mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
OBAMACARE
Al Franken (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2017-1-9

like my colleagues here today, I rise to talk about the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. I have been talking to a lot of people in Minnesota who have health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, or whose lives are changed by the protections in the ACA that benefit every American. Frankly, they are scared, hard-working people for whom this is literally life or death. If their health insurance is taken away, they do not know what they are going to do. prgtoken Today, on their behalf, I have one request for my colleagues: Show us your health care plan. You must have one. We would like to hear it. We would like to see it now. You can understand the question, right? If your child had cancer and the Affordable Care Act was the reason you could get health insurance, you wouldn't want to rip up the ACA before knowing what would replace it. I am not the only Senator with constituents whose lives are on the line here, so I know that you don't intend to rip up the Affordable Care Act and leave them with nothing. You have to have a plan, right? So let's just see it. prgtoken Last week, President said that if s produce a plan that is ``demonstrably better than Care,'' he would support it, and so will I. Just show it to me. President-Elect clearly has a plan. He laid it out, laid it all out during his campaign. His plan was, he said, to ``repeal Care and replace it with something terrific.'' That is what he said. Then he went into a little more detail and explained that ``something terrific'' would be ``so much better, so much better, so much better.'' prgtoken Terrific. So much better. That sounds great. Let's see it. One of 's top advisers said on MSNBC: ``We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance.'' Great. Neither do we. Ryan said that there will ``be a bridge so that no one is left out in the cold, so that no one is worse off.'' That is wonderful. No one being worse off is exactly what we want to see. prgtoken I am sure Ryan's staff was mistaken when they later told a reporter that the ``no one worse off'' applied only to the transition period, not to the replacement period. Show me the plan, please. Please show me the plan that keeps coverage for the 20 million people who have gained coverage that would continue to bend the cost curve so the cost of the entire health care system continues to grow less quickly than it did before ACA was adopted, the plan that would ensure that nobody gets denied coverage when they need it or has to unfairly pay more than someone else because of their gender or a preexisting condition. Show me that plan. prgtoken I know s have put forward some different plans, a lot of different plans, but a lot of plans is not a plan. A lot of plans is not a plan. We want to see the plan, you know, the one you have been working on for 6 years. I was here in
IMPACT OF CABINET NOMINATIONS
Yvette D. Clarke (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-1-9

. I thank Mr. Veasey for his leadership this evening. I thank our chairman, Cedric Richmond, for his vision and his timeliness in bringing this to the floor today. prgtoken , I rise on behalf of the people of the Ninth Congressional District of New York in opposition to 's nominee for the position of Attorney General of the United States, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. I stand with my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus as we raise our voices on behalf of the millions of Americans who depend on this caucus to speak as the conscience of the Congress--speaking truth to power. prgtoken , I struggle to understand how Senator Sessions can even be considered to lead the Department of Justice when time and time again throughout his political career he has actively opposed the mission and purpose for which the Department of Justice was created. For the better part of my life--at least a half a century--the Department of Justice has assumed a position of leadership in the fight for the civil rights of African Americans who seek the uninhibited right to vote, for young women who seek protection against sexual assault on college campuses, for disabled individuals who fight for equitable access to basic services, and for immigrants who aspire to pursue their visions of the American Dream. prgtoken The nomination of Senator Sessions does not support the legacy of progress that has been made under the auspices of the modern-day Department of Justice. As a young prosecutor, he directed racial slurs at his African American colleagues. Senator Sessions spoke highly of the Ku Klux Klan. He actively targeted and persecuted activists like Mr. Albert Turner--one of Dr. Martin Luther King's advisers--for simply trying to register disenfranchised voters. prgtoken When he became Attorney General of Alabama, Senator Sessions, a product of segregated education, worked tirelessly to prevent predominantly African American public schools from accessing an equal share of resources that had been long denied to Black students. prgtoken As a Member of the Senate, Senator Sessions has been an outspoken opponent of criminal justice reforms that many of his colleagues support. He is a leader in the effort to define undocumented Americans as ``the other'' and forcibly separating families in the United States. prgtoken The women and men who lead the Department of Justice are called upon to pursue justice; but with such a documented history of hostility toward the most vulnerable populations--people of color, women, disabled individuals, and immigrant families--we cannot expect Senator Sessions to pursue justice on their behalf. prgtoken I absolutely and unequivocally oppose the nomination of Senator Sessions. He has demonstrated his disdain for the most basic of human principles: equality, justice, and fairness. These principles represent the promise of our Constitution. The Senate considering and confirming Mr
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET, FISCAL YEAR 2017--Continued
Tim Kaine (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2017-1-9

