mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Jon Tester (Democrat, MT) \u2014 2017-11-30

I want to go back to what this motion does. This is to remand the bill back to the Finance Committee so it can come back without adding nearly $1.5 trillion to the national debt--maybe a heck of a lot more than that. prgtoken I am in business too. I will tell you that if I ran my business and did the things in my business that this bill is doing, I would go out of business. Why? Because my kids wouldn't be able to afford to stay farming because I would have acquired too much debt. That is why this is so important. It is why I applaud Senator King for bringing this motion forward. prgtoken I sat on this floor, and I listened to folks talk about the threat from North Korea, which is absolutely real. The money it is going to take to deal with that threat is not going to be cheap. prgtoken I come to the floor, and I listen to people talk about the national security interests of this country and how there are people who want to do bad things to our country. We have to keep our country safe, but it comes with a cost. prgtoken I heard Senator King talk earlier today about rebuilding our military. We have been at war for 16 years, and there is a cost it is going to take to rebuild our military. All of those things take money. They are expenses of what we have to do here to keep this country secure. prgtoken It is absolutely incredible to me that we have people walk to the floor and talk about a 38-percent effective rate. Everybody on this floor that is in business knows that is not the rate that corporations pay in this country. By the time you do your deductions, your effective rate is far less than that. In fact, some people feel it is about 20 percent. prgtoken But nonetheless, I will agree--I think both sides of the aisle can agree--that we need to do tax reform. We need to modernize our code. It hasn't been done in 30 years, but it can't be done in a way that adds $1.5 trillion on to our kids. prgtoken Right now, we have a $20 trillion debt. There is no doubt about that. That is $63,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. When I sat in that chair that the Presiding Officer is sitting in now, when I first got elected some 11 years ago, I heard folks from that side of the aisle talk about the debt every single day. After the 2014 election, it has been crickets on that side of the aisle when it comes to the debt. The debt is still real. prgtoken When we had the biggest meltdown in this country since the Dirty Thirties, we had to make an investment into this country. I had people in the construction business in my office with tears in their eyes saying: There is no work in the private sector. You have to do something to help stimulate this economy or things are going to go to heck. prgtoken Times were tough. The debt increased. We had to get the economy turned around. prgtoken Now, times are good. For all the folks who are in business--or at least claim that they are in business--in good times
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4182, ENSURING A QUALIFIED CIVIL SERVICE ACT OF 2017, AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1699, PRESERVING ACCESS TO MANUFACTURED HOUSING ACT OF 2017
Louise McIntosh Slaughter (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-11-30

I thank my friend for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and such time as I may consume. prgtoken , the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act was enacted in 1994 as an amendment to the Truth in Lending Act. It is designed to address predatory lending practices in refinancing and home equity loans with high interest rates or fees. prgtoken Loans that meet these high-cost triggers are subject to disclosure requirements and limitations on the loan terms. Borrowers are also provided enhanced remedies if it is violated. prgtoken Now, the first bill before us, H.R. 1699, would amend the Truth in Lending Act by exempting manufactured home retailers from being defined as mortgage originators. In the process, it would exempt these retailers from important consumer protection rules. That would perpetuate conflicts of interest and restore incentives for these retailers to steer customers into loans with high costs and fees. These are precisely the type of loans that are more profitable for the retailer even though they are bad deals for the customer. prgtoken My good friend from Georgia asked what could be wrong with this; how can we protect those customers? I submit: You may not protect those consumers by taking all regulation off for them. Obviously, it was there for a reason, and we will see how it turns out. prgtoken Those may seem like arcane changes to existing law, but let me put the issue in better perspective. prgtoken According to the Manufactured Housing Institute, 22 million Americans live in manufactured homes today. That is equal to the entire State of Florida. prgtoken , why in the world is the majority prioritizing a bill that would undermine consumer protections for tens of millions of Americans. We know the legislation would create more access to affordable housing. It would only make the incredibly profitable manufacturing housing industry even more money through predatory lending. prgtoken Those who rely on manufactured housing as an affordable option deserve the same antipredatory lending standards as every other family. This bill fails that test. In fact, it was written specifically to take the protections away from the housing industry. prgtoken The second measure before us today, H.R. 4182, is completely unnecessary. It would extend the probationary period for members of the Senior Executive Service and members of the competitive service from 1 year to 2. That would double the time that new civil servants are essentially at-will employees without any employee protections or due process rights. prgtoken There is no evidence to support the need for doubling the probationary period for Federal employees. The bill would simply serve to delay employees' access to worker protection laws that ensure that they are treated fairly on the job. It would also undermine whistleblower rights and prevent them from coming forward. prgtoken These are the people who are essential to getting to t
REMEMBERING FORMER CONGRESSMAN MAURICE HINCHEY
Eliot L. Engel (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-11-30

