mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
BUILDING ON REEMPLOYMENT IMPROVEMENTS TO DELIVER GOOD EMPLOYMENT FOR WORKERS ACT
Ron Estes (Republican, KS) \u2014 2019-4-9

I thank the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski) for yielding. prgtoken , I want to mention that I, too, rise today in support of H.R. 1759, the BRIDGE for Workers Act. This technical correction bill builds on the progress we made in last year's budget act to provide reemployment services to help get more people back to work faster and easier. prgtoken While the intent of last year's law was to allow job counselors to consult with unemployed individuals as soon as possible, oftentimes implementation of the law led to this happening only in cases where unemployment benefits were set to expire. prgtoken Today's bill realigns reemployment services and eligibility assessment with the original intent of their mission to assist unemployed individuals as soon as possible to get people back to work. prgtoken I know, in my district, case managers at the Workforce Centers of South Central Kansas provide a critical service connecting people with jobs or skills training to further their careers. prgtoken At a time when our economy is growing at historic rates and we have more job openings than ever before, the work these centers provide is extremely important to help make sure all Americans can participate in this economic revival. prgtoken I want to thank my fellow Ways and Means Committee members for working to bring this bill to the floor, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail (Executive Calendar)
Ted Cruz (Republican, TX) \u2014 2019-4-9

Dr. King's profoundly just and moral letter from the Birmingham jail continued: There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: ``How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?'' The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: Just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ``an unjust law is no law at all.'' Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an ``I it'' relationship for an ``I thou'' relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong. Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a [law] that a majority compels a minority to follow and that i
COLORADO RIVER DROUGHT CONTINGENCY PLAN AUTHORIZATION ACT
Josh Hawley (Republican, MO) \u2014 2019-4-9

I rise to discuss a new and growing fundamentalism--a fundamentalism of intolerance and bigotry that is spreading on our college campuses, in our university systems, and in the media. It is a fundamentalism that wraps itself in the language of tolerance but that is, in fact, a cloak for discrimination against people of faith. This new fundamentalism would undermine the most important constitutional guarantees and traditions of our Nation that have allowed us to live in civil peace and civil friendship for over 200 years, and that is the subject of my remarks this afternoon. prgtoken The latest example of this new fundamentalism of intolerance comes from Yale University--in particular, from Yale Law School--where we learned last week that Yale Law School had imposed a new policy that would block students who work for certain faith-based organizations from accessing resources that are available to all other students. Specifically, that policy would prohibit students from receiving school resources if they decided to work for an organization that takes religious faith into account when hiring. Unlike Federal law, Yale's policy, as announced, failed to include an exemption for religious organizations even though Federal law recognizes the rights of religious organizations to hire based on their faiths. prgtoken What we are talking about here is something very simple. Yale said to a group of students that if those in the group wanted to work for faith-based organizations, they would not be able to access the same funds or the same loan repayment programs that are offered to all other students who work for all other organizations. As to what Yale held out to students as being a neutral and generally available program for folks who chose to work in the public's interest either during the summer or after law school, Yale Law School, last week, said: Oh, no. It is not going to be available if you are a student of faith and choose to go to work for an organization that is faith-based and want to pursue its faith-based mission. prgtoken Ironically, this was done in the name of tolerance. Yale said it was trying to prgtoken foster a more tolerant environment. In fact, this is the most rank intolerance. It is flatout discrimination. It is discrimination against religious organizations and nonprofit organizations that are pursuing their good work and that are, in many instances, doing so without asking their clients to pay a single cent. It is discrimination on the basis of faith, pure and simple. It is discrimination against students of faith who want to go to public interest organizations that share their faith missions and who want to do good in the world by pursuing those beliefs while helping those who are in need. It is discrimination, at the end of the day and at the root of the matter, that rejects this country's commitment and our First Amendment's commitment to pluralism. prgtoken You know, our
Remembering Lieutenant Colonel Richard Cole (Executive Calendar)
Sherrod Brown (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2019-4-9

