mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2021-8-4

I rise to speak in support of amendment No. 2478, which would make permanent and expand the Minority Business Development Agency, or the MBDA, which is the only Federal Agency to focus exclusively on the needs of minority businesses. prgtoken This amendment is based on the Minority Business Resiliency Act, which I introduced in April, and the language is identical to what was passed out of the Commerce Committee earlier today by a voice vote. prgtoken I want to thank Senator Wicker and Senator Cantwell of the committee for their help in getting this to the floor. I also want to thank Senator Tim Scott, Senator Cornyn, and Senator Baldwin, who were also cosponsors of this amendment, for helping us reach this moment. prgtoken This amendment will give the Agency the resources and leadership necessary to help underserved entrepreneurs overcome historical barriers to small business ownership, innovate and start and grow successful businesses, and create jobs. prgtoken This Agency will also partner with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority-serving institutions to reach rural minority business enterprises and create a regional network supporting entrepreneurial education and help to coordinate Federal resources in service of minority business enterprises. prgtoken Last year, the MBDA programs and services helped minority businesses secure nearly $8 billion in contracts and capital, and created nearly 12,000 jobs. prgtoken , I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from 17 stakeholders in support of this amendment, which includes the Small Business Majority, U.S. Black Chamber, and U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2021-8-4

I am here on the floor today to speak in support of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is the bipartisan legislation that is before the Chamber that will make historic investments in our Nation's core infrastructure, and I am pleased to follow my colleague and friend from Utah, Senator Romney, who was one of those whom I worked with to help negotiate this package. prgtoken This is historic legislation that provides $550 billion in new Federal investments over the next 5 years to respond to the needs that are facing our country. This bill will rebuild crumbling roads and bridges and tunnels across the country. It will provide clean drinking water in homes and address harmful contaminants. It will increase connectivity in our communities to bring broadband to even the most rural parts of our country. It will prioritize sustainable solutions to improve our infrastructure systems for future generations. And it will combat climate change by making the monumental investments in our clean energy grid and electric vehicle infrastructure that we must make. prgtoken Now, this bill was a long time in the making, as I am sure my colleague from Utah would agree. Over the past 3 months, there have been many late nights, early mornings, and countless conversations about how to make the best use of this opportunity to invest in our Nation's infrastructure. prgtoken I very much appreciate the continued good faith and negotiations from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and the White House and the leadership of Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Rob Portman to deliver this bipartisan infrastructure agreement. I also appreciate the work of the chairs and ranking members of relevant Senate committees who laid the foundation for so much of the bipartisan work that has gone into this bill, as well as the leadership of both parties for giving us the space and time to get this agreement to the floor prgtoken Now, I could spend all day talking about the many aspects of this legislation that meaningfully invest in our communities and in our country, but today I want to specifically talk about two key areas that I worked on. Both of these issues, water and broadband, speak to the critical needs in New Hampshire and across the country. prgtoken Water and wastewater infrastructure is one of the major investments we make in this bill, with $55 billion invested in this area. Now, no parent should have to worry about the safety of their family's water when they turn on the tap, but, unfortunately, as most of us know, this is not the case for too many Americans, because compromised water supplies, due in part to our rundown water infrastructure, is an issue across this country and in some places in New Hampshire. prgtoken This was a problem for decades before the pandemic hit, but looking at a crisis like COVID-19 has illustrated just how basic and essential clean and safe drinking water is for our communities. Right
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Robert Menendez (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2021-8-5

