mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
Energy Policy (Executive Session)
Roy Blunt (Republican, MO) \u2014 2022-7-20

that whole concept of going where real people live is an important one. When people are facing higher utility bills every month and a bigger bill every time they fill up their gas tank, it doesn't take long for them to figure out that policy decisions somewhere have changed something--and something that really dramatically affects their quality of life. And then it didn't take long to figure out that those policy decisions in Washington are the decisions that made that kind of difference. prgtoken When a blackout causes the lights to go out and your refrigerator to stop working, the impact of energy policy becomes pretty tangible and you understand pretty quickly that this is impacting you. That is a prospect that a lot of Americans are facing this summer. It is not theoretical, but in too many places, it is happening and happening over and over again. prgtoken In late May, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation released a report that said that nearly two-thirds of the United States could experience blackouts this summer as a result of reliability challenges of the electric grid. Now, that group is a nonprofit regulatory authority that monitors the grid in the United States and Canada and some of northern Mexico. prgtoken They could see this coming and Americans can now see this happening. They said that it was sobering. They said that it was an understatement, really, in many ways, to see it any other way. The understatement is, in particular--and the report said--that in the West and the Midwest, there was a heightened risk of reliability challenges and energy shortfalls. prgtoken This report on the electric grid cited several reasons for heightened risk people are facing. One of them is that there is simply too little electric-generating capacity in the middle of the country where I live following the closure of older baseload generators. You can't make these decisions about energy policy without having a replacement in mind and not expect to see bad things happen to families, to individuals, to our economy. And that is what we are seeing now. prgtoken Earlier this year, the Energy Information Administration projected 85 percent of the generators closing this year would be coal-fired power plants. prgtoken So, if you close these plants and don't have a replacement in line, look what happens. Maybe we should ask Germany what happened when they shut down one of their major energy sources without having a replacement. Before you know it, they were dependent on a source of energy and a kind of energy and a country to get that energy from that didn't work out at all. prgtoken From day one, the administration has advanced policies to restrict the production of affordable and reliable American energy. We have gone from being a net exporter of energy to an importer--in fact, even a pleading importer of energy--in an unbelievably short period of time. prgtoken Electric prices in that peri
BIDEN'S INFLATION CATASTROPHE
Virginia Foxx (Republican, NC) \u2014 2022-7-20

. Madam , our colleagues keep talking about the issue of women's health and women's reproductive freedom. prgtoken In ``The Merchant of Venice,'' Shylock thought he had won a great victory when he thought he was going to get his pound of flesh. But Portia, the attorney, said to the judge: You may have your pound of flesh but not one drop of blood. I think that is a good analogy for what our colleagues are saying. prgtoken No one is opposed to women protecting their health. But those of us in the pro-life movement are concerned about when that woman's health decision destroys an unborn life. So, a woman's health decisions end when the life of an unborn becomes involved.
MEASURE READ THE FIRST TIME--H.R. 8404
Rob Portman (Republican, OH) \u2014 2022-7-20

I come to the Senate floor today to correct the record, really. Some of my colleagues in the Chamber voted yesterday to begin consideration of this chips package that we have talked about a lot because they believed it included legislation called Safeguarding American Innovation Act, or SAIA, the bipartisan, Senate- passed, White-House supported, essential legislation to protect taxpayer-funded research and intellectual property from being taken, stolen, by China and other adversaries and then used against us. prgtoken It is understandable people thought that because the SAIA research security provisions were in the broader USICA bill that passed the Senate last year. In fact, as the coauthors of USICA know, it was the reason I was one of the then-original cosponsors of USICA and only because of that. At that time, we needed cosponsors. And it is understandable because, this week, all offices were emailed a list of items by the lead on this bill which included chips-plus legislation, including SAIA. prgtoken So s, when they voted yesterday, thought SAIA was part of it. Even today, and s alike have come up to me and said they thought SAIA was in this bill. prgtoken By the way, they want it in this bill, but it is not. It was stripped out of this USICA. I filed an amendment to get it back into this package because it is so crucial to the goal of the overall effort, which is, of course, to improve our country's competitiveness, especially with regard to China. To do that, we must not only invest in more American research and innovation, which I support, but we have to protect that taxpayer-funded research and intellectual property from being stolen by our adversaries and used against us. prgtoken Given the current realities, without such protections, I believe this chips-plus bill, with significantly increased levels of Federal funding for research, may well become a giveaway to Beijing. prgtoken China's made no secret of its goal to supplant the United States as the global economic leader, and China has been willing to use every tool at its disposal to be able to do that. As FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned: The greatest long-term threat to our nation's information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. prgtoken Director Wray has characterized China as the largest threat to our ideas, our innovation, and our economic security, noting that the FBI has opened 2,000 cases focused on China stealing our research, with one case being opened approximately every 12 hours. prgtoken A number of us, in a totally bipartisan process, have been working on protecting research for the past 4 years. In 2019, an investigative report of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security, which I
National Defense Authorization Act (Executive Session)
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2022-7-20