I, too, rise to mourn the loss of our great colleague, Maurice Hinchey. prgtoken I knew Maurice for more than 30 years. We served together for many years in the New York State Assembly, and then he came to Congress. prgtoken In the assembly in Albany and all of New York State, he was known as one of the champions of the environment. He chaired that committee in Albany. When he came to Washington, he also, as my colleagues have said, championed green things and making sure the environment was safe for all of us for generations to come. prgtoken The thing that I really remember about Maurice Hinchey is what a nice person he was. He was soft-spoken but sharp, intelligent, and honest. He was the kind of person who was in public service for all the right reasons and really was a model Member of Congress for so many of us. Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him, he listened to you. He was a tenacious fighter and a really smart individual who really, really knew his subject. prgtoken The thing I remember about Maurice is what a nice guy he was, how soft-spoken he was, and how caring he was. He didn't enter public life to get the accolades. He entered it because he really believed government should make a difference and could make a difference. prgtoken Let me say, Maurice, you did make a difference: You made a difference to many in America; you made a difference to those of us in New York State; you made a difference to your friends who served in the New York State Assembly in Albany; and you made a difference in the United States Congress here in Washington. prgtoken Rest in peace, Maurice. We will miss you, but we will never forget you.
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2017-11-30

I take this time to inform my colleagues of a motion that I hope to file tomorrow that would recommit the bill, and I am going to talk a little bit about it. prgtoken First, if I might, let me just point out that yesterday I took to the floor to emphasize some of the points that Senator Nelson just made-- that this bill, which is advertised to help the middle class, does not help the middle class. It helps the wealthy. It is business cuts, and middle-income taxpayers prgtoken get some relief--some, not all--that is temporary in nature. prgtoken So the Congressional Budget Office tells us that by 2027, for those earning under $75,000 a year, the majority will actually pay more taxes rather than less. In my State of Maryland, it is estimated that 800,000 Marylanders will pay more taxes rather than less. The tax relief to middle-income families is so much smaller than what is given to the wealthy and what is given to the business community. prgtoken To compound that problem, we now know by the scores of both the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office that the bill will add tremendously to the deficit--over a trillion dollars. I think it is going to be closer to $2 trillion, but their scoring shows it over a trillion dollars in deficits. prgtoken Guess who is going to pay for those deficits. It is going to be middle-income families. Then, you put on top of that the repeal of the mandate under the Affordable Care Act, which is also going to hurt middle-income families on their ability for affordable healthcare. prgtoken So this bill advertised to help middle-income families does not do that. For my State of Maryland, it is particularly painful because of the loss of the State and tax local deductions that are used by almost a majority of our taxpayers. Just about 50 percent of our taxpayers in Maryland use the State and local tax deductions. prgtoken There is another reason why this bill has been advertised not just to help middle-income families, which it doesn't do, but it is called job creation. This bill is advertised as a bill that will create jobs in America. Now, let me go through that because I am for creating more jobs. We need more jobs in Maryland. We needs more jobs throughout the country. The number that has been given to us is that this bill will create 975,000 jobs at a cost of $1.5 trillion. That comes out to $1,530,000 per job. That is a pretty high cost to create a job. In fact, it is ridiculous to spend that type of money. We don't know if that is going to actually happen. That is what the proponents of the legislation are saying. prgtoken Now, we have had and s who have worked together to really create jobs. I serve on the Environment and Public Works Committee. I serve as the ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee with Senator Inhofe, and we both know if we put more resources into infrastructure--into roads, br
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Tom Udall (Democrat, NM) \u2014 2017-11-30

