mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
HONORING THE CAREER OF DR. JAMES M. SUNSER
Claudia Tenney (Republican, NY) \u2014 2024-4-12

I rise today to recognize the career of an outstanding New Yorker and educator, President of Genesee Community College, Dr. James M. Sunser. prgtoken Dr. Sunser has spent over a decade as President of Genesee Community College and has been an invaluable leader and partner in education, fostering collaboration and strengthening the ties between Genesee Community College and the citizens of Genesee County, New York. Under Dr. Sunser's leadership, the college saw the development of the Richard C. Call Arena and the Student Success Center, capital projects that represented the largest fundraising efforts ever undertaken by the College. prgtoken Dr. Sunser has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the success and well-being of students, faculty, and staff at Genesee Community College, making significant strides in advancing educational opportunities for all. The 24th Congressional District of New York extends its heartfelt appreciation for Dr. Sunser's role in enhancing the educational experience and contributing to the overall prosperity of the region. prgtoken I am pleased to extend my best wishes to Dr. Sunser for a fulfilling and well-deserved retirement, filled with joy, accomplishments, and continued success in all his future endeavors.
HONORING MIDWAY UNIVERSITY EQUINE PROGRAM
Andy Barr (Republican, KY) \u2014 2024-4-12

. Mr , I rise today to honor the Equine Studies program at Midway University. prgtoken Midway University is located in the heart of Kentucky's horse country. The equine industry is one of Kentucky's signature industries. Seeing an opportunity to train Midway students for support staff jobs, the University began their equine program in 1974. Stables and horses were leased, and in the first year 50 students were enrolled. The program grew, and in 1978 plans were underway for an indoor arena on campus. prgtoken Over the years, the program has evolved from basic horsemanship and hands-on skills to much broader studies. Riding courses developed into competitive college-sponsored teams. Students now have the opportunity to concentrate in Equine Management, Equine Rehabilitation, or Equine Science. Students have access to a large equine herd of various breeds and disciplines. Hands-on learning experiences are available on Midway's working horse farm. In 2023, Midway University started an online program in Equine Business and Sales. They also offer an online MBA with Equine Management concentration. prgtoken Graduates from Midway have entered every type of equine business throughout Kentucky, the United States, and internationally. Over the past 50 years Midway has provided high-quality equine educational opportunities for students from across the country. prgtoken I appreciate the work of the dedicated staff at Midway University. They have many accomplishments to celebrate as they look back at 50 years of equine education. The future for the Equine Studies program is bright and it is my honor to recognize Midway University before the United States Congress.
HONORING MICHAEL PERUSICH AS VETERAN OF THE MONTH FOR MICHIGAN'S 9TH DISTRICT
Lisa C. McClain (Republican, MI) \u2014 2024-4-12

today I rise to honor Michael Perusich, our Veteran of the Month for April 2024 from Michigan's 9th Congressional District. It is a privilege to acknowledge the service and dedication of a distinguished American veteran whose contributions and sacrifices have left a lasting impact on our Nation. prgtoken Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, in 1942, Michael graduated from Henry Ford High School in 1961. After a brief period working in California in the field of electronics and communications, Michael returned to Michigan and enlisted in the Air Force in November 1963, where he specialized in Top Secret Communications Maintenance. prgtoken Michael's service took him to the historic island of Iwo Jima from September 1964 to 1965, where he played a crucial role in supporting communications and the Far East Network from this strategic location. His dedication and skill were further exemplified during his two tours in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967, marking a significant chapter in his military career. prgtoken After honorably concluding his service, Michael embarked on a successful career with Control Data Corporation, yet his commitment to serving his fellow veterans never wavered. He joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4659 in 1992, where he has been an active and valued member for over 30 years. Rising through the ranks to Sr. Vice Commander, Michael has been instrumental in supporting the Post, the Honor Guard, and the Macomb County Honor Guard, demonstrating unwavering dedication to the veteran community. prgtoken Michael's contributions extend beyond his military service; he is deeply involved in the local community, regularly assisting in ceremonies honoring veterans. His recognition with the ``White Hat'' at the 2016 State VFW Convention is a testament to his commitment to veteran support programs, community service, and hospital service. prgtoken , Michael Perusich's life is a testament to the spirit of American courage, resilience, and unwavering dedication to service. His contributions both in uniform and as a veteran advocate have significantly impacted the lives of many and serve as a beacon of inspiration for future generations. prgtoken , I ask my colleagues to join me in offering our gratitude to Michael Perusich, not only as being named my district's Veteran of the Month but as a true American hero whose legacy of service and community continues to enrich our great Nation.
RECOGNIZING FRANK RENDA
Beth Van Duyne (Republican, TX) \u2014 2024-4-12

