mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
OBAMACARE
Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2017-1-9

I rise in opposition to the budget resolution that the Senate will vote on this week. We are nearly half way through the fiscal year, and the s have offered this budget resolution not to set a path forward for spending for the year but to give them the ability to repeal the Affordable Care Act through the budget process, requiring less support than is needed under regular order. This budget is nothing more than a sham, being used to take away health insurance from more than 20 million Americans. What is worse is that my colleagues intend to do so without any plan in place to mitigate the impact and protect the people who will be harmed. prgtoken The uninsured rate is at its lowest point in recent history. Since the implementation of the ACA in my State of Rhode Island, the uninsured rate has fallen from 12 percent to under 4.5 percent. In real terms, that means that over 100,000 people in Rhode Island have gained coverage because of the ACA. That is about 10 percent of my State's population. Over 30,000 middle-income Rhode Islanders get tax credits averaging $250 a month to help them afford coverage on the State's health insurance marketplace. prgtoken We cannot go back to a system that allows private insurers to deny coverage for preexisting conditions or charge more to those who need insurance the most. In fact, the plan for repealing the ACA means that nearly half a million Rhode Islanders with preexisting conditions, about half the State's population, will be denied coverage or will be charged more. Again, as Senator Murray described so eloquently in the case of a young man who needs years of expensive treatment, if preexisting conditions are once again possible and if that young man is dropped from his parents' plan at 21, both of those factors will probably deny him the coverage that he enjoys today, and that is not what we want to do. I hope that is not what we want to do. prgtoken In my State, there are over 106,000 Rhode Islanders with diabetes, over 112,000 with asthma, and nearly 63,000 cancer survivors who will be forced to pay more for coverage. These are huge numbers in my State--roughly 1 million people in population. They have these conditions, and insurance companies said in the past: We won't cover prgtoken you, or, by the way, you will be spending 2, 3, 5, 10 times as much for the coverage we extend to someone else. prgtoken We have also been able to improve coverage through the ACA for those who are getting their care through their employer. Before the ACA, insurance plans, including employer-sponsored health coverage, could impose annual or lifetime limits on coverage, meaning that coverage could end when it was most needed. You could have a job, and you could have insurance at a job, but if you have a serious condition, when you reach that limit, that is it--no more responsibility by the company. That is exactly the time you need the help be
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET, FISCAL YEAR 2017--Continued
Michael F. Bennet (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2017-1-9

I would like to welcome the Presiding Officer to the Senate and just say thank you very much for your willingness to sit here this evening. To my colleagues, thank you for being here. The hour is getting late so I am not going to take up a lot of time with my own words, but I did want to come to the floor and read the words of people who have written my office, Coloradans who took the trouble to tell me what their concerns were with this suggested repeal of the Affordable Care Act. prgtoken Given the fact that they took the time to write, I wanted to have the opportunity to be here tonight to read their words into the Record. It matters to a lot of people in my State because more than 600,000 people are now insured in Colorado who were not insured before the Affordable Care Act. We have had one of the largest drops of the uninsured rate in the country. We have dropped from 14 percent to 7 percent, really importantly from the point of view of saving money. The amount of uncompensated care has gone down by 30 percent. So those are at the hospital. Those are statistics, but the letters tell the human dimension, the human story that so often is lost in the Chambers of this Capitol. prgtoken A letter from Kathryn from Denver who wrote: The Affordable Care Act has been crucial to my family the last several years. . . . My sister, a Type 1 diabetic since age 10, is now a Colorado business owner. The Affordable Care Act allowed her to pursue business ownership because--for the first time in her life--she could get individual health insurance coverage without being denied due to her preexisting condition. ACA allowed her to leave her full-time job and start a part-time business and get benefits through ACA. I truly believe so much good has begun to come from this legislation and repealing it will have catastrophic consequences for my family and for so many others. prgtoken Terry from Denver writes: I am writing concerning the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2010, I left my conventional job and took a risk, forming a company to perform engineering consulting services. Since that time, I have helped multiple organizations improve the safety and reliability of their products and consider my efforts to be quite successful. However, I would not have taken the chance to go off on my own if it had not been for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA gave me options in health insurance that I would not have had prior to its passage. There are millions of people like me who count on the security of the ACA. These people are entrepreneurs, freelancers, the self-employed, early retirees, and the like who would not have health insurance if not for the ACA. Therefore, I am asking you to continue your support for the
IMPACT OF CABINET NOMINATIONS
Hakeem S. Jeffries (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-1-9