we lost an American hero today--the last in the line of heroes that will I explain in a moment. He was Ohio native Lt. Col. Richard Cole, and he was the last of the fabled Doolittle Raiders. prgtoken In the spring of 1942, the Nation was reeling from Pearl Harbor, and 80 Americans embarked on a mission that many thought to be impossible. They knew the dangers. They knew many of them would not come home. The Raiders showed America and the world that the United States and the Allied Forces could win the war. It was considered a turning point in the news coverage and in people's minds. prgtoken Like my dad, the Doolittle Raiders came from a generation that spoke proudly of their service to their country. They rarely drew attention or talked much about their own courage. They sought no recognition but, oh, how they earned it. prgtoken It was an honor to help award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Doolittle Raiders in Washington 4 years ago--a long time in coming and so deserved. I believe, at that time, there were five Doolittle Raiders left, and after the death of Mr. Cole, there are none today. prgtoken I am so glad that Dick Cole was able to live to receive that medal, as were a handful of others. These men are no longer with us, so it is all the more important that we continue to tell their story. My heart goes out to the families and friends of Lieutenant Colonel Cole and to those of all the Raiders. I thank the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Association for keeping that memory alive.
WELCOMING PASTOR MACKEY TO PILGRIM REST
Ruben Gallego (Democrat, AZ) \u2014 2019-4-9

. Madam , I rise today alongside the Phoenix community to usher in a new chapter of spiritual leadership with the installation of Pastor Terry E. Mackey to Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. I stood on this floor last year to honor the life of Bishop Alexis Thomas, who served for eighteen years as the Senior Pastor of Pilgrim Rest until his passing in January 2018. I worked alongside Bishop Thomas as a part of My Brother's Keeper, and I witnessed firsthand Pilgrim Rest's boundless growth under his guidance. The greatest testament to that leadership is its longevity. Phoenix still feels Bishop Thomas's reach through the ``Word Center'' educational facility he constructed, and other efforts he oversaw: free light rail tickets for the homeless, food packages for low income elders, and free GED courses. I congratulate Pilgrim Rest on upholding the momentum of Bishop Thomas's contributions in his absence this past year. Today, I have the opportunity to acknowledge the new life Pilgrim Rest will breathe into the Phoenix community in the coming years as we welcome Reverend Terry Eugene Mackey as the church's 11th pastor. In Houston, Pastor Mackey served as the Minister to Youth and Young Adults at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, one of the nation's largest predominantly African American churches. He then served as the Pastor of Riceville Mount Olive Baptist Church, where he tripled attendance and renewed the community's investment in religious life. Pastor Mackey has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to community service and leadership, and his ambitions for Pilgrim Rest's future role in the lives of Phoenix residents are promising. He will continue to expand the church's presence by ``striving for higher heights'' in worship and membership, and ``deeper depths'' in discipleship and relationships with God and the community. Madam , I believe the greatest reverence we can show our previous leaders--the teachers who built the foundations upon which we carry out our good work--is to build higher, in the spirit of the work that came before, and with an eye towards what the future needs of us. Pastor Mackey is a leader of just such foresight, and the people of Phoenix will be made a more diligent, faithful, and cohesive community because of his place at Pilgrim Rest.
COLORADO RIVER DROUGHT CONTINGENCY PLAN AUTHORIZATION ACT
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2019-4-9