. Mr , I rise today to celebrate a great American success story that has taken place in the 24th Congressional District that I represent in North Texas As a member of the House Small Business Committee who represents countless job creators with growing businesses, I appreciate the role of our small business owners in creating opportunity and prosperity for North Texans. I rise to recognize one such company, Southland Holdings in Grapevine, Texas, which recently realized the American dream, starting as a family business and recently reaching the milestone of becoming publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Oscar and Rudy Renda, Sr and their three other brothers, along with their parents, immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1956. Sponsored by their uncle, Ernie Renda, a Pearl Harbor survivor and construction veteran, Ernie tirelessly worked to bring his family to America. The Renda brothers grew up influenced by their Uncle Ernie's strong work ethic and a profound passion for construction. Oscar embarked on his career as a high school coach and history teacher but always harbored a deep passion for construction instilled by Uncle Ernie. In 1974, he realized his dream by founding Oscar Renda Contracting (ORC). A year later, his brother Rudy joined him, and they began building small-diameter water and wastewater pipelines across the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, employing former high school students as their initial crew, many of whom remain with the company today. prgtoken Over the next few years, ORC refined its expertise in constructing large-diameter water and wastewater conveyance pipelines and treatment plants. Much of the company's early experience centered around building projects for the City of Dallas. From this local experience, the company gradually expanded its operations with larger and more complex projects across Texas and neighboring states. Through these years, the next generation led by Frank and Rudy Renda gained invaluable experience working alongside skilled crew members from an early age. During their college years at Texas Tech University, Frank and Rudy crossed paths with Tim Winn, which further led to a discovery of shared goals, values, and aspirations that have been the foundation of Southland's success. prgtoken Frank, Rudy, and Tim assumed control of the company in 1999, and the following year, entered a joint venture with Southland Contracting, established by Charlie Griffith in 1981. Charlie's unfortunate and premature death led Frank, Tim, Rudy, and Clay, Charlie's son, to assume leadership of the company, and in 2002, Oscar Renda Contracting acquired Southland Contracting. Their shared vision, unwavering commitment, and steadfast principles motivated them to establish Southland Holdings in 2006. Frank Renda assumed the role of CEO, while Rudy Renda and Tim Winn became co COO's. This strategic move laid the groundwork for the company's remarkable growth in
LATEST DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCE OF BIDEN'S BORDER CRISIS
Daniel Meuser (Republican, PA) \u2014 2024-4-12

just the latest devastating consequence of the atrocious border crisis is the dramatic rise in the number of illegal immigrants squatting in American homes. prgtoken We have heard story after story of migrants squatting on Americans' property to the point of a viral Venezuelan TikToker urged illegal immigrants to take advantage of States' adverse possession laws, which caused even more migrants to squat. prgtoken Just last week, Homeland Security officials arrested eight illegal immigrants on drug and gun possession charges who had been squatting in a Bronx, New York, home. prgtoken I am taking action to curb this trend, which is why I recently introduced the Safeguarding Homes from Illegal Entry, Living, and Dwelling Act, or SHIELD Act. My bill would make trespassing a deportable offense for illegal aliens, as well as deem the alien permanently inadmissible for entry or return back to the United States of America. prgtoken This legislation should serve as a deterrent and make illegal immigrants think twice before attempting to trespass on our homes in an unlawful manner.
REFORMING INTELLIGENCE AND SECURING AMERICA ACT
Ben Cline (Republican, VA) \u2014 2024-4-12

. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of these vital reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, especially section 702. prgtoken While H.R. 7888 in its current form includes many provisions that the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees agree on, it falls short of preventing numerous documented abuses by our government against U.S. citizens. prgtoken Congress must act to protect Americans' privacy and civil rights. To do that, any legislation that reauthorizes FISA section 702 must also include a warrant requirement for searches of Americans' communications collected; an end to the law enforcement and intelligence agencies' purchases of Americans' location data and other sensitive information; the reporting requirements offered by Congressman Roy and my amendment, which would permanently end the practice of ``abouts'' collection, which has long been a controversial subject. prgtoken On top of collecting communications to or from the selector of an intelligence target, upstream collection of communications from companies that operate internet cables that interconnect with ISPs' local networks has included the collection of communications about the selector. prgtoken FISA court opinions from 2011, since declassified, have shone a light on this type of collection and noted that it resulted in the collection of ``tens of thousands of wholly domestic communications each year'' by the NSA due to what was described then as technical limitations in the implementation of ``about'' collection. prgtoken This practice has been halted by the FBI, but they have acknowledged that they maintain the right to initiate this upon notification back to Congress. prgtoken This must be codified in order to stop this type of abuse from occurring, and my amendment would do that. prgtoken Mr. Chair, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 7888, REFORMING INTELLIGENCE AND SECURING AMERICA ACT; PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 529, EXTENDING LIMITS OF U.S. CUSTOMS WATERS ACT; PROVIDING FOR...
Thomas Massie (Republican, KY) \u2014 2024-4-12