one of the most important bills that we take up every year is the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, legislation authorizing funding for our military men and women and the defense of our country. prgtoken The Senate Armed Services Committee passed this year's bipartisan bill a month ago, and we have less than 2 months of floor time left in the fiscal year. prgtoken The Senate ' focus this month is on a last-ditch effort to pass some version of their Build Back Better tax-and-spending spree in hopes, I have to assume, of eking out a few more votes in November. Apparently, the National Defense Authorization Act will just have to wait. prgtoken As it does every year, this year's NDAA authorizes funding for critical military priorities. The fiscal year 2023 NDAA continues the modernization efforts begun several years ago in the wake of the 2018 National Defense Strategy Commission report, which warned that our Nation's readiness had eroded to the point where we might struggle to win a war against a major power like Russia or China. prgtoken It authorizes funding to improve quality of life for our military members and their families, which is not only something we owe these men and women who sacrifice so much for us but is also essential for recruiting and retaining members of our all-volunteer force. It authorizes funding to enhance our nuclear deterrence, a key priority with continued nuclear threats from traditional powers like Russia and rogue states like Iran and North Korea. prgtoken And it continues our strong support for Ukraine. Ukraine no longer dominates every front page, but for 5 months now, Ukraine has been fighting a heroic war against Russian aggression. Thanks to support from allies in Europe and from our own country, Ukraine is still holding out. In a war that many experts thought could see Kyiv fall within a matter of days, Ukraine is approaching day 150 of resisting Vladimir Putin's Soviet-style aggression. In fact, Ukraine continues to strike painful blows against the Russian military, which has now turned to Iran for military support. prgtoken Later today, Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, will be addressing Congress. She and her husband have been a beacon for Ukrainians during this brutal war; and President Zelenskyy's iron determination, his tireless leadership, and his unflagging commitment to his people inspire all those who love freedom. prgtoken Ukraine is, in many ways, standing up for the whole free world right now, sending the message that Russia's unprovoked aggression will not be allowed to stand. And the least we and other free nations can do is ensure they have the resources they need to carry out their fight. Russia's war against Ukraine reminds us that nations that value freedom and security must stand together. prgtoken Finland and Sweden are looking to stand with other free nations by joining the NATO alliance. Vladimir Puti
SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS
Marjorie Taylor Greene (Republican, GA) \u2014 2022-7-20

I am honored to stand here with my friends--Chairman Perry, Mr. Cawthorn, Mr. Good, Mr. Norman--in defense of our Second Amendment rights. I say this not only as a Member of Congress, but I say this as a woman, and I say this as a mother. I say this also as an adult who knows what it is like when my school was held hostage by another student with a gun, a very upset student. prgtoken It is not the guns that are the issue. It is the severe mental illness, the breakdown in America with our morals and our values, and this severe divide among all of us as Americans. prgtoken I want to add to this, and this is a story that I haven't even been able to share with my good colleagues here, but just this weekend, now that I am a Member of Congress, many of us get a lot of death threats, but one of my family members received a voicemail on their personal cell phone from a man saying very bad things about me, and then saying: ``This is what I am going to do to her,'' and he cocked a gun and shot it several times. prgtoken This is the type of threats I get, and it came with the threat of a gun. But I tell you this as a woman and a gun owner: I need to be able to have any kind of gun that I want to own to defend myself, to defend my family, to defend my home. God forbid if someone chose to do something to me. prgtoken You see, here is the issue: It doesn't matter how many gun control laws we put in place. It doesn't matter how many types of guns are banned. The criminals and the people who intend to do harm to others, those that would murder someone even if they could murder them with their bare hands, are still going to do it, and they are not going to be the ones that hand over their guns to the government. Oh, no, they are going to be keeping their guns so they can continue breaking the law. prgtoken We have guns coming across our border every single day illegally. We have terrorists who have been caught at our border, and then we have a lot of got-aways. We don't know how many of those are terrorists and what kind of criminals, how much human trafficking, how much child trafficking is happening down there. Crime is up in every single city, county, and small town across America. prgtoken Americans need their guns, and there should not be a ban on assault weapons because it is not about the gun or the weapon; it is about what is inside someone's human heart. prgtoken What we have to do is we have to stand in defense of and protect our Second Amendment because it is the most important freedom that we have. If we are unable to do that, and we lose it in the name of the so- called issues--what they are pointing at really is a tool. A gun is a tool. The gun doesn't get up and kill people on its own. It is the people who do it. prgtoken When you take away all the guns from the legal gun owners, the criminals will be the ones that are left with the guns. Then do you want to know what happens? Even if those guns are gone, the
DISCLOSE Act (Executive Session)
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2022-7-20