I come to talk about the process that we are in here; first of all, the process that brings us the legislation that is before us. prgtoken Now, I respect my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come together to draft the legislation that we have been debating on and off, voting even less, but that process shortchanges, I think, the Senate and the American people. prgtoken It is a process that our colleagues--well-intentioned and working incredibly hard but had no geographic diversity, had no ethnic diversity, had no racial diversity, and that is consequential. It is consequential in the legislation that we are dealing before us. For example, this legislation does very well in taking care of dealing with abandoned mines, but it doesn't do all that well with dealing with Superfund sites--the sites that most Americans who happen to be from disadvantaged communities ultimately reside along. prgtoken This legislation does much to help with the challenges of wildfires in our country, which I support, but doesn't do very much for the questions of flooding--flooding that takes place along the Mississippi, flooding that takes place in Louisiana, flooding that takes place in my home State of New Jersey and along the Atlantic coast. prgtoken So that lack of diversity is not only consequential in terms of the legislation--geographic, ethnic, and racial--it is also consequential to disadvantaged communities. prgtoken For too long, our infrastructure and transportation system have often been used to divide communities, split communities, where a highway goes through it and ultimately divides the community into the ``right side of the track'' and ``wrong side of the track.'' This was an opportunity to actually change that dynamic. This was an opportunity to create equity in our infrastructure system, to make sure that those divided communities no longer were divided and that all of them had a highway to opportunity, to make sure that transit access to minority communities struggling for employment could be realized. Even though, you know, there is a transit provision, it is $9 billion less than what we were originally told, but other elements are much, much higher. prgtoken Those provisions not only have a consequence to the communities for which transit mobility is a critical element in order for employment, it often deals with minority communities that find themselves disadvantaged in terms of mobility for minority communities to opportunities for employment. prgtoken Look at the pay-fors. The pay-fors, it is pretty remarkable, one of them particularly ends a rebate that is supposed to ultimately end up for consumers at the prescription drug counter. I often hear from people across the spectrum that we need to ultimately ensure that the cost of prescription drugs are lowered, but then here we have a pay-for that has absolutely nothing to do with lowering the cost of prescription drugs. prgtoken Then I he
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2021-8-5

. I had intended to come to the floor earlier today with Senator Grassley so that we could talk about our legislation that we are introducing this week, that would build upon our efforts to protect the survivors of sexual assault in the criminal justice system. prgtoken Unfortunately, I got delayed, but Senator Grassley was here on the floor. I want to recognize all of his efforts to address this critical issue, and appreciate, again, his willingness to work with me. prgtoken The effort to extend rights for sexual assault survivors across the country is critically important, and I am hopeful that when the bill that we introduced gets to the floor, that all of our colleagues will join us in passing this bipartisan legislation. prgtoken I first became involved in the precursor to this legislation in 2015, when a young woman named Amanda Nguyen of the Rise organization contacted my office. She had been traveling from office to office here in the Senate, trying to find somebody to listen to her story. prgtoken Amanda is a survivor of sexual assault, and she is a fierce advocate for change in the way our criminal justice system treats survivors. When she detailed her harrowing story of sexual assault and subsequent interactions with the criminal justice system, it was very clear something had to change. prgtoken Amanda described a system that further traumatized survivors and provided scarce protection of their rights. Evidence of assaults was being destroyed without survivors even knowing about it, and survivors were forced to periodically follow up with law enforcement to preserve evidence of their assaults. prgtoken The broken process that survivors were forced to endure resulted in a system where they were often revictimized. This system forced survivors to confront the trauma of reliving their attacks each time they sought to preserve evidence or gather information about their cases. prgtoken Working with Amanda, I introduced the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act to ensure survivors were guaranteed basic rights while pursuing justice. The legislation created the first legally recognized set of rights for survivors to enforce in a court of law. prgtoken I am so grateful that Senator Grassley worked on this effort with me, and he included the legislation in the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act so that it could be signed into law. prgtoken The legislation that we passed back in 2015-2016 provided survivors with greater protections in Federal cases with a focus on notice, access, and the preservation of sexual assault evidence collection kits. prgtoken By creating this set of court-enforceable rights at the Federal level, Congress established a model for all States to adopt similar legislation to protect the rights of survivors. And that has happened in many States, including in my home State of New Hampshire. States have adopted legislation to guarantee survivors certain basic rights in the criminal justice system. prgtoken
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Sherrod Brown (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2021-8-5