I rise with my colleagues, and I am thrilled to be here with them, to save our health care and to try to convince our colleagues that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would be health care malpractice, and because health care is one-sixth of the American economy, it would be economic malpractice as well. prgtoken What I thought I would do basically is just tell two stories. I am going to tell a Virginia story from before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and I am going to tell a Virginia story since the passage of the act. prgtoken I was first elected to statewide office in 2001, and I became the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Shortly after, I started to attend, on a fairly regular basis, a most amazing annual event. It is called the Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise County, VA. It is in the heart of Appalachia, in a community on the border of Kentucky where my wife's family is from. This was an annual medical clinic that was set up by some Catholic nuns who were driving a van around trying to offer medical care to people who didn't have it, and they decided they would recruit volunteers. They would set up at a dusty county fairground, the Virginia-Kentucky fairground in Wise, VA, and open the doors on Saturday to people who didn't have health care. It had been going for many years when I first went as Lieutenant Governor. I had heard so much about it, and I was anxious to go see it. prgtoken Here is what I saw when I first went there. People start to come on about Tuesday of the week when it is going to open on Friday, and they come in groups of three or four families, and then they come in groups of ten or dozens, and then hundreds, and then thousands, to this dusty county fairground in late July--hot in Southwestern Virginia. They gather so that on Friday morning, at about 7 o'clock when it opens, they have gotten a number, they know where they are in the line, and sometime over the course of Friday and Saturday, they will be able to see a doctor, in some instances for the first time in their lives. There are doctors, dentists, medical students, the Lions Club volunteers to give vision screenings, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of people seeking medical care. prgtoken The first year I went to this, I was overwhelmed at the magnitude of the philanthropic spirit of the volunteers, and I was also overwhelmed at the depth of the need. Something made it more palpable by walking around the parking lot to see where people had come from. prgtoken This is a community that is on the border of Virginia and Kentucky so I wasn't surprised to see Virginia license plates and Kentucky license plates. It is kind of near West Virginia so I wasn't surprised to see West Virginia license plates. It is near Tennessee. I saw Tennessee license plates. I saw North Carolina license plates. What struck me as I went through the parking lot was to see license plates from Georgia and license plates fro
SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S SPEECH ON A TWO-STATE SOLUTION TO THE ISRALEI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
Patrick J. Leahy (Democrat, VT) \u2014 2017-1-9

last week the junior Senator from Texas spoke about Secretary of State Kerry's recent speech explaining the administration's decision to not veto U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 and supporting a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The Senator asserted that Secretary Kerry ``equated'' Israel and Hamas, that President and Secretary Kerry are ``relentless enemies of Israel'' who ``consider the existence and creation of Israel to be a disaster.'' He said their actions toward Israel were intended to ``facilitate assaults on the nation of Israel.'' He also accused them of ``turning a blind eye'' to terrorism. prgtoken Anyone who reads Secretary Kerry's speech will recognize the fallacy of those baseless and inflammatory accusations. To the contrary, Secretary Kerry eloquently and compellingly and with a foreboding sense of urgency about the receding prospects for a two-state solution reaffirmed the administration's condemnation of terrorism and incitement, its unprecedented support for Israel's security, and his own longstanding commitment to Israel's survival as a democratic state, living in peace with its Arab neighbors. prgtoken I urge all Senators to read his speech and to arrive at their own conclusions. The situation the Secretary describes should be alarming to anyone who wants peace and security for Israel and a viable, independent state for the Palestinian people, which are of vital importance to the national interests of the United States. While the Secretary's speech is too long to be printed in the Record in full, I ask unanimous consent that the first half of his remarks be printed in the Record.
HOPE IN AMERICA
Louie Gohmert (Republican, TX) \u2014 2017-1-9

