mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
COMPREHENSIVE REGULATORY REVIEW ACT
Blaine Luetkemeyer (Republican, MO) \u2014 2018-3-6

. Madam , I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this matter today. prgtoken It is kind of interesting that we have before us an amendment that basically is something that deals with a financial services bill, something that deals with a financial services issue, yet we had the EPA and a whole bunch of other agencies brought into the discussion here, which has nothing to do with what we are trying to talk about here today. prgtoken The amendment talks about the President or his immediate family members. How is it possible that, unless those family members have the authority to make the request, they even should be considered? prgtoken This is sort of pulling things out of the air here that make no sense to me. This is a very simple bill that we have where all we are looking at trying to do is take the EGRPRA law that says that, every 10 years, all the rules and regulations are reviewed. prgtoken All we are doing is putting two agencies back into this group of agencies that are under review, one that was not even in existence at the time of the bill's passage back in the nineties, the CFPB; and the other one that needs to be included is the National Credit Union. All we are doing is taking that 10-year review down to 7. prgtoken Why is this controversial? We are taking an agency that was not even included in this originally and putting it under the purview of this bill so that there can be a review of the rules and regulations. prgtoken Is there lack of transparency on the other side? prgtoken Do we no longer want to be concerned about what is going on? prgtoken Do we no longer want to know that the rules and regulations are appropriately adjudicated here by these agencies? prgtoken I think that is the wrong way to go. I think that we need to have more transparency. Reducing from 10 years down to 7 gives us an opportunity to have a more constant review of these things to make sure that the bureaucratic folks in the executive branch of the government don't run away with what should be, in my view, the authority of the Congress. prgtoken Madam , I think that the motion to recommit is way out of line here, and I don't think we need to waste any more time on it. prgtoken Madam , I ask folks to decline the amendment, and .
ECONOMIC GROWTH, REGULATORY RELIEF, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
Steve Daines (Republican, MT) \u2014 2018-3-6

Montanans want to access and enjoy our State's public lands, and for a very good reason. Nothing beats our way of life in Montana--our hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing, backpacking, climbing, all with a backdrop of breathtaking views and a very rich history of conservation. That is why Congressman Gianforte and I introduced the Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act. prgtoken Our bill protects our pristine natural resources while also ensuring that Montanans are able to recreate in U.S. Forest Service lands that are not wilderness, but they have been locked up in regulatory limbo for decades. Congressman Gianforte's second bill deals with similarly locked-up Bureau of Land Management lands. prgtoken Here is what the Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act does. It ensures public access to land within five wilderness study areas across Montana. They are also called WSAs. While there are thousands more acres of public land that are still in limbo, I put these five prgtoken WSAs in my bill for two simple reasons. First, the Forest Service determined that these lands were not suitable for wilderness in their final plan. In fact, that was a charge given by Congress in 1977. They said: Go out and study these Forest Service lands and tell us which acres are suitable for wilderness and which are not. prgtoken The acreages I am proposing we should release are those that were deemed not suitable for wilderness in the final plan by the Forest Service. prgtoken Second, there is strong local support for unlocking these lands from the grassroots up, including the Montana State Legislature, countless local community members, and dozens of sportsmen, county commissioners, and wildlife groups, including the Western Montana Fish & Game Association and the Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. prgtoken Unlocking these lands from a WSA does not--does not--automatically authorize any particular use of the land. It simply opens up and allows for public conversation about how the lands should be used by setting up the planning process for public comment. In fact, protections like the 2001 roadless rule, the Endangered Species Act, and the existing forest and travel management plans remain intact. Do you know what this means? You can't construct a new road, and that would be kept after the release of the WSAs. prgtoken This has been a bottom-up approach from the get-go, and here is the bottom line. Montana's public lands are meant for everyone. They are meant for people who like to recreate in many different ways--for those who love to hike, of course, but also folks who enjoy recreating with mountain bikes, hunting, snowmobiling, and riding ATVs. prgtoken Creating access to our public lands is critical to Montana's jobs and our $7 billion outdoor economy. In fact, communities in Montana understand this is an important local economic driver that will strengthen local economies that depend on outdoor jobs. In fact
HONORING RICHARDSON POLICE OFFICER DAVID SHERRARD
Sam Johnson (Republican, TX) \u2014 2018-3-6

