mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
RECOGNIZING FORMER COCONUT CREEK CITY OFFICIAL MIKKIE BELVEDERE
Jared Moskowitz (Democrat, FL) \u2014 2023-10-25

I rise today to recognize former Coconut Creek City Official Mikkie Belvedere for her many years of public service. prgtoken Born in Tel Aviv to German parents who fled Nazi persecution, Mikkie emigrated to the United States as a teenager. Elected to the Coconut Creek City Commission at 72, she has a long history of serving her community in Coconut Creek. Mikkie served three four-year terms, during which her fellow commissioners elected her Vice-Mayor and then Mayor of Coconut Creek. prgtoken Her public service extends far beyond city government, becoming active in various local groups, from helping establish and grow the Coconut Creek Multicultural Circle to serving as President of the Wynmoor ic Club. She is also an active member of her synagogue congregation. In her retirement, Mikkie remains intent on staying positive and helping her community, encouraging everyone she meets to ``Keep Smiling.'' prgtoken , I ask that you join me in recognizing former Coconut Creek City Official Mikkie Belvedere for her outstanding service to the people of Coconut Creek in Florida's 23rd Congressional District.
ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024
Bonnie Watson Coleman (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2023-10-25

I simply say as we finalize this discussion, that there are 14.2 million people who are being affected, who will be affected, and who think this is important. prgtoken There is a $22 billion economic activity that will be impacted. Needless to say, I have chosen this as a project that I support because in the time that I have had the opportunity to serve the 12th Congressional District in the State of New Jersey, this is an issue that I find very important. I do hope that my colleagues will oppose this amendment. prgtoken , .
MORNING BUSINESS
Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2023-10-25

section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. prgtoken In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.
STANDING WITH ISRAEL AS IT DEFENDS ITSELF AGAINST THE BARBARIC WAR LAUNCHED BY HAMAS AND OTHER TERRORISTS
David Scott (Democrat, GA) \u2014 2023-10-25

the very first thing I want to say is this: Take note, those of you who are around the world watching this House of Representatives in action, that the very first bill that we are putting out is a bill to send a powerful message that we not only stand with Israel, but we will fight with Israel. prgtoken There is absolutely no way, as God is our maker, that we are going to stand by and see Israel destroyed. Make no mistake about it. It is as clear as a bell. In the Holy Scriptures brought down by the mighty hand of God Almighty: Stand with my people, the people of Israel. prgtoken , I was called upon as a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to go to Iran to write the paper on Iran. I met the people of Iran, and I want the people of Iran to listen: Go to your mullahs. Go to your leadership. They are the ones that control Hamas, Hezbollah. prgtoken Then, I call upon our friends in Saudi Arabia. The answer to this is in your hands.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Jon Tester (Democrat, MT) \u2014 2023-10-25

I want to thank the Senator from Louisiana. prgtoken I rise in support of the Kennedy amendment and in support of the Second Amendment rights of veterans in Montana and across this country. prgtoken It is not right that a DC bureaucrat at the VA could take away veterans' legal rights to their firearms simply because they need assistance in managing their finances. prgtoken A Montana veteran and mental health advocate told me that the VA's longstanding policy to threaten veterans' constitutional rights, who ask prgtoken for help in managing their affairs, has been a barrier to veterans receiving help for years. It is time to end it so veterans can reach out for the financial help they need and the mental help they need. prgtoken I agree and don't believe someone who has served this country and who needs a fiduciary should have to hire a lawyer and go back to court to get their Second Amendment rights back. prgtoken I yield to Senator Kennedy.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Brian Schatz (Democrat, HI) \u2014 2023-10-25

just to point out, this amendment only applies to surface transportation, Amtrak and passenger rail in particular. I think it is counterproductive. I understand the point that the Senator from Ohio is making. But the problem right now--look, I don't think President or the head of Amtrak or Secretary Buttigieg or anyone else is, at all, planning to implement any kind of mask mandate in the foreseeable future. prgtoken But he said something that I agree with, which is that COVID is going to be with us for the foreseeable future and there will be new variants. And if it looks the same, it looks same. But if prgtoken it is, say, 10 times as virulent, 100 times as deadly and airborne, then I do think public health officials should be able to consult with Agencies to try to figure out what measures ought to work. prgtoken And for those reasons, I oppose this amendment. Vote on Amendment No. 1210
STANDING WITH ISRAEL AS IT DEFENDS ITSELF AGAINST THE BARBARIC WAR LAUNCHED BY HAMAS AND OTHER TERRORISTS
Gregory W. Meeks (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2023-10-25

