mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT
David N. Cicilline (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2018-4-25

I rise today in support of the Music Modernization Act. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bill. prgtoken I am proud to come from the great State of Rhode Island, the State that sent the great Senator Claiborne Pell to Washington. It was Senator Pell who authored the bill that established the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. prgtoken Senator Pell knew that the greatness of our Nation is not only defined by the strength of our military or the value of our GDP, but by our ability to promote and protect our culture and history through the arts and humanities. prgtoken In keeping with that tradition today, Congress moves to make sure that artists and their creations are protected under the Music Modernization Act. Music has always been a part of our culture and history. The power of music has brought people together in moments of celebration and soothed people in difficult times. Music transcends political, ethnic, and religious boundaries. prgtoken The Music Modernization Act is the culmination of years of debate and negotiation with various stakeholders. We held dozens of hearings and heard from artists, producers, and industry experts to develop a solution that reflects the changing landscape of how people consume music and ensures creators are fairly compensated. prgtoken From the start, we were committed to making sure this bill was bipartisan and a compromise that everyone could support. Within the music community, this legislation brought together an unprecedented coalition of music publishers, record labels, songwriters, composers, artists, and performance rights organizations. prgtoken The result was a bill that is meant for the digital age and recognizes the contributions that many people are involved in during the creation of a song. For the first time, this bill will set up a collective that can give out blanket mechanical licenses to streaming services and ensure proper payments to songwriters and publishers. prgtoken Importantly, this bill also ensures compensation for pre-1972 artists who have been left out of the Federal copyright system for far too long. It also provides a clearer process for engineers, mixers, and producers to collect royalties. prgtoken It has been a privilege to be a part of this historic moment. I urge all of my colleagues to support the Music Modernization Act, and I want to thank Mr. Jeffries, Mr. Collins, Mr. Deutch, Chairman Goodlatte, and Ranking Member Nadler for their extraordinary leadership in accomplishing what is not only significant for our committee but significant for our ability to hear and appreciate and continue to nurture our souls with the beauty of music.
Calling for the Release of Pastor Andrew Brunson (Executive Session)
Robert Menendez (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2018-4-25

I rise today to express my opposition to Mike Pompeo serving as the Nation's top diplomat. prgtoken As I stated earlier this week in committee, I am generally disappointed to be casting a vote against a Secretary of State nominee. I believe the United States needs an effective leader on the global stage. But at the end of the day, as I considered Director Pompeo's nomination, including his hearing, his past statements, and recent revelations, I have lingering concerns along three broad themes. Mr. Pompeo failed to express any tangible diplomatic strategies for which he would advocate to advance American interests; he failed to be forthright with the committee; and, finally, I don't have a satisfactory answer to the question: Which Mike Pompeo am I asked to cast a vote on? prgtoken Unfortunately, during his nomination process, in which he had an opportunity to address all of these concerns, Director Pompeo offered contradictory statements and was less than forthcoming when pressed on a number of issues. prgtoken Given the opportunity to outline the strategies he would advocate with the administration to deal with the challenges of Russia, Iran, North Korea, China or Venezuela, to mention a few, he failed to exhibit the depth of knowledge or thoughtfulness about what those strategies would be. Granted, he is under the constraints of this administration, which has failed to offer a strategic vision for American diplomacy, a White House that has failed to effectively outline policies or strategies to achieve a series of ever-changing goals and objectives. But I expect our chief diplomat to have a vision for diplomacy. prgtoken A meeting is not a strategy. Airstrikes are not a strategy. Unilaterally walking away from an international agreement is not a strategy. prgtoken Beyond his lack of strategies, I fear Mr. Pompeo was less than transparent through his confirmation process. Truthfulness and willingness to be forthcoming to the Foreign Relations Committee are essential in a Secretary of State nominee. But in his refusal to answer questions about the Russia investigation, in which he was interviewed-- a critical issue before the committee--and in his failure to disclose any information about his trip to North Korea, which he could have disclosed even in a classified setting, although we got to learn about it through the press--both critical issues before the committee--he exhibited that he was more suited to the clandestine nature of the CIA Director than the transparency of a Secretary of State. prgtoken I don't expect a Cabinet Secretary to publicly disagree with the President; indeed, it is his or her duty to carry out the President's agenda. But as policies are being formulated, I remain skeptical of whether he will be forthcoming with Members of Congress, how he will approach complex issues, and what that means for our foreign policy. prgtoken This lack of forthrightness ultimately leaves me
TRIBUTE TO DWAIN ``DOC'' PRESTON
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-4-25

