mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Thom Tillis (Republican, NC) \u2014 2024-2-12

. OK. May I ask another question? prgtoken So I just want to be clear that, generally speaking, Senator Lee, I have observed you do some extraordinary things on the floor and managed to get some very helpful measures--amendments--voted on, including some of the ones today. But I do want to be clear that we are likely never going to have an opportunity to vote on those because we do have some of our colleagues who have made it very clear that they are not willing to have the puts and takes that are necessary in the world's most deliberative body to actually get an opportunity to take those votes. Is that your understanding?
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Pete Ricketts (Republican, NE) \u2014 2024-2-12

I rise today to join my colleagues in talking about the catastrophe at our southern border, what has happened under this administration, how it was created by because of his policies. This self-inflicted wound has been created by and his policies. prgtoken Let's step back a little bit to see: How did we get here? How did we get to this situation where we have a flood of illegal immigrants coming across our southern border? prgtoken As my colleague from Wisconsin just described, under the administration, President brought the crossings of illegal immigrants to a 45-year low, less than 1,000 encounters per day. He did that with the same tools that President has available to him today. But instead of taking the same policies that President used to control that border, President was in a rush to undo those policies. He promised a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants that are in this country. He promised to stop ``locking people up.'' He said: For those who come seeking asylum, we should immediately have a passage to absorb them and keep them safe until they can be heard. prgtoken And he said those who cross the border illegally ``should not be the focus of deportation.'' Well, certainly on that last point, President has been accurate. If you look at the September numbers, there were about 270,000 contacts along our southern border and only about 10 percent of those folks were deported. He is certainly living up to his promise. prgtoken In his first 100 days of office, President issued 94 Executive orders on immigration. He stopped the construction of the border wall. He halted deportations. He suspended the ``Remain in Mexico'' provisions. prgtoken He repealed 's interior enforcement Executive order that prioritized immigration enforcement. President 's order encouraged States and local jurisdictions to enforce Federal immigration laws. Part of it was to revive the Secure Communities Program, which ordered the Department of Homeland Security to consider stripping Federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities and encourage additional criminal prosecutions for illegal entry into the United States. prgtoken Under the administration, has abused the process of parole. I want to be clear what we are talking about when we are talking about parole. We are not talking about parole as in, I have been in prison and now I have done enough of my time and have shown good behavior in prison, so that I get paroled and released into the public with supervision from our criminal justice system. prgtoken No, that is not what we are talking about here. Parole is a function that the executive branch can use to be able to allow people to come into this country. The way the law is written, it is supposed to be on a case-by-case basis; that it is only to be used in cases of extreme humanitarian need or in
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Marsha Blackburn (Republican, TN) \u2014 2024-2-12

I know that we have Tennesseans who are watching, and many people are saying: Why is it that you all are here? Because this was to be a week where we were working in our States. Of course, many of us have set meetings in our States, but here we find ourselves looking at this piece of legislation that, all of a sudden, has become a must-pass. prgtoken Now, the schedule for when we were going to be in and out of session came out in December, back around the 1st of December. So that is when we decide how we are going to organize our year and our work periods and meet those obligations to our constituents. prgtoken But what we find out is there is all of a sudden this deadline that has to be met because there is the Munich conference, and we have a delegation that is going, and they don't want to go emptyhanded. They want to take this bill that is going to be more money for Ukraine. prgtoken Now, there are some of us who have said: Hey, wait a minute. We have these problems at our southern border, and we really can't help others until we deal with the crisis at our southern border. prgtoken There are some of us who remember what happened on 9/11, and we remember the impact that had on our Nation, and we will never forget that. We realized how important it was to get our country back on track, and we did that. We moved forward aggressively not only militarily but in getting our economy back on track, stabilizing our country, changing how we looked for terrorism, and taking the steps that were necessary to protect the citizens of this country, to protect individuals in their communities, in their places of work, and to make certain that they knew we were going to be there to put them first and the protection of this country first. prgtoken Well, of course, deadlines and work periods have a way of forcing issues, of saying: Well, this has to be done, and we have to meet this deadline. prgtoken I would suggest to all of my colleagues that after we return from this work period, guess what. There is all of a sudden going to be this deadline and this push: Oh, we have the CR coming up. We have to take action right now, so everybody has to get in the same boat and vote for things that you really don't want because we just cannot have a government shutdown. That is going to be the message that is there. prgtoken Bear in mind, I think it has been now 103 days since the ic leader has allowed an appropriations bill to come to this floor for consideration. prgtoken Because of the good work of Senators Collins and Murray, the Senate appropriations bills came out of the Appropriations Committee in July. But, no, they are not coming to this floor because, then, the ic leader would have to give up the ability to jam it and to get what he wants right at the very end, just like there is this jam to get this bill passed before the Munich Conference, so there can be smiles, handshakes, and back slaps when t
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2024-2-12

