mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
VOTE EXPLANATION
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2022-4-27

last week, I travelled overseas as part of a congressional delegation conducting meetings on Russian aggression, security, and food security, among other things. Our delegation was scheduled to return on Monday, April 25, but due to mechanical problems with our aircraft, we were delayed for a day. prgtoken As a result of that delay, I missed two votes. I take seriously my duties in service to the people of Pennsylvania, including voting on policies and nominations. Accordingly, I wish for the record to show that, had I not been absent due to mechanical difficulties with the plane, I would have voted yea on the following votes: yea on vote No. 135, on the motion to invoke cloture: Lael Brainerd to be Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; yea on vote No. 136, on confirmation: Lael Brainerd, to be Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF S. 3522, UKRAINE DEMOCRACY DEFENSE LEND- LEASE ACT OF 2022; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
James Comer (Republican, KY) \u2014 2022-4-28

Oversight and Reform Committee s witnessed firsthand the crisis on the border after the southern border trip I led earlier this month. prgtoken By pushing blanket amnesty and eroding interior enforcement, President has now signaled to the world that our laws can be violated with little to no consequence. prgtoken In 2021, over 2 million apprehensions of illegal immigrants were made. This is the most ever recorded by U.S. Border Patrol. In fact, I want to quote Punchbowl News because they really put it into perspective yesterday morning when they reported: ``According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, during the past 3 weeks, the agency has `encountered an average of 7,800 migrants per day across the southwest border. This compares to a historical average of 1,600 per day in the prepandemic years,' a roughly 480 percent increase.'' prgtoken The surge of illegal immigrants is overwhelming the Department of Homeland Security. As a result, DHS was forced to release hundreds of thousands of these illegal border crossers into the United States. prgtoken Catch and release does not work. It only encourages more illegal immigration. The numbers we have don't even account for illegal immigrants who have evaded capture entirely. That number is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. prgtoken The situation only gets worse when we look at how much fentanyl and other deadly drugs are being smuggled across the border by cartels. On our trip, we witnessed hundreds of discarded backpacks littering the ground, backpacks that once carried illicit narcotics. prgtoken The administration's border policies have only boosted the human smuggling industry and empowered drug cartels. prgtoken Now, President 's decision to terminate the CDC's public health order under title 42 on May 23 will turn this national security and humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe. prgtoken Former administration Secretary of Homeland Security Johnson once said that only 1,000 apprehensions per day was ``a relatively bad number'' that ``overwhelms the system.'' He described 4,000 apprehensions per day as a crisis. prgtoken The Department of Homeland Security now predicts as many as 12,000 to 18,000 illegal migrants per day will attempt to cross the border because of President 's policies when the prgtoken title 42 order terminates, overwhelming the congregate processing facilities in ports and Border Patrol stations that we toured along the border in California and Arizona. prgtoken This administration's plan to address this catastrophe boils down to simply speeding up the release of even more illegal border crossers that is no plan at all. Placing illegal immigrants over Americans is unacceptable. prgtoken Committee on Oversight and Reform s have been at the forefront of this crisis, demanding answers and seeking to hold the administration accountable to the American people.
RECOGNIZING SETH PARISH ON TAKE YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER TO WORK DAY
Glenn Thompson (Republican, PA) \u2014 2022-4-28

today is Take Your Son or Daughter to Work Day. While my three sons are grown, I have the privilege of having a friend of mine, Seth Parish, with me today. prgtoken Seth is 12 years old and hails from Maryland. He is actively involved in baseball, playing center outfield, ice hockey, and has recently joined the Civil Air Patrol where he learns about aerospace and survival skills. prgtoken Our schedule is busy today as the House Agriculture Committee held a 2022 farm bill review hearing. Seth joined me for that, and he is also joining me for this speech today. prgtoken In 2009, Seth's dad was serving in the Army and lost his life a month before Seth was born. This is the fourth year Seth has joined me through a program called Tuesday's Children. Tuesday's Children uses its experience and expertise to help our military families work through their own losses. prgtoken , I hope Seth is enjoying being my shadow again this year, and I can't wait to see all that he can accomplish.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2022-4-28

