mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
PROVIDING FOR AN EXCEPTION TO A LIMITATION AGAINST APPOINTMENT OF PERSONS AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WITHIN SEVEN YEARS OF RELIEF FROM ACTIVE DUTY AS A REGULAR COMMISSIONED OFFICER OF THE ARMED FORCES
Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2017-1-12

the Senate is holding hearings on each of President-Elect 's nominees to his Cabinet. Traditionally, Presidents are accorded a very high level of deference on assembling their own team, in part because these nominees are directly accountable to the President. But they are accountable to the American people too. prgtoken No Cabinet member is more powerful or has more impact on the day-to- day lives of Americans than the Attorney General of the United States. prgtoken The Attorney General is, indeed, a general, in command of an army of thousands of lawyers whose words carry enormous weight and power. It is the weight and power of the people of the United States. He speaks for us. He charges defendants in our name. He has sweeping authority to bring criminal charges in all Federal offenses, enormous unreviewable discretion in cases ranging from minor misdemeanors to the most serious felonies. In every sense, as capital penalties can be sought for some of these crimes, he wields the power of life and death. prgtoken The Attorney General's authority is not only sweeping, it is uniquely independent of the President's Cabinet. His decisions must supersede partisan politics. In most cases, there is no recourse to overrule his decisions unless there is political interference. He is not just another government lawyer or even just another member of the President's Cabinet. He is the Nation's lawyer, and he must be the Nation's legal counsel and conscience. prgtoken The job of U.S. Attorney General at stake here is one that I know pretty well. Like some of my colleagues in this body, I served as U.S. attorney, the chief Federal prosecutor in Connecticut. prgtoken I reported to the U.S. Attorney General. For years afterward as a private litigator and then as attorney general of the State of Connecticut for 20 years, I fought alongside and sometimes against the U.S. Attorney General and the legal forces at his disposal. I have seen his power, or hers, firsthand. The power of this Attorney General is awesome, as is that of any Attorney General. prgtoken In the best of cases, they are inspiring too. Even as he protects the public from vicious and violent criminal offenders, his role is also to protect the innocent from unfounded charges that could shatter their lives even if they are acquitted. As Justice Robert Jackson, a former Attorney General himself, once said: His job is not to convict, but to assure justice is done. prgtoken So this job requires a singular level of intellect and integrity and nonpartisan but passionate devotion to the rule of law and an extraordinary sense of conscience. That is because he is responsible for so much more than prosecuting and preventing crime and ensuring public safety. He is responsible for aggressively upholding our Nation's sacred constitutional commitment to protecting individual rights and liberties and preventing infringement on them, even by the government itself
COMMODITY END-USER RELIEF ACT
Joe Courtney (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2017-1-12

