mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
FAREWELL TO SPEAKER EMERITUS KEVIN McCARTHY
Kevin Kiley (Republican, CA) \u2014 2023-12-14

as a freshman Member, I haven't had as much time to work with Emeritus McCarthy as some of my colleagues have, but I am grateful for this year, working with him as part of the California delegation. Just observing his leadership of the Conference and of the House has really been something to behold. prgtoken I think it is clear to everyone that he is a once-in-a-generation political talent. The millions of things that you have to do, large and small, to build a majority, to manage the Conference, to run the House, to exercise leadership on the national and international stage, he made it look effortless and was always cheerful in the way he went about it. prgtoken I think that everyone in this House and across the country, whatever their politics, recognize that he is someone who is a leader in a way that transcends whatever position he holds, even a position as high as of the House of Representatives. prgtoken When I think about what he has meant to this institution, I think about the famous essay by Max Weber, ``Politics is a Vocation,'' where he talks about the need to both have principles, but also to have a sense of responsibility when you are in the political arena; that this isn't just a philosophy class. prgtoken I think Emeritus McCarthy really embodies that sense of political leadership, of being firmly grounded in your principles, but also having an appreciation for the consequences of our actions and the unique responsibilities that we have when it comes to exercising political power. prgtoken It was also a great benefit to have a Californian leading this House. I know that Kevin understands, as well as anyone, the challenges we face in California. I know that he and our delegation will continue to be a check there. I know he will continue to be in the fight to turn around California and this country. prgtoken , I thank McCarthy for his service, which will be felt by this institution for a very long time.
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 6503 (Executive Session)
Ted Budd (Republican, NC) \u2014 2023-12-14

in the past year, we have witnessed one aviation prgtoken failure after another from the administration. They began the year by nominating someone to head the Federal Aviation Administration who didn't seem to know the first thing about aviation. prgtoken The administration's Secretary of Transportation has presided over a series of, shall we say, transportation challenges. From near-miss incidents to the first nationwide ground stop since 9/11, the Department doesn't seem to have a handle on its basic function, and that is looking out for the safety of the traveling public. prgtoken Now Senate are blocking the FAA from being reauthorized right before the holidays. And the consequences of this lack of action, it could be really severe. The FAA would lose the ability to collect revenue and spend money from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. That would be disastrous, as the aviation trust fund is one of the few funds in Washington that actually runs a surplus each year. prgtoken The Airport and Airway Trust Fund finances important safety improvements for airports across the country, and any lapse in authorization threatens to halt new and existing construction projects. prgtoken The FAA would also lose the ability to hire new air traffic controllers at a time when key facilities are experiencing staffing shortages. prgtoken Finally, a lapse in authorization could mean 10 percent of FAA's workforce will be furloughed on January 1. Simply put, families who are trying to visit their friends and loved ones for the holidays, they shouldn't have to endure more hoops, hurdles, and delays. prgtoken America, we have the best aviation system in the world, and we can't let politics get in the way of that. prgtoken .
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2670, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024
Matthew M. Rosendale, Sr. (Republican, MT) \u2014 2023-12-14

. Madam , in July, the House s passed the most conservative NDAA in history that ended 's taxpayer- funded abortion travel fund, stopped taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries, and prevented American citizens from being indefinitely detained without charge or trial. I was proud to vote for that legislation. prgtoken I understood that this bill would change in the Senate and knew that compromise was inevitable. prgtoken However, I cannot support a bill written by the D.C. uniparty that removes all of the reforms and watch as leadership once again suspends the rules we fought to restore, preventing Members from even amending this flawed legislation. prgtoken Even worse, this legislation includes a clean extension of FISA section 702, which has allowed the FBI to spy on U.S. citizens more than 278,000 times without a warrant. The FBI, under President , has been weaponized against the American people, and major reform is needed. prgtoken FISA should not be combined with our national defense, and it is unacceptable that leadership is bypassing regular order to jam Members by forcing them to vote on two unrelated bills with one vote. Make no mistake about this, folks: This one vote will allow the United States Government to spy on you and the United States military to lock you up in Guantanamo Bay without representation.
CONGRATULATING CLEMSON MEN'S SOCCER TEAM
Jeff Duncan (Republican, SC) \u2014 2023-12-14