in honor of April being National Poetry Month, I want to take a few moments to recognize an extraordinary teacher, poet, and Quincy, IL, legend, Dwain ``Doc'' Preston. prgtoken In the winter of 1936, Doc was born on a farm near Barry, IL. The son of a World War II tank crewman and a tough as nails mother who grew up in Oklahoma surviving the Dust Bowl, Doc attended four different one- room schoolhouses, including Berrian Elementary School in Quincy. After graduating from Liberty High School, he enrolled at Western Illinois University. That was the decision that he said ``took me out of the cornfield.'' prgtoken Doc joined the Air Force, attending Chinese language school, spending 6 hours a day for 8 months, studying at Yale University. To this day, much of his work in the Air Force remains classified. After his service, Doc returned to Quincy and was introduced to Regina Higgins by a friend Jay Lenne at Park Bowl, a bowling alley at the corner of 12th and on. They fell in love, got married, and started their family. They had the first of four daughters in 1963, the second in 1964, the third in 1965, and lastly, the fourth, in--you guessed it--1966. prgtoken Doc followed in his uncle's footsteps--a teacher of 55 years--and accepted a position at Quincy Junior High School after two of his former teachers vouched for him. Six years later, Doc used his G.I. bill to work toward his doctorate at the University of Illinois in Champaign. While working on his dissertation, he taught at Western Illinois University and officially became ``Doc'' Preston. He then did the unexpected and tried his hand at selling insurance, but Doc had teaching in his blood and returned to the classroom after just 1 year. For the next 26 years, Doc Preston could be found in the classroom, teaching writing, speech, and English at Quincy Notre Dame, where each of his daughters would attend high school. He also supervised the QND student council, teaching leadership skills and important life lessons that aren't normally found in high school textbooks. Even after his official retirement, Doc continued teaching creative writing to seniors and others. prgtoken Throughout the years, Doc has stayed in touch with many of his students. They will send him notes using words like icon, terrific, great, awesome, amazing, special--to describe him as a teacher or writer, but mostly as a man. When hearing these compliments, he responds in his humble simple way: ``That's always fun.'' They just don't make them like Doc Preston anymore. prgtoken Doc and his wife, Regina, spent 44 years, or as Doc put it, ``over 16,000 days'' together before Regina passed away in 2006, just 4 weeks following Doc's retirement. In his beautiful poem titled, To Regina, he writes: For over 16,000 days You were part of me. Now only memories are left Of days that used to be. But Ah! What memories they are! The Buoy of my very life,
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE INVESTIGATION
Jared Huffman (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-4-25

I thank my friend from Colorado for his leadership and convening these conversations. It was really helpful to hear from our friend from Missouri, who reminds us that this is really a big deal, this Russian meddling, and that we have to keep pushing to get answers as to why our President behaves so strangely when it comes to Russia, and we have to hold anyone who may have been part of that Russian interference fully accountable. prgtoken I will tell Congressman Perlmutter that constituents in my district, and I think a growing number of people around this country, are extremely concerned and growing more and more concerned about this dark cloud of corruption over the administration; about the possibility of collusion between the team and a foreign government to affect the 2016 election; about the obstruction of justice, the pattern of lying about even the most basic facts; and just based on what has already come out through the special counsel investigation and through the media and, to some extent, through congressional investigations, their level of concern is really growing. prgtoken This week, I want to focus on one aspect of these investigations that we have tried to push here in the House and in the Senate: the issue of privilege. I am not talking about the kind of privilege where a billionaire's son-in-law gets a job inside the White House, even though he has no foreign policy experience and can't get a security clearance. That is a different kind of privilege. prgtoken I want to talk about the issue of executive privilege. This is an idea that Presidential communications need to be kept out of the public eye, even when Congress or the courts issue subpoenas and request that information. prgtoken Presidents have always kind of tried to claim that this type of privilege is implied in the Constitution's separation of powers. It is an argument that a President might not get as candid and fulsome advice from his Cabinet and others if all of it was going to be publicly disclosed. So I can appreciate that. But the administration has taken this notion of executive privilege to extreme and absurd lengths. I think we need to talk about that. prgtoken Just a little quick historical aside, though, on executive privilege. The concept and the limit of executive privilege has really only been tested at the Supreme Court in a pair of Watergate-related lawsuits in the 1970s. This came about when the special prosecutor sought access to President Nixon's secret Oval Office tapes. prgtoken In that case, the court rejected President Nixon's attempts to quash a judicial subpoena. The unanimous decision of that court was that the President had to hand over these tape-recorded conversations with his closest advisers about the Watergate break-in. Of course, we know that was the beginning of the end of the Nixon Presidency. prgtoken So back to the modern era. prgtoken Over the past year, we have seen numerous
Welcoming the President of France (Executive Session)
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-4-25

