mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
RECOGNIZING LIEUTENANT COLONEL STEVE ``THIRSTY'' SMITH FOR REACHING 10,000 FLYING HOURS IN A B-52 BOMBER
Mike Johnson (Republican, LA) \u2014 2017-3-6

it is with great honor that I rise today to commend the achievements of Lieutenant Colonel Steve ``Thirsty'' Smith for making United States Air Force history on March 3, 2017 by being the only currently serving member of the United States Air Force to reach 10,000 flying hours in a B-52 heavy bomber, officially labeled a B-52 Stratofortress, and contributing to the backbone of the manned strategic bomber force for the United States. Lt. Colonel Smith joined the United States Air Force after graduating from the ROTC program at the University of Mississippi. He continued on to graduate navigation school at Mather Air Force Base in 1985 where he earned his wings and received his first assignment for the B-52. As a navigator with the 93rd Bomb Squadron belonging to the 917th Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Lt. Colonel Smith has distinguished himself as one of our nation's most experienced navigators. He spent seven years on active duty before becoming a reservist for over 20 years. He has flown 10,000 B-52 hours and 1,819 B-52 sorties including 496 combat hours and 42 combat sorties over the span of four different wars; Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and Inherent Resolve. He was awarded the Air Medal in 1991 and the Aerial Achievement Medal in 2002 and 2004. His expertise with the B-52 played an instrumental role in modernizing the aircraft with a targeting pod that provides greater accuracy leading to more successful missions. Additionally, he has been an inspiration to many young navigators as a flight instructor, teaching over 180 young weapons systems officers at Barksdale Air Force Base in the same aircraft. Dating back to World War I, the 93rd Bomb Squadron has repeatedly distinguished itself in its contributions to the security of the United States during deployments around the world. This distinction has continued today with global demonstrations of strategic attack capabilities. Lt. Colonel Smith is greatly regarded throughout the Air Force and Louisiana communities and is known as a humble man who has selflessly given back to the country he loves so dearly. He has earned widespread respect for his continued commitment to serve in defense of our great nation on behalf of the United States Congress, it is my pleasure to join a grateful community in saluting his outstanding achievements. My wife Kelly and I thank Lt. Colonel Smith for his dedicated services and wish him all the best for continued success in what is an already remarkable career.
PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR
Maria Cantwell (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2017-3-7

I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to the following individuals with the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Frances Brie Van Cleve, a ic fellow, through December 31, 2017; Stephanie Teich-McGoldrick, a ic fellow, through December 31, 2017; Patricio Portillo, a ic fellow, through December 31, 2017; and Devinn Lambert, a ic detailee, through December 31, 2017.
THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT
Joe Courtney (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2017-3-7

7 years ago, in March of 2010, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law after a 2-year process of hundreds of committee meetings, exhaustive markups--which I personally participated in--floor debate that went on for days, and, again, back- and-forth between the House and the Senate. prgtoken Since that date, despite the, again, bitter criticism by the majority when that law went into effect, there have been 60 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act; and up until this morning, the majority has always begged the question about: What is your replacement? Again, just last week, we heard rumors that there was a replacement, that the actually had drafted a bill. prgtoken Well, with scenes that looked like it was out of ``The Blair Witch Project,'' we had Members of Congress going around the Capitol opening doors with cameras doing live streams and live coverage, again, to empty rooms and denials that there actually was a bill that anyone could actually take a look at. prgtoken Well, as I said, this morning, we now have been told that there actually is a bill that has been filed, which tomorrow will be marked up and voted out of committee with not one single public hearing and, incredibly, with no analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which any bill that has any impact on budget, whether it is a tax bill or a spending bill, has, as a matter of course, for decades, always been the case. There is no measure which contains more significance in terms of a Congressional Budget analysis than reforming the healthcare system of America, which constitutes about 15 to 20 percent of the American economy and affects the lives of tens of millions of Americans. prgtoken Well, from what we have seen so far, it appears there is a good reason that the folks wanted to keep the bill a secret. Again, the basic fundamentals of the Affordable Care Act is built on two pillars. There was an expansion of Medicaid, and there were subsidies based on income for Americans to be able to buy insurance through the marketplace. prgtoken In the State of Connecticut, where I come from, we have cut the uninsured rate down to 3.6 percent from approximately 9 percent when the bill was signed into law 7 years ago. prgtoken What this bill does is, again, it just basically decapitates the Medicaid expansion. So about 11 million Americans are going to have their healthcare coverage threatened. And those are not just, you know, people on entitlement programs. We are talking about working Americans. prgtoken I know a farmer in my district who almost lost his foot from a chain saw accident, who thanked me the other day that he had Medicaid to cover the costs of his hospital coverage. prgtoken Again, the subsidies which allowed people to buy plans on the insurance marketplace, well, they basically, as I said, decapitate Medicaid. And they also convert the subsidies from an income-based system to an age-rated one, which means that, basicall
DESTABILIZING OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Suzan K. DelBene (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2017-3-7