the watchword in the executive branch today is ``chaos.'' This chaos stems from one source and one source only--President and his extreme agenda--and America is paying the price. prgtoken Everyone agrees there are issues at the border, but if you are the President and if you are in charge of our national security, you don't tweet your way into a strategy; you don't keep changing policies; and you don't keep switching personnel if you want to make progress on the most challenging issue that is facing our country. prgtoken Every day, we hear this is the President's new policy, and 2 days later, we hear it is not happening. People are being fired because they tell the President, according to news reports, that he can't break the law when he wants to do something. You cannot keep changing personnel, changing strategy, and tweeting your way through a problem as serious as this. That is why there is chaos when it comes to border issues--all created by the President and his whimsical, erratic, and oftentimes nasty pursuit of policy. prgtoken Even the s are worried sick about the chaos President has created over the week. My friend John Cornyn says this is all a giant ``mess''--his words. Well, my friend from Texas is correct. Yet this dysfunction is not confined to a few Agencies; this chaos is throughout the executive branch because has the same kind of switching of personnel, changing of policies, and trying to tweet his way through a problem in other areas as he does with regard to the border. prgtoken Let me remind my colleagues that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Interior Secretary, and the EPA Administrator each resigned amid scandal. The administration has not yet nominated anyone for probably the most important Cabinet position, the Secretary of Defense, since Secretary Mattis's departure, and when he departed, Secretary Mattis had a scathing rebuke of President 's policies. prgtoken Look at the chaos at the State Department, where the damage extends way beyond America's borders. Because of incompetence and inaction, there are no nominees to more than 30 vacant key positions at State, including Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights. There are no nominees to be our Ambassador to Pakistan or Egypt and none for Qatar or Thailand. prgtoken This is not the Senate blocking nominees as much as the President likes to blame somebody else for his problems; this is the President's own administration that has failed to nominate people for such important positions, and many of these positions have been long vacant. The areas we mentioned are ever important in our changing world, and this administration is simply failing to nominate anyone. prgtoken We should be projecting stability and continuity through our State Department. Instead, it has been battered and belittled by its own ad
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail (Executive Calendar)
Doug Jones (Democrat, AL) \u2014 2019-4-9

I rise today to honor a great American, an American whose words lit a flame of hope in the hearts of those souls who had become weary with the weight of injustice, an American whose struggles, ideals--and, yes, his dreams--are etched in the foundation of our Nation. prgtoken On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was arrested in my hometown of Birmingham, AL. His crime? Leading a peaceful march to protest the indignity suffered by the Black community in the Jim Crow era. He had violated Birmingham public safety commissioner ``Bull'' Connor's ban on public demonstrations, which targeted the growing resistance of African Americans to the injustices they were suffering. prgtoken While in solitary confinement in Birmingham, Dr. King wrote what became known as the ``Letter from Birmingham Jail''--a stinging response to a group of White clergy in Alabama who had denounced his tactics and questioned the wisdom and timing of his arrival in Birmingham. prgtoken They insisted that he was an outside agitator coming to Alabama to instigate trouble. Dr. King responded famously: ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' prgtoken In his letter, he rejected the idea that African Americans should be more patient for change in the face of the daily indignities inflicted by segregation and in the face of violence and threats and intimidation. He wrote: ``There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over.'' prgtoken While I did not experience this struggle as a young child--a young White child growing up in the nearby Birmingham suburb--I spent much of my adult life and career as a lawyer and former U.S. attorney examining the history and absorbing its lessons. I have often returned to Dr. King's letter to understand the forces at play at the height of the civil rights struggle. Each time I read his words, I am in awe of his courage and resolve in the face of such incredible personal risk. prgtoken While we have come so far and while we have made great progress in loosening the binds of racial injustice that have constrained and suffocated our Nation for so many years, we have not yet fully relieved the weight of our country's abominable history of slavery, segregation, and racial discrimination. prgtoken That is why I rise today. It is our civic duty and I believe our moral obligation to remember Dr. King's words and his deeds, to tell his story, to appreciate that 1963 was not all that long ago, and to reflect on how many things have changed and how many have not. Our obligation is to honor Dr. King's prgtoken legacy by joining him in envisioning the mountaintop and working to make real his famous dream that our Nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of the creed: ``We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal.'' That is why we rise today. prgtoken Dr. King saw an America that had the potential to live up to its lofty ideals, where every man, woman
BUILDING ON REEMPLOYMENT IMPROVEMENTS TO DELIVER GOOD EMPLOYMENT FOR WORKERS ACT
Gwen Moore (Democrat, WI) \u2014 2019-4-9