I rise today to honor the memory of Richardson Police Officer David Sherrard. prgtoken Last month, Sherrard and other officers responded to a domestic disturbance, where Sherrard was shot and later succumbed to his wound. prgtoken , David Sherrard served with the Richardson Police Department for 13 years. He was known for his generosity and bravery, but above all, he was known for his faith in God, which he shared with others. prgtoken Sherrard was the first Richardson police officer to die in the line of duty. His death is a great loss. His wife and daughters remain in my thoughts and prayers. prgtoken , I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the service and sacrifice of David Sherrard, a true hometown hero.
THE DREAM WILL SURVIVE
Darren Soto (Democrat, FL) \u2014 2018-3-6

tonight, I rise for the 92,000 Dreamers in the State of Florida. Tonight, I rise for the 3.6 million Dreamers across this Nation. prgtoken President may have terminated the DACA program this week, but the dream will survive. prgtoken These Dreamers are serving in our military. They are our teachers. They are students and businessowners, lawyers, doctors, and engineers. They are an ambitious group of young people who are renewing our democracy and who are some of the very best of what the next generation has to offer. prgtoken I have no doubt, despite this termination this week, these young people will continue to fight, and we in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will stand with them. We in the ic Caucus will continue to stand with them. prgtoken I hope some of my colleagues who have signed on to this bill in the Conference will continue, but we need a vote on the floor. prgtoken Seventy percent of Americans already stand with our Dreamers. prgtoken It is true that the Federal courts this week have continued with their injunction enjoining the termination of the DACA program. This will help those who are already in the program, but that is a small fraction of the Dreamers in this country. prgtoken It is a sad state of affairs that Dreamers could only find justice in our courts. This is the people's House, and the people's business needs to be done. It is time to have a vote on the floor in a bipartisan fashion--a clean Dream Act now, or in November the voters will have their own vote regarding Dreamers. Honoring Seretha Tinsley During Women's History Month
REPACK AIRWAVES YIELDING BETTER ACCESS FOR USERS OF MODERN SERVICES ACT OF 2018
David Loebsack (Democrat, IA) \u2014 2018-3-6

I thank the chair and ranking member for working to bring this bill to the floor today. prgtoken , I am pleased to see the RAY BAUM'S Act moving forward. This bill really is a good example of compromise. No one got everything that they wanted, but we worked together to find common ground. I think it represents what we need to be doing more of in Washington and in this body and what people and I want to see happen more often, namely, that Members prgtoken of Congress come together in a bipartisan manner to reach a commonsense agreement. prgtoken But today I come to the floor to talk about a piece of legislation, the Rural Wireless Access Act, which I was pleased to help introduce and incorporate into the larger FCC Reauthorization Act. prgtoken I want to thank, in particular, my friend Mr. Costello for working with me on this bipartisan bill. I also want to thank Mrs. Blackburn, chair of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, for helping to move this forward. prgtoken This bill, which I introduced last year, would require the FCC to establish standards for collecting wireless coverage data. Everyone at some point has been driving through places in rural America that don't get wireless coverage. Unfortunately, the maps that the FCC uses to fix coverage gaps are often inadequate. prgtoken Currently, the standards that define how wireless coverage is determined are not sufficient, meaning the coverage maps can be incomplete or inaccurate. Without accurate coverage maps, resources needed to improve wireless access will not be directed to the areas that need the most help, including rural areas. prgtoken I am pleased that the Energy and Commerce Committee agreed to include this legislation, the Rural Wireless Access Act, as part of the larger package so that we can improve wireless voice and mobile internet services and ensure the resources go to the areas that need it the most. prgtoken In order to fix the problem, we have to get the data right. I am hopeful that the passage of the FCC Reauthorization Act will help folks in rural areas get the wireless coverage they need.
ELIMINATING GOVERNMENT-FUNDED OIL-PAINTING ACT
Matt Cartwright (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2018-3-6

