mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Ted Cruz (Republican, TX) \u2014 2021-8-9

. Reserving the right to modify my request, I would share with the Senator from Alabama that I have the deepest respect for the leadership of the Senator from Alabama, that I understand the Senator from Alabama prgtoken has a profound commitment for the fighting men and women of our military, as do I; that the Senator from Alabama's commitment to invest in our military and military infrastructure is laudable, and I fully support that commitment. Indeed, I would commit to the Senator from Alabama that I am more than ready and eager to partner with him to press through in this body, through any avenue that is available, investing sufficient funds in our military, in our soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines, and in the weaponry they need to defend this Nation. prgtoken But, sadly, we know in this context that our ic colleagues are going to object to funding for the military. They have decided that is not within their priorities. Even as they are spending trillions of dollars on everything else, defending this Nation is not a priority for the ic Members of this conference. So, if your amendment is added to my amendment, the effect will be what we just saw a moment ago, which is a ic Senator standing up and objecting and claiming the reason for objecting is they don't want to fund the military anymore. prgtoken I believe it is in the interest in this body to have a clean vote on, do we destroy cryptocurrencies, yes or no, without any other issues, because as much as I would like to join the Senator from Alabama in investing more in the military--and I am committed to working with him in doing so--I also don't believe we should be destroying jobs and millions of dollars of value in this country. Accordingly, I do not so modify my request
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Mike Crapo (Republican, ID) \u2014 2021-8-9

I rise to speak about the devastating tax- and-spend policies we will shortly be debating here. prgtoken First, I want to differentiate between the bipartisan infrastructure legislation we are currently debating and the separate, looming debate on my ic colleagues' $3.5 trillion reckless tax-and-spend proposals. prgtoken Senators on both sides of the aisle have long agreed to the need to modernize and expand our hard infrastructure, including transportation systems and broadband networks. We have done so in a bipartisan manner. Infrastructure investments have traditionally been accomplished through bipartisanship and regular order. Traditional hard infrastructure investments include the funding of roads and bridges, transit, rail, airports, drinking water, and wastewater infrastructure, ports and inland waterways, water storage, and broadband infrastructure. prgtoken The bipartisan infrastructure bill we are considering today focuses on those core elements and is built around several vetted, unanimously consented committee-passed bills. It includes a number of priorities important to Idaho, including billions of dollars for roads, highways, and bridges; funding for high-speed internet and broadband infrastructure deployment; millions in water infrastructure, including for groundwater storage and conveyance; funding for resiliency against natural disasters, like wildfires and droughts; a reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools program; and much more. prgtoken It does not raise taxes. prgtoken It reprioritizes the use of certain unused COVID relief funds from previous spending bills away from bailouts and idle funds and toward supply-side investments that will provide benefits to the American people for many years. prgtoken Because this infrastructure spending focuses on long-term productivity rather than near-term demand, it will not be inflationary. In fact, it will counteract the inflationary pressures we are now seeing as a result of the excessive spending in this Congress. This is especially critical right now, as rising prices are impacting families and small businesses across America. prgtoken In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices were up 5.4 percent over 1 year ago--the largest increase since August 2008. Consumer price inflation has been accelerating since the beginning of the year, and American families pay the price. In the past year, gas prices have increased 45.1 percent. The cost for major appliances has increased 13.7 percent. Airfares have increased 24.6 percent, and the list goes on. prgtoken A recent University of Michigan survey showed that consumers expect prices to rise 4.8 percent over the next 12 months, and a National Federation of Independent Business survey found that 47 percent of companies are increasing average selling prices, up 7 percentage points from May and the highest share in four decades. prgtoken Economists on both sides
TRIBUTE TO CLIFF HARRIS
John Boozman (Republican, AR) \u2014 2021-8-9