I thank my distinguished colleague and classmate, Representative Marc Veasey, for his leadership today; and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Cedric Richmond, for convening us and for the leadership that he has already shown. prgtoken We have a President-elect who, for 5 years, perpetrated the racist lie that was not born in the United States of America, and who ran one of the most divisive campaigns in the Nation's history and then promised that he was going to bring all of us together. prgtoken Then you have got his colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have said: Well, , people in the civil rights community, African Americans, we should give the new President a chance. prgtoken This is the same group of people who declared war on on day one of his Presidency and governed themselves under the following approach: Obstruction today, obstruction tomorrow, obstruction forever. prgtoken That should sound familiar to folks from Alabama and the Deep South. prgtoken Now they want us to give them a chance. You can't lecture us on Presidential etiquette. You have no credibility in that area. We will decide how we want to engage. As it relates to your pick to head the Department of Justice, it is totally unacceptable, unreasonable, unjust, and unconscionable, not because of anything that he may have said 30 years ago, as offensive as that may be, but because of the positions that Senator Jeff Sessions has taken today. prgtoken Today, in 2017, based on his recent track record, he supports the Confederate battle flag, not 30 years ago, but today. Today he supports voter suppression efforts that are advanced by his unwillingness to repair section 4 and section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. That is not 30 years ago. I don't care that you showed up in Selma, Alabama, for a photo op. Your position on the Voting Rights Act is unacceptable today. prgtoken Today you support mass incarceration, the failed drug war, and the prison industrial complex. And because of your position today, reasonable Americans should oppose your ascension to the Department of Justice.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES FACING OUR COUNTRY
Cedric L. Richmond (Democrat, LA) \u2014 2017-1-9

it is an honor and a privilege to have this opportunity to stand on the House floor and to anchor the Congressional Black Caucus' Special Order hour, where today we want to discuss some of the issues and challenges confronting this country that we hope this newly constituted Congress will be prepared to take up as we move into the 115th Congress. prgtoken The first and most glaring issue confronting the Congressional Black Caucus is the nomination and confirmation of Jeff Sessions to be the Attorney General of the United States. The members of this caucus, since its inception, have fought for equality and justice, and we do it because it is the right thing to do, and that is how we were raised. prgtoken Jeff Sessions' record is atrocious when it comes to equal rights, equal protection, justice for all, and voting rights. At worst, he was a coconspirator in the promotion of segregation and discrimination. At best, he lacked the courage and motivation to fight for equality, equal protection, and justice. prgtoken In the words of Maya Angelou: ``When someone shows you who they are believe them. . . .'' President-elect has shown us time and time again exactly who he is through his words and his actions. His Cabinet nominations offer further evidence of who he is and what he values. Each of these individuals have shown us who they are as well. prgtoken , tonight you will hear from many passionate, educated, experienced freedom fighters from our communities, and they will each address their concerns with the nominations coming from the President- elect. We do it out of an obligation to continue to fight for the least of those, those who cannot hire a lobbyist, those who are struggling to make ends meet, those who wake up every day trying to figure out how to put clothes on their kids' back, food on the table, a house, a roof over their head, and to continue to fight for the American Dream, opportunity for their children. prgtoken , .
OBAMACARE
Brian Schatz (Democrat, HI) \u2014 2017-1-9

