mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
CORONAVIRUS
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2020-3-25

we just finished here, on the Senate floor, some very, very important work for the people we represent and have the privilege to serve. It is what we are calling phase 3 of our very important response to this unprecedented pandemic that is hitting our country, the health of our country, and the economic health of our Nation. prgtoken So we acted. A number of us worked, over the past week, around the clock to put this legislation together, and I think it was a strong showing of bipartisan support. prgtoken I was on the floor a couple of days ago saying that what we needed to do were four key things: Put cash directly in the hands of hurting families in Alaska and throughout the country; deliver rapid relief to small businesses that are being crushed by this pandemic and having to lay off workers; stabilize key sectors of the economy to avoid more layoffs that are now quickly coming over the horizon and have started happening; and send a surge of new resources to medical professionals who are on the frontlines. We did that. We did that relatively quickly. It could have been faster, but those were our goals, and that is what we achieved here. prgtoken But here is a fact. This was legislation that was very important. It wasn't perfect, and there is probably a lot of mistakes here. We are going to need to correct them quickly. There are probably Americans who weren't covered in some way, shape, or form by this legislation, who need help, and we are going to need to cover them quickly. There are likely new challenges in this pandemic that seems to be changing every day--new challenges with regard to this crisis that we are going to need to address. prgtoken The final thing is, when we look at what we just did here, this was focused prgtoken on the immediate crisis--business interruptions and the health crisis, but what we need to be looking at is when we get through this crisis-- and we will, more resilient and stronger than ever. prgtoken As I mentioned in my remarks the other day, some Washington Post reporters a couple of days ago questioned the mettle and resiliency of Americans. Maybe we are not as tough and strong as we used to be to get through these crises. They just need to go to Alaska and recognize how wrong they are in that or see some of the marines that I had the privilege of serving with for the last 26 years. They would recognize quickly that they are wrong. Of course, we have the mettle and tenacity to do this. prgtoken We need to be working on phase 4. Phase 4 is going to be the policies that we implement here in the Congress to turbocharge this economy, so when we are out of this crisis, we can come back fully, more strongly in a way that our economy was just 2 months ago. prgtoken There is a lot of work that I think we could be doing, and that we are likely going to have to be doing. A number of us are going to begin working on that phase 4 approach to this pandemic to turbocharge thi
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Rick Scott (Republican, FL) \u2014 2020-3-25

under this bill as it is written now, the government will pay many Americans more to be on government assistance than they would make if they were working at their regular jobs. prgtoken I support expanding the unemployment insurance program. It is the best and quickest way to get money to people who need it most. But we should not create a system where unemployment insurance benefits are higher than their salary. We cannot pay people more to not work than to work. This is common sense. Most people will choose the bigger check, and I don't blame them at all. prgtoken No person who understands anything about business, economics, or human nature would create such a perverse and ridiculous system. This bill creates an incentive for people to be unemployed for the next 4 months--fact. Without workers, our economy cannot reopen--fact. If our economy remains essentially closed for 4 more months, we will be in a very deep recession--fact. prgtoken You may ask, how do I know all this? I grew up poor, in public housing. My mom worked three jobs. My parents were constantly struggling to find work. I know what it is like to skip Christmas and see the family car repossessed. On the other end of the spectrum, I have run businesses, small and large, and had great success. That is exactly how I know these things. This is not conjecture; these are facts. prgtoken There are many good things in this bill, and there are many provisions that I wholeheartedly disagree with, but the worst thing we can do right now is to create a disincentive to work. We can get our economy up and running again, we can recover from this, but it will take a lot longer if we don't amend this bill to eliminate these perverse incentives.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Susan M. Collins (Republican, ME) \u2014 2020-3-25