I rise today to recognize Cliff , one of the newest inductees into the NFL Hall of Fame for his remarkable football career with the Dallas Cowboys. prgtoken Cliff is a proud Arkansan who has spent his life defying odds and demonstrating that hard work and dedication pay off. prgtoken Cliff was born in Fayetteville, AR, and grew up in the Hot Springs area where he began his football career as backup quarterback at Hot Springs High School. He earned a scholarship to Ouachita Baptist University--OBU--and followed in his father's footsteps joining the Tiger football team. Cliff was extremely successful on the field where he was an accomplished defensive back and a skilled kick returner. During his time at OBU, he was named to two All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference--AIC--teams and, during his freshman year, helped his team win the 1966 AIC Football Championship. prgtoken Despite a stellar college football career, Cliff was not selected in the 1970 NFL draft. That didn't prevent him from pursing his dream. He participated in the Cowboys training camp and signed as a free agent. Cliff's perseverance paid off as he earned the starting free safety position his rookie year. prgtoken His NFL career was postponed when he was called to service in the U.S. Army. Following his military service, Cliff jumped right back into the game and helped the Cowboys earn Super Bowl victories in 1972 and 1978. prgtoken Nicknamed ``Captain Crash'' for his ruthless tackles and ferocious pursuit of ball carriers, Cliff dominated the field and, even today, is heralded as one of the best free safeties to ever play the sport. Hall of Fame head coach George Allen described Cliff as a ``rolling ball of butcher knives.'' prgtoken In addition to playing in five Super Bowls, Cliff was named to the Pro Bowl six times and was named a first team All-Pro player for four consecutive seasons. He was named to the Dallas Cowboys' Silver Season All-Time Team, was selected by ``Sports Illustrated'' as the free safety on the magazine's All-Time Dream Team, was given the NFL Alumni Legends Award, and was the free safety of the All-Decade Team for the 1970s. In 2004, Cliff was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. The Cliff Award was named after him and is presented to the top defensive player in small college football each year. Back in Arkansas, 's alma mater Ouachita Baptist University honored Cliff by naming its new football stadium the Cliff Stadium. prgtoken From backup high school quarterback to two-time Super Bowl champion, Cliff has remained the same hard-working kid from Arkansas. Known for his vast knowledge of the game and strong leadership among the team, Cliff was an extremely well-liked and respected player. As a fellow Arkansan, I looked up to him not only because of his football skills but also his outstanding character both on and off the field. prgtoken I applaud Cliff for his outstanding
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2021-8-9

last election cycle, Americans elected a 50-50 Senate, a closely divided House, and a President who promised unity and moderation. prgtoken What have Washington done in response? prgtoken They have set out trying to tax and spend our country into oblivion. They have handed the keys to domestic policymaking to Chairman Sanders and some socialist House Members. prgtoken In the spring, they passed a massive, inflationary, liberal spending bill that bragged was the most liberal bill in American history. prgtoken Now, this week, just a few months later, they want to start ramming through trillions more that will make that disaster look like child's play. prgtoken They call it $3\1/2\ trillion in spending. Nonpartisan experts say those plans would more likely cost Americans about $5\1/2\ trillion-- trillions more borrowing and trillions more spending, when inflation is already sticking American families with higher costs; new permanent welfare, with no work requirements, when small businesses are already struggling to find workers; sweeping amnesty, when the southern border is already in crisis; Green New Deal regulations, when Americans' gas prices have already shot up; and crushing tax hikes for family businesses and farms, as they fight to recover from the recession. prgtoken So, apparently, tragedy and comedy really are two sides of the same coin. The tragedy is that want to inflict all this pain on middle-class families. Here is the comedy: They won't let s have any say in this monstrosity, but they want our help raising their credit card to make it happen. prgtoken want s to help them raise the debt limit so they can keep spending historic sums of money with zero input and zero votes. prgtoken So imagine a friend tells you he is flying off to Las Vegas to blow all of his money. He doesn't care that you think it is irresponsible. You aren't invited to come along, but he wants you to cosign a loan for him before he leaves. prgtoken Now, I understand the administration sent out the Treasury Secretary to argue that, historically, both parties have addressed the debt ceiling together. Of course, it is our Senate colleagues who have no interest in what is historically normal. Their borrowing and spending are historically abnormal. keep boasting about how wild and revolutionary their partisan vision is. prgtoken So our friends across the aisle should not expect traditional bipartisan borrowing to finance their nontraditional reckless taxing- and-spending spree. That is not how it is going to work. prgtoken have all the existing tools they need to raise the debt limit on a partisan basis. If they want 50 lockstep ic votes to spend trillions and trillions more, they can find 50 ic votes to finance it. If they don't want s' input, they don't need our help. It couldn't really be s
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Rob Portman (Republican, OH) \u2014 2021-8-9