I thank the senior Senator from Connecticut for his leadership on this and so many other issues on behalf of the people of his home State. prgtoken Before I get into prevention as a policy issue, I just want to reiterate a process point. prgtoken Here we are in the world's greatest deliberative body--the world's greatest deliberative body--and there really are so many talented individuals who come from county counsels, who come from State assemblies, who come from State senates, who come from the U.S. House, and find themselves in the U.S. Senate, the world's greatest deliberative body. And here we are debating one of the biggest public policy issues over the last decade, arguably over the last generation. Here we are. prgtoken I am thinking about my early days in the Hawaii legislature and what we would do. If we wanted to move a bill along but we weren't sure exactly what to do, we would flaw the effective date because we knew the language didn't work yet, but we wanted to take it to conference committee. We didn't want it to be enacted into law, but we wanted it to move through the process. So what we would do is we would flaw the effective date. We would say ``Effective year 2100,'' so that even if it were accidentally enacted into law, it wouldn't have the force of law. prgtoken Yet once in a while, a staffer or a member would make a clerical error and actually enact something with a delayed effective date into law, and they were humiliated. This was a mistake. This was a clerical error, and this showed that it was amateur hour. This showed that somebody didn't know what they were doing. This showed that somebody wasn't a very serious legislator. prgtoken Yet here we are in the Nation's legislature, here we are in the world's greatest deliberative body, and we are doing that on purpose. We are doing that right away. We are doing this with the Affordable Care Act after 7 years of blasting this law because they know they can't repeal the parts that are popular. So what they are going to do is eviscerate the revenue attached to the bill and leave themselves, as one of my colleagues said, in a ``box canyon'' so the only thing they can do is shovel money to insurance companies--borrowed money--to maintain the benefit because they don't want to deal with the political ramifications of what they had done to their constituents on preexisting conditions, on coverage for people up to the age of 26, on prevention. prgtoken This is the most unserious effort I have seen in this legislative body. This is absolutely unserious. And whatever your political persuasion is, you should ask every Member of the Senate to stand up and be counted and say what they want to do about health care in the United States. prgtoken The answer can no longer be because it is an article of faith that because the Affordable Care Act has ``'' in its name--it is Care--it must be bad, and it must be repealed root and br
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET, FISCAL YEAR 2017--Continued
Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2017-1-9

from Virginia for his leadership. He recently led a letter which a number of us joined in on to suggest that we make reforms to this bill. I said the day it passed that the Affordable Care Act was not an end but a beginning. prgtoken But we have not had opportunity, save for just a few examples where we changed some tax-reporting provisions under 1099. I was one of the people who led the successful efforts to suspend the medical device tax--something the Presiding Officer cares a lot about in his home State--but in truth, we have not had the opportunity that Senator Kaine suggested to make changes to this bill. Instead, we have been faced with the thought of just simply repealing this bill, with no replacement, with no plan in place. So we would all say to our colleagues across the aisle: Show us the plan. Show me the plan. Once we see that, we can start talking, but that is not what is happening today. prgtoken Additional changes could be made to the act, including increasing the amount of subsidies available to exchange enrollees, something important in my State; establishing perhaps State-based reinsurance programs; doing something about the pharmaceutical prices, something I have long advocated for. I have been ready and willing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and to find additional commonsense improvements to the law, but repealing without a replacement plan is simply unacceptable. It is chaos. prgtoken As my colleague from Virginia reminded us with a touching letter that he read from his constituent, let's remember what health care reform means to families across this country, why we have this bill in the first place. Americans with preexisting conditions, like asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, can no longer be denied access to health insurance coverage. Children can stay on their parents' plans until they are 26, a dramatic change that helps so many families across America. Women are no longer charged more than men for health insurance. prgtoken We had a lot of issues when we debated this bill, making sure that being a woman or being a victim of domestic violence was not a preexisting condition. I see the Senator from Michigan, Ms. Stabenow, who fought for maternity benefits. I will never forget the story in her committee, when one of the Senators suggested that maybe maternity benefits shouldn't be mandatory as part of a plan because he had never used them. Without missing a beat, Senator Stabenow looked across the table and said: I bet your mother did. prgtoken The point is, we made good changes in this bill that help people. There are no longer annual or lifetime limits on how much health insurance companies will cover. All health insurance plans must now cover a basic set of services, which includes mental health care, addiction treatment, prescription drug coverage. prgtoken If the ACA is repealed, nearly 30 million Americans coul
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET, FISCAL YEAR 2017--Continued
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2017-1-9