I rise with--I don't know if I ever actually said this on the Senate floor--I rise with a heavy heart because of the death earlier today of a longtime friend, Rich Trumka, who was the longtime President of the National AFL-CIO. prgtoken I call him a friend because my wife Connie--who is in the Gallery with our grandson Clayton. My wife Connie and I have walked picket lines with Rich Trumka, done rallies with Rich Trumka, and spoken on behalf of workers with Rich Trumka. prgtoken He was a son of our part of the country--Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio. He was a coal miner, not just the son of a coal miner. I believe he once told me he was the grandson of a coal miner, but he was a coal miner early in life. prgtoken He embodied the soul of the labor movement. He understood workers. He was for them and of them in ways that are unusual in America in the 21st century. prgtoken He understood and lived and fought for the dignity of work, the idea that hard work should pay off for everyone. He understood what a woman from southern West Virginia said to me some weeks ago at a ``Dignity of Work'' hearing in the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee that I chair. She said the words ``working'' and ``poor'' should not be in the same sentence. Think about that. The words ``working'' and ``poor'' should not be in the same sentence. prgtoken Rich Trumka understood the dignity of work. When you work hard-- whether you punch a clock or swipe a badge or work for salary or work for tips or take care of children or grandchildren or children or grandparents--that hard work should be rewarded; that no one who works hard should not have a decent standard of living. prgtoken Few in this country have done more for workers than Rich. Giving workers a voice has been his life's work. From his days in the mine, when he was an outspoken advocate for trade unionism, he understood it was unions; that carrying a union card was about empowering workers. If you join a union; you make better wages; you get better benefits; you get health insurance; you have more power over your schedule. You have a safety net often when tragedy strikes. Rich understood that. He understood that unions helped build careers and provide for families. prgtoken Our hearts are with Barbara, his wife, and their son and with all the workers around the country. I can't even imagine how many workers Rich Trumka touched. prgtoken I looked at the impact of just the work he did with me, let alone with so many in this body; the work he did fighting for pensions, and with his support--leading the charge, really--a million families in the United States--more than a million families--had their pensions restored back in March when we passed the American Rescue Plan. prgtoken He understood the importance of the child tax credit. He understood the importance of the Affordable Care Act. He understood the importance of protecting the right to organize, which 47 Sen
HUNGARY
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2021-8-5

on a related note, Alexander Lukashenko may be the last dictator in Europe. But Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban is working hard to become the next dictator in Europe. prgtoken In his 15 years as Prime Minister, Orban has undermined Hungary's democratic institutions and the civil society groups that support them. He has dusted off the autocrat's handbook and used many of its familiar tricks, including using public funds to reward his cronies, spying on and jailing dissidents and independent journalists, and turning media organizations into his personal mouthpieces. prgtoken He spews ultranationalist bigotry dressed up as traditional values and rails against what he calls an immigrant invasion. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic cite him as a cautionary example of how democracies can die. Some European leaders have called for Hungary's expulsion from the E.U. because of Hungary's growing hostility to the bedrock values of democracy under Orban. prgtoken Despite this, every night this week, Tucker Carlson has broadcast his prime-time FOX show from Budapest, Hungary. He is not there to interview the brave supporters of Hungarian democracy who are trying to save their country from Orban and autocracy. prgtoken No, Tucker Carlson is in Hungary to praise Orban and hold up his strongman stunts as an example for America to follow. It is reported that he will also address a conference linked to Mr. Orban's anti- democratic nationalist movement. prgtoken Tucker Carlson has gone from spouting his dangerous anti-vax quackery and spreading the Big Lie at home, to travelling abroad to fawn over an autocrat and herald him as a leader worth emulating in this country. prgtoken Ronald Reagan would be horrified. We all should be.
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION
Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2021-8-5