all across the country, Americans are stepping up in response to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping our Nation. Doctors and nurses are working endless hours and putting themselves at risk to care for the surge in patients. Manufacturers, including many companies in my State, are working overtime and retooling their product lines to produce medical testing swabs, ventilators, and personal protective equipment, all of which are vitally needed. Truckers are going above and beyond, missing time with their families so that they can deliver goods needed to restock depleted grocery shelves. People are looking out for their neighbors in a safe way. They are checking on them. They are making personal sacrifices to help prevent the virus from spreading to the most vulnerable members of our society. prgtoken Help is on the horizon for small businesses and their employees who are facing economic devastation through no fault of their own. prgtoken I have talked to small business owners all across our State, including small mom-and-pop operations like a third-generation diner operated and owned by the Simones family in Lewiston, ME. For the first time ever in three generations, they have had to close their doors. They had no choice. As Linda Simones told me in tears earlier this week: We have never been unemployed. Our son is unemployed. Our friends who have worked with us at this diner for years are unemployed. prgtoken The agreement finally reached today includes a $377 billion small business economic relief plan that Senators Rubio, Cardin, Shaheen, and I authored as members of the Small Business Task Force. It is intended to help workers and small businesses just like the one owned by the Simones family in Lewiston. Our group worked day and night to get this bipartisan package included in the broader legislation. prgtoken I want to do a shout-out to our staff because I don't think they have been to bed before 4 a.m. in the morning on any day in the last week. That is how hard they have worked too. prgtoken Under our bipartisan approach, small businesses would be eligible for a 100-percent federally guaranteed emergency loan to cover 8 weeks of payroll, as well as certain expenses like rent, mortgage payments, and utilities. If these businesses keep their employees on the payroll--in other words, they keep issuing those paychecks--their loans would be completely forgiven. prgtoken Here is how it would work. Small employers with 500 employees or fewer would be eligible to apply for these federally guaranteed loans. The loans would be available immediately through existing Small Business Administration-certified lenders, including certain banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions, and a streamlined process would be created to bring other additional lenders into the program. prgtoken The size of the loans would be tied to a formula based on the small business's average monthly payroll, and that wou
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Tim Scott (Republican, SC) \u2014 2020-3-25

. . The $600 a week, I think, if I do the math quickly, times 16, is about $9,600. Add on top of that the additional $1,200 per person, or $2,400 per family, and $500 per kid is an important number that we should--I think you have hit on the point that we should all be willing to agree upon that the systems of unemployment throughout our country, perhaps, are working on antiquated equipment that may need to be updated so that we can, in fact, keep people whole during their unemployment. I would love for us to work in a bipartisan fashion to try to figure out, through the Department of prgtoken Labor, how to fix the problem so that those folks who deserve the benefits get all that they deserve but that we actually have a system that is nimble enough to actually meet the needs, State by State, without exceeding the need so that when we are in a position again, if we are looking at phase 4 or phase 5, we are not again having a conversation about systems that are so antiquated or perhaps even obsolete that we are doing something that was not intended. prgtoken I am not suggesting we can get that done tonight. I am not even suggesting we can get that done over the next few months. I am, however, concluding that we should work to get it done.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Mike Braun (Republican, IN) \u2014 2020-3-25

I have been here a little over a year. I keep mentioning that often because what a year it has been. In that stretch, there has not been a period of time when I think there has been so much urgency for us as a Senate and for the other Chamber to do our job to deliver for the American people. prgtoken We are in the midst of a crisis. In building a business over 37, 38 years, you constantly have hurdles to jump. You never really know the clear outcome. You try to have a great strategy with good implementation and good tactics that will be your salvation through thick or thin. prgtoken When it comes to the coronavirus, it is not as though we haven't had other recent issues but nothing quite like this. It started in another country. It has gone across the world, and it now looks like that vector in our country--we may be dealing with it on a broader scale. prgtoken I am a guy who believes in free enterprise. I don't like it when government has to step in, but I don't know what we would have done otherwise in this case. Until we tamp the disease down, until we get that curve flattened, no one is going to be at ease. We have invested 3, 4 weeks of actual guidelines. We knew it was coming way before that. I am hopeful that we have been doing a lot of the right things even before we were required to do them. We can't relent on that course. prgtoken On the other hand, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined an economy could be affected as it has. I get stories from my home State of Indiana all the time, and not only from the places like hotels, restaurants, bars, and airlines. I think our senior Senator, who actually either went home or came out here, might have been the only person on the plane. That is a graphic example of how this is impacting commerce. The hotel owner I talked to had 2 percent occupancy in the week before. prgtoken So, we have come together. This past weekend, we worked through it. I think that is the first time since I have been here that on a legislative matter we have done that. We had and s at the grassroots level working to deliver what I think is a good package. It focuses on, No. 1, who needs it the most--workers who have been displaced and small business owners. It also has stuff in it for the broader part of the economy. Urgency is the key. We are working through, right now, some short-term corrections, and I hope that doesn't thwart the process. prgtoken We should have had this across the finish line Sunday evening to where it could have been delivered on Monday morning, and we wouldn't still have the Nation on high alert about what we are going to do here. And it can only come from here in this case. prgtoken I am going to segue into--we need to get that done today, and I am going to be for it. Each State, each Senator, and each Representative is going to have to deliver to the small business owners, the individuals who have been displaced by th
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Christopher A. Coons (Democrat, DE) \u2014 2020-3-25