I rise this evening to speak about the effort in the Senate, by way of a budget resolution, which includes so-called reconciliation instructions to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in this case, unfortunately, without any replacement for that legislation we passed a number of years ago. prgtoken In a word, I think this is a plan for chaos--chaos certainly for insurance markets but more particularly chaos and damage done to middle-class families whose costs will go up. Of course, their coverage will be affected adversely. A repeal act without replacement would raise the price of prescription drugs for older Americans across our country, put insurance companies back in charge of health care, cost our economy millions of jobs, and devastate funding for rural hospitals and rural communities in Pennsylvania and across the country. prgtoken I think, on a night like tonight, where we are just beginning a long debate about how to bring affordable care to Americans and how to continue that, we should reflect back on where things were before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. prgtoken Over 50 million Americans were uninsured in 2009--50 million people. People with any sort of medical condition were routinely denied health insurance or were charged exorbitant rates because of their health histories. Women in the United States were routinely charged more than men for their health insurance. This is not an exhaustive list. Finally, individuals who were ill were routinely dropped from their health care coverage because they had reached arbitrary caps on the amount of care an insurer would pay for a given year. prgtoken So let us talk about what has happened since then. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, we have come a long way. More than 20 million Americans, including almost 1 million in Pennsylvania, have received health insurance as a result of this one piece of legislation. One hundred five million Americans are protected from discrimination due to preexisting conditions. Those are 105 million Americans with preexisting conditions who are no longer barred from treatment or coverage as they were before. Nine million Americans have received tax credits to help them cover the cost of their insurance. Eleven million seniors have saved over $23 billion from closing the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan's so-called doughnut hole. Doughnut hole is a benign way of saying burn a hole--costs that were burning a hole in the pockets of America's seniors. prgtoken Finally, hospitals in States like Pennsylvania are getting a lot of help due to the legislation. In Pennsylvania, our hospitals have saved $680 million due to reductions in uncompensated care. I think, in the end, most of this is about real people and real families and their real lives and, unfortunately, the real consequences that would adversely impact their lives. prgtoken Among the 3
IMPACT OF CABINET NOMINATIONS
Barbara Lee (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2017-1-9

. Let me thank Representative Veasey for hosting this important discussion on President-elect 's disturbing nomination and for the gentleman's commitment to defend civil and human rights for all Americans. Now, more than ever, the voices of the CBC's are so important in this fight. prgtoken I would also like to recognize our new chair, Cedric Richmond, as he takes the helm of the CBC during these very challenging times; but I know that, under his leadership, our caucus will continue to fight in a very strong and aggressive way for equality and justice. prgtoken The President-elect, , ran one of the most divisive and racially tinged campaigns we have witnessed in modern history. Since winning the Presidency, President-elect has nominated individuals to serve in his Cabinet, proving that he will govern just as he campaigned. There is no greater example of this disturbing reality than in Senator Jeff Sessions' nomination to serve as our country's Attorney General. The Justice Department is our best tool in protecting civil and human rights and voting rights. By appointing Senator Sessions to lead this department, President-elect is making it clear that he will abandon these fundamental values. prgtoken Senator Sessions has a long history of opposing civil rights and equality. He has called the Voting Rights Act a piece of intrusive legislation. He said that the Supreme Court's disastrous decision to gut voting rights was good news for the South. In the 1980s, he was rejected from serving as a Federal judge due to his blatantly racist comments. prgtoken Any one of these statements should be disqualifying. In the proposed, bigoted administration, frankly, I am not surprised; but I am appalled that the President-elect would choose such an extreme and divisive figure to serve as Attorney General. Clearly, someone who has publicly displayed prejudice and intolerance is not qualified to serve as our chief law enforcement officer for our civil rights laws. prgtoken By that standard alone, one thing is clear: Senator Sessions is wholly unfit to serve as Attorney General. Senator Sessions has forcefully degraded the LGBT community, has voted against the Violence Against Women Act, and has undermined the cornerstone of the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act. His nomination really is a chilling indication of how a administration intends to govern. This country has made tremendous progress in the fight to protect, preserve, and expand civil rights for all Americans. We will not allow a administration to drag us back into the past. prgtoken As the conscience of the Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus is a voice for the marginalized. Our message to the administration and to President-elect is simple: A vote to confirm Senator Jeff Sessions is a vote against justice. We will fight to protect any rollback on civil or human rights. We will not be