. I just want to say briefly to my colleague from Wyoming and my colleague from Pennsylvania, and also to our other colleagues who worked with us over the past week or so to come up with a good approach to this issue that is vexing, that we need to figure out how to get this into the legislation. So I support the amendment, of course. prgtoken I think there is a general consensus that information reporting is a good thing, and that particularly for our constituents, who are everyday holders of digital currency, they want to have that reporting in order to be able to pay their taxes properly. prgtoken The vast majority of them are good, hard-working taxpayers who just want to be able to get what their basis is or what their information is from a broker, just as they would for a stock or a bond. prgtoken So what we have done here through this language is ensure that, while doing that, we are not putting a sweeping provision in place that includes people who shouldn't be included. prgtoken As an example--and my colleague from Pennsylvania said it very, very well--we are not trying to bring in people who are involved in validating distributed ledger transactions through proof of work, commonly known as miners. prgtoken We are also not trying to bring in ``proof of stake'' validation or stakers, and we are also ensuring that we are not bringing in people who are involved with hardware and software selling for digital wallets. They wouldn't be subject to these rules as well. And I think that was very important to make that clear. I think the language needed clarification. prgtoken So I am pleased with the amendment. I would hope that we would be able to get it passed because I think it is very important to have it as part of this legislation, and I want to thank, again, my colleagues, from Pennsylvania, from Wyoming, as well as Senators Warner, Sinema, Ossoff, Wyden, and others who have worked with us in this process, and thank you for bringing this amendment to the floor today.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Bill Hagerty (Republican, TN) \u2014 2021-8-9

as I said earlier in this debate, I agree that working to shore up our hard infrastructure is a worthy cause. Investing in infrastructure the right way is a wise investment in America's future and in our long-term competitiveness. prgtoken But that is not what we are being asked to vote on here. Rather, we have a package with some infrastructure that is good for our economy. Yet it is riddled with Big Government and massive deficit spending, over a quarter of a trillion dollars in the hole. prgtoken And we want to rush through this as quickly as possible? prgtoken There is a right way and a wrong way to pursue noble goals. And let's be clear. The leadership has tied this infrastructure bill to their effort to use their 50-vote reconciliation process to fundamentally move America toward Western Europe-style socialism, which as anyone can see today, brings with it limited opportunity, less innovation, crushing taxes, a bloated government bureaucracy, and cradle-to-grave government dependency. prgtoken Right on cue, have introduced a $3.5 trillion part of the plan this morning, and the leader promised that the Senate will turn to it just as soon as this bill is passed. prgtoken I wish this wasn't the case. And all it would take for it not to be the case is for just one of my colleagues to say that they won't support the $3.5 billion part of this plan. prgtoken I am still hopeful, but I remain concerned, given the statements by just like my colleague, who just spoke a minute ago, from Oregon. prgtoken President and Pelosi have been clear that this bipartisan deal on infrastructure won't become law unless all of the socialist Big Government items that got excluded from the so-called track 1 of the first deal are later tacked on to it in track 2 of their plan. The leader is saying this quite clearly, using the consistent refrain of a two-track plan. prgtoken They are doing this because the far left has pushed the over the edge. Whether the subject is court packing, election takeovers, or government dependency, it is clear that the far left is calling the shots in the ic Party today. prgtoken Sadly, view this infrastructure bill as an important tool to advance the far left's agenda. leaders have promised to link it to trillions of dollars more in government taxing, spending, and dependency programs that this body will take up later this week. This smoke-and-mirrors charade is the kind of thing that makes Americans shake their heads. prgtoken I have negotiated deals my whole career, and often what is negotiated out of a deal is just as important as what is in it. There is not a deal if, at the last minute, the other side uses a side deal or a different program to put everything in it that you never wanted. That is why, when we consider this infrastructure bill, we must also look to the multitrillion-dollar,
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Patrick J. Toomey (Republican, PA) \u2014 2021-8-9