today, with our country facing an inflation crisis, a violent crime crisis, and a functionally open southern border, our ic colleagues are choosing to focus on chilling Americans' First Amendment rights and enabling more harassment of citizens for their private views. prgtoken Way back in 1958, the NAACP fought Alabama's attorney general, a segregationist , all the way to the Supreme Court to defend the bedrock American liberty of associational privacy--associational privacy. Here is what Justice Harlan said for the majority back then: Inviolability of privacy in group association may in many circumstances be indispensable to preservation of freedom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs. prgtoken As the majority opinion put it, this was ``hardly a novel exception,'' even back in 1958. And yet, for most of my career, I have had to push back against ' repeated attempts to unlearn this fundamental constitutional lesson. I have repeatedly defended Americans' right to join together and to voice their opinions. prgtoken Prior to McCain-Feingold, almost all money in politics ran through candidates and party committees. I warned that placing unconstitutional restrictions on speech in that bill was like putting a rock on Jell-O-- it wouldn't quash political speech; it would just displace it. And the Supreme Court has consistently reaffirmed that point in case after case, upholding free speech. prgtoken Our ic colleagues' obsession with regulating political speech is what created the environment they now disprove of. It is what drove support for McCain-Feingold, and it is what spawned this perennial bill in 2010. prgtoken want to pass a law that puts discourse in the hands of the mob. But needless to say, they haven't always been very concerned with compelling disclosure using laws on the books. prgtoken Existing law already requires disclosure of donations to PACs and other outside groups with the intention of influencing Federal elections. But even as our colleagues have introduced successive versions of the DISCLOSE Act, enterprising activist liberals have taken it upon themselves to name and shame conservatives by ``outing'' their prgtoken private contributions illegally. It was practically administration policy during the - IRS. prgtoken And for those keeping score, Washington never seemed as eager to publicize the donor rolls of groups whose political views they happen to share. Somehow, donor privacy for organizations pursuing liberal causes is sacrosanct, but donor privacy for groups with conservative beliefs is a threat to democracy. prgtoken Somehow working for outside groups is practically a prerequisite for a West Wing job under a ic President, but association with groups don't like is a one-way ticket to picketing and harassment. Sixty-four years ago, the Supreme
SOCIALIST SPENDING
John W. Rose (Republican, TN) \u2014 2022-7-20

. Madam , on many different occasions I have come to this Chamber to point out exactly how we arrived at this moment where we are experiencing record-breaking inflation. Each time, congressional ' desire to recklessly spend trillions of taxpayer dollars continues to be the answer. prgtoken Here I am again, as the House prepares to vote on yet another spending bill costing hundreds of billions of dollars filled with socialist wish list items that increases Federal spending by double- digit and triple-digit percentage increases in some cases. prgtoken I, of course, will vote ``no,'' not only because it increases the size of our government by increasing spending on non-defense programs by 14 percent, but because it also fails to include the Hyde amendment, which is a longstanding bipartisan agreement that protects taxpayer dollars for being used to fund abortions. prgtoken Overall, the bill would increase the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency by 20 percent, increase the budget for general government activities by 17 percent, and include a 10 percent increase for the Food and Drug Administration--the very same department that botched the baby formula shortage. prgtoken This funding bill rewards bad behavior by giving funding increases to departments that have failed the American people. It encourages illegal immigration. It discourages increasing our domestic energy output by restricting offshore oil and gas activities, and it fails to fund our national defense priorities like the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile. prgtoken It has been almost 2 years of complete ic control of government. Instead of addressing the root causes of the crisis created, this bill doubles down on their failed socialist agenda. Tennesseans are fed up with the out-of-control spending here in Washington. Americans all across the country are fed up with it, too.
Energy Policy (Executive Session)
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2022-7-20