from the beginning, the administration has displayed a hostility to fossil fuels. prgtoken President set the tone on day 1 of his administration when he canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, an environmentally responsible pipeline project that was already underway and that was to be paired with $1.7 billion in private investment in renewable energy to fully offset its operating emissions. He almost immediately froze new oil and gas leases on Federal lands and is only now making new onshore leases available for sale after being ordered to do so by a Federal judge. His first budget contained a series of tax hikes on conventional energy production, and his budget this year, released in the midst of an energy crisis, calls for hiking taxes on fossil fuel companies to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. And the list goes on. prgtoken Perhaps even more troubling, however, is the more insidious campaign the President has been conducting against conventional energy production, using the long arm of financial regulation and government pressure to directly or indirectly discourage investment in fossil fuels and other industries disliked by his political base. prgtoken The Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued a completely unworkable proposed rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose information not only about their own greenhouse gas emissions but about those of their suppliers and even their customers--clearly attempting to make companies diminish or outright cut ties with traditional energy. Never mind whether this expanded environmental, social, and corporate governance--or ESG, as it is called--desired by the far left can be accurately or consistently measured, much less proved to have a positive impact on the economy or for the climate. prgtoken But the administration doesn't stop there. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission established a so-called Climate Risk Unit that potentially seems designed to pressure industries into making certain investment choices. The Federal Reserve, which has zero business inserting itself into debates over climate policy, is suggesting that it should provide ``supervisory guidance'' to large banks on so-called climate-related risks. Similarly, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently issued draft principles for banks on ``climate- related financial risk.'' prgtoken President 's climate envoy, former Secretary of State John Kerry, has actively--actively--pressured banks not to invest in fossil fuels. And disturbingly, the original draft of the National Credit Union Administration's Draft Strategic Plan for 2022 to prgtoken 2026, though it has since been revised, went beyond discouraging investment in conventional energy production and actually suggested that investing too heavily in agriculture--agriculture--could be problematic for climate-related reasons. Now, I am not sure where the National Credit Union Ad
ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS
Bill Cassidy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2022-4-28

every Senator, when she or he goes home, speaks to families feeling the crushing burden of inflation, in large part driven by fuel prices--it is certainly true when I go home to Louisiana--and they hope for a better job; one, they would like a better job, but, two, they need the extra money in order to keep up with the inflation. prgtoken There is a connection with their personal economic concerns, Putin's war in Ukraine, and China doing their best to take American jobs by ignoring environmental standards, using slave labor, giving subsidies to the businesses, making it almost impossible for American businesses to work here and compete with products made in China. prgtoken As one example of just how successful China has been, in the early 2000s, China was about 19th and 20th in manufacturing and carbon emissions. prgtoken Since then, since the early 2000s, China has become No. 1 worldwide, both in the amount of manufacturing but also in the amount of their carbon emissions. prgtoken Indeed, the increase in carbon emissions for China is more than the combined decrease of the United States, the EU, and the United Kingdom in that same period of time. prgtoken We have been doing our best to improve our environmental standards for the benefit of the whole world, and China has exploited that, using their lack of enforcement of standards to attract our jobs to their country, and yet our global greenhouse gas emissions are worse off. prgtoken Now, as I mentioned, the inflation, the hope for a better job, which is not realized, Putin's war, using energy as a national security tool, and China's concerted strategy are all interwoven. There is a nexus, and that nexus is between energy and the climate, the economy of a family and of a nation, and national security. prgtoken So if we are going to improve the financial situation for that family in Louisiana, a working family in Nevada, or any of our States and do something about our national security concerns, then we must do something about energy, and that is related to emissions. prgtoken The most effective way of doing this is looking at how China addresses their emissions and how the United States does. prgtoken Now, when I speak of emissions, I speak of the fact that we now use natural gas instead of coal, and natural gas burns much more cleanly than coal, and so, therefore, we have cleaner air in the United States than we did even 20 years ago. prgtoken But China uses coal for about 60 percent of their energy feedstock. And so to understand China as a competitor, let's look at their economic, geopolitical, and national security strategies against us, and we are going to look at it through the prism of carbon emissions because if we think about national security without thinking about energy and the associated emissions, if we don't think about them all at the same time, we are wasting our time, just wasting our time. So, again, examining as a nexus. prgtoken
HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF BOBBY BERKSTRESSER
Ben Cline (Republican, VA) \u2014 2022-4-28

. Madam , as Americans face the worst rate of inflation in 41 years, President 's proposed budget does nothing to help ease the burden on our country's struggling families. prgtoken Despite experts predicting that a recession is coming, the President's proposed budget would further exacerbate high inflation by spending $73 trillion over the next decade and would be funded by the highest sustained tax burden in our Nation's history. prgtoken As Americans pay record prices at the pump, this budget proposal prioritizes radical Green New Deal energy policies and continues 's destruction of American energy independence with increased taxes on the oil and gas industry. prgtoken Who is going to feel those increased taxes? Working men and women in the Sixth District of Virginia and across this country. Further, it pushes unnecessary and already rejected Build Back Better social programs and provides benefits to illegal aliens, which is entirely unacceptable. prgtoken For my constituents in the Sixth District, I will continue to hold administration officials accountable and demand justifications for this spending spree that is this budget when they come before the committees on which I serve. prgtoken Madam , I stand in strong opposition to the President's proposal, and I urge its rejection should it come before this House.
RECOGNIZING THE WEATHER CHANNEL'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Barry Loudermilk (Republican, GA) \u2014 2022-4-28