I get to say once again from the House floor, ``Go Tigers,'' as I rise to celebrate the 2023 NCAA men's soccer national champions, the Clemson Tigers. prgtoken On Monday night, the Clemson men's soccer team took to the pitch to beat Notre Dame and close out the season. This is Clemson's fourth national championship in soccer. They claimed victory in 1984, 1987, 2021, and 2023. With this victory, the soccer program has surpassed football with the most national championships. I am proud to say that Clemson is one of just seven schools with four or more men's soccer national championships. prgtoken , I congratulate Head Coach Mike Noonan and each of the players on the team for representing my alma mater and the State of South Carolina so well. prgtoken , I am proud to represent the 2023 NCAA men's soccer national champions, and I congratulate President Clements on the success of this team and the program there at Clemson. prgtoken Merry Christmas to all. May God bless America. prgtoken And once again, go Tigers.
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2670, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024
Matt Gaetz (Republican, FL) \u2014 2023-12-14

I regret that I rise in opposition to this NDAA because there is a great deal of good in it, but only in Washington must we bring a bill to the floor so that we are able to militarily confront China while at the same time embracing the policies that make the United States more like China. prgtoken There is no desire on the part of our great Armed Services chairman, and even the we worked with, to have an extension of spying authorities put in this bill when we have already seen those authorities just totally abused, 278,000 violations of the existing law, as the FBI has queried information regarding Americans. prgtoken When the -appointed inspector general was reviewing whether or not the administration was complying with existing law, they found out we were breaking the law 38 times an hour. prgtoken To extend the authorities for spying that were being violated so that people at the FBI could do queries on their neighbors, their coworkers, their ex-lovers, that does not belong in the National Defense Authorization Act. Maybe we would be able to stomach some short-term extension if the underlying bill looked a little more like the product we sent out of the House of Representatives. prgtoken With this NDAA conference report, you almost feel like a parent who has sent a child off to summer camp and they have come back a monster. That is what we have done. This bill came back in far worse shape. prgtoken We had concern over these social justice warriors that were making salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars at DOD, so we put a cap on that at three times what a private or airman would make. We claim that that's still in the bill, but the Senate was able to erode that and say so long as that social justice warrior is assigned any other responsibility, they are able to blow through that cap and waste taxpayer money on something else that doesn't enhance our lethality or capability or survivability. prgtoken We have legislation to eliminate the chief diversity officer at DOD because that was the fountainhead of so many of these woke, bad ideas, and yet the House receded on that position. prgtoken Many of our colleagues were concerned that when you look at our military bases or installations, they were flying flags that weren't the American flag. They were flying the LGBTQ flag, the Black Lives Matter flag, whatever that flag is with all of those pink and black triangles in it. That desire that we had to fly the American flag and the flags of our service branches was also surrendered by the House of Representatives to the Senate. prgtoken We wanted a parents bill of rights in DOD schools so that you wouldn't get the strange material that goes into radical gender ideology or race ideology. That was abandoned by the House of Representatives. prgtoken So we also expressed a great deal of concern over the censorship that the DOD was funding through a lot of its alliances. We put in our bill a pro
JONATHAN OSORIO LOPEZ
Brittany Pettersen (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2023-12-14

I rise today to recognize Jonathan Osorio Lopez for earning the Arvada Wheat Ridge Service Ambassadors for Youth Award. prgtoken Jonathan has achieved great things, all while overcoming adversity and challenges along the way. Students like Jonathan, who strive to make the most of their education, develop crucial skills and a work ethic that will guide them for the rest of their lives. This award is a testament to Jonathan's hard work, determination, and perseverance at Jefferson Jr./Sr. High School and is clearly just the beginning of a bright and promising future. prgtoken It is my honor to congratulate Jonathan Osorio Lopez on achieving the Arvada Wheat Ridge Service Ambassadors for Youth Award.
First Step Act (Executive Session)
Christopher Murphy (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2023-12-14