it is an honor to be here tonight at the beginning of this new year. It has been great being in east Texas this weekend, last weekend, hearing all of the hope that has arisen as we have entered this new year, 2017. I think it is going to be a good year. prgtoken I am told that just on the basis of a new President coming in who is promising to throttle back, remove so much of the heavy, iron boot off of the throat of the economy that firms are starting to hire again. Businesses are making plans to expand and grow. And then we are seeing reports of plants that are deciding to stay in the United States instead of going elsewhere. There is a lot of optimism out there. prgtoken There are young people that are asking what was it like back when you came out of college and had multiple job opportunities for most of the people coming out of college instead of opportunities to live with your parents or your grandparents or a parent or the other parent. They actually had multiple job opportunities, and that optimism has arisen. prgtoken As we entered this year, also, it is very sad to see a form of racism and negativity that arises. I have said before publicly, and I think it is still true, we need go back no further than the confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. But the more you look, the more you find that the most persecuted person to be in America these days is a conservative African American. If you are Black and you are conservative, you can expect prgtoken slings and arrows and hate from all over the country--vicious, mean. prgtoken And it was yet another slap, as if the high-tech lynching of the Senate confirmation hearing, as grossly unfair as it was, that woman that withheld any complaints whatsoever, followed a man from job to job, never raised a complaint until he gets ready to be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court, raised allegations that can't possibly be denied or supplemented, verified--not effectively. prgtoken You raise them 20-plus years. That is why we have laws on the books to protect from allegations too many years after the fact. We have statutes of limitations. prgtoken If you sit on something and don't tell people for years and years, and then all of a sudden, for political reasons, you raise up allegations against someone who is basically defenseless--the thing is Clarence Thomas was not defenseless. There were like 15 people, 15 women, who came forward and said: Look, I was there around Anita Hill when these things were going on. Those things never happened. Clarence Thomas is a brilliant, fine man, over and over. prgtoken Does any of that come up when HBO talks about him? Of course not because they were out to slander him, libel him, make him appear to be some crazy guy. prgtoken The guy is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Some say: well, yeah, of course the only way he got into Harvard--which, at the time, was too conservative, he thought, for him, law schoo
FAITHLESS ELECTOR PROBLEM
Bradley Byrne (Republican, AL) \u2014 2017-1-9

last Friday the House and the Senate met to fulfill our solemn constitutional responsibility to count the votes of electors for President and Vice President. This year the joint session was confronted with a record number of so-called faithless electors-- electors who were supposed to vote for the Presidential candidates named on their States' ballot, but, instead, voted for someone else. prgtoken Different States handle their faithless electors in different ways. In my view, the joint session rightly fulfilled its constitutional responsibility by simply taking the certified results of each State without intervention. This was in line with precedent set in 1969 and with the text of the Constitution. prgtoken Because I believe this decision to be correct, I did not file an objection during the counting process. However, I wish for the Record to contain my views on this matter and to express my concern that an avoidable constitutional crisis on this subject is a very real possibility in the future. prgtoken The faithless elector problem has often been seen as academic, but in 2000, Vice President Gore was three faithless electors away from the Presidency. As a point of reference, there were 10 faithless electors in this election. Thus, this is not a matter that should be taken lightly. prgtoken Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution gives the States the exclusive power to appoint electors in a manner decided by their State legislatures. Clause 4 provides the sole grant of authority to Congress in the process to determine the time for choosing electors and the day they cast their vote. prgtoken The process to count electors is outlined in Clause 3 and identical language which superseded it in the 12th Amendment. It provides that, ``The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted. . . .'' Under the 12th Amendment, the persons receiving a majority of the vote ``shall be'' the President and Vice President. prgtoken The extent of what Congress' powers are in the counting process has been the subject of over 200 years of debate. The Congressional Record from 1800 includes a lengthy speech by Senator Charles Pinckney, a Framer of the Constitution, who stated that as the Framers wished the President to be independent, ``It never was intended . . . to have given to Congress . . . the right to object to any electoral vote.'' prgtoken The first successful effort to expand Congress' power in counting did not come until 1865, when Congress adopted a joint House-Senate rule on the subject. Under the rule, no electoral vote that incurred an objection could be counted unless both Houses agreed. prgtoken The joint rule was tempered by the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which still governs the counting process to this day. The law allows an objection signed by a House and a Senate Member. However, under the
PROTECTING PATIENT ACCESS TO EMERGENCY MEDICATIONS ACT OF 2017
Michael C. Burgess (Republican, TX) \u2014 2017-1-9

such time as I may consume. prgtoken , I rise today in support of H.R. 304, the Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act, introduced by the gentlemen from North Carolina, Mr. Hudson and Mr. Butterfield. prgtoken H.R. 304 would update the Drug Enforcement Administration registration process for emergency medical services agencies with multiple locations, clarifying recordkeeping requirements related to the transportation and storage of controlled substances in the process. prgtoken Further, the bill would ensure that paramedics and other EMS professionals are able to continue to administer pain and antiseizure medications in emergency situations pursuant to standing or verbal orders when certain conditions are met. prgtoken This commonsense measure is supported by over a dozen EMS and trauma care organizations. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 304, and .
ORDERS FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2017
Steve Daines (Republican, MT) \u2014 2017-1-9