I want to join my colleagues here in an important discussion as it relates to American energy. prgtoken My colleague from the great State of Missouri said it well in so many different ways: Now we are pleading with dictators to import more energy. That is one element of what, certainly, has been the administration's most colossal, strategic mistake of its entire first year in office. Trust me. There have been a lot of mistakes on the administration's watch. There has been nothing that has undermined American interests in terms of working families, in terms of skyrocketing inflation, in terms of national security, in terms of energy security, and--yes, I am going to talk about it--in terms of environmental policy for America and the world. Nothing has been more harmful to America's interests and the interests of American working families than the reckless policies of the administration's approach to American energy. prgtoken I have talked about this issue a lot because a lot of those policies are zeroed in on my State and my constituents, but as many have already said and as Senator Blunt has already said, it can be summed up, in my view, in kind of four key areas. prgtoken No. 1, from day one, they have come in and said: We are going to limit the production of American energy. prgtoken That is happening. It is certainly happening in Alaska. On day one, the President made an order on ANWR. We got ANWR done in this Congress, but he shut that down, and they are canceling lease sales. As for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, they are taking half of that off the table. Everywhere you look, they are trying to limit the production of American energy. That is a fact. It makes no sense, but it is a fact. That is No. 1. prgtoken No. 2 is the slow rolling and killing of energy infrastructure, the ability to move energy through pipelines or LNG terminals. They are stopping it, slow rolling it, or killing it. That is a fact, OK? That is what they have been doing from day one. prgtoken No. 3, they are going to the American financial community--John Kerry, Gina McCarthy, and all of these far-left, crazy, policy folks-- and saying to American banks and insurance companies: Don't invest in American energy. prgtoken This is choking off capital to this incredibly important sector of the U.S. economy. When they are not doing that, they are appointing senior officials--just think Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the SEC Chairman--who are undertaking policies to choke off capital to the American energy sector. That is happening. prgtoken No. 4, when they have seen prices spike and hard-working American families paying hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more to get to work in their cars or trucks, the administration is going around, begging dictators for more energy production. prgtoken This is an insult. We have the highest standards with regard to the environment and Ameri
THEY BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT
Bob Good (Republican, VA) \u2014 2022-7-20

. Well said by the gentleman from Texas. prgtoken Their solution, this President's solution, this majority's solution to the economic wreckage they have created is to spend more money. prgtoken You just ask yourself. You're baffled. Is it malicious intent, and they recognize the harm that they are doing; and how they are causing the harm; and they are doing it by design; and they are doing it on purpose; or are they that economically illiterate, and they really are clueless and have no idea what they are doing? prgtoken Because we have record inflation, 40-year high inflation of 9 percent, which essentially means every American is working for 1 month free this year. One month out of the year they are essentially not getting paid with the loss of purchasing power they have experienced because of the inflation. prgtoken So what is their answer to that? Well, if we could just spend more money, if we could just get more of our agenda passed and spend trillions of dollars more, then that will help the problem rather than make it worse. prgtoken It is like the person who says, hey, I am trying to lose weight and then they would say, well, the solution is to eat more. That is the solution that they propose, to do more harm, and you just wonder, is it just that illiterate, that ignorant, or is it willful and devious and malicious?
Climate Change (Executive Session)
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2022-7-20

while my friend, the Senator from Delaware, is on the floor, in Texas we are known for oil and gas production, but the truth is, and what I think we really should be known for, is for an ``all of the above'' energy policy. prgtoken We produce more electricity from wind turbines than any other State in the country, and that is a surprise to a number of people. prgtoken But one reason for an ``all of the above'' energy policy is that during the current hot spell we are experiencing in Texas--I think we have had over 33 days of over 100-degree temperatures in my hometown of Austin, TX. It is hot. Some might say: Well, of course it is hot. It is July in Texas. But what has happened, we have seen this phenomenon where the wind is not producing nearly as much electricity because it is not blowing as hard as it might otherwise do. prgtoken So, again, I think if we can encourage an ``all of the above'' energy policy, then different segments of the energy picture can fill in at different times and satisfy our overall need. prgtoken I thought while my friend was speaking on that topic I would just mention that interesting lesson that we have learned here recently in Texas.