before I begin, I want to welcome the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who just finished his address before a joint meeting of Congress. His words were timely, particularly his admonition to reject false idols of our time: isolationism, cynicism. He argued that if we were to advance principles upon which both our Nations were founded--as he would say, ``liberte, egalite, and fraternite''--he would say it better than I, of course--and secure the prosperity and security of our peoples in the future, we must seek further cooperation with our allies and engagement with the world. I hope everyone at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue takes President Macron's words to heart. prgtoken , the Senate is considering the nomination of Mike Pompeo to be the next Secretary of State. I must admit that even after his confirmation to the directorship of the CIA, I remained concerned about Mr. Pompeo when he was in the Congress. I talked to him directly. I told him how deeply disappointed I was in how he handled the Benghazi hearings, how partisan they were. I told him some of his comments about minority groups--Muslims in particular--were way over the top. Over the course of his tenure at Langley, I met with him several times after that first meeting where I had given him my views on some of the things I disagreed with in what he did. prgtoken I have to say, those meetings were good meetings. He was very candid with me. He is obviously very smart. He is obviously well informed about foreign policy--far more well informed than Secretary Tillerson was when he came to visit me before his nomination hearing. In particular, what gave me some good feeling was that Mr. Pompeo was particularly strong on Russia sanctions, even showing some separation from the President as we met. I began to think Mr. Pompeo was better than my first impression, which has been guided particularly by his very poor performance in the Benghazi hearings. Then, he was nominated for Secretary of State. That is a whole different ball game. Anyone nominated for such a critical security position deserves the most careful and thoughtful scrutiny. prgtoken With that in mind, I met with Mr. Pompeo privately, where I interviewed him on foreign policy. Frankly, on many issues, our views were not the same. He was far more hawkish than I prefer our diplomat to be. Frankly, my views were probably, on this issue, a little closer to the President's, who remembered, as I do, that in Iraq, we spent over $1 trillion and lost close to 5,000 of our bravest young men and women, and Iraq doesn't seem much better off today than it was then. prgtoken My view was that he was too quick to recommend strong military action when diplomacy might do. At the same time, I believe the President should get to pick his team. President wanted a more hawkish Secretary of State--it would be concerning to me, but it is his decision--and Mr. Pompeo answe
DACA (Executive Session)
Claire McCaskill (Democrat, MO) \u2014 2018-4-25

I come today to join my colleague from Oklahoma to ask unanimous consent that we take up and pass S. 317, the Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act. prgtoken I want to thank Senator Lankford for his continued hard work on this bill. Senator Lankford has been working on this bill since his days in the House, and I worked hard to move this bill with his predecessor, Senator Tom Coburn, to try to get this through the Senate before he left the Senate. Hopefully, we can get it across the finish line, if not today, in the near future. prgtoken American taxpayers deserve a government that can tell them how their money is being spent. This is all this bill is trying to do. It is not complicated. It is trying to get important information to the people who are paying the bills. Don't they have a right to know where all the money is going? prgtoken It improves a publicly accessible online database with information about Federal programs, including the funding information for the program and the activities it comprises; the authorizing statutes and relevant rules and regs; the individuals a program serves; the employees who work to administer it; and copies of recent evaluations or assessments provided by the agency, inspectors general, or the Government Accountability Office. prgtoken The truth is, much of this information, including the program inventory itself, is already required by the Government Performance and Results Act, or GPRA. It passed this body by unanimous consent in 2010. But the current program inventory under GPRA is a mess. It is virtually useless to help lawmakers understand whether these programs are actually working as intended or whether they are a payroll without a purpose. prgtoken This bill adds a few additional information requirements to the program inventory and makes it much easier to compare apples to apples, which is what we need to do when we are making funding decisions. prgtoken Senator Lankford and I have agreed to a number of changes to this bill, raised not only by President 's administration but also President 's administration and by leaders in this body. There were some concerns expressed to us that OMB could use the information to punish agencies by holding up rules and holding up budget requests. I have news for everybody. prgtoken They can already do that; they have the ability. But just because they can do it now, we have agreed to include a clause which says that nothing in this bill gives OMB any additional authority whatsoever, other than what is needed to comply with the requirements of this bill. I can't imagine anything clearer than that. prgtoken We have added caveats to make it easier for programs and agencies to comply with the requirements of this bill. prgtoken I have to tell you, this is what drives the American people crazy. Different from private business, somebody around here could have a good idea and we can legislate a new program, but going back an
MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT
Hakeem S. Jeffries (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-4-25