a few days ago, I was with one of the parents from Sandy Hook Elementary School who lost her son 11 years ago today. She talked about this being the time of the year where she starts to spiral. prgtoken Today is a day when we are thinking about all of those parents, about all of those brothers and sisters who, this morning, had to relive the morning that they went through 11 years ago, December 14, 2012, when 20 sets of parents kissed their first graders goodbye as they dropped them off for school and never ever saw them again. prgtoken It is a fate that none of us would ever wish on another human being. For those of us who have never experienced the death of a child, there is no way for us to understand what those parents and what those families are going through. prgtoken One mother of a child who was lost in Sandy Hook had a tactic that she would use in those early days. She would pretend that her son was just at a friend's house on a playdate to convince herself, as best she could, that he wasn't dead, that he was just visiting a friend around the corner. It was the only way that she could clean up the house, get through her daily work. But then, all of a sudden, it would come flooding back to her that he wasn't at a friend's house; he wasn't around the corner; he was never, ever coming home. The things you have to do on a daily basis to try to process the loss of a child, they are unfathomable to most of us. prgtoken I have kind of run out of things to say about these amazing kids and these amazing adults--the adults who protected them that day, the children who would be turning 18 this year. prgtoken In Connecticut, we wear our hearts really heavy, but we also get to celebrate all of the things that have happened because so many of these families took their grief and they turned it into action and they turned it into change. So many of these families have started not-for- profit organizations and started charities to try to change other people's lives. Many of these families have been deeply engaged in the work of trying to make sure that mass shootings never happen again. prgtoken There has been a lot of joy and many miracles that have resulted from this awful tragedy. It does not square the moral order of the universe, but it is important to pay tribute to the way in which so many members of the Sandy Hook and Newtown community, as well as so many families who are directly affected by this shooting, have been able to manage through the grief and perform miracles at the same time. prgtoken We just need to make a decision as a country as to whether we want to live prgtoken in a world in which this carnage continues. prgtoken This isn't an accident. It isn't bad luck. It is just a choice. It is just a choice we have made to put our kids in jeopardy every single day that they go to school--for kids who live in my neighborhood, in the south end of Hartford, put them in jeopardy every day when they
First Step Act (Executive Session)
Cory A. Booker (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2023-12-14

I am pretty excited. In fact, let's just say this is the season of joy, and I feel such joy today. prgtoken The gentleman who just spoke, the Senator from Illinois, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is a man of heroic action. What we are marking today, this anniversary, is so much due to his work and steadfast leadership on these issues years before I came here. We are celebrating this moment of joy and a moment of deep, profound gratitude, and I want to give Senator Durbin my deep thanks. prgtoken I also want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I want to thank Chuck Grassley. I want to thank Mike Lee. I want to thank all of their staffs who worked so hard for this moment. This was truly a bipartisan effort and one of the best experiences I have had as a U.S. Senator. prgtoken In addition to that, we worked with the President's staff and his team to get to that bill and that moment. We had activists across the political spectrum, people like Mark Holden, who worked for Koch Industries, all the way to folks like Jessica Jackson and Dan Jones. We had not only activists but people who were directly impacted-- advocating organizations, nonprofits--trying to bring justice to the justice system. prgtoken This bill was a product of compromise and shows what is possible in this institution when both sides come together on common ground. It was a recognition that had been growing that the criminal justice system needed reform and was devastating our Nation's prgtoken highest ideals and principles. We are a nation of liberty and justice for all. prgtoken Think about the backdrop to this. Think about all of the facts that were happening leading to this incredible accomplishment 5 years ago. prgtoken Our Federal prison system since 1980 had grown--exploded--by 800 percent. The United States of America, which professes freedom as its fundamental ideal, had more people incarcerated than any other nation on the planet Earth. One in four incarcerated people on our planet in the world was here in the United States of America. We had a system that was not based on justice or restorative justice but based on retribution and, in many ways, cruelty. We became captive of impulses of fear rather than the wisdom for healing and growth and security. prgtoken I was stunned when I first saw that data point that about a third of the adult Americans in our country--adults--had a criminal record. Think about the criminalization. Think about that. Over 5 million children in our country had a parent who was actually in jail or prison during their childhood. prgtoken This overreaction to the War on Drugs that did not--it was not a war on drugs but a war on people and disproportionately impacted certain people and not others. The African-American community is a great example. Because of this overincarceration, there were more Black folks in our country under criminal supervision--more Black men under crimina
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2670, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024
James A. Himes (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2023-12-14