I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis). prgtoken , I am absolutely delighted to rise in support of H.R. 1759, the Building on Reemployment Improvements to Deliver Good Employment for Workers Act, also known as the BRIDGE for Workers Act. prgtoken I do want to congratulate the authors of this bill, Mrs. Walorski and my colleague Mrs. Murphy, for their effort in putting this forward. prgtoken This bill aims to provide workers receiving unemployment benefits the support they need to not only get back into the workforce as soon as possible, but to prevent them from being unemployed in the first place. prgtoken This legislation is so important because it would extend reemployment services and eligibility assessments to all claimants of unemployment benefits, rather than limiting these benefits to only those who are expected to run out of benefits. Helping all unemployment insurance claimants reenter the workforce is vital for a robust economy that will only thrive with a skilled workforce. prgtoken , research shows that the longer workers are out of work, the harder it can be to maintain their skills. Reemployment services equip workers with important tools, such as individualized career counseling and job search assistance, to find a job well matched to their skills and experience more quickly. This helps to stabilize families' income. prgtoken These are the kinds of services that we need to invest in as a nation, especially since we know that not all boats are rising in this economy. prgtoken In my own State of Wisconsin, funding to the Department of Workforce prgtoken Development's Reemployment Services Program was bolstered for fiscal year 2019, with an increase of nearly $722,000. Already, we have seen improvements in the program's effectiveness for Wisconsinites in need of just a little bit of extra assistance with finding suitable employment. prgtoken , I would also note that the BRIDGE for Workers Act was a bipartisan effort, so important for getting things done. We are pleased with the overwhelming cooperation on both sides of the aisle, and I urge my colleagues to support its passage.
SAVE THE INTERNET ACT OF 2019
Michael F. Doyle (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2019-4-9

I would submit that we are listening to the public and our constituents. Eighty-six percent of all Americans--s, , and Independents-- support what we are doing here today. It is the s who are standing up for a very small number of ISPs in this country. prgtoken It gives me great pleasure to yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who is the of the House.
SOCIALISM
James A. Himes (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2019-4-9

I rise this morning to talk about a word that is everywhere, a word that is the response to every idea that we come up with, and that word is ``socialism.'' prgtoken It is a scary word. It is a magical word. It is the word that comes up every time propose a plan to better educate America's children--socialism; to make the elderly more secure in their retirement--socialism; to make healthcare available to people in this country who still can't see a doctor--socialism. prgtoken It is a magical word because, if you say ``socialism,'' then it allows you to hide the fact that you actually don't have a counterplan, that when the say here are a bunch of plans to make healthcare better and you don't have a plan, you just say ``socialism,'' and that could end the conversation. prgtoken It is a magical word because it allows you to distract from the fact that, if you actually do the things to better educate America's children or to make America's retirees more secure in their retirement or to make healthcare more available, that costs a little money. The problem with that is that, for my colleagues, that money needs to go into tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country and for corporations. That is a problem. prgtoken By the way, it is not a new thing. This has been going on for 100 years. I have a quote here from President Reagan. He is talking about Medicare here: And behind it will come other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we know it in this country until, one day, we will awake to find that we have socialism. prgtoken Ronald Reagan promised us that Medicare, probably one of the most successful programs this country has ever put forward, would lead to socialism. It goes back before that. prgtoken Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who did so much to make for the decency that is endemic in this country after the Depression, the Securities and Exchange Commission so that our capitalist economy would be a fair economy, the progressive income tax so we could actually fund our military and fund education--all socialism. He was a traitor to his class. He was a socialist. This goes way back. prgtoken So having quoted Ronald Reagan, let me quote another great leader, Inigo Montoya, in ``The Princess Bride.'' He says: ``You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.'' prgtoken So what does socialism mean? What is socialism? prgtoken Here is the dictionary definition. It is a system in which there is no private property or a system in which the government owns the means of production. prgtoken What is that? Is Medicare socialist? At Mount Sinai or Sloan Kettering, are those hospitals or doctors working for the government? Of course not. prgtoken Was Dodd-Frank socialist? No. Dodd-Frank put in place regulations that have allowed JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and all those banks to be more profitable than ever before. Th