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, Tuesday, January 10; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of S. Con. Res. 3.
FAKE NEWS INCLUDES CLIMATE CHANGE
Lamar Smith (Republican, TX) \u2014 2017-1-9

a good example of fake news appeared in Sunday's New York Times. It is a column headlined, ``As Denies Climate Change, These Kids Die.'' This may be a new high--or maybe a new low--for climate alarmists and their exaggerations. prgtoken Two facts: first, most severe and persistent droughts occurred decades ago, not recently; and second, there is little connection between climate change and extreme weather, in general, according to numerous studies. prgtoken Climate alarmists tend to ignore scientific evidence and encourage media hype, and, of course, the liberal media is all too willing to go along. Climate discussions should be based on good science, not politically correct science.
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT APPRECIATION DAY
Erik Paulsen (Republican, MN) \u2014 2017-1-9

I rise today on National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day to recognize and support our many men and women bravely serving and protecting their communities all across Minnesota and our country. prgtoken Law enforcement officers are heroes. They put their lives on the line to keep our neighborhoods, homes, businesses, and schools safe and secure, as was evidenced by the tragedy that took place in Orlando. We owe them so much for the many risks and difficult decisions they make every single day. prgtoken It is important that we don't take their service for granted. Our communities are better, thanks to their unwavering commitment. That is why recognitions like today or National Night Out in August, where we promote police community partnerships through neighborhood block parties and cookouts with officers, are so critically important in strengthening the bond between community and law enforcement. prgtoken Our men and women in uniform, as well as their families and loved ones, make tremendous sacrifices for the safety and security of their neighbors. We thank them and recognize them for their daily service.
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU TO RETIRING SHERIFF MICK EPPERLY
Billy Long (Republican, MO) \u2014 2017-1-9

I rise today to recognize Sheriff Mick Epperly of Barry County, Missouri, who is retiring after 28 years of service in law enforcement. prgtoken Sheriff Epperly took his first oath as Sheriff of Barry County on January 1, 1997. Now, 20 years later, he has become the longest serving sheriff in Barry County's history. prgtoken During his career, Sheriff Epperly has come to be known as the ``working sheriff.'' On the job, Sheriff Epperly has consistently been an active sheriff arriving first on the scene for search and rescue missions, going into work at all hours, even on weekends and holidays, regularly going on patrols with his officers and working every homicide case that the Sheriff's Office has been involved in during his tenure. prgtoken I am honored to recognize Sheriff Epperly's years of service and hard work on the job for the people of Barry County. On behalf of Missouri's Seventh Congressional District I ask all of my colleagues to join me in wishing Sheriff Epperly the best in retirement and thanking him for 28 years of work in law enforcement.
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT APPRECIATION DAY
Doug LaMalfa (Republican, CA) \u2014 2017-1-9

today is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, and I think it is very appropriate in this body to stand up and show that appreciation, especially in these confused times where signals come out of this place that don't show appreciation but, instead, depict our law enforcement in very unflattering terms. prgtoken To our friends in law enforcement, we want you to know that the vast majority of us believe in what you do and that we value you and what you do every day out there to keep us safe, to keep us secure in our homes and our communities. We also honor those--too many--whom we have lost tragically in the line of duty. prgtoken I know their families pray every night that they will return home safely. Too often, just in 2016, many of these families' worst fears were realized, as 135 fathers, sons, mothers, and prgtoken daughters never returned home from the line of duty. In my home State of California, 11 officers lost, one even from my own district, Deputy Jack Hopkins of the Modoc County Sheriff's Department. We recognize him, and we recognize all the brave men and women around this country who sacrifice, who stand as a thin blue line between us and a lot of mayhem. We are truly grateful and want to take time this day to recognize what you do for us. God bless you all. Amen.