I rise today to recognize The Weather Channel for 40 years of exceptional weather journalism, public service, and high-quality educational content. prgtoken Since 1982, The Weather Channel has provided accurate, by-the-minute live coverage of weather events, ranging from the mundane daily rain shower to catastrophic hurricanes and tornadoes. prgtoken Today, The Weather Channel reaches more than 80 million households across the United States. It has consistently been ranked the most trustworthy cable news network in the country and has received nationwide acclaim for its high-quality reporting and programming. prgtoken The Weather Channel has been instrumental in providing critical information to the public during natural disasters and severe weather events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2011 tornado super outbreaks, and the January 2014 snowpocalypse that shut down much of north Georgia. prgtoken During these events, The Weather Channel's information was instrumental to the people in affected areas, giving them guidance on when to seek shelter and what weather developments to expect. prgtoken Today, I am proud to co-lead, with Representative McBath, a newly introduced resolution recognizing The Weather Channel on its 40th anniversary for its outstanding contributions to broadcast news and meteorology and for its role as a longstanding American institution.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2022-4-28

runaway inflation is crushing working American families on ' watch. The share of Americans who say the economy is our most important problem hasn't been this high since the last time controlled the White House. prgtoken Just this morning, we got a devastating quarterly GDP report. The economy actually shrank 1.4 percent over the last 3 months. No longer are just presiding over a disappointing recovery. Now they have thrown the recovery into reverse, and we are actually going backward. We haven't seen inflation this bad in more than 40 years-- month after month of skyrocketing prices. prgtoken It is exactly what everyone knew would happen if dumped $2 trillion in printed money on an economy that was already ready for a comeback. But rammed through the far-left spending. So working Americans are paying dearly. prgtoken This week, the same Washington who drove this inflation have finally figured out their response. They want to raise taxes on the American people. The ic leader said this Tuesday: If you want to get rid of inflation, the only way to do it is to undo a lot of the tax cuts and raise rates. No is ever going to do that. So the only way to get rid of inflation is through reconciliation. prgtoken Said the ic leader. Now, remember, Senator Schumer is the same person who said in March 2021: I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the near term, are very real. prgtoken Now the same person who predicted that inflation would not happen is saying we have to fight inflation by dramatically raising taxes on the American people. prgtoken The answer for hurting families once is for to hurt families twice. This is literally the ic economic agenda for your family: high prices and less money. prgtoken s' 2017 tax cuts just about doubled the standard deduction for households. We created a brandnew zero percent tax bracket for the first $24,000 that a married couple brings in. Repealing that law would cut that in half and raise your taxes. That is what repealing the 2017 tax bill actually means. prgtoken tax cuts also double the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, a tremendous help for working families. Repealing the 2017 tax law would slash those credits in half, but that is what say they want to do because of the inflation that they created. prgtoken This is Senate ' position: Because their bad decisions have hurt Americans once, the solution is to hurt Americans twice. First, they hurt you with inflation, and now, they want to hurt you with tax hikes. prgtoken We will see what our citizens have to say about that later this year. Immigration prgtoken , now, on another matter, yesterday Secretary Mayorkas testified: ``We will not lose operational control of
TRIBUTE TO TERESA GRAY AND RECOGNIZING MOBILE MEDICS INTERNATIONAL
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2022-4-28