let me start off by thanking my friend and colleague, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. McCaul, for his friendship and for working collectively together to make sure that the world knows that there is no daylight between us when it comes to us standing with our friend and our ally the State of Israel, and I appreciate you. prgtoken When we first started this, after this horrendous attack on October 7, we had a conversation. We said, let's make sure that we put out a statement collectively, us giving our opinions as chair and ranking member of this committee. Then immediately thereafter, we went to work on a resolution so that the world would know where the United States' House of Representatives stood. prgtoken We thought we would get it done earlier, but we knew that the first bill, the first resolution that would come to the floor after the House resumed its business, would be this bill because this bill is so significantly important to state that we have the back of our friend and ally, and we want to make sure that Hamas does not exist. prgtoken , I have had the privilege and the opportunity to visit Israel several times. I have been in some of those tunnels. I have talked to the people, and when I have talked to the people of Israel, all they say is that they want to live in peace. When I talk to the Palestinian people in Gaza or in the West Bank, they say they want peace, but the Hamas terrorist organization when you look at their mandate, they say they want the destruction of Israel. prgtoken You cannot have peace. You can't even negotiate peace if one side says you should not exist. How can you say that you want a better relationship if you are saying that Israel should not exist? prgtoken You can't forget the horrific terrorist ISIS-like atrocities that were committed on October 7. You cannot be silent. You can't sit back and make believe that it didn't happen because it did. prgtoken , I say, as we end this debate, thank you to the American people for standing with our friend and ally, the State of Israel. prgtoken , .
ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024
Charles J. "Chuck" Fleischmann (Republican, TN) \u2014 2023-10-26

. Mr. Chair, I wish to thank my friend, the distinguished gentleman from Montana, for offering this amendment. prgtoken I know many of us have frustrations with some of the Army Corps' projects. However, this reduction by $620 million I must oppose for several reasons. prgtoken The reduction proposed in this amendment would, in my view, jeopardize critical ongoing Corps of Engineers projects across this great country, including in my district, the great Chickamauga Lock Project in the Third District of Tennessee. prgtoken All too often the Corps of Engineers fails to finish what it starts. This bill provides funding to complete a number of significant projects. A cut of this magnitude would, in my view, undermine public safety and America's economic competitiveness. prgtoken It is in that regard that I respectfully urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and .
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICE RELATING TO "APPLICATION OF BOSTOCK V. CLAYTON...
Roger Marshall (Republican, KS) \u2014 2023-10-26

it is always a great honor to come to this hallowed floor to fight for our youth, our Nation's greatest treasure. prgtoken I would ask the White House to leave our kids alone. They are the ones that have picked this fight. It is the White House that won't leave our kids alone. prgtoken I rise in support of S.J. Res. 42, which would strike down a policy memorandum regarding the Federal school lunch program that the USDA issued that has been weaponized against our youth. That is right. This administration is using school lunches to attack our youth, to implement their transgender policies. prgtoken Let me begin by stating as a physician, as an OB/GYN, I devoted my entire life to the health and well-being of moms and children. From a mother's first visit to our office to the baby's birth and during the childhood, nutrition is a key to the healthy development and growth of every infant, toddler, and school-age child. During my time as a doctor and now on Capitol Hill, there is nothing I stress more to moms than the importance of nutrition. prgtoken With that being said, I would like to make it abundantly clear as I address this Chamber, there is no greater champion for children's health and nutrition than me. That is why, as you can imagine, I am deeply troubled by the way my friends across the aisle have described the intent of this resolution today. I am actually shocked by just how wrong and, frankly, deceitful they are with their tactics and messaging on this CRA. prgtoken Let me be clear, the only player in this policy fight that wants to and has actually suspended access to the school lunch program is the administration. After 3 years, I thought I had seen it all when it came to what this current administration is willing to do in order to force its radical transgender agenda on the American people. Unfortunately, we have underestimated how committed they are to forcing this harmful ideology on all of us. prgtoken Today, I am bringing this resolution to the floor to expose the lengths the administration is willing to go to appease the far- left factions of their party. I learned a long time ago with this White House: Don't listen to what they say; watch what they do. Take note; observe their actions. prgtoken Listen to this: A memorandum issued by the USDA last May shows they have extended fighting the cultural war in a way that leaves school lunches for children hanging in the balance. Right now, as I stand here in this Chamber, the administration is threatening food assistance for low-income kids unless the schools they attend carry out their transgender agenda, putting children's access to lunch at risk. prgtoken This resolution of disapproval we are considering today aims to overturn this horrific policy memorandum for the USDA which would deny low-income kids access to the Federal school lunch program if their school does not adhere to the administration's mandate.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2023-10-26