. Madam , I just reemphasize what the ranking member said. We had a robust conversation about 702 this week, and there should be more robust conversation. What is completely intolerable is the notion that the authority should be allowed to expire. prgtoken As ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, by God, let's reform it, but do not let it expire. If it expires, Americans and allies will die. prgtoken I rise in support of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024 and congratulate the chairman and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee for their constructive work on this legislation which advances our national security. The partnership between the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee is as strong as it has been during my time in Congress, and I believe that this contributes to enhanced oversight of the agencies charged with protecting national security. prgtoken Among the many provisions of the NDAA, I want to particularly highlight the Intelligence Authorization Act, which is incorporated as Division G of the NDAA. Under the leadership of Chairman Turner, the Intelligence Committee has worked collaboratively and effectively to advance the IAA. The conference agreement we have reached with the Senate advances our national security while supporting the brave men and women in the intelligence community. prgtoken The FY24 IAA includes numerous provisions, the vast majority of which were developed on a bipartisan basis. To highlight just a few, the IAA includes a number of proposals I developed jointly with Chairman Turner intended to accelerate the IC's adoption of cutting-edge technology, particularly artificial intelligence. prgtoken Our ability to leverage emerging technologies to the IC's mission will determine our ability to stay ahead of our adversaries in a world of great power competition. prgtoken The legislation also includes sweeping reforms to how the CIA handles allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment. These reforms came out of a bipartisan investigation in which we found that too many CIA officers have experienced sexual misconduct and the agency's protocols for dealing with these incidents were often frustrating and not centered on victims. Our legislation would streamline those processes so victims know where to turn and what to expect. prgtoken Madam , there is no question we face dangerous and complex challenges around the world. The IC's unique capabilities are what will continue to give us the edge over our adversaries and keep Americans safe. I urge support of the NDAA and with the IAA, which is included.
Introductory Statement on S. 3549
Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2023-12-14

today I am reintroducing the Predatory Lending Elimination Act along with along with Senator Merkley, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Brown, and many of my colleagues. This important legislation would extend the bipartisan Military Lending Act's, MLA, projections for Active-Duty servicemembers and their families to all Americans by imposing a nationwide 36-percent cap on the annual percentage rate APR for most extensions of consumer credit. prgtoken To The MLA was enacted on a bipartisan basis in 2006 to rein in payday and other unscrupulous lenders that targeted American troops with abusive and predatory loans. Unfortunately, the MLA does not protect veterans or Gold Star families from these exploitative practices. Our servicemembers and their families should not lose important consumer protections simply because they retire, separate from honorable service, or lose their loved ones. As such, our legislation would extend the MLA's protections to veterans and Gold Star families as well as ensure that all Americans are shielded from predatory loans. prgtoken Hundreds of millions of American consumers could benefit from a 36- percent APR cap. In States that do not have such a cap, predatory lenders are permitted to offer loans with triple-digit APRs that trap individuals in cycles of debt. For instance, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that 80 percent of payday loans are rolled over or renewed within 2 weeks. This practice can subject borrowers not just to high nominal interest rates but also to high fees that can quickly surpass the amount of money originally borrowed. These are hallmarks of predatory lending and poor underwriting. prgtoken According to a coalition of community organizations, payday lenders are known to target the most vulnerable, including seniors, veterans, and low-income borrowers. Many in these communities were already struggling to make ends meet before the COVID-19 pandemic, and continuing to pay exorbitant APRs may cause them to fall deeper into economic insecurity. This is why it is important to extend strong protections against unscrupulous lenders to all Americans. prgtoken The MLA's successful track record demonstrates that providing reasonable, responsible limits on interest prgtoken rates does not cut off consumers' access to credit. According to a May 2021 report from the Department of Defense, ``credit cards, auto loans, and personal loans are widely available at risk-based rates under the 36 percent [military] APR'' and ``[s]ervice members continue to have ample access to necessary credit.'' prgtoken Moreover, this legislation would follow the trend in many States towards greater protections against predatory loans. Nineteen States and the District of Columbia have enacted 36 percent APR caps or banned payday loans. Lenders in these States have incentives to offer more affordable loans that borrowers have an ability to repay. The same incentives