I want to say that it is Thursday, and it is my favorite time of week, 6 years' strong--almost 7 years--we have been doing our ``Alaskan of the Week'' series, and we love to do this because we get to recognize a special Alaskan, someone who makes the State very special. prgtoken Our pages, I think they don't always admit it, but it is probably the best speech of the week because it is interesting and we have got some cool stories. I know some of the reporters here like the speech because it means we are at the end of the week so that is good. prgtoken Today, we are honoring a really amazing Alaskan. Her name is Teresa Gray, of Anchorage, who was, by the way, recently featured by CNN as one of their heroes for the work her organization does that Teresa founded to provide medical help to people all over the globe. prgtoken So, before I talk about Teresa and her amazing work, I always like to give a little update of what is going on in Alaska right now. I was home the last couple weeks traveling all over the State, and it didn't seem like too long ago when I had said: Hey, winter is coming. Winter is coming. Well, here is the good news. Well, I love winter, but winter is now leaving. It is leaving Alaska. prgtoken Now, it is cold in many places. My house in Anchorage still has snow on the ground, but the Sun is now up high in the sky, staying up longer and longer every single day--although I was in Fairbanks and we had northern lights going. So that was awesome just last week. But today, in Anchorage, the Sun rose at 6 a.m. and set around 10 p.m. So it is getting long. It is gaining. We gain about 5 minutes a day during this time of the year. Birds are migrating back by the tens of thousands. The excitement of spring is everywhere. prgtoken So to everybody watching, if you are thinking about great summer travel plans, Alaska is the place to be. So come on up. We would love to have you. prgtoken So, now, let me talk about Teresa Gray and the organization she founded called Mobile Medics International, which is doing great work across the globe, even as we speak. prgtoken Teresa is originally from Michigan. As a paramedic, she moved to Alaska in 1999 to be with her then-husband who was from Alaska. And like so many do when they come to Alaska, she fell in love with Alaska. Now, she wasn't really an outdoorsy type, but she said: I just felt at home. prgtoken It is the people that she loves. She said the State has such a unique group of individuals. We [all] share a kindred spirit. We're all committed to living the Alaska[n] way. prgtoken That is what Teresa said. And for Teresa, the Alaskan way has been to put her medical skills to use. Now, initially, she worked as an instructor at the only paramedic school in the State, but within 6 months, she bought the school and created two additional schools, one in Fairbanks and one in Wasilla, and made these very successful. Eight years la
RECOGNIZING GAVIN CHRISTOPHER DEAL
Virginia Foxx (Republican, NC) \u2014 2022-4-28

. Madam , our southern border is under siege and President is asleep at the wheel. prgtoken Over 40 illegal aliens on the terror watch list have been arrested at the southern border since President took office. prgtoken In March of this year, 220,000 illegal aliens were encountered at the southern border, and 62,000 of them evaded Border Patrol agents. prgtoken Madam , that averages out to roughly 2,000 people per day escaping into our country. prgtoken So who did Border Patrol agents not catch? Who else is on the terror watch list that escaped into our country? prgtoken Madam , border security is national security, and it is clear that this administration fails to recognize that most basic fact and do its duty.
WELCOMING GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ZOURABICHVILI
Joe Wilson (Republican, SC) \u2014 2022-4-28

yesterday, Washington welcomed President Salome Zourabichvili, of the Republic of Georgia, who had come to attend the funeral of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. prgtoken During an interview with The Washington Post, President Zourabichvili explained that, along with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova were the two countries closest to Russia wanting to join NATO and the European Union, but not protected by either. ``Georgia should not be forgotten'' and if so, they might be a temptation for the Russian leadership. prgtoken President Zourabichvili reviewed that Georgia also had a history of war with Russia, most recently in 2008, as well as 1991, shortly after declaring independence. prgtoken It is reassuring, the President said, the Georgian population is 100 percent united in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Americans are also united for the independence of Georgia, Moldova, led by President Maia Sandu, and Ukraine. prgtoken America supports the sovereignty of Georgia and will stand with President Zourabichvili for the freedom of Georgia. prgtoken God bless Ukraine. God save Ukraine. Long live President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
TRIBUTE TO MIKE DeVRIES
Steve Daines (Republican, MT) \u2014 2022-4-28

today I have the distinct honor of recognizing Mike DeVries of Fergus County as Montanan of the Month for his dedication to serving his community and his courage during the Denton fire last December. prgtoken Mike joined the volunteer fire department shortly after moving to Denton with his family in 2004 and has been loyal to the department and community ever since, serving as chief for 11 years. On December 1, 2021, Mike's love of his community and resolute leadership was on full display. As the West Wind fire tore through the town of Denton, Mike acted swiftly to maintain incident command and ensure the safety of his firefighters and members of the Denton community. prgtoken As Montana suffered a terrible fire season in 2021, Mike not only coordinated aid and resources, he showed care and compassion to his fellow residents of Denton and the surrounding area. He met with folks who were impacted by the fires and connected personally with all of the local firefighters and community members who showed up to help. prgtoken Serving as the Denton fire chief is just one of the ways Mike gives back to his community. He is also on the elder board of the Denton Bible Church and has served several terms on the town council. As a volunteer fire chief, he has spent countless hours training, traveling, and managing the department. His son Joel says that Mike is held in high regard by other firefighters as he works to build relationships between Denton and surrounding departments. prgtoken While Mike is quick to give credit to his crew, he deserves recognition for his leadership during the 2021 fire season, loyalty to the Denton Fire Department, and compassion for his community. prgtoken Keep up the great work, Mike. You make Montana proud.