59 years ago tomorrow--in other words, Friday--Ronald Reagan delivered his iconic ``A Time for Choosing'' speech. In this speech, the future President laid out, in very stark terms, the challenges that Americans faced as a nation, all due to a bloated Federal Government that threatened America's prosperity and individual freedoms. prgtoken Well, America is once again at a time for choosing, and much like in Reagan's time, the issues confronting us cross party lines. This would be a good time for me to say that we have a partial step in this direction because of the -McCarthy agreement in June not to shut down the government because the government couldn't issue debt. prgtoken So here we are again. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and others have warned policymakers for decades that, absent changes, the retirement of the baby boom generation would result in an explosion of debt and deficit. prgtoken Yet we in the Congress have turned a blind eye as the country walked headlong towards a fiscal cliff. For 40 years, our public debt averaged around 35 percent of our economy. But over the past 15 years, that debt has grown by leaps and bounds. prgtoken First came the 2008 financial crisis, which led to a $6 trillion leap in public debt in just 4 years after 2008. This amounted to a doubling of the national debt as a share of the economy, rising from 35 percent--where it was for about 40 years--to over 70 percent of GDP. prgtoken Then, we all know what the pandemic has done to the public debt. The pandemic hits, and public debt went upwards by $7.5 trillion over 3 years. As a result, public debt soared to roughly equal to our Nation's entire annual economic output--or what you have economists tell you: That is about 100 percent of GDP. prgtoken Now that brings us to where we are today and to take Ronald Reagan's advice very seriously: a nation drowning in a sea of red ink with no life preserver or a rescue boat in sight. prgtoken What is more, debt continues to rain down upon us at a record clip. The fiscal year 2023 deficit checked in at 2 trillion once you adjust for the Supreme Court striking down the student loan bailout. prgtoken Measured as a share of GDP the 2023 deficit was larger than in all but 5 years since 1945. prgtoken Our historic deficit was fueled, in part, by rising interest payments on the debt, which alone cost $711 billion. The cost to service our debt is expected to consume an increasingly larger share of the Federal budget. While we argue about what we should or shouldn't spend taxpayers' money on, interest on the debt is crowding out our priorities and shrinking our options going forward. And this all automatically happens because you pay the interest on the national debt or you default; and we don't want to do that. And that is what the -McCarthy agreement of June kept from happening. prgtoken Going back to June, the CBO projected that servicing our debt
ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024
Harriet M. Hageman (Republican, WY) \u2014 2023-10-26

. Mr. Chair, another goal highlighted in the roadmap supports a transition to no-carbon fuels. prgtoken , Americans see through these goals. The reality is that no-carbon fuels are not only no such thing--and only a charlatan would argue otherwise--but they receive four times the amount in Federal subsidies while producing less than one-fifth of the energy as compared to our legacy industries. prgtoken These fuels are not only unreliable, even with the ridiculous amount of taxpayer subsidies, but environmentally destructive and require massive amounts of land per unit of energy produced. They kill birds and other wildlife by the millions. prgtoken These unreliable projects simply cannot compete with our traditional and reliable energy resources, a fact borne out by their need for massive Federal subsidies to be viable at all. Figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that renewables received $15.6 billion in subsidies during prgtoken fiscal year 2022 and an estimated $1.2 trillion from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act and are the largest recipient of such subsidies. prgtoken It is thus entirely foreseeable that the second largest recipient of subsidies, according to the Energy Information Administration, are lower-income families who struggle to pay their utility bills, proving that this administration is hell-bent on imposing energy poverty on every sector of our society. prgtoken Why are they struggling? They are struggling because of rising energy prices and rising utility fees as a result of this administration's forced energy poverty. We simply cannot afford to pursue this energy transition imposed on us by radical leftists. prgtoken As the sole Representative of a State whose main industries have been hijacked by the Federal Government in the name of this pie-in-the-sky transition, I voice my strong opposition to this roadmap. I ask my colleagues to join me in defunding the Department of Energy's implementation of this proposed Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap. prgtoken Mr. Chair, .
SAGE GROUSE AND COWS CAN COEXIST
Doug LaMalfa (Republican, CA) \u2014 2023-10-26