before I speak about the supplemental and our upcoming business, I am going to say a few words about Flight 3407, the tragic flight where over 50 people died in a cold winter's night in Buffalo. It is the 15th anniversary. I can't be in Buffalo with the families; so I am going to say a few words here first. prgtoken Later this afternoon, at a memorial on Long Street in Clarence, NY, the families of Colgan Air Flight 3407 will mark 15 years since their loved ones tragically perished in a devastating plane crash. prgtoken In the blink of an eye, every single passenger, every single crew member, and one New Yorker on the ground were killed on a freezing Thursday evening. It pains me that I can't be in prgtoken Western New York today for their vigil, but I want to tell the families who have lost loved ones: I am with you in spirit and will always be by your side. prgtoken Working with the families to strengthen America's aviation laws has been one of the most satisfying and inspirational things I have done in my entire time of Congress. I have laughed and cried with the Kausners, the Eckerts, and so many of these wonderful people more times than I can count. prgtoken Today, from here on the Senate floor, I join with the families to remember those that we lost and to honor their legacy, which has changed the course of American history when it comes to the safety of our skies. prgtoken The Scripture says, in moments of darkness, it is natural to turn inward, to curse the darkness, but that if you are able to light a candle instead, that is saintlike. prgtoken These families are saintlike. They lost loved ones. The holes in their hearts exist every single day. But instead of turning inward to the darkness, they decided to light a candle and work diligently and persist and change the laws so it wouldn't happen to others in the future. For 15 years, instead of cursing the darkness, these families of Flight 3407 lit a candle. In their grief, the families came together. They organized and raised their voices. prgtoken I was proud to be their champion in the Senate to help pass the most significant aviation law of the 21st century, in 2010. I was moved by the families from the beginning. We worked hand in hand after the crash to fix our aviation safety laws to make them the strongest in the world. When I became majority leader, I vowed to ensure these safety provisions the families fought for would not be rolled back. prgtoken Because of these families, airlines across America are safer. Praise God, we have not had a single fatal crash of a major airline in America since 2009. prgtoken These families helped establish the 1,500-hour training rule that pilots must follow. They helped create a pilot records database and new rules around pilot fatigue to help ensure that what happened on 3407 never happens again. prgtoken These families' advocacy is just what the Founding Fathers envisioned: average citizens, with
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Patty Murray (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2024-2-12

we all understand we cannot leave our job here unfinished. The clock is ticking right now, and there is so much at stake. We have a strong, bipartisan package to support our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific and provide humanitarian aid to civilians who are caught in conflict. By passing this bill, we would show our allies we stand by our word and we will help them in the time of need. We will show dictators that their flagrant attacks will not go unchecked and they cannot steamroll our allies. And we will show the world that American leadership is still alive and well and that we are still a strong protector of democracy and provider of humanitarian aid. prgtoken Given all the stakes of this moment, now--right now--is a critical time to send that message, which is why I am glad we are here on the cusp of passing this bill in the Senate. prgtoken And to my colleagues who have been holding this up and dragging the process out, we can disagree. You can vote against this. That is how it works. But one way or another, this aid will get to our allies. We spent months going back and forth to try and get a bill to the floor, and now we are here. We are not going to let a few more hours or a few more days wear us down. prgtoken However, what is an inconvenient delay for the U.S. Senate is a dangerous one for our allies in Ukraine. Putin's forces are on the march as we speak. Ukrainians are fighting bravely to defend their homeland, but they are running lower and lower on bullets, air defense missiles, and more every day. prgtoken We measure time in hours; they are measuring it in how many bullets they have left, how many more missiles fall on their cities, and how much closer Putin's tanks are getting. The question for us is: How long is this going to take? The question for them is: How much longer can they hold out? prgtoken We cannot leave them waiting. So I urge my colleagues to support moving forward on these votes, vote to waive the budget point of order, and let's keep this bill moving. prgtoken And once we get it through the Senate, we are going to push every way we can to get this to the President's desk and signed into law. prgtoken .
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Margaret Wood Hassan (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2024-2-12