last night, House s released a dangerous and irresponsible bill that threatens to destabilize our Nation's healthcare system and rob millions of Americans of their health insurance plans. prgtoken Since coming to Congress, I have worked tirelessly to find commonsense fixes to our Nation's healthcare laws. We should be working together to build upon the reforms we have already made to expand coverage and reduce costs. But what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have put forward would make working families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities foot the bill for their poorly conceived experiment. prgtoken What is worse, they are giving our constituents and their Representatives in Congress less than 48 hours to review it before jamming it through committees. prgtoken As a former businesswoman and entrepreneur, I am always stunned to see leaders in Congress put forward a half-baked plan like this--one that threatens massive disruption and chaos, released in the middle of the night without any data or metrics to show how it makes literally anything better. In the private sector, that is the sort of behavior that can get you fired. prgtoken For a moment, let's put aside the fact that committees are planning to mark up this legislation tomorrow without any data from the Congressional Budget Office on how many of our constituents can expect to lose health coverage or see their taxes go up. Let's talk about the one thing we do know: this bill is an enormous tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. prgtoken Through this bill, s are trying to give an average tax cut of around $7 million to the 400 highest-income households--a tax cut they don't need and didn't ask for. They are doing it while ripping health insurance away from millions of hardworking Americans; forcing seniors to pay a staggering $3,200 more on premiums every year, for less coverage; increasing the cost of prescription drugs for middle class families; eliminating coverage for women's health care, like birth control, breast cancer screenings, and maternity care; and decimating the Medicaid program for 62 million children and families, seniors, pregnant women, and people with disabilities. prgtoken This is hardly what I would call a great deal or a better way for the middle class, which is what the American people were repeatedly promised by President and Ryan. prgtoken No, their idea of a healthcare plan is a tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. When our healthcare system falls apart, we will all pay the price. prgtoken My in-box has been flooded with phone calls, emails, and letters from constituents who are terrified about what the s are trying to do. Like Stacie, from Snoqualmie, who got coverage under the Washington State exchange after spending years struggling to pay for health care. She recently wrote to me and said: ``Just last week I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
DISAPPROVING A RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR-- Continued
Michael F. Bennet (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2017-3-7

as we continue to debate H.J. Res. 44, a resolution of disproval to nullify the BLM planning 2.0 rule, I would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues an editorial published last week in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. It outlines many of the reasons we should oppose the repeal of the BLM planning 2.0 rule. prgtoken I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the Record.
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2017-3-7

today I am reintroducing the Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2017 along with two members of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Collins, and the ranking member, Senator Warner. In response to data breaches of various companies that exposed the personal information of millions of customers, our legislation asks each publicly traded company to include--in Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, disclosures to investors--information on whether any member of the board of directors is a cybersecurity expert, and if why having this expertise on the board of directors is not necessary because of other cyber security steps taken by the publicly traded company. To be clear, the legislation does not require companies to take any actions other than to provide this disclosure to its investors. prgtoken Many investors may be surprised to learn that board directors who participated in the National Association of Corporate Directors, NACD, roundtable discussions on cyber security late in 2013 admitted that ``the lack of adequate knowledge of information technology risk has made it challenging for them to `effectively oversee management's cybersecurity activities.' '' More recently, in Deloitte's 10th Global Risk Management Survey of Financial Services Institutions, published this month, 42 percent of respondents considered their institution to be less effective in managing cybersecurity. And according to the 2016- 2017 NACD Public Company Governance Survey, ``fifty-nine percent of respondents reported that they find it challenging to oversee cyber risk, and only 19 percent of respondents said that their boards possess a high level of knowledge about cybersecurity.'' Indeed, Yahoo in its most recent annual report, which was filed with the SEC last week, disclosed that ``the Independent Committee found that failures in communication, management, inquiry and internal reporting contributed to the lack of proper comprehension and handling of the 2014 Security Incident. The Independent Committee also found that the Audit and Finance Committee and the full board were not adequately informed of the full severity, risks, and potential impacts of the 2014 Security Incident and related matters.'' The 2014 Security Incident here refers to the fact that ``a copy of certain user account information for approximately 500 million user accounts was stolen from Yahoo's network in late 2014.'' This is particularly troubling given that data breaches are on the rise. Indeed, 2016 was a recordbreaking year for data breaches, which increased 40 percent from the prior year to 1,093 breaches according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. prgtoken Investors and customers deserve a clear understanding of whether publicly traded companies are prioritizing cyber security and have the capacity to protect investors and customers from cyber-related attacks. Our legislation aims to provide a better understanding of these is
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL OF A RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2017-3-7