I thank Mr. Peterson and Mr. Conaway, with whom I did serve on the Agriculture Committee with for a number of years, and I recall well some of the discussion and debate as Chairman Gensler appeared before the committee on article 7 of the Dodd-Frank Act. prgtoken Although, I didn't author that position, former-Senator Dodd is a constituent of mine. So I guess that is close enough to the work that was done creating this section. prgtoken Again, let's be very clear about what this amendment does. It is not about clarifying anything. It is about stripping from the law article 7 of Dodd-Frank, which was a congressional mandate to establish position limits for speculative trading. prgtoken Again, this was not done in a vacuum. It was done because there has been an explosion of speculative trading that is taking place in commodities markets. We had testimony in the Congress back in 2010 that it had grown from 22 percent to 67 percent speculation on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs--when, again, we were dealing with close to $4 a gallon for gas--had a report which said that 27 percent of that price was due to speculation. So, Congress appropriately instructed CFTC to come back with a regulatory plan to limit speculative positions in a reasonable way. prgtoken Again, no one quarrels with the fact that end users, whether it is farms, ranchers, airlines, or businesses of all sorts, should be able to exercise options in market swaps. prgtoken In those instances, these are firms and businesses which actually take physical possession and control of the commodity. Again, what Goldman Sachs and other analysts had demonstrated is that what has been a burgeoning trend is that firms were beginning to take dominant position in markets that, again, were not even close or remotely involved in the actual production, processing, or use of the commodities that were in question. prgtoken So again, CFTC has begun an arduous, painful process of trying to craft a rule. In fact, just a few weeks ago, on December 5, the CFTC voted unanimously to again move that process along and come up with a draft of a balanced, reasonable rule, so it is not a dead-end situation. prgtoken As has been reported, what they basically were looking at was a fundamental or a basic limit of roughly about 25 percent of a commodity could not be controlled by one firm. The end users that I spoke to, as this rule has been making its way, actually think that the CFTC is being too generous in terms of allowing an individual firm to control up to 25 percent of a market. I think a lot of Americans would understand that that kind of position really would provide for an opportunity to manipulate market prices. prgtoken In fact, there are some end users who think the rule should be very simple, that you have to take actual physical possession of the commodity in order to be able to hedge a position or engage in a future option. Again, the CFTC did not go to that r
CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS: THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NOMINEES
Mark Takano (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2017-1-12

. If I might join in a little more, I became a teacher-- more than, wow, gosh, it must be 30 years ago now--having experienced the disparity in the public schools in the Boston, Massachusetts, area; some days being a substitute teacher in Brookline, Massachusetts, and other days being a substitute teacher in inner city Boston. The contrast between the wealthy Brookline School District and then the inner city Boston where you walk through a metal detector woke me up. And I really believed that if we did not address the achievement gap in our country, that if the American Dream of social economic mobility was only available to some and not all of our students, that our very democracy would be in jeopardy. prgtoken It pains me to see from the incoming administration such a superficial, extreme profit-driven notion of improving our schools. I wish that both President-elect and Betsy DeVos could see some of the great work that is being done at my schools in my congressional district where we have a teacher--I am blanking on his name, but he is responsible for one-fourth of all the Latinos in the State of California that score 4s and 5s on the physics AP test. Remarkable work being done in a regular school that does not cherry-pick its students. It is a public school in the Val Verde Unified School District that is making remarkable strides. This work is not being looked at carefully, is being overlooked, and it is a shame that we have a nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, who has such a terrible history, who is committed to actually tearing down our public school system.
REJECT ATTEMPTS TO REPEAL THE ACA
Kurt Schrader (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2017-1-12

in a bizarre rant yesterday, President- elect said he would be ``the greatest jobs producer that God ever created.'' Mr. might need to rethink that statement, given his top priority is to repeal the Affordable Care Act. prgtoken Make no mistake, , while the s haven't given us any details about an ACA replacement policy at all, we know exactly what will happen if they repeal it: millions of jobs will be lost. prgtoken Since the ACA was passed in March 2010, the U.S. economy has added more than 15 million private sector jobs and the unemployment rate has been cut in half. In fact, the longest streak in private sector job growth began the month the ACA was passed. Now, folks on the other side of the aisle want to risk all of that going away by repealing the law. prgtoken A recent study has found that repealing the ACA would kill 2.6 million jobs in just 1 year, including 45,000 in my home State of Oregon. Thirty million Americans will lose access to health care, and $350 billion gets added to our budget deficit. prgtoken , we can't afford the reckless ACA repeal policy. I urge my colleagues to reject attempts to repeal the law and focus on ways we can fix and improve our healthcare system while creating jobs.
COMMODITY END-USER RELIEF ACT
Bob Goodlatte (Republican, VA) \u2014 2017-1-12