I came to this building, this Capitol, about 12 hours ago today and, first thing this morning, recorded a video to share on social media with the folks back home, who have been eagerly asking: What is up? What is happening? What is next? prgtoken My message has been simple. prgtoken After days of disagreement--of tussling and of fighting and of crafting--we have a deal, and I am ready to vote. Let's move forward. Twelve hours later, I stand in a largely empty Chamber and have an odd sense of foreboding, as I have all day and as have many of my colleagues, wondering: What is taking so long? What is the delay? What are the remaining issues? I am hopeful, prayerfully, that we will resolve what is left, move to this Chamber, take up the text, vote it out, send it to the House, send it to the President, and send $2 trillion in support to our Nation. prgtoken Let me tell you, as I have waited today and yesterday and as I have taken phone calls for whatever reason from the folks from Delaware, they have all asked: When will the Senate act? prgtoken We have faced a challenge over the last couple of days between our moving swiftly and our moving wisely in putting together a package of this size. With no hearings, no committee proceedings, and no detailed legislative process, it means that there will be rough edges, and it means there will be mistakes in this bill. Is it perfect? No. In fact, some of its pieces, as we will discover as it unfolds, are far from it. prgtoken But across the country, just as in this Chamber, there is that sense of anxiousness, of anxiety, of when will it happen. prgtoken Just a few weeks ago, the vast majority of our country was reading about coronavirus--about COVID-19--as something happening in distant countries on far shores. They read about sort of concerns about its alarming and rapid growth in Asia and then Europe. prgtoken Things started changing as the stories got more dire and more grave, as public health officials began to predict a global pandemic, as the World Health Organization announced it is a global pandemic, as scientific leaders began to say that the United States would inevitably be touched by it, as our colleagues from the Pacific Northwest told us about how their communities were being affected, as extended contacts and friends and acquaintances on social media and then on the press shared how they are or members of their community had become infected. prgtoken As it began to move across our country, it began to impact a remarkable range of institutions, from baseball to Broadway, the closures of all sorts of treasured American institutions--every major sports league, every major public gathering. prgtoken And as now State after State has issued edicts, as city and county alike all over our country have asked people to close their restaurants and their bars, their small businesses, as hotels have no occupants, as airplanes fly with no passengers, it has become
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2020-3-25