I rise today to offer a few comments about the House bill that was just unveiled yesterday. Those who have been promoting it or those who have been working on this issue for a couple of weeks are claiming it is a new healthcare plan or a new comprehensive healthcare proposal--in essence, by their argument, a replacement if the Affordable Care Act were repealed. I disagree. I don't believe in any way it is a plan. It might be a bill, but I think a better description of it in terms of its impact would be that it is a scheme, not a plan. It is a scheme that will roll back coverage gains from the Affordable Care Act, which is better known by a longer name: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. prgtoken Kaiser--one of the great institutions that track healthcare data and healthcare policy--told us that there are 156 million Americans with employer-sponsored coverage. Those Americans didn't have much protection before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with regard to preexisting conditions or annual lifetime limits--a whole series of protections for people that were not there before that. prgtoken This scheme, as I am calling it, will not only roll back coverage gains in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in the process it will also devastate the Medicaid Program, leaving many of the most vulnerable Americans behind. prgtoken Another impact of this scheme will be to increase costs for middle- class families while cutting taxes for millionaires or multimillionaires as well as big corporations. It will raise the cost of care for older Americans and substantially cut funding for hospitals in rural communities. prgtoken How did we get there, and where are we going based upon the House proposal? Last night the s released their bill to ``replace'' the Affordable Care Act, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee will be marking up the bill tomorrow. I guess it doesn't require much reading to get to a markup tomorrow. prgtoken Usually when you introduce a bill, the bill is reviewed by Members of Congress. There is some public debate on it. There is some back-and- forth. And then a period of time later, maybe weeks, there is a markup. The committee engages in a thorough review of the bill, and the markup means they make changes. They add amendments or try to alter the bill in one way or another. That is a serious approach when you do this work of legislating on a serious issue. prgtoken Healthcare is about as serious and difficult an issue as there is. I think it should be accorded the serious review that the complexity and the consequence of this issue demand. This is not a serious proposal. It is a scheme, but it is also not a serious process that the House seems to be focused on right now. This process means the House will mark up this bill within I guess about 48 hours of it being unveiled, maybe le
DISAPPROVING A RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR-- Continued
Christopher Murphy (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2017-3-7

Care is here, and you are going to hate it. This replacement for the Affordable Care Act has been 7 years in the making. On a cursory overview, it appears that when you ask the question as to who gets hurt under the replacement plan, the answer is everyone, with the exception of insurance companies, drug companies, and the very wealthy. prgtoken I hope we are able to step back and take our time to analyze what this replacement plan is going to do to Americans who badly need healthcare, who believed s when they told them that they were going to repeal the bill and replace it with something better, and who believed President when he said that he was going to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something that was wonderful, that insured everybody who was insured under the Affordable Care Act and did it at lower costs. prgtoken I know that my colleagues who are well meaning in this Chamber cannot read this replacement plan and understand it to do anything but strip coverage away from millions of Americans and to drive up costs for millions of Americans. There is no credible way to look at this replacement plan without seeing the devastation that will be wrought. prgtoken I want to spend just a few minutes, now that we have had this plan to look at for 24 hours, talking about how dangerous it is and pleading with my colleagues to take their time and, hopefully, decide instead to work with to try to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, fix what is not working as well, but preserve the parts that are working. prgtoken Here is what I mean when I say that everyone, with the exception of insurance companies, drug companies, and the superrich, is hurt by the GOP replacement plan. First, this idea that we are going to end the Medicaid expansion--that is what this replacement plan does. It says that in 2 years, effectively 2020, the Medicaid expansion will go away. That means in my State, 200,000 people will lose healthcare. Millions across the country will lose healthcare. They are, by and large, the poor and the lower middle class--largely women and children who can't get insurance other than through the Medicaid expansion--who will no longer be able to get it. Medicaid has been expanded in ic States, States, blue States, red States. Letting Medicaid expansion hang around for 2 years is no solace to people who will jam into those years as much healthcare as they can get, but then be without it afterwards. prgtoken Even more insidious is the part of the GOP healthcare replacement plan that would turn Medicaid into a block grant after 2020. This has been talked about in conservative circles for a long time, but has been resisted, again, by and s who understand what that means. It means Medicaid will eventually wither on the vine and will become a State responsibility. No longer will the Federal Government help S
THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT
Peter A. DeFazio (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2017-3-7