today, I was very proud to introduce with my colleague Senator Menendez, who is leading this effort, and Senator Cornyn, Senator Grassley the September 11 Transparency Act. prgtoken Members of this body have heard me talk about this issue before. It has been a repeated issue for me but for this body as well. prgtoken We passed JASTA because we wanted the 9/11 families to have access to the courts and have their fair day in court. We passed the resolution in 2018 to require that the government declassify, to the maximum extent possible, all of the information surrounding 9/11. JASTA was passed over President 's veto. His veto was overridden on a bipartisan basis. The resolution demanding more declassification was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by the President. prgtoken The letters that we have written, the questions that I posed in hearings, the press conferences held, the constant effort to provide documents and information to those families so they can have their fair day in court has been a continuing and constant one and, so far, completely unavailable. prgtoken Administration after administration--, , and hopefully not but apparently --have resisted these calls for declassifying and disclosure. prgtoken That information is evidence that those families need to seek justice in their effort to hold accountable the Government of Saudi Arabia for its alleged complicity, its aiding and abetting, its support for the 9/ 11 attack. They want to hold them liable in an American court, which JASTA enables them to do. They want to pinpoint responsibility and liability so that we will know, as Americans, whether the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was, in fact, complicit and supportive of those attackers. prgtoken The truth they seek is not just for themselves; it is for the American people, and the concealment by successive administrations denies the American people the truth they deserve and need. prgtoken Today, I was proud to stand with Senator Menendez and some of those families led by Terry Strada and Brett Eagleson in front of this Capitol as we announced our introduction of the act, the September 11 Transparency Act, that would very simply require the Director of National Intelligence, the Attorney General, and the Director of the CIA to conduct declassification reviews of certain investigative documents in their 9/11 file. It is a baby step toward full disclosure and truthtelling. prgtoken But I was so proud to stand with these families, represented by Terry Strada, among others, when she said: Yes, we know the Kingdom played a major role in supporting, and financing al Qaeda and evidence demonstrates that Saudi agents who the Kingdom sent here aided and abetted some if not all the 19 hijackers leading into the attack. It is an indisputable fact the hijackers were living in our country 12-18 months prior to 9/11 planning and plott
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION
Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2021-8-5

I rise today to introduce the ``Preventing Harmful Exposure to Phthalates Act.'' This bill would ban harmful chemicals known as phthalates from products used in food processing and packaging and would require the Food and Drug Administration to review other products under its purview that might also expose Americans to harmful phthalates. prgtoken The harm associated with phthalate exposure is well-documented, with studies showing that prenatal exposure to these chemicals can have lasting consequences to child brain development and increase children's risks for learning, attention, and behavioral disorders. prgtoken We also know that women are disproportionately affected by phthalates through higher exposure to these harmful chemicals in personal care products, like nail polish, fragrances, and hair products, as compared to men. prgtoken Pregnant women's exposure to phthalates has been shown to decrease fetal testosterone and harm reproductive development in male babies. Black and Latina women are also disproportionately affected, experiencing higher exposure to certain phthalates compared to white women. prgtoken Studies have demonstrated that Americans are exposed to phthalates through our diet. Phthalates from production materials involved in food processing and packaging are able to leach into our food. These materials include plastic equipment such as tubing used in commercial dairy operations, lid gaskets, food preparation gloves, conveyor belts, and food packaging materials. prgtoken People are also exposed to phthalates found in medical devices, flooring, and other home furnishing and building materials. The fact that phthalate exposure often comes from multiple sources simultaneously further emphasizes the unknown collective health risk that these harmful chemicals pose. prgtoken We must remove these harmful chemicals from consumer products with the utmost urgency. Congress has already banned them from children's toys and child care products due to the serious long-term health effects that they pose. We now need to remove them from our food packaging and the other remaining consumer products that are slowly poisoning us. prgtoken The ``Preventing Harmful Exposure to Phthalates Act'' would specifically ban phthalates from being used in materials that touch food and ensure that any substance used as a replacement is safe. prgtoken The bill would also require a review of other products to determine whether they lead to phthalate exposure. This review would need to include consideration of whether communities of color are disproportionately exposed to these harmful products as well as the health effects caused by exposure and any increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, or other risks to children's health. prgtoken I want to thank Senator Gillibrand for joining me in introducing this important legislation, as well as Representatives Lieu and Porter, who are sponsoring companion legis