectively telling our wives, our daughters, our mothers, and every woman in our life that they are inherently worth less. prgtoken I don't believe this. I don't believe my colleagues do either, which is why I encourage everyone to support the Paycheck Fairness Act when it comes to a vote tomorrow. prgtoken This bill represents a major step toward closing the pay gap, ensuring employers pay women what they are due, and the process will grow our economy by putting more money in Americans' paychecks and helping families thrive. prgtoken I am honored to support this legislation for my daughter, for the hardworking families in our district, and for women across America who deserve a fair wage for honest work.
The Green New Deal (Executive Session)
Maria Cantwell (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2019-3-26

I come to the floor to join this debate. s, the Senator from Illinois and certainly the Senator from Alaska for her comments because I think some of what I am going to say will probably overlap in the context of working together to get things done. prgtoken Why do I say that is so important? Because she and I worked on a bipartisan energy package that we passed out of the Senate over 2 years ago that had very important, what I would call implementation strategies, for allowing our businesses and our communities to be more cost-competitive when it comes to energy. prgtoken Certainly, in the State of Alaska, I can't imagine paying $9 a gallon for fuel just to heat a home or to have your hospital or your school available for kids to go to play in after school or just meet the healthcare needs of a community. prgtoken Getting energy right not just in big urban cities like Seattle, which is a lot easier to do--we have net zero buildings, probably some of the best net zero buildings in the country--already establishing how you can create energy and sell it back to the grid and be more energy efficient, but we have to have solutions that are going to meet needs all across the United States of America. prgtoken So, good news to hear that the chairwoman of the Energy Committee is planning another energy bill. Hopefully, some of those provisions we worked on 2 years ago, like smart building strategies to help reengineering of energy systems within our buildings to make them more energy efficient, would also go a long way. That is about 40 percent of America's energy use. Every dollar we help a business save in energy costs just gets plugged back into that business's competitiveness in today's economy. I thank her for that, and I look forward to seeing what she and the ranking member, Senator Manchin, push forward, and, certainly, I know we will have our ideas. prgtoken We are here to debate about energy policy and getting it right for our future prosperity and our competitiveness. I also agree with my colleague that getting things done is important because I think what we have proven over the last decade, maybe 15 years, is that we can transition to cleaner fuels; we can become more energy independent; we can become more energy efficient; and doing so actually creates new jobs that are higher wage jobs and help us in the future. prgtoken What Americans want to know is whether we can make it through this transition without doing great damage to our economy, and I think the results of us working together to pass these legislative ideas in the last decade have proven to be very strong incentives. prgtoken First of all, let's talk about incentives writ large, tax incentives. We have been involved with the Finance Committee over the last several years to put in place tax credits that rebalanced our incentives towards the side of renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. In 2008 with my co
The Green New Deal (Executive Session)
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2019-3-26

. Thank you, . prgtoken I am on the floor today with a very simple question: What is the agenda for tackling many of the major challenges we face today in the United States of America? prgtoken We know what our colleagues are against. In fact, just yesterday, the administration asked a Federal court of appeals to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act, which would eliminate affordable healthcare for tens of millions of Americans and strip away protections for people with preexisting conditions. prgtoken So that is what s are against, the Affordable Care Act. What are they for? Since January of this year, the new ic majority in the House of Representatives has already passed major legislation on some important issues for our country. They passed a major bill to protect and strengthen the integrity of our election system and the health of our democracy. It includes lots of provisions, including one to get rid of secret money in politics, because, like the American public, we believe that Americans have a right to know who is spending tens of millions of dollars to try to influence their votes. prgtoken Why not get rid of secret money and dark money in politics? That is what the House bill does. That bill is right here in the Senate now, but are we going to get a chance to vote on that? We are asking the majority leader for a vote on that bill that is sitting right here in the Senate. prgtoken The House also passed sweeping legislation to address gun safety issues. Specifically, the legislation calls for a universal criminal background check to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. This is overwhelmingly supported by the American public. Why would we want to keep a big loophole in the law that allows dangerous people to get guns and commit violent acts with those guns? That bill is also here in the Senate, but there is no sign that we are going to vote on that bill. prgtoken Instead, the leader is bringing up the nonbinding resolution--the Green New Deal resolution--which calls for ambitious goals to tackle climate change, which has created a lot of important momentum in our country to address this issue. Yet our colleagues are not bringing up this bill because they want to do something about climate change; they are bringing it up with the express purpose of defeating it and playing political games. prgtoken It is a very simple question. We know what you are against. You are against the Green New Deal resolution. But what are you for when it comes to addressing climate change? The science is overwhelming. It mounts every day. Americans can see what is happening with their own eyes in the form of extreme weather events. prgtoken Former Senator Bob Kerrey from Nebraska just wrote over the weekend: The disastrous flooding this month in Nebraska and much of the upper Midwest is a reminder of several important truth
ENHANCING HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION IN ARMS SALES ACT OF 2019
Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2019-3-26