. Mr. Chair, I rise today to first express my great appreciation to Chairman Michael Conaway and Subcommittee Chairman Austin Scott for their hard work in crafting H.R. 238, the Commodity End-User Relief Act, legislation to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Chairman Conaway and Subcommittee Chairman Austin Scott held four hearings throughout the 114th Congress regarding the CFTC and its future, during which time they invited input from a wide variety of interested stakeholders. I believe that they have struck the right balance in providing the CFTC with the authorizations necessary for the agency to do its job, while increasing oversight, instituting reforms to protect end-users from regulatory overreach, and improving consumer protection against fraud or mismanagement. prgtoken I am also pleased to see that since the House of Representatives last acted to reauthorize the CFTC, in light of many years of concern about aluminum markets and warehousing practices, the London Metal Exchange has implemented additional reforms to their aluminum warehousing practices and prgtoken contracts. Now that the London Metal Exchange has been recognized by the CFTC as a Foreign Board of Trade, I look forward to continuing my review of these reforms and their impact on aluminum markets and end users, while remaining hopeful that these changes will accomplish their intended goal. prgtoken Once again, I would like to thank all those involved in bringing this bill to the floor, Chairman Michael Conaway, Subcommittee Chairman Austin Scott, and Ranking Member David Scott. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.
SEC REGULATORY ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
Peter T. King (Republican, NY) \u2014 2017-1-12

I rise in support of H.R. 78, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act. If passed, the SEC would be required to follow President 's executive order that requires a thorough cost-benefit analysis of new rules and a comprehensive review of existing regulations. Under current law, the SEC must consider the effect of its rules on ``efficiency, competition, and capital formation,'' and weighing costs and benefits is necessary to meet this requirement. prgtoken Cost-benefit analysis is not a new idea. Agencies have done this kind of analysis for over 30 years. In fact, it is a bipartisan idea. In 1981, President Reagan issued an executive order requiring Cabinet- level agencies to engage in cost-benefit analysis, which President Clinton expanded with another executive order in 1993. prgtoken Unfortunately, independent agencies are not subject to executive orders and those regulated by the SEC have suffered as a result. From 2005 to 2012, SEC regulations were overturned consistently by the courts for inadequate economic analysis and unjustified costs. While the SEC has taken steps to improve its rulemaking process, H.R. 78 will ensure that future rules maximize economic benefit and companies do not face unnecessary hurdles when they access our capital markets. and s often do not agree on policy, but I hope we can agree on the need for a fair, transparent, and informed process. prgtoken I thank my distinguished colleague for introducing this vital legislation.
COMMODITY END-USER RELIEF ACT
Vicky Hartzler (Republican, MO) \u2014 2017-1-12

the remainder of my time. prgtoken , I would remind our colleagues that this rule is right now under a no-action relief letter because it isn't working, and that is what this amendment does is to fix this problem. So I believe this amendment is very important. It makes a few commonsense changes to the OCR rule that will provide regulatory relief to farmers, agricultural cooperatives, and grain elevators while allowing the CFTC to adequately regulate the futures industry. prgtoken So, , I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. prgtoken .
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2017-1-12