reserving the right to object, we all share the grief and horror we saw unfold when Hamas committed the atrocities against the people of Israel. We all continue to work, as the President and his team have been doing, to find a way to get the hostages released while also addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But to cut off all humanitarian aid at this point in time would mean that innocent civilians and children in Gaza would be irrevocably harmed. prgtoken We need to continue, as the administration is doing, to develop this framework, to get the hostages out, and to get a pause in the fighting while we do, but we also need to address the humanitarian crisis. prgtoken I would also note that if my colleague from Florida is interested in securing the border, there was a bipartisan agreement to secure the border that s turned and walked away from last week because they would rather keep this as a problem and a political issue than actually work to pass a solution. They could have, of course, after we had gone to the bill that included a border security package that was supported by the National Border Patrol Council, representing 18,000 Border Patrol agents, because they knew it would make our border secure. They walked away from it. prgtoken The last thing I will just say is that if we are interested in standing up to authoritarians and standing for freedom, as my father did in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II and as I just heard my colleague speak of how his father did the same, then we need to make sure that we make clear to Iran and to China and to North Korea and to Vladimir Putin that the United States of America stands for freedom. prgtoken If my colleagues are serious about that, they will be supporting this bill. prgtoken With that, I object.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2024-2-12

earlier this week, I came to the floor to discuss the horrific terrorist attacks committed by Hamas against Israel on October 7, the brutal murder of about 1,200 people and the seizure of 240 hostages. I underscored the fact that Israel not only has the right but it has the duty to defend itself against those heinous acts and prevent any future October 7s. Never again. I also repeated my calls to prioritize the release of hostages, including American citizens. I also pointed out that while Israel is conducting a just war, it must be waged justly, including taking all necessary measures to protect innocent civilians. prgtoken Last week, Secretary of State Blinken made his fifth trip to Israel, where this time he urged Prime Minister Netanyahu not to launch a major military operation against Rafah, a city in southern Gaza whose population has increased fivefold since the beginning of the war because Palestinian refugees fleeing from northern Gaza and other parts of Gaza were told by the Netanyahu government that Rafah was a safe place for them to go. prgtoken Within hours of meeting with Secretary Blinken, Prime Minister prgtoken Netanyahu rebuffed that request and announced publicly that he had decided to launch just such an operation against Rafah. Yesterday, as if to rub it in, Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared on ABC Sunday television here in the United States to say that despite the requests from the United States, he had decided that Israel will launch a military operation against the city of Rafah. prgtoken This is part of a pattern--a pattern where Prime Minister Netanyahu thanks President and the United States for our substantial military assistance but then mostly rejects our request to take measures to protect civilians and to facilitate desperately needed humanitarian assistance to people in need. prgtoken President has called the bombings in Gaza ``indiscriminate,'' and the United States has repeatedly called upon the Netanyahu government to take steps to end the huge number of civilian deaths from bombing, artillery, and other weaponry. The death toll now stands at over 28,000 people, over two-thirds of them women and children. What does Prime Minister Netanyahu say? He says Israel is already doing all it can. prgtoken President recently called Israel's actions in Gaza ``over the top.'' Prime Minister Netanyahu said he didn't know what President was talking about. prgtoken Every major international aid organization I have spoken to--and I have spoken to virtually every one--says that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the worst they have seen in the world, ever, in their decades of experience, as over 400,000 people are on the verge of starvation, and the entire population of over 2 million is at crisis levels of food insecurity. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities in Gaza, COGAT, say, ``There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.'' prgtoken The administration h
SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING
Michael F. Bennet (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2024-2-12