. I thank the Presiding Officer for the recognition. prgtoken , the s' tax bill is a disaster for the American people. It would give the ultrawealthy a tax cut and make middle-class families pay for it. I can't tell you how strongly I am opposed to it. prgtoken We have heard a lot from the President and the s about how their tax cuts will be a rising tide to lift all boats, but this claim just doesn't hold water. Look carefully. On top of $1.5 trillion in new deficits, they are hiding where more than $5 trillion of cuts over the next 10 years will come from and just who will actually benefit. The budget would force steep cuts in healthcare, education, and other programs that working and middle-class families rely on. prgtoken It is a terrible plan for my home State of New Mexico, where a lot of families already have a hard time getting by. Plain and simple, the s' plan is a massive redistribution of wealth. Listen to who it is taking money from and where they are giving it to. It would take money from working families, seniors, children, the sick and disabled, rural families, and the poor, and give it to the very top 1 percent. They propose it at a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is already growing. We now have greater income inequality in the United States than at the height of the Gilded Age over 100 years ago. prgtoken I want to highlight for my colleagues across the aisle another big problem with the s' bill. It has not been talked about enough, but it is important to my home State of New Mexico and to many Western States. The s' deficit-creating tax cuts are going to cause automatic sequestration, and this will cut several mandatory programs under the Pay-as-You-Go Act. Some of those are the mineral royalties from oil and gas drilling and coal mining on public lands that the Federal Government shares with States. New Mexico's royalty share is projected to be $437 million next year. Other States count on these payments for millions of dollars in their budgets too. Colorado received over $80 million in 2016. All of that will be at risk. Wyoming received over $660 million last year. Its State budget cannot afford to lose that kind of money. Utah, Montana, and North Dakota received tens of millions in mineral payments last year as well. These are royalties that New Mexico and the States are entitled to. prgtoken In New Mexico we mainly use this money for public schools. Other States use it for vital government programs like healthcare, roads, and police. prgtoken Our State legislature has struggled the last couple of years to balance the budget. The chair and vice chair of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee wrote just this week to our entire delegation. They warn that losing so much revenue ``would have a devastating impact on the State's budget and would wipe out the reserves our State has struggled t
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2017-11-30

I rise to speak about this motion to commit. The amendment I am offering is very simple. It states that if companies are giving executives a raise and giving more money to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks because of this tax windfall, then workers who help make these profits possible in the first place, and who also need a break, would see their wages go up. It is as simple as that. prgtoken I hope every Member of the Senate will support this sensible amendment. By one estimate, over the last 16 years, there seems to be little to no correlation between rising corporate profits and increased wages. We have seen record corporate profits over years, and in fact profits as a percentage of the economy have nearly doubled over the past 20 years. prgtoken The New York Times tells us: In the United States, the richest 1 percent have seen their share of national income roughly double since 1980, to 20 percent in 2014 from 11 percent. No other nation in the 35- member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is as unequal among those with comparable tax data, and none have experienced such a sharp rise in inequality. prgtoken Let me review that again. prgtoken From 1980 to 2014, the richest 1 percent has had its share of national income roughly double to 20 percent from 11 percent. So, since 1980, the top 1 percent has had a bonanza. It has done quite well. prgtoken What has been the case with workers? prgtoken At the same time, wage growth has stagnated. Many have seen the reports over the last couple of years, one by the Economic Policy Institute, which indicated that, if you compare wage growth after World War II, from 1948 to about 1973, wage growth was 91 percent. Then from 1973 forward, to about 2014 or 2015, wage growth was only a total of 11 percent growth. So there was 91 percent wage growth after World War II and only 11 since then, and in many years, it was not even 11. It was stagnating. prgtoken People can go to the Economic Policy Institute's website and read that series of reports about wages and about workers, which I thought was the focus--the prime focus, I had hoped--of both parties when it came to this bill. Apparently, it is not with regard to what the majority is presenting. Those at the top are not only getting richer; they have been getting richer in a big way since 1980. That increasing rate of benefits to the wealthy continues at a fast pace in this bill and continues year after year. prgtoken The tax plan gives hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of net tax cuts to major corporations. By one estimate, the total corporate tax cut exceeds $1.3 trillion. That is trillion with a ``t.'' Some estimate that the number is even higher than that, but I will go with that lower number. There is no requirement with that corporate tax cut that any benefits go to workers' wages and no requirement that companies in
RECOGNIZING PREMATURITY AWARENESS MONTH
Brendan F. Boyle (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2017-11-30