. So for people who have been watching this and aren't familiar with the bizarre practices in this body, I want to just explain briefly what just happened here. prgtoken Because there is a difference of opinion on whether or not the Senator from Alabama should get a vote on his amendment--because that is not agreed to--the body is refusing to take up an amendment that has broad bipartisan support that we all know fixes something that badly needs to be fixed. This isn't like a whim of the Senator from Pennsylvania. There is, like, nobody who disputes that there is a problem here. prgtoken You want to know the specifics of the problem? According to the underlying bill, this is what is going to pass. This is what is going to get sent ultimately to the President's desk. It is a transaction reporting requirement, including name, taxpayer ID number, dollar amount, date. It is imposed on any person who, for consideration, is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person. prgtoken Well, look, I am not even a lawyer, but I can read. It sounds to me like any service effectuating transfers--that would include validators. I don't know how that doesn't include miners, stakers. It probably includes hardware and software wallets, software developers all across any kind of platform. prgtoken We are going to ask these people to provide information that they don't have and they can't get. prgtoken In what universe does that make any sense at all? All I want to do is have a vote on an amendment that fixes this in a way that has bipartisan agreement, in a way that constrains this to apply narrowly to the people who actually are the intermediaries running a centralized exchange, who have this information. But apparently we are not going to be able to do that. So we will be back on this because we are going to do a lot of damage. Who knows how much innovation we are going to stifle. Who knows exactly what kind of new apps will never emerge. It is hard to predict what kind of completely impossible mandate results in, but it is not good, and it is going to bring us back here having to try to clean up a mess which we could have prevented. prgtoken .
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Jerry Moran (Republican, KS) \u2014 2021-8-9

I joined the bipartisan infrastructure group of 22 Senators. I am one of the originals. I did so for a number of reasons. One is how important infrastructure is to Kansas and to the country. prgtoken I would highlight the importance of infrastructure investment to my State. We are in the middle of the country, where our manufactured goods and agricultural commodities need to be able to compete in the world economy. How efficiently and effectively we get those goods and those commodities to market has a huge consequence to the ability for Kansans to earn a living. prgtoken Across our State, from Southeast Kansas to Southwest Kansas, from the suburbs of Kansas City in Johnson County and Wyandotte County, all across Northwest and Central Kansas, the demand for improved roads, greater safety, is there. There is a great desire to see that roads and bridges are repaired. County commissioners and trustees of our townships have called to say: We have a bridge. Could you help us do something about that? prgtoken So I entered this group of 22 Senators. I was one of the 11 to provide some input and to see that Kansas priorities--that we had a seat at the table and to help negotiate a deal that didn't raise taxes, that didn't spend trillions of dollars and focused on actual traditional infrastructure, and to avoid what I fear is to follow, what I would describe as a ic wish list. I wanted this to be a smaller, more affordable, paid-for package that was not excessive in scope, didn't add to the national debt, and did not raise taxes on the American people. prgtoken This package includes a number of priorities of mine, including a historic increase in investment in broadband and does provide critical resources to repair our roads, bridges, and airports. prgtoken So a desire for a seat at the table, a desire to invest in infrastructure, and I also would add a desire to see that this U.S. Senate, s and , can work together for a beneficial product for the American people. However, from the very beginning, I outlined criteria that would be needed to be met for my support on any final outcome of the negotiations. My priority was that the bill be paid for and therefore not raise the national debt. prgtoken Half of the new spending in this bill is not offset--is not offset-- with reduced spending or increases in nontax revenues. The Congressional Budget Office scores this bill as adding a quarter of a trillion dollars to the national debt. prgtoken My view has been from the beginning that if we can only find offsets to pay for a certain amount--in this case, about half of the increased spending included in this bill--then the size of our bill should be half of what it is. If you can only find a way to pay for half of what you are spending, then spend less money--spend half as much less money. That, of course, was not the outcome of these negotiations. prgtoken Additionally, I had hoped that
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Marsha Blackburn (Republican, TN) \u2014 2021-8-9

recently, Francis Collins, who is the current Director of the National Institutes of Health, said in an interview: We call on China to really open up, something they have not done, and to be more transparent about what could be known there. prgtoken He was, of course, talking about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. prgtoken I couldn't agree more with Dr. Collins. The world is entitled to know what happened in Wuhan. However, we have a saying in Tennessee that I think applies here: What is good for the goose is good for the gander. prgtoken Of course, my question to Dr. Collins is, When will we see transparency from the NIH about its role in the origins of the pandemic? prgtoken On June 28, along with my colleagues Senators Marshall and Grassley, I wrote to Dr. Collins asking him to open up the books on the NIH's relationship with Chinese researchers. prgtoken , I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in the Record