the balance of my time to close. We are here today to pass a rule that will bring up a program for a vote that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times, abused by the FBI's own standards hundreds of thousands of times. Every time they have used it, they have actually abused it because they have not followed the constitutional requirement in the Fourth Amendment. prgtoken Today, if we pass this rule, we will have votes on six different amendments. Three of these amendments will expand the program, and three of these amendments will constrain the program. prgtoken There are people who say this bill is fine as is, that it doesn't need any amendments. Here is the problem with that: If we believed that, why would we put exemptions for Congress in this bill? prgtoken There are exemptions for Congress in the base bill of 702. What do they do? prgtoken They say that if a Congressman is going to have their privacy violated with the 702 program by the FBI, the FBI has to notify Congress. It goes on to say in this bill that if the FBI is going to tell us that they are doing it for our own good, they have to get permission from the Congressman whose privacy is going to be violated. Why does that only apply to Members of this body? prgtoken The Constitution provides that we should give these protections to everybody. The Constitution requires a warrant. That is one of the amendments that will be offered here today. prgtoken In fact, the chairman and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee--the committee of jurisdiction for this legislation, the committee that many years ago created the 702 program--have said that if the warrant provision is not adopted, they will not vote to renew this program. I applaud them for taking that stand because the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution says: ``The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'' prgtoken The FISA 702 program is clearly in violation of the Fourth Amendment. We can fix it, for the most part, with one amendment. There will still be other defects in the FISA program. prgtoken I will just close by saying this: America is watching us today. They are going to watch the results of this vote. What will we do here today? Are we going to carve out exemptions for Congress? Are we going to protect ourselves but not the American people, or are we going to provide them with the protections that our Founding Fathers enshrined in our Constitution? prgtoken We swore an oath to do that when we took these offices as legislators, and we need to follow that oath. That is why I urge adoption of this rule. I urge people to vote for the warrant amendment, and I urge people not to vote
REFORMING INTELLIGENCE AND SECURING AMERICA ACT
Brad R. Wenstrup (Republican, OH) \u2014 2024-4-12

. Mr. Chair, I certainly am a supporter of this underlying bill. This is a bipartisan product. It came out of the Intelligence Committee, and it came out of the Intelligence Committee when we realized a few years ago all the abuses that were taking place within our intelligence system. We knew we had to act. There had to be reforms, and there had to be criminal liability when people and their agencies are doing the wrong things. That wasn't in place, and for the last 2\1/2\ years, we have worked on this. prgtoken We have worked on it in a bipartisan way not just with the Intelligence Committee but with the whole body. We opened this up to the entire body, and , regardless of what committee a Member is on, and we worked together to craft a very good bill. prgtoken This isn't just an Intelligence Committee bill. This is a House of Representatives bill. prgtoken That is what we have brought forward. This bill ensures Americans' civil liberties are secure and that we have intelligence collection tools that we need to safeguard our country from foreign threats. prgtoken The Constitution asked us to provide for our defense, which is what we are trying to do, and to work against all enemies, foreign and domestic, which is what we are trying to do. prgtoken I want to set the record straight. It is already in statute that a warrant is required every single time the United States Government wants to investigate a U.S. person under FISA under section 702, but a warrant is not required to do a query to find out what we might need for probable cause to get a warrant. Now, this amendment wants to put a warrant on getting a query when time is of the essence. prgtoken Mr. Chair, if Ali Khamenei is talking about you and we pick up that, then I want to know why he is talking about you. I want to do a query into the information we already have to see if anyone else is talking about you. prgtoken Moreover, I want to find out if they are planning to assassinate you, Mr. Chair. I shouldn't need a warrant to try to find out if a foreign actor is trying to assassinate a U.S. citizen. I shouldn't need a warrant to find out if a foreign actor or terrorist is working with someone in the United States to harm other Americans, but if we want to investigate that person, then yes, we do. prgtoken There is a lot of misinformation out there. American civil liberties are not being harmed. prgtoken Mr. Chair, I will give you a hypothetical example, too. American citizen Bob Smith pops up in a FISA database. Some are saying that government can obtain or search Bob's emails, texts, and phone calls. That is not true. That is not true, but you can do a query to see if anyone else is talking about this person, and not just anyone else anywhere, but a foreign actor or a foreign terrorist whose information you already have.
REFORMING INTELLIGENCE AND SECURING AMERICA ACT
Michael Waltz (Republican, FL) \u2014 2024-4-12