I rise today in support of S. 188, the Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act, an acronym for the EGO Act. prgtoken S. 188 is the Senate companion to H.R. 1401, legislation that I introduced along with Representatives Jim Bridenstine, Cheri Bustos, Walter Jones, Leonard Lance, David McKinley, Pete Olson, and Tom Rice. prgtoken My friend and former House colleague, Senator Bill Cassidy, is the lead sponsor of S. 188 which passed the Senate unanimously on September 18, 2017. prgtoken The EGO Act would prohibit Federal funds from being used to pay for the costs of painting portraits of officers and employees of the Federal Government. Federal agencies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on portraits that are displayed within agency buildings, often in secure locations that are not open to the public. Although this money is only a fraction of a percentage of the federal budget, it represents a failure to exercise fiscal restraint. Every dollar the government spends on vanity projects for federal officials is a dollar that is not spent improving the lives of everyday Americans. prgtoken Congress has the responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used efficiently and effectively. For these reasons, I am proud to sponsor the EGO Act, and urge the House to pass S. 188, sending it to the President's desk.
ECONOMIC GROWTH, REGULATORY RELIEF, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2018-3-6

I rise tonight to join my colleagues in speaking to the need to immediately prgtoken respond to Russian interference. I would like to thank Senator Whitehouse for bringing us together. prgtoken This evening, many of my colleagues have spoken about how Russian aggression affects Americans and our allies across the world. Some have discussed the need for sanctions to defer Russia and the fact that the administration has not yet imposed sanctions, the same sanctions that were passed by the Senate 98 to 2 and 419 to 3 in the House of Representatives. Those were the additional sanctions that were directly related to the interference in the elections and what we saw take place over the last year. They sit dormant. prgtoken Others have talked about the importance of Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and the fact that it must move forward without interference from the White House. Nearly a dozen Senators have come to the floor to highlight the need to stand up to Russia. I am here to talk about the critical need to safeguard the most fundamental part of our democracy--the U.S. elections. prgtoken Today, I heard the Prime Minister of Sweden address our Nation. When standing next to the President, he was asked a question about this, and he put it simply. He said that in their country, they believe that the people, the citizens of their country, should be the ones who make the decisions about their elections, that they are the ones who should be able to vote, that they are the ones who should be able to have their own opinions not be influenced by foreign countries acting as if they are people in their country. prgtoken It is the Presiding Officer who made the statement that I have quoted so many times--that in the last election, it was one candidate and one party, and in the next election, it could be the other candidate and the other party. We do not come here in a partisan way. We come here because the clock is ticking. prgtoken Today marks an important day in the 2018 election cycle. Texas is holding the first State primary, and others begin in the coming weeks, including in Illinois. Illinois was one of 21 States that the Russians attempted to hack into--Illinois, where they actually hacked into their voter data, which is the personal information about their voters. Those elections are coming. We are glad that we have a decentralized system so that they have different systems. It is easier to hack into one centralized system. It also means that they have many things to choose from, and we have 40 States that haven't updated their equipment in over 10 years. We have 10 States that don't even have backup paper ballots, and we sit here doing nothing when the solution is right in front of us. prgtoken Over the course of the last year, I have come to the floor a number of times to urge this body to take immediate action to beef up our election cybersecurity. There is no longer any doubt that our elec
SECURING THE FUTURE OF DREAMERS
Luis V. Gutiérrez (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-3-6

yesterday was the deadline for the U.S. Congress to secure the futures of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers. Our constituents, who grew up in the United States, have been here at least 10 years, but do not have permanent legal immigration status and, therefore, are deportable, vulnerable, and exploitable. prgtoken And guess what? The cynics were right, and Congress has taken no action. There have been a few attempts, but the reality is that Congress has not passed a bill, and the opportunities for us to pass a bill are dwindling. prgtoken How did we get here? How is it that we always end up here when it comes to immigration? prgtoken Well, it has been a failure of both parties to act, to compromise, and to legislate. But let's be honest, the President doesn't want these immigrants in this country, and s in Congress only want to do what the President wants them to do because they fear his tweets and the effect it might have on their voters in November. prgtoken The President said he loved Dreamers. Remember? He wanted to preserve DACA and treat them ``with heart.'' He said he wanted to give a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, and he told a group of lawmakers on national television that he would take the political heat and sign whatever bipartisan approach they were able to come up with, but he was lying, again. prgtoken Just like his conversations with lawmakers on guns after the massacre in Florida--also with the television cameras rolling--what the President says in public, what he does behind closed doors, what he tweets, and what he thinks from moment to moment do not seem to be connected in any logical way. prgtoken And when the cameras are turned off, the radical rightwing whispers their orders in the President's ear, and he falls right in line-- whether it is with gun manufacturers or the anti-immigration nativists. prgtoken And when you cannot trust the President to have a stable opinion for more than 2, maybe 3, hours, it makes it hard for s to figure out what will please him and make him happy from moment to moment. prgtoken Bipartisan proposals that could have passed the House and the Senate were brought to him and he rejected them, saying that he wanted to eliminate various types of legal immigration avenues used by people, especially people of color and people from the developing world. Without these massive cuts to legal immigration, the President just wasn't interested. prgtoken And we offered him money for his silly, mindless, stupid, dimwitted, racist wall, but he rejected that, too. prgtoken In the end, this is not about Dreamers, it is not about the wall, it is not about border security. Do you know what it is about? It is about a deeply held core belief of the President, and many of his advisers, that there are just too many people of color coming legally to the United States. There are too many family members of immigrants, unless those immigrants are members of 's o
ECONOMIC GROWTH, REGULATORY RELIEF, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
Sherrod Brown (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2018-3-6