we just heard a lot about competition and better and improved markets. The basic problem the s have-- and they know this very well--is that the health insurance industry is exempt from the antitrust laws of the United States of America, so they can, and they do, get together and collude. They collude to drive up prices. They collude to share markets: hey, if you are pulling out of that State, I will pull out of this State and cut those kind of deals. They can't be prosecuted. prgtoken We had a bipartisan vote on the floor of this House when we were originally considering the House version of the Affordable Care Act-- infinitely superior to the thing passed by the Senate which we got stuck with--and it was over 400 votes to take away their antitrust immunity. Is that in this bill? Heck, no. They are the second largest PAC contributor to the Party, so I am afraid we are not going to take away their antitrust immunity--but we are going to have a really free, competitive, and transparent market. You will be able to go out and get your policies, whatever the insurance companies have decided as they colluded behind closed doors. prgtoken Now, the other issue here is, for some reason, s seem to have taken and painted a big target on the back of low- and middle- income seniors in two ways. They are going to repeal some very small taxes on people who earn over one-quarter of a million dollars a year. You know, they really need another 4 percent because they are just hurting. Those people who earn $1 million, $2 million a year, they are hurting. We have got to repeal that tax. So that is one of the highest priorities in this bill: repeal that tax. prgtoken Unfortunately, that means that the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted 4 years earlier. That is right. The money those very high- income people are paying goes to Medicare, to the trust fund, which is in trouble right now. It is going to be exhausted in 2028. Under their plan, it is going to be exhausted in 2024. So they have painted a big target on seniors. But don't worry, the seniors can go into the competitive--well, not so competitive--insurance market and buy a plan. prgtoken But then another little twist and another arrow in the heart of seniors--seniors now, under their plan, instead of a cap of three times the cost of a policy to other, younger subscribers, it is now they are going to jack it up to five times. prgtoken Why do you hate seniors so much? What is the deal here? Yeah, the high-income seniors will do fine. But what about the middle- and low- income seniors, those who are struggling to make ends meet on Social Security and others? prgtoken Then for some other bizarre reason, they have got it in for Planned Parenthood. They say it is about abortion. Well, guess what? It is not. Federal law has prohibited Federal money from going to abortions for 40 years. It is not about abortion. It is about something prgtoken differen
HOW LONG?
Val Butler Demings (Democrat, FL) \u2014 2017-3-7

my father, James LeRoy Butler, worked as a janitor. He had a fifth grade education, and now his youngest child is a Member of the 115th Congress. My father worked hard, and his word was his bond. prgtoken On January 15, 2017, President promised insurance for everyone. He also promised Americans would have much lower deductibles. On January 22, 2017, President 's administration promised no one would lose healthcare coverage. But after only a glimpse of his plan, we now know these promises are not true, like so many other things that the White House has said. prgtoken The people who need coverage the most, the people depending on the President the most, the middle class, working families, and the working poor will be left behind under this plan. In my district alone in Florida, over 66,400 people stand to lose healthcare coverage. prgtoken To my colleagues, I ask: How long will we endure empty promises and made-up stories coming out of the White House? How long? I call on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, delivered in 1965, when he marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and he asked this question: ``How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.'' prgtoken How long? Mexico will pay for the wall. I will release my tax returns. Discriminatory travel bans. Hidden ties with our enemy Russia. How long? , I ask my colleagues to please hold President accountable and do what you know in your hearts is right. Demand answers and allow the facts to lead you to justice. How long?