mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
MILITARY PROMOTIONS
Mike Lee (Republican, UT) \u2014 2023-9-7

the American people are sharply divided on some issues. One of those issues is abortion. One group of people has a different idea about when human life begins and is worth protecting. It needs to be protected under law. It is difficult to reconcile the views of those who are in sharp contrast with each other given that one group thinks that human life begins earlier--much earlier--than the other group. prgtoken As difficult as it can be to reconcile those competing viewpoints where Americans are so sharply divided, there is an issue related to abortion on which Americans are overwhelmingly and refreshingly united; that is, because both sides tend to recognize that a number of Americans are uncomfortable with abortion to the extent that we are, Americans overwhelmingly agree, with a vast supermajority being in agreement, that the Federal Government should not use U.S. taxpayer funds for abortions. prgtoken To that end, Congress has passed laws providing just that. One specific law deals specifically with the U.S. Department of Defense. Codified in 10 U.S.C section 1093, the statute, which has been on the books for decades, says that you may not use Department of Defense funding or facilities for abortions. prgtoken Well, late last year, a rumor started circulating to the effect that the U.S. Department of Defense was considering adopting policies that would fund abortion travels, specifically allowing military personnel seeking abortions in a neighboring State or in a different State than where they were living or stationed to receive 3 weeks of paid leave time and compensated travel--air travel or otherwise--lodging accommodations, a per diem, et cetera, specifically to have an abortion. prgtoken My friend and colleague, the distinguished senior Senator from the State of Alabama, Senator Tuberville, was concerned about this. In his sitting on the Armed Services Committee in the Senate, which he does, he visited with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and expressed his concerns about this rumored policy. prgtoken He said: You shouldn't do this. This is inconsistent with the spirit, if not also the letter, of 10 U.S.C section 1093. If you do this, there will be consequences, including, among other things, that I, Senator Tuberville, will be forced into a position in which I will delay the confirmations of flag officer military promotions. prgtoken Regrettably, a couple of months later, Secretary Austin, in completely ignoring Federal law, in completely ignoring what Senator Tuberville had told him, proceeded with the policy anyway. By so doing, he made a decision to openly flout Federal law. The sole purpose of this policy is to try to find an all-too-cute, way-too-tricky route around what Federal law requires, flatly inconsistent with the spirit, if not also the letter, of the Federal law. prgtoken Since then, there has been debate on this on the Senate floor. Words have been exchanged. People h
NOMINATION OF TANYA J. BRADSHER
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2023-9-7

I have just learned that the majority leader has filed for cloture on the nomination of Ms. Tanya Bradsher to be Deputy Secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition to my remarks on the Senate floor on July 18, I would like to provide more context to my decision to oppose her nomination, especially in light of new information that has come to my attention. prgtoken Ms. Bradsher, if confirmed, would be second in command at a deeply troubled agency. Both the VA and Ms. Bradsher in her current role as chief of staff have shown repeated indifference to congressional oversight. Records show that she played a key role in the VA's deficient response to my investigation of VA corruption that I launched in 2021. Another of my investigations has revealed that she also failed to secure sensitive veterans' health information, PII, and whistleblower information in the VA's correspondence system, VA Integrated Enterprise Workflow Solution, also called VIEWS, which is under her direct authority. My oversight has shown that VIEWS exposes veterans' private and sensitive information to thousands of VA employees, only a small number of whom are authorized to see it. The VA and Ms. Bradsher provided misleading information about that as well, which I will discuss here. prgtoken If confirmed, Ms. Bradsher would be in charge of the VA's effort to modernize veterans' electronic health records. This involves the healthcare records of millions of veterans, which obviously contain huge amounts of sensitive information. Ms. Bradsher's failures on privacy issues as chief of staff and her lack of transparency to the Veterans Affairs Committee show that we can't trust her to secure this sensitive information or to take the lead and address Agency failures, of which VA has many. prgtoken As part of Ms. Bradsher's committee proceedings, she responded to questions for the record about veterans' medical records stored in the VIEWS correspondence system at the VA. Ms. Bradsher provided misleading and often contradictory answers to Senators' questions. When asked about veterans' medical records exposed in VIEWS, she responded that the VIEWS system doesn't ``handle'' medical records. This was deeply misleading, as my staff had already verified that sensitive medical records are stored in VIEWS, and often exposed improperly for thousands of VA employees to see. Ranking Member Moran, unconvinced, pressed her about her answer. She then admitted that these health records are indeed stored in VIEWS as part of VA correspondence. Either she didn't know this on the first round of questions or she intentionally misled the committee. Both of these are disqualifying for a nominee to this position. prgtoken And Ms. Bradsher's remaining answers were no better. When asked whether she knew anyone who may have been harassed, doxed, or who may have had any negative consequences from their information being exposed in VIEWS, she
TRIBUTE TO JANAN HODGES
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2023-9-7