I know that the hour is--not late. I guess it is early, but the staff have been on the floor all night, and the pages are exhausted. They have been working. prgtoken I wanted just to say--and I know the Presiding Officer doesn't deserve to have to spend 5 minutes listening to me. I just want to say a word, as we get out of here, about where we are. I want to thank the Senator from Vermont for his moral leadership and for his clarity in this difficult time. prgtoken Not that long ago, we had a conversation with the President of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy. It was while we were still in the midst of COVID, and we were meeting on Zoom. He said to the U.S. Senate that the Ukrainian people were fighting so they could live their lives the way we live our lives--the way we live our lives in the United States. prgtoken More recently, in our last meeting with him, which was in person, he came here and met us in the Old Senate--or in, I guess, the Mansfield Room. He said to us that they were going to continue to fight; that if we didn't support them, they would lose but that they would never stop fighting because the Ukrainian people know what freedom is about, and they wouldn't stop. He thought that they could succeed if we continued to support them. He was very clear about that. prgtoken It wasn't clear to me that we were going to be able to fulfill our commitment. There have been moments--I have been here now 14 years or so. There have been moments when I have really wondered whether the U.S. Senate is just a relic of its former self; that our democracy is a relic of its former self; that the evidence that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin believe has piled up over the decades and, over the century, has put the United States in a place where it has no capacity to lead anymore. That is what they say at every negotiating table at which we find ourselves with them--that the 20th century was our century but that this is a different century. It is a century for totalitarianism, a century for authoritarianism, a century where might makes right. prgtoken As the Presiding Officer knows, my mom was born in Warsaw in 1938--a Polish Jew. It was the worst place on planet Earth that anybody could have been born at the worst moment when anybody could be born. I am going to spare you because we are here and we have got to move on, but they lived through the worst that humanity had to offer--my mom and my grandparents, Halina Klejman and John Klejman. prgtoken They finally came here to the United States of America, after the war was over, to rebuild their shattered lives, and they said to me that they had been happy here ever since--that was their language--with humanity's greatest treasures: democracy, freedom, and love as they described it. They hoped that, in the course of our lives, their grandchildren would be able to spread these treasures around the world. prgtoken Tonight, that is what we have done here in the U.S
SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING
Peter Welch (Democrat, VT) \u2014 2024-2-12

this is indeed a historic day--the passage of the national security supplemental appropriations bill. I want to commend the extraordinary work of Leader Schumer, of Leader McConnell, of our Appropriations chair and vice chair, Senator Murray and Senator Collins, and also our colleagues who worked so hard on the bipartisan border agreement that was ultimately repudiated by the s. prgtoken The supplemental includes important additional military aid for Ukraine and Taiwan and aid for Israel and humanitarian aid for the Palestinians and other vulnerable populations. prgtoken I unequivocally support the additional aid for Ukraine. It is facing an existential threat. We must pass that aid. I am very pleased to see that Ukraine is going to be receiving the aid it desperately needs. Putin must be stopped. prgtoken The other provision in the supplemental I strongly support is funding for the humanitarian aid for Palestinians and for humanitarian catastrophes around the globe. But the situation in Gaza is what is of great concern to me. It is horrific. prgtoken Two million Palestinians have been uprooted from their homes. Those homes have been reduced to rubble. Folks are desperately seeking to survive. They lack adequate food, safe water, and shelter. Many are injured without anything remotely resembling sufficient medical care or shelter. prgtoken I introduced a resolution, cosponsored by 15 of my colleagues, urging the administration to dramatically increase access and delivery of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza, and I am gratified that the supplemental does include several billions of dollars for that purpose. prgtoken But despite these provisions that I do support, I voted against the supplemental for one key reason: I cannot in good conscience support sending billions of additional taxpayer dollars for Prime Minister Netanyahu's military campaign in Gaza. It is a campaign that has killed and wounded a shocking number of civilians. It has created a massive humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. It has inflamed tensions in the Middle East, eroding support among Arab States that had been aligned with Israel. And, of course, it has severely compromised any remaining hope--almost all remaining hope for the two-state solution that we all know is ultimately essential for peace in the Middle East. And this is an opinion that is not just my own, but it is prgtoken expressed by a large majority of Vermonters who have contacted me and shared their dismay at the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. prgtoken During my years in Congress, like the Presiding Officer, I have voted for tens of billions of dollars in aid for Israel, but I cannot send more taxpayer dollars to support Prime Minister Netanyahu's continued bombardment in the wholesale destruction of Gaza, knowing the calamity that more U.S. bombs and artillery shells will cause for countless more civilians who had nothing whatsoever to do
RECOGNIZING BERT'S BIG ADVENTURE
Jon Ossoff (Democrat, GA) \u2014 2024-2-12

I rise to commend an Atlanta, GA, nonprofit organization for its two decades of service to Georgia and the country. prgtoken Founded in 2002, Bert's Big Adventure provides an all-expenses-paid, 5-day journey to Walt Disney World for children with chronic and terminal illnesses and their families. In 2003, the organization took seven children with chronic and terminal illnesses and their families on the journey of a lifetime to Walt Disney World for the inaugural trip. Since then, Bert's Big Adventure has taken nearly 260 children and their families on a magical vacation. prgtoken Following the annual trip, Bert's Big Adventure provides year-round support to children and their families through initiatives such as the Family Reunion Adventures, the Fairy Godparent volunteer program, and additional charitable services. Bert's Big Adventure gives children battling illness and their families a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and helps create lasting memories. prgtoken As Georgia's U.S. Senator, I commend the Bert's Big Adventure team for its two decades of valiant service and commitment to giving back to those in need.