I rise today to recognize Prematurity Awareness Month. prgtoken Today, we think of infant mortality as a problem of the past, but according to the World Health Organization, complications of pre-term birth now outrank all other causes as the world's number one killer of children under the age of 5. prgtoken Prematurity is a serious global problem affecting families from every nation and every facet of society, even here in the most developed nation in the world. prgtoken In the 2017 March of Dimes' Premature Birth Report Card, the United States was awarded a C grade due to the persistence of high pre-term birth rates. prgtoken However, up to 75 percent of all deaths due to pre-term birth can be prevented through relatively low-cost interventions. We have the resources to address this problem, but we must also have the will. prgtoken Let's recognize November as Prematurity Awareness Month by supporting efforts at home and abroad to reduce the impact of pre-term births, honor those working on this issue around the globe, and promote policies that will prevent pre-term births and improve outcomes for affected infants. My resolution, H.R. 625, I believe, would do just that.
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Cory A. Booker (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2017-11-30

. Thank you very much, . prgtoken If you look at the United States of America today compared to when my dad grew up, we have seen very disturbing trends in our economy. In fact, right now, we do not have the same economy--the same bargain-- that we had in my parents' generation. prgtoken Someone who had a minimum wage job back in the fifties or sixties made the equivalent of over $20 an hour today. The bargain in the United States of America was that if you were willing to work hard, willing to sweat, struggle, and sacrifice, you could make ends meet, and you could make it work. prgtoken What we have seen, disturbingly, over the last few decades is that economy twist and contort. We have seen massive disparities in income come about in our Nation, with the wealthy getting wealthier and wealthier, doing better and better, compounding and doubling down on their privilege, but we have seen the middle class shrinking in the United States of America and the poverty trap, where people are playing by the rules, where people are working hard. They see their wages stagnate while the cost of everything is going up, such as prescription drug costs, the cost of food and child care, the cost of college. The bargain in our country is not working now, and we need to do something to change this. prgtoken At a time when American families are feeling the burn and the challenge of high taxes, low incomes, and high costs, we could be targeting middle-class Americans, and we could be targeting low-income earners in a bipartisan tax bill that would not only help those who are struggling in America, but when we give a tax break to those folks, that money gets reinvested in our economy because people spend that money, and we literally have a turbocharge boost to our overall economy. But that is not what we are seeing right now. prgtoken As the s scramble for votes, we are on the verge tonight of doing something completely counter to what evidence, facts, and logic would tell us to do if we were going to devise a tax plan to truly help the middle class, truly help working Americans, truly help those struggling, wondering why they are not doing as well as their parents did. prgtoken Understand this: 90 percent of baby boomers in America, by the time they turned 30, were doing better than their parents economically. That has now been cut in half in the United States of America. If you are a millennial, born in the eighties, it is now half who are doing better than their parents because of the challenges I am describing, because of the economic hardships. The bargain isn't working. Everything is going up, but wages are stagnant. prgtoken We know factually that for the past 40 years, while workers' wages have failed to rise alongside increased productivity--workers are getting more and more productive, but for 40 years now, workers' wages have failed to rise alongside of that increase in productivity. What we have seen
PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF FORMER CONGRESSMAN MAURICE HINCHEY
Paul Tonko (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-11-30

I rise to pay tribute to the life of Maurice Hinchey, a beloved friend and an awesome colleague. prgtoken I entered into the New York State Assembly when he was the environmental conservation chair for the New York State Assembly. I witnessed his fight to expose toxic contamination of Love Canal where he worked against illegal waste dumping by organized crime. I watched as he worked so hard to protect the Catskills and the Adirondacks from acid rain. It was there that I witnessed his integrity, his intellect, his compassion, and his passion to make a difference. prgtoken Then he came to Washington to serve this Nation. He worked hard to establish the Hudson River Valley Greenway. He worked hard to fight against PCB contamination of the Hudson River. He made certain that hydrofracking would not destroy our environment. He made certain that he spoke out against the Iraq war and spoke out against NAFTA and the damage it could do to American jobs. prgtoken This was a person who was principled. He acted with those principles with every fiber of his being. Today I want to recognize that person, our voice for the environment, a principled individual that the late Governor Mario Cuomo called the environmental conscience of New York State. prgtoken I extend my deepest condolences to his wife, Ilene Marder Hinchey; and his children, Reese, Josef, and Michelle. prgtoken I know that, in the last year of his life, Maurice and his family worked to raise awareness for frontotemporal degeneration. I am hoping that their fight will continue so that others impacted by this disease will be able to conquer that situation. prgtoken Maurice, rest in peace. You are a champion. prgtoken We don't live in a perfect world, perhaps we never will. But those who are disadvantaged and those who are in need will need a champion. That champion was Maurice Hinchey, and he will continue to inspire.