I rise today to remember and honor Judge James M. Munley and Judge A. Richard Caputo, who collectively served the Middle District of Pennsylvania as Federal district judges for over 40 years. prgtoken Judge Munley was a native of Archibald, PA. After graduating from the University of Scranton in 1958, he joined the U.S. Army and served until 1960. After his military service, Judge Munley enrolled at the Temple University School of Law and graduated in 1963. He clerked for the Honorable Michael J. Eagen on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania before practicing law in Scranton from 1964 to 1978. From 1978 to 1998, Judge Munley served with distinction as a judge on the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas. In 1998, Judge Munley was nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania by President Bill Clinton. He was confirmed by the Senate and went on to serve the Middle District honorably for over two decades. prgtoken As a Federal judge, Judge Munley continued his family's tremendous legacy of public service and dedication to Pennsylvania. Both of his parents, Robert W. Munley and Marion L. Munley, and his grandfather, William J. Munley, served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Judge Munley has been remembered by members of the Pennsylvania legal community as a skilled, good-natured, and fair jurist who approached life with a sense of optimism that ``was contagious in the best sense of the word.'' In his courtroom and in his life, he was known to treat everyone with the same dignity, respect, and kindness. U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion remembered Judge Munley by noting: ``What defined him most was just his sense of humanity. He was a great judge, but he was a greater human being.'' prgtoken Judge Caputo was born in Port Chester, NY, and raised in Rye, NY. He graduated from Brown University in 1960. After Brown, Judge Caputo enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania Law School and graduated in 1963. He went on to join the U.S. Air Force as an officer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps and served until prgtoken 1967. After his military service, Judge Caputo worked as a public defender in Luzerne County for 1 year before joining the law firm of Shea & Shea. In 1973, the firm was renamed Shea, Shea & Caputo, and after nearly 30 years in private practice, Judge Caputo was nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania by President Bill Clinton in 1997. After being confirmed by the Senate, he honorably served on the Federal bench in the Middle District for over two decades. prgtoken Judge Caputo was known as a strong and fair jurist who treated everyone with deep respect in his courtroom. He strongly believed in balancing individual rights with the needs of a well-ordered society, and some in the Pennsylvania legal community have remembered him as a judge who was not afraid to depart from Federal sentencing gui
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-3-25

. I will in just a minute. I am happy to yield as soon as I finish. prgtoken I want to make this point as clearly as I can. I believe that this is not a windfall. Let's assume that instead of $600 a week, your calculation makes it $450 a week. So $150 times 16 weeks--that is 4 months. How much is that going to come out to? $2,400? Is that going to mean that someone now becomes lazy and won't go back to work? I don't think so. I think a lot of people will use that money and need that money and are given a helping hand and will put it right back in the economy. That is what this is about--that these families can keep their homes, pay their utility bills, put food on the table, and put the money back into the economy. That is part of what we are trying to achieve here. prgtoken If we err on the side of giving a hard-working family an extra $1,000 or $2,000 because of our approach, so be it. No apologies. We didn't design this system. We were told we had to work within the design of the system. We tried to do it. We think the $600 a week is a reasonable way to do it, and I will yield for a question.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2020-3-25

as other Senators have mentioned, we see our fellow Americans uniting around the country to fight the coronavirus and to help those in need. Most of all, we are grateful to the men and women in healthcare, the healthcare workers on the frontlines of this fight--the nurses, the doctors, all the other staff in hospitals and community health centers and in clinics who are putting themselves and their own health at risk to help their fellow Americans. prgtoken We in the Senate, like our fellow Americans, must come together to do the right thing for the country at this moment in time--to provide a surge of help to those on the frontlines of the coronavirus fight and to help those who are suffering from the economic fallout, workers and small businesses and midsize businesses and others who are absolutely getting clobbered as we all try to fight this virus together. prgtoken Congress must unite this evening, as we have on two prior occasions during this emergency when we came together to pass phase 1 to provide emergency, immediate healthcare support to public health entities and to provide more funds to do research on a vaccine for the coronavirus and more funds for research on antivirals to address the coronavirus. prgtoken Then we passed phase 2, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, where we made sure that testing was free because we don't want any American to say: I am not going to get tested even though I feel like I might have the symptoms. I am not going to get tested because I can't afford it. prgtoken It is putting both themselves and others in the community at risk. So we said we have to make sure these tests are free. prgtoken We also provided sick leave because we don't want anybody going to work when they feel sick and they have the virus if going to work is the only way they can put food on the table, by getting a paycheck. So we said: Look, stay at home, and we will provide for paid leave. prgtoken There was a gap--a big gap--in that that still needs to be addressed. prgtoken We took some important measures in phase 1 and phase 2, and now here we are this evening on phase 3, where we are not only providing additional dollars to fight the coronavirus and the health emergency but also dealing with the economic fallout, which is growing by the day. I am not going to go through all the provisions that do that. prgtoken I will say that this bill is far from perfect. This is not a bill I would have written. I dare say it is probably not the bill that any one Senator would have written. But with all its flaws, it does some very important things that are absolutely necessary during this national emergency. prgtoken There has been a lot of talk tonight about the unemployment compensation provision. Those are absolutely essential as a lifeline to workers who each day are losing their jobs around the country in many industries. It is absolutely essential that in that process, people who are o