I recognize Janan Hodges, the Seminole County Teacher of the Year from Spring Lake Elementary School in Altamonte Springs, FL. prgtoken Janan holds high expectations for her students, in which she ensures her classroom represents achievement and belonging. She does this by cultivating class rules that are innovative and engaging. prgtoken Janan also develops resiliency skills to benefit student success from elementary school and beyond. She works tirelessly to know each student, finding their strengths and helping limit their weaknesses. prgtoken Janan teaches third grade and is a team leader at Spring Lake Elementary School, where she has taught for 4 of her 16-year educator career. She is her school's New Educator Support Team lead teacher, where she works with new instructors and dedicates time to mentor them. prgtoken I extend my deepest gratitude and best wishes to Janan for her commitment to her students. I look forward to hearing about her continued good work in the years to come.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2738 (Executive Calendar)
John Barrasso (Republican, WY) \u2014 2023-9-7

I come to support Senator Vance's Freedom to Breathe Act. I believe this bill is a vital step to protect the individual's rights as well as preserving State's rights. And in the interest of time, I would just point out, too, that we have a number of Senators on the floor standing with Senator Vance in support of this legislation. I see Senator Cruz here from Texas, Senator Mike Braun from Indiana, Ted Budd from North Carolina, Katie Britt from Alabama, and Eric Schmitt of Missouri. I appreciate all of them being here to support and stand with Senator Vance on this important piece of legislation. prgtoken .
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2023-9-7

last week, the administration rolled out the first targets of the scheme it has been working on for years--prescription drug socialism. prgtoken Ironically enough, Washington ' plan to fix prices in the market for world-leading medical innovations is baked into legislation they produced after their own runaway spending sent consumer prices through the roof. prgtoken As we know, the Inflation Reduction Act did nothing to reduce inflation, and by one estimate, the government price controls it created may well cost the American economy 676,000 jobs. prgtoken Before rammed the IRA through on party lines, the average net prices for drugs were actually stable or falling, but that didn't stop the administration from storming ahead with a drug-by-drug Federal power grab. prgtoken So let's be clear about what this means. Companies that don't comply with the administration's scheme will be forced to pay an unprecedented and excessive fine or withdraw their products from Medicare coverage, leaving American seniors with fewer options for lifesaving treatments. Meanwhile, researchers will have less certainty to dedicate years to creating the high-quality, consumer-friendly, affordable medications American industry is known for. prgtoken Research from the University of Chicago estimates that prescription drug socialism will result in 135 fewer new drugs--135 fewer new drugs, 188 fewer new treatments, and a $663 billion drop in innovative research and development. It will impact 60 percent of cancer medications on the market today and inevitably freeze innovations on future treatments. prgtoken To make matters worse, limits on price increases will force manufacturers to launch new drugs at much higher prices to cover future rising costs and leave many low-income and elderly Americans simply out of luck. prgtoken Price fixing is not some bright new idea cooked up on a liberal college campus. It is the sort of decrepit socialism that has been tried with disastrous results in places like China, Cuba, Venezuela, and the former Soviet Union. prgtoken We cannot afford for America's world-leading medical innovators to be next on the leftwing chopping block, and the millions of Americans living with rare and aggressive diseases can afford it least of all.
Regular Order Process (Executive Session)
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2023-9-7