today I rise to speak about the Enhancing Human Rights in Arms Sales Act of 2019, which I was proud to introduce on prgtoken Monday with my colleagues, Senators Dick Durbin, Ron Wyden, and Ed Markey. Senators Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, and Rand Paul also cosponsored the bill this week. Our bipartisan bill takes critical steps to ensure that U.S.-manufactured weapons are not used in the commission of heinous war crimes, the repression of human rights, or by terrorists who seek to do harm to Americans and innocent civilians abroad. We do not only have a moral obligation to ensure that U.S. weapons are used responsibly, but it is clearly in our national security interest. prgtoken As one may be aware, the United States is the world's leading arms supplier. According to data compiled by the Security Assistance Monitor, from 2002 to 2016, the United States has delivered more than $286 billion worth of major conventional weapons and related military support to 200 recipients. The Cato Institute found that more than 40 percent of nations purchasing these arms are at high risk of instability, terror, or egregious human rights abuses. prgtoken There are far too many examples of what can happen when we sell or transfer arms without proper vetting. In Yemen, U.S. arms transferred to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and their coalition have been linked to more than 1,000 civilian casualties, according to a recent report from a coalition of local and international human rights NGOs. prgtoken In December 2017, the administration lifted a freeze on weapons transfers to Nigeria to sell 12 Super Tucano A-29 aircraft and thousands of bombs and rockets worth $593 million, according to a Reuters report. Earlier that same year, the BBC reported that at least 115 civilians were killed in a Nigerian military airstrike on an IDP camp. Twenty Red Cross humanitarian aid workers were among the casualties. prgtoken Reuters reports that, since 2000, the United States has provided close to $1 billion worth of military equipment to the Philippines, ranging from surveillance planes, drones, and boats to small arms. Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 4,000 men, women, and children have been killed by some of the country's security forces in the government's anti-drug campaign. President Duterte has openly encouraged the security forces to engage in extrajudicial killings. Congress recently prevented the administration from selling small arms to the Philippines, but insufficient end use monitoring prevents us from knowing if U.S. weapons were used in the commission of these abuses. prgtoken In Guatemala, according to the Washington Post, authorities used U.S.-supplied armored J-8 Jeeps to intimidate U.S. Diplomats and international anticorruption investigators in August 2018. Just weeks later, the U.S. provided an additional shipment of similar jeeps to the Guatemalan Government. Just to repeat, ou
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Thomas R. Carper (Democrat, DE) \u2014 2019-3-26

I ask unanimous consent that the Environment and Public Works Committee be discharged from further consideration of S.J. Res. 9 and that the resolution be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. prgtoken This resolution says that climate change is real; that as people on this planet, we have something to do with it; and three, that Congress is part of the solution.
MEDICAID SERVICES INVESTMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2019
Anna G. Eshoo (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2019-3-26

I rise in support of H.R. 1839, the Medicaid Services Investment and Accountability Act of 2019. I'm very prgtoken pleased the House is considering this bipartisan, bicameral legislation to extend and authorize important Medicaid programs that serve medically complex children, seniors, and people with disabilities, mental health and substance use disorders. prgtoken I'm especially proud that H.R. 1839 includes the ACE Kids Act. ACE Kids is the product of years of extensive work by my colleagues, former Congressman Joe Barton and Congresswoman Kathy Castor. This bill will improve care for the sickest children enrolled in Medicaid, which is the backbone of our health care system for these children. Children with complex medical conditions require a large amount of health services which are expensive and difficult for families to coordinate. The ACE Kids Act aims to better coordinate this care while reducing overall Medicaid spending. Each state's program will be specifically tailored to fit each child's needs and will provide families with a care coordinator. It is based on existing programs that save money while decreasing hospital visits and improving care. This legislation has broad bipartisan support and was passed by the House last December by a vote of 400 to 11. I urge all Members of the House to support it. prgtoken This bill also extends spousal impoverishment protections for recipients of home and community based services in Medicaid. These important protections ensure that spouses of Medicaid patients do not have to spend down their own assets for the Medicaid beneficiary to qualify for home and community based long term care services. Home and community based long term care services are critical to meeting the care and treatment needs of Medicaid beneficiaries, but spouses should not have to risk impoverishment for their loves ones to access these important services. prgtoken H.R. 1839 authorizes additional funding for the Money Follows the Person demonstration which has been successful in transitioning Medicaid beneficiaries out of institutions into community settings. The bill also extends the Excellence in Mental Health demonstration for two states to provide mental health services in community settings. Evidence shows that keeping patients in their communities and out of institutions improves outcomes, and I'm pleased to support extensions of these critical programs to ensure that patients can access services in the best setting for their needs. prgtoken The bill offsets these important extensions by closing loopholes that drug companies have exploited to misclassify their drugs and receive inappropriate rebates on their products. It also makes changes to third-party liability in child support, and denies federal funding for penis pumps in Medicaid. prgtoken I'm grateful that this bipartisan, bicameral legislation is being considered today to strengthen the Medicaid program for children with