a recent study that has taken over 10 years by the University of Idaho has shown that cattle and sage grouse can indeed coexist. prgtoken There has been a great battle for many years over the sage grouse habitat in Western States, including in my own district in northern California, and the interaction of cattle on that, whether grazing is appropriate or not. prgtoken It is found during the study that not only is there no net negative effect for light to medium grazing but that it actually can be a positive benefit in helping to move about the soil and increase the insect biomass that is important for the grouse itself. prgtoken The idea of it being a negative has been dispelled by a very long and comprehensive study. It goes to show that what mankind can do with the interaction of nature can be very positive. prgtoken Grazing is also very well adapted to fire safety as a plus in our forested areas, as well. We need more to be done by the U.S. Forest Service to have grazing be part of the solution for wildfire in Western States.
MOTION TO DISCHARGE--S.J. RES 44
Rand Paul (Republican, KY) \u2014 2023-10-26

so much senseless violence, so much death and destruction, shouldn't we at least avoid wars of choice? Shouldn't we at least not go looking for trouble in every corner of the planet? prgtoken With the Middle East on fire, what sense does it make to have over 1,000 troops in Niger? Does it make sense to station over 1,000 troops in a country ruled by a military junta? Does it make sense to scour the back roads of Africa droning potential villains? prgtoken Today, the Senate will debate and vote on whether U.S. troops should remain engaged in hostilities in Niger. It should not go unnoticed that Congress never voted to send troops to Niger in the first place. prgtoken Presidents of both parties have used the September 11, 2001, authorization to use military force to justify wars in dozens of countries from Afghanistan to Libya, to Syria, to Somalia, to Yemen. Niger is but 1 of over 20 countries that the U.S. conducts military operations in, supposedly justified by the 9/11 authorization to use military force. prgtoken The impetus for this War Powers Resolution in 2001 has nothing to do with the situation of Africa today. This War Powers Resolution today, though, is related to the July 26 coup in which members of Niger's Presidential Guard, including some officers who were trained in the United States, removed the democratically elected President, Mohammed Bazoum, from power. prgtoken Now, the surrounding states around Niger are unhappy with this. The Economic Community of West African States is an organization of 15 countries. They have declared their intention to intervene militarily in Niger if President Bazoum is not restored to power. prgtoken We are in the middle of a potential war, with 1,100 troops in Niger, where a democratically elected President has been deposed, and they are being ruled by a military junta and still our troops are there. prgtoken In September, two other countries--Mali and Burkina Faso--that have experienced their own armed coups in recent years, signed a mutual defense pact to defend the military junta in Niger. prgtoken Niger's new leaders have put its military on maximum alert, citing an increased risk of attack. For its part, the Economic Community of West African States--15 countries--has imposed sanctions, instituted a no- fly zone, and closed border crossings. Recent reports indicate that Nigerian troops have been deployed along the border of the country Benin. prgtoken The Sahel is a powder keg, and we have over 1,000 military troops and personnel sitting in the middle of it. The Middle East is on fire, and yet we have 1,100 troops sitting in the middle of a potential war that we could be drug into. American forces face a very real prgtoken risk of being caught in the crossfire of a regional African war. That is all we need, is another war. prgtoken What are we doing in Niger? As I mentioned earlier, Congress never voted to send troops there. Congress never authorized the
RECOGNIZING AMERICAN PHARMACISTS MONTH
Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (Republican, GA) \u2014 2023-10-26

I rise today to recognize October as American Pharmacists Month. prgtoken As a pharmacist myself, I recognize pharmacists' contributions to our healthcare system and our communities. prgtoken Pharmacists play a crucial role in our communities. Over 90 percent of the U.S. population can access a pharmacy within a 5-mile radius of their homes. For many, they are their main access to healthcare. Ninety percent of COVID-19 vaccinations, 60 to 70 percent of flu vaccines, and over 80 percent of overall vaccines in the United States are administered in pharmacies. prgtoken It is no wonder that pharmacists are the most trusted and accessible healthcare professionals in the Nation. I could talk for days about the importance of pharmacists in the American prgtoken healthcare system, and I am proud of my own time as a pharmacist. prgtoken During this month of October, make sure to thank a pharmacist, as they truly are the backbone of our healthcare system.