today, I want to talk about something that has been going really right here in the U.S. Senate, and that is the use of regular order to consider the annual appropriations bills. prgtoken What do I mean by ``regular order''? For starters, regular order refers to allowing bills to go through the committee process--including hearings and a markup--where members of the committee have a chance to amend and approve the bill before being referred by the committee to the Senate as a whole for additional debate and deliberation. prgtoken The regular-order process is key. It provides the time and space for real deliberation. It allows for input from a broad array of Members and promotes collaboration and compromise. It is a transparent process, one that ensures that both Senators and the American people can see how the legislation in question is made and have ample time to digest it, not to mention the fact that by ensuring the input of more Senators, the regular-order process helps ensure that a broader swath of the American people is represented in any final legislation. prgtoken One of Congress's most basic responsibilities is funding the government. For all the reasons I just listed, the way we should be doing that is through regular order. But we haven't been doing the greatest job of that lately here in the Senate. But this year, for the first time in 5 years, the Senate Appropriations Committee has processed all 12 appropriations bills through the committee. A huge amount of credit goes to Senator Collins and to her counterpart, Senator Murray, for making this happen. prgtoken I hope this will not be a one-off but the start of a new habit for the Senate--a habit of giving each of the appropriations bills the time, debate, and serious consideration that it deserves. prgtoken In their press release following passage of all 12 appropriations bills out of committee, Senators Collins and Murray noted that the bills had passed the committee by overwhelming bipartisan margins, and it is not surprising. When you give Members time to debate and amend legislation and make their concerns and the concerns of their constituents heard, you are a lot more likely to get bipartisan buy-in on the final product. prgtoken Today, we expect the leader to file cloture on what we call a minibus of three appropriations bills: Agriculture; Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, or what we call THUD; and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, or MILCON-VA. I hope the hearing these bills got in committee will be matched by a similarly deliberative process on the floor, including ample time for consideration of amendments. prgtoken Debate and amendment on the floor is another key element of the regular- prgtoken order process and one that also helps promote a bipartisan final bill. The debate on the National Defense Authorization Act in July was a good example of this. Members had the opportunity to
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2738 (Executive Calendar)
J.D. Vance (Republican, OH) \u2014 2023-9-7

I know we are on a short timeline, but let me just offer a couple of points in response, and then I will let this body go on with its business. prgtoken No. 1, Senator Markey mentioned the tragic number of Americans, over 1 million, who lost their lives due to COVID. And I agree that it is a tragedy, and I wish that we hadn't lost them. But we lost them in spite of some of the most aggressive masking policies in the world. If mandatory masking were going to save our citizens, it would have already done so. That is the first point. prgtoken The second point is that this legislation doesn't prevent any of our citizens from wearing masks. If you would like to wear a mask, of course, you have the right to do so, but the Senator talked about freedom. What I would like is for the freedom of a school child to not be thrown out of the classroom because he doesn't want to wear a mask. I would like the freedom of airline passengers to be able to go and visit their families and not be thrown off an airplane because they refuse to wear a mask. Freedom is fundamentally about respecting that you might have a different view than I do, respecting that, accepting it, and not using government mandates to force our fellow citizens to do exactly what we want them to do but to let us all figure this out together. prgtoken The final point that I will make here is I heard some pretty alarming rhetoric from my friend on the other side of the aisle. We are about to have some serious respiratory problems. We always do in the fall, and maybe it will be worse this fall and this winter than before. But I think that what our children most of all need--and I am the father of three kids under the age of 7--they need us to not be ``Chicken Little'' about every single respiratory pandemic and problem that confronts this country. prgtoken We are going to have people who get sick from viruses. It has always been thus, and the way to respond to it is with calmness, resolve, and strategic thinking, not by pretending the world is ending because what has always happened is going to happen once again. prgtoken We cannot repeat the anxiety, the stress, and the nonstop panic of the last couple of years. That is what this legislation is about. End the mandates; end the panic; and let's get back to some common sense. prgtoken .
The Economy (Executive Calendar)
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2023-9-7