for too long, American families, farmers, and job creators have suffered under President 's regulatory onslaught. His administration threw caution to wind, pumping out regulation after regulation and further entangling the government into Americans' daily lives. prgtoken In November, the American people issued a strong rebuke to President 's overreach and his administration's way of doing business. prgtoken They want a new direction. They want more accountability. They want more transparency. They want the government off their backs so that they can get back to making this country great again. prgtoken President-elect has committed to working with Congress to roll back the regulatory overreach of the administration, and to making the government more answerable to the people. prgtoken So, I rise today to introduce an important piece of legislation that will help achieve these goals and ensure a more accountable and transparent government going forward. prgtoken By some estimates, Federal Government regulations impose over $2 trillion in compliance costs--on the American economy. The cost of complying with all these regulations falls particularly heavy on small businesses. prgtoken It is no wonder why many American businesses have shut down or moved overseas. How many innovators dreamed of starting a small business but decided against it when faced with the burden and uncertainty of our regulatory state? prgtoken We have to do better. prgtoken The Federal Government should do everything possible to promote job creation. To accomplish that, common sense would tell us that the government needs to remove bureaucratic barriers rather than put up new ones. prgtoken But as we all know, the administration showed time and again that it would rather push forward with its regulatory agenda than ease the burden on our economy and job creators. prgtoken Adding insult to injury, the administration often kept folks in the dark about new regulatory initiatives. prgtoken Through secretive litigation tactics, the administration took end- runs around our nation's transparency and accountability laws. It is a strategy known as sue-and-settle, and regulators have been using it to speed up rulemaking and keep the public away from the table when key policy decisions are made. prgtoken Sue-and-settle typically follows a similar pattern. prgtoken First, an interest group files a lawsuit against a federal agency, claiming that the agency has failed to take a certain regulatory action by a statutory deadline. The interest group seeks to compel the agency to take action by a new, often-rushed deadline. All too often, the plaintiff-interest group will be one that shares a common regulatory agenda with the agency that it sues, such as when an environmental group sues the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. prgtoken Next, the agency and interest group enter into negotiations behind closed doors to produc
REMEMBERING BYRON BIRDSALL
Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK) \u2014 2017-1-12

Alaskans tend to view our State as a big family, a family whose members come from many places but are united in our love and loyalty for our great land. And like any family, Alaska has been blessed with outstanding sons and daughters, distinguished in their own unique ways. prgtoken Today I wish to pay tribute to the memory of one such Alaskan, acclaimed watercolorist Byron Birdsall. Byron's passing on December 4, 2016, just 2 weeks shy of his 79th birthday, leaves a hole not just in the hearts of Alaskans, but in the art world itself. Given the indelible impact that Byron's prolific volume of work has had on Alaskans over the last 41 years, it is all the more impressive, considering that he lived the first half of his life outside the State. prgtoken Born in Buckeye, Arizona on December 18, 1937, Byron was raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in history from Seattle Pacific College in 1959, Byron attended Stanford University. Following his 1960 marriage to his beloved Lynn, who succumbed to breast cancer in 1998, the couple set out to travel the world. The couple traveled to Africa to teach English and explored the Pacific, living in American Samoa for a few years. They then returned for a job in Seattle before arriving in Anchorage for a job at an advertising agency, which he soon quit to paint full time. prgtoken He recalled that it was 1975, during the pipeline boom that he was painting pictures. ``People started buying them so I quit work and started painting.'' Byron painted Alaska. He later explained to the Anchorage Daily News, ``Alaskans love Alaska. That's what they want to buy.'' prgtoken Despite his talent in multiple mediums, including portraiture and oils, Byron will likely be best remembered for his prolific work in watercolor and landscapes, and, perhaps rightly so, as many of the pieces and prints so familiar to most Alaskans were in that format. His work is so highly regarded that one of his prints, ``McKinley Moonlight,'' was selected to serve as a background for Alaska's heirloom marriage certificates. As his wife Billie said, Byron was ``inspired by both the scenic beauty of Alaska and its people.'' prgtoken Alaska Dispatch News writer David James described Byron's landscapes for a recent book Byron completed this year as ``rich with color and detail. His summer scenes explode with flowers, animals and sunlight, while his images of winter, where snow covers the ground and twilight darkens the sky, are alive with elaborate hues and stellar lighting that belie the notion of Alaska as a desolate wasteland for half the year.'' prgtoken But I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to highlight for the record that Byron's work was not just the beautiful landscapes that Alaskans love so much. Rather, he helped catalog the history of the 49th State. Among the many honors we have as Senators is adorning our offices with artwork that repr
SEC REGULATORY ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
J. French Hill (Republican, AR) \u2014 2017-1-12