. Mr. Chair, such time as I may consume. prgtoken Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment to permit the use of 702 information to vet foreign nationals entering the United States. This amendment enables the thorough vetting of all foreigners being processed for traveling to the United States, whether that is a foreign national applying for a visa, applying for legal immigration, or illegally crossing our southern border. prgtoken This is what I think a lot of Americans probably don't realize: Currently, section 702 has only been authorized to collect information to support some Department of Homeland Security efforts to screen and vet foreign persons applying for travel or immigration to the United States. This amendment will enhance the vetting of all foreigners who come here. prgtoken If national security concerns are found through this vetting, these results will be provided to the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the Department of Defense to ensure the Federal Government is making the most informed decision before we allow foreign nationals' admission. prgtoken Mr. Chair, we are 3 years into the worst crisis at the southern border in the history of the United States. Last year, Customs and Border Protection reported 2\1/2\ million encounters with people attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico. Alarmingly, over the last 2 years, CBP has apprehended more than 70,000 special interest aliens, people from countries identified as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism. prgtoken Mr. Chair, the FBI Director is ringing the alarm bell with the over 300 people on the terrorist watch list who are now somewhere in America compared to just 12 under the last administration. This population includes 538 aliens from Syria and 659 aliens from Iran, two state sponsors of terrorism, I might add, in addition to 139 from Yemen, which right now houses the Houthis, and over 1,600 from Pakistan. We just saw ISIS-K attack Moscow. We have just seen six plots stopped in Europe, and I fear that we are about to suffer another attack like San Bernardino, like Pulse nightclub, or, God forbid, another 9/11. prgtoken Equally concerning, the fastest growing group entering through our southern border is now from China, our number one adversary. Over 24,000 Chinese nationals have been apprehended at the southern border just in the last year. Of the 1.3 million illegal immigrants in the United States with deportation orders, over 100,000 are Chinese nationals. prgtoken The American people expect us to use every tool we legally can, every intelligence piece of equipment and every database that we can, to protect them against foreigners who would mean us harm. prgtoken Mr. Chair, we have these tools. We have reformed the abuses of these tools, and we have to allow our national security professionals to have the best information possible to keep Americans safe. We can't wa
REFORMING INTELLIGENCE AND SECURING AMERICA ACT
Jefferson Van Drew (Republican, NJ) \u2014 2024-4-12

. Mr. Chair, you just heard the words of Benjamin Franklin from my good friend Tom McClintock, that those who would give up freedom for safety deserve neither. I hope that we aren't marked in history as the generation of Congress that was willing to give up American liberty and freedom. It is what we stood for. It is what we have worked for. It is what the men and women of this country have died for. We owe it to them. It is our most important right as Americans. It is what the United States of America represents. prgtoken We were told all this before. We were told in the last renewal of section 702 that everything was going to be okay, no worries, all the security was there, nothing to be concerned about, don't look here. prgtoken Then we saw what happened. We saw that political campaigns and donors were gone after. We saw that Members of Congress were investigated. We saw that journalists were investigated. We saw that individuals who were Libertarians or liberals or conservatives were investigated. We saw FBI agents' own coworkers and even their ex-girlfriends and others were investigated. The average man and woman in America were investigated. prgtoken It was wrong. It occurred not dozens, not hundreds, not thousands, but, over that time period, millions of times, millions of illegal queries. prgtoken I cannot support, and I will not support, this legislation unless there is a major change in the form of an amendment that would require what we know needs to be done: a search warrant. It is a basic American right. prgtoken Don't let them scare you. It doesn't mean that we are not going to go after terrorists. It doesn't mean that we won't protect the United States of America. prgtoken While I finally wrap up here, if this bill is so good the way it is written, why do we exempt Members of Congress? Do you know why? It is because they are scared that they may still at the end of the day go after us. prgtoken It is wrong. Rules for thee, not for me. We should not stand for it.
THANKING LEADERS OF CAL STATE DC SCHOLARS
Young Kim (Republican, CA) \u2014 2024-4-12

I rise to thank Dr. Stephen Stambough and Dr. Valerie O'Regan upon their retirement from Cal State Fullerton after years of dedicated service as political science professors. prgtoken Drs. Stambough and O'Regan led the Cal State DC Scholars program, offering students interested in politics and government the unique opportunity to live and learn in Washington, D.C. prgtoken Dr. Stambough was the founding director of this program in 2006. More than 650 students have since participated in this program. Dr. O'Regan personally recruited one-third of the students. prgtoken Their important work has inspired many, including my own daughter, Kelly, who attended Cal State Fullerton and was a Cal State DC Scholar. prgtoken I thank them both for their tireless work to teach the next generation of public servants and leaders, and I wish them both the best in their retirement.