10 years ago almost to the day, this country was on the verge of a financial crisis that would wreck the lives of millions of families. The experts--let's say the so-called experts--had their heads in the sand. They shrugged off the warnings. They told the public everything was fine. prgtoken Jim Cramer was telling hard-working Americans to invest their money in Bear Stearns. Maybe younger Members of the Senate don't really remember what Bear Stearns was. Jim Cramer said: ``I'm not giving up on the thing.'' prgtoken Bank of America was putting the finishing touches on its plan to buy the subprime lender Countrywide, which they called ``the best domestic mortgage platform.'' prgtoken Hank Paulson, the last Treasury Secretary who got plucked from Goldman Sachs--we have had at least one since--downplayed homeowners' pain. He said: ``You know, the stock market goes up and down every day more than the entire value of the subprime mortgages in the country.'' prgtoken Meanwhile, advocates in communities--the people who were actually dealing with the consequences of the crisis--were sounding the alarm. The fair lending group Greenlining began meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan at least once a year, starting in 1999--1999-- to warn about predatory mortgage lending. Attorneys general from across the country started to caution about troubling trends. prgtoken In Cleveland, which is in the Presiding Officer's home State, we saw home prices climb 66 percent in 10 years, with the housing market juiced by ``flipping on mega-steroids,'' according to a government panel that investigated the crisis. City officials in Cleveland began to hear reports that predatory home refinances were being pushed on buyers regardless of whether they could afford to repay the loans. Those refinances mean fees to bankers. prgtoken Foreclosures began to shoot up in Cuyahoga County--5,900 foreclosure filings in 2000, and by 2007, 15,000. My wife and I live in ZIP Code 44105, which includes Slavic Village in Cleveland, OH. In the first half of 2007, that ZIP Code had more foreclosures than any ZIP Code in the United States of America. prgtoken The city of Cleveland went to the Fed and asked it to use its authority to restrain subprime lending. The Fed did nothing. The people in charge in Washington were too certain, too detached, and perhaps too comfortable to listen to the warnings from Ohioans and from people across the country. prgtoken We saw what happened. All of these people who had the hubris to say that the economy could keep growing and keep growing and keep growing while the middle class was being looted--those people, thank you very much, weathered the crisis just fine. No one with a cable show had their home foreclosed on. Nobody on Wall Street who tanked the economy went to jail. In fact, many of these same people now have fancy jobs in fancy buildings and dress in fancy clothes and have fancy titles and wo
COMPREHENSIVE REGULATORY REVIEW ACT
Josh Gottheimer (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2018-3-6

I first want to thank Congressman Loudermilk for working together on the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act. Congressman Loudermilk has been a true partner who has been tireless in pursuing smart regulatory reform policies and in finding solutions for the people he serves. We both want to get something done for the people we represent. prgtoken I also want to thank Congresswoman Sinema for her help and support in leading this legislation. prgtoken I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the bipartisan Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act. prgtoken America's economic engine has been under pressure for some time now from unnecessarily burdensome and outdated regulations building up on the books of our regulators. It costs us in economic growth. And while there are clear times where smart guardrails are necessary, there are others when it actually holds back smart growth for our country and for our families. prgtoken We need a smarter, more efficient government. It is time to relieve these unnecessary burdens and spur business job growth and access to credit in New Jersey's Fifth District and across the country while protecting consumers and our economy. This bipartisan regulatory relief bill does just that. It updates and expands regulators' mandatory review of financial institutions while protecting consumers. It also requires the review be performed every 7 years rather than every 10.