I find it ironic that we are talking about government shutdowns when it is as a result of Senator Schumer's handling of this matter that we find ourselves here 2 weeks before the end of the fiscal year without having a chance to vote on appropriations bills. This is by design. This is not a bug. This is a feature of his strategy. prgtoken These bipartisan appropriations bills were passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee weeks ago, and then Senator Schumer put the Senate in a 40-day recess during the month of August. Now, with the clock ticking, September 30 just right around the corner, we will start with a minibus appropriations bill next week, but we won't able to finish. We won't be able to reconcile the House and the Senate versions before the end of the fiscal year, so we will be forced to do some form of continuing resolution. prgtoken You might ask, why would the majority leader of the Senate sabotage the normal, expected procedure by which the appropriations process should work? Well, one, it maximizes his power because he knows that only a handful of people will ultimately negotiate the final product, and it will disempower 98 other Members of the U.S. Senate, rank-and- file Members who will not have a chance to debate, vote, and amend various appropriations bills as they come across the floor. prgtoken So this is a part of Senator Schumer's strategy. His political strategy is to create this crisis and then to blame somebody else-- namely, the House of Representatives. And you heard it from our friend from Michigan, the Senator from Michigan. This is all about talking about shutdowns. Well, we tried that before, and we figured out it doesn't really work because when you reopen, the same problems that you found difficult to deal with beforehand are still in front of you. prgtoken So we need to do our work here, but we need to do it on a basis where we can actually have an opportunity to shape these appropriations bills and not go through this unnecessary but entirely predictable drama because the majority leader refused to give us an opportunity to put these bills on the floor and to go through them in an orderly and transparent way. prgtoken Our national debt is about $38 trillion. Excuse me, I forgot what the exact number is, but it is at a historic high. One reason that spending is out of control is because of this gamesmanship. So we need to do better. prgtoken With the government funding deadline just a few weeks away, the administration has adopted a puzzling messaging strategy. prgtoken This week, the White House launched an attack against House s, accusing them of turning a blind eye to the fentanyl crisis. Well, it is tough to peel back the many layers of irony and hypocrisy in that accusation. After all, this administration has been asleep at the wheel for more than 2\1/2\ years as fentanyl has continued to pour across our border. prgtoken Last year alone,
Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 332 (Executive Session)
Rand Paul (Republican, KY) \u2014 2023-9-7

the argument has been made that we should leave these decisions up to a doctor. Well, the thing is that in America we don't appoint like a doctor as dictator. We don't appoint one doctor. You get a choice. You get to choose your doctor. If you don't like your doctor's advice, you think your doctor's advice is invalid, such as it is in this case, you go to another doctor. prgtoken In a free country, the decisions are made by individuals, and each individual will assess their risk. prgtoken Now, the argument has been made that there is overwhelming evidence on the record. That is just, frankly, untrue. There is no evidence--and I don't say that lightly--zero--there are zero studies in any of the scientific literature that show that a booster for adolescents reduces transmission, hospitalization, or death--zero. prgtoken They only approved the booster to allow you to make the choice of using it by saying that you make antibodies. Making antibodies proves that vaccines work, which no one disputes. Vaccines work to induce the production of antibodies. But the question is, If you have already had COVID, do you need three vaccines if you are a 15-year-old kid? The answer in all the literature is, you don't need that vaccine. prgtoken What we found today--he says: Oh, this isn't partisan. Certainly, it is partisan. Do you see any s over here objecting? The s unanimously support getting rid of this mandate. The are objecting because the don't think that prgtoken individual Americans are smart enough to make their own decisions. The don't think that these kids and their parents and their doctors can make their decision. They don't believe in choice when it comes to medical decision making. They believe that they know better. prgtoken But in this case, it isn't just a matter of taking something that is ineffective; it is mandating a vaccine that threatens the health and well-being of these kids--not just a vaccine, mandating three vaccines with no mention of even whether the kids have already had COVID, which is essentially another inoculation. prgtoken So this is a disappointing day, but this is consistent with what we have seen time and again, whether it is having a nationwide emergency mandating that you wear masks in school, masks on planes, vaccines here, vaccines there. This is a desire by the majority party to control your life, to control your medical decision making because they know better. prgtoken They want to beg off and say this is about the science. I recited 15 different studies for them. They didn't recite one study because no study exists saying that three vaccines for kids reduces hospitalization, transmission, or death. There is no science. Large, nationwide studies of this problem have gotten a dozen countries to say we shouldn't be giving three vaccines to kids. Half of Europe won't allow you to do it. They won't allow the mandates. prgtoken