. This bill will focus attention where attention is needed to benefit investors, our capital markets, and the economy the most. H.R. 78, along with the HALOS Act that we passed in the House on Tuesday, will help ensure that the SEC regulations do not unnecessarily impede consumer and business access to capital. prgtoken I thank the chairman for the time. I appreciate Mrs. Wagner for her work on this bill.
PROVIDING FOR AN EXCEPTION TO A LIMITATION AGAINST APPOINTMENT OF PERSONS AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WITHIN SEVEN YEARS OF RELIEF FROM ACTIVE DUTY AS A REGULAR COMMISSIONED OFFICER OF THE ARMED FORCES
John McCain (Republican, AZ) \u2014 2017-1-12

I would say that I also agree. I want to thank the Senator from Rhode Island for his leadership, and I want to thank him for setting the tenor and the environment that surrounds the Armed Services Committee, which resulted in the 24-to-3 vote today in the Armed Services Committee. Because of the relationship that we have, but also because of his leadership, we have a very bipartisan committee, which is vital to maintain, considering the awesome responsibilities we hold. prgtoken The Senator from Rhode Island has displayed time after time a willingness to work together for the good of the country. I think this is the latest example, even though he had significant reservations-- which are valid--concerning the short period of transition from wearing the uniform to holding down the highest civilian position as far as defense of the Nation is concerned. I know he didn't reach this conclusion without a lot of thought, a lot of study, a lot of--as he has displayed--references to history; reasons for the origination of this legislation, which requires 7 years before an individual is eligible to be Secretary of Defense after leaving the military. prgtoken So I just wanted to thank the Senator from Rhode Island, and I look forward to an overwhelming vote. prgtoken , could I ask the parliamentary situation as it is right now.
INTRODUCING REPUBLICAN FRESHMEN
Doug Collins (Republican, GA) \u2014 2017-1-12

I thank the gentleman. prgtoken Again, we see the quality and we see who the American people have sent here, people like Andy Biggs. We got started with the REINS Act, a bill that I sponsored that talked about reining in regulations. Andy jumped in with a couple of amendments. He wanted to be a part of the solution to start with. prgtoken Next up is a gentleman from Kentucky, the First District of Kentucky, Mr. Comer. He comes to us from a farm background. He wore the blue jacket and the green jacket, 4-H and FFA. He was the Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of Kentucky. He has been a legislator. He also is a good friend of my Commissioner of Agriculture, Gary Black. Gary called me up and said there is a good one in Kentucky. I said when Gary says that, we know something good is going on. prgtoken It is my pleasure, , to yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer).
HONORING THE LIFE OF SARAH JEFFERSON SIMON
Brian Babin (Republican, TX) \u2014 2017-1-12

I rise today to honor the life of Sarah Jefferson Simon. Born and raised in Orange, Texas on November 26, 1961, Sarah was a lifelong Texan. prgtoken In 1989, Sarah joined the Orange Police Department and quickly rose through the ranks as she put her life on the line to protect those of us who call East Texas home. After only one year as a Patrol Officer, she was promoted to the Detective Division and given the rank of Detective-Sergeant. Sarah was the first African-American woman to attain this esteemed role within the City of Orange Police Department. Sarah had a God-given gift for her craft, and was often called upon by other law enforcement agencies to break cold cases and execute some of the region's most challenging criminal investigations. prgtoken It is no surprise that, with such a heart for the community, Sarah was also deeply involved with the local school district as a tutor, and served as a Trustee of the West Orange-Cove school district. Her children, Diztorsha and Herman, have continued her legacy of public service as educators. prgtoken Sarah was a woman of God, a pillar of faith for those in her community and to those in her care. For over 30 years, she attended Starlight Church of God in Christ and richly gave of her time and talent in service of the Church and its parishioners. Her son, Herman, pastors the faithful in Bon Weir. prgtoken Sarah went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Friday, January 6, 2017. She will be deeply missed by those whose lives she touched. My prayers and condolences go out to Sarah's loving family, and her children, Diztorsha, and Herman. Sarah will be sorely missed, but her legacy will certainly live on.