I thank my good friend, the distinguished ranking member, for yielding, for his leadership, and, of course, to the chairman of the committee and to so many other Members: Representative Issa, Representative Rooney, and Representative Crowley and many, many others who have worked hard on this particular piece of legislation. prgtoken Of course, above all else, I want to thank my good friend and colleague, Congressman Doug Collins, who has been a phenomenal leader in bringing stakeholders together from across the music ecosystem, bringing folks together from the digital industry, bringing the National Association of Broadcasters together to help us reach this moment where we have a consensus product that can ensure that the people of America and the Nation can continue to enjoy the music we have come to know and love. prgtoken Article 1, section 8, clause 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the power to promote and create a robust intellectual property system in order to, in the words of the Founding Fathers, promote the progress of prgtoken science and useful arts. The Founding Fathers of this great Nation understood that we should incentivize creative brilliance and incentivize innovation and, in that context, that the creator should be able to benefit from the fruits of their labor and, in doing so, will continue to share their creative brilliance with the world. prgtoken In the context of music, we know that the manner in which we have consumed music has changed over time: from vinyl to 8-track, from 8- track to cassette, from cassette to CD, from CD to downloads, from downloading to streaming. The manner in which we consume music has changed, but the underlying brilliance and beauty and creativity of that music remains the same. prgtoken Consistent with what the Founding Fathers have suggested, we need a modern-day music licensing system, and that is what the MMA will accomplish. I am thankful that it has brought together not just stakeholders and industry, but it has brought together a Jerry Nadler and a Chairman Goodlatte, a Darrell Issa and a Joe Crowley. It has brought together a conservative from Georgia and a progressive from the people's republic of Brooklyn. prgtoken Music is a unifying force. It has the power to bring us together. We should have the power to modernize our system on behalf of these brilliant creators.
Dark Money (Executive Session)
Jeff Merkley (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2018-4-25

we are at a critical moment in world history, filled with innumerable dangers and challenges. Russia is causing enormous trouble attacking the foundation of democracies around the world, interfering in our elections, developing new tools to move public opinion in countries other than its own while hiding behind robotic social commentaries. We have a nuclear-armed North Korea seeking legitimacy and recognition and critical talks about to occur over the effort to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Syria is not just in the grip of a civil war, it is in the grip of a fractured chaotic state as a result of the destruction of cities and towns throughout the nation, leaving them as destroyed shells of buildings with infrastructure completely decimated. We have a humanitarian crisis in Burma and Bangladesh with massive ethnic cleansing. We have four famines unfolding in Africa, with 20 million people at risk of starvation. In every place you look, there are more of these challenges related to corruption of foreign governments, to climate chaos, to civil conflict. prgtoken We need a Secretary of State who can help navigate our country in these difficult times. We need to be able to work with neighbors around the world, with allies around the world, exercising diplomacy in partnership with the strength of the United States. prgtoken I come to the floor to share that I have grave doubts that Mike Pompeo does not bring the right skills to this job. I am concerned about his choice of military action over diplomacy in a position that is supposed to bring the art of diplomacy to its full execution. I am concerned about his statements of disrespect and dishonor to the fundamental nature of our Constitution under the first article that calls for Congress to be able to open the door to the exercise of military power, not the President. I am concerned about his deep-rooted conflicts of interest that may prevent him from tackling one of the gravest threats to humans on this planet; namely, climate change. So I will be voting against his nomination and felt it only appropriate to share more of my concerns. prgtoken Let's start with the issue of diplomacy. The United States led the world in working to stop the Iranian nuclear program, working with the P5+1 group of states and with Iran to say that such a program of developing the basic elements necessary for nuclear weapons was absolutely unacceptable and bringing to bear such international pressure that Iran said: We will agree to that. We will agree to that. We will dismantle our nuclear powerplant--our plutonium plant. We will fill it with concrete. We will proceed to eliminate the stockpile of uranium enriched up to 20 percent. They agreed to cut the stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 percent, to profoundly reduce its gas centrifuges, shutting down two-thirds of them. On top of that, Iran agreed to the most aggressive and furthest reaching inspections