mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
RECOGNIZING THE HANOVER HIGH SCHOOL WILDCATS
Jerry Moran (Republican, KS) \u2014 2021-10-27

I rise today to recognize the achievements of Hanover High School in Washington County, KS. I want to offer my congratulations to the students, staff, and coaches of the Wildcats football, volleyball, boys basketball, and boys track team for winning the Kansas 1A DII High School State Championships during the 2020-2021 academic school year. prgtoken After the challenges of the pandemic, the ability of these student athletes to succeed in the classroom and on the field is admirable. Continuing education and supporting student athletes is a top priority in Kansas, and these students exemplify how resilient our children are and the importance of being a part of a team. Achievements such as these do not happen overnight; they take the support of families, friends, teachers, coaches, faculty, staff, and volunteers. It takes a community, and Hanover should be proud. prgtoken The Hanover Wildcats started the year coming out strong when the volleyball team won the State title for the first time since 1979 in straight sets against Attica High. The eight-man football team championship game against St. Francis, leading 46-24, ended a perfect 11-0 season. The boys basketball team went on to win Hanover's seventh State championship with a 24-1 record, while the boys' track team rounded out the year coming back against the odds to clinch the first place spot in the final relay at the State track meet, leaving with a lead of eight points. prgtoken These young men and women have set an example for all of us, demonstrating that success in life comes to prgtoken those who are willing to set goals and work hard to achieve them. Not only did they perform with exceptional mental and physical fortitude, but they also displayed remarkable sportsmanship while prioritizing work in the classroom and studying hard. This impressive display of prudence after a challenging school year demonstrates the grit of Hanover students in the face of difficulties. prgtoken I once again extend my congratulations to these student athletes, as well as Principal Matthew Mattos, Athletic Director Scott Hutchison, and trainer Paige Radomski. prgtoken I wish each of these young men and women continued success in the classroom and in their athletic pursuits.
HIGHLIGHTING THE LIFE AND WORK OF SENATOR K. MAURICE JOHANNESSEN
Doug LaMalfa (Republican, CA) \u2014 2021-10-27

. Madam , it is an honor today to highlight the work of Senator K. Maurice Johannessen in northern California who is still working hard at helping our veterans. prgtoken He was born in Norway many years ago, emigrated to the United States, and joined the Army in 1953 during the Korean war, serving our Nation for over 12 years. In 1960 Senator Johannessen moved to Redding, California, where he met his wife, Marianne, and raised a family. prgtoken After several years in local government, he was elected to the California State Senate where he remained for 9 years. In the State senate, he chaired the Senate Veterans Committee and authored over 47 veterans' bill and notably created the Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Igo, California, and five new veterans homes around the United States. Noticing his commitment to improving support for veterans, in 2002 Governor Grey Davis appointed him Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs. prgtoken Upon retiring from the senate, Senator Johannessen didn't stop serving our region. He is still using his own resources and community support to get a veterans memorial chapel and a state-of-the-art veterans medical clinic in Shasta County. prgtoken On behalf of northern California, I appreciate Senator Johannessen's service, and I want to thank him for all his devotion to our region.
CLOTURE MOTION
Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, WV) \u2014 2021-10-27

today, I join my colleagues to talk about highlighting some of the things that we see in the dubious environment and energy provisions included in the ' reckless tax-and-spending proposal and what that will mean to the American public. prgtoken This week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a nonpartisan governmental group, forecasted that the cost of Americans' natural gas bills will go up 30 percent this winter. We are getting ready to get into the cold winter season. That means American households will spend an average of $746 on gas heating in the months from October through March--30 percent more than last year. prgtoken Now, maybe to some people, $746 doesn't sound like much, but if you are on a fixed income and you have to pay that every month, that means having to make difficult decisions. prgtoken Also, with natural gas, which is the primary heating fuel for 48 percent of American homes, which is nearly half the country, this has huge implications for our families. prgtoken As I said, just think of retirees in West Virginia, who are on fixed incomes. That 30-percent increase is huge and unmanageable. People already struggle to pay their energy bills in normal times, but with this increase, difficult decisions will have to be made in many households. prgtoken Think of a family of four just trying to get through--trying to get through the school year--and they have just enough to buy the necessities for their children, and now their heating bill is 30- percent higher. That is a big hit to that family. prgtoken Americans who rely on propane will face an even greater price increase, and that is a lot of Americans. The EIA said it is expecting a 54-percent increase this winter. prgtoken So with Americans facing eye-popping increases in home heating, Congress should be considering legislation that lowers those costs by producing more energy here at home; but, instead, the House Energy and Commerce Committee reported legislation to impose a methane tax, which would really be called a natural gas tax. prgtoken This regressive provision would make already high heating costs even worse this winter and beyond, and low- and middle-income families would suffer because we know those costs always get passed on. The natural gas tax would put jobs in the energy sector in my home State at risk. This week, we saw reports that this tax may drop out of the reconciliation package. Good news for me, and it would be good news for States like ours. prgtoken But even without a natural gas tax or the devastating Clean Electricity Payment Program, which also is rumored to be on the chopping block, the remaining provisions in the ' legislation wastes taxpayers' dollars and includes broad, new regulatory policies that would change this country. prgtoken For example, there is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. It is a $27.5 billion slush fund for ic States and progressive organizations
CLOTURE MOTION
Mike Lee (Republican, UT) \u2014 2021-10-27

in politics, on television, on social media, and pretty much everywhere, it seems that people are decrying the surge of ``misinformation.'' False information and dangerous ideas exist, but the cure to factions of falsehood and the kinds of harms coming from them was something that was prescribed in the very early days of our Republic. prgtoken James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10 of the value that our large Union would always possess in defeating self-interested and dangerous ideas and philosophies and specifically factions. The answer is simple: Our free society, with free exchange of ideas, allows for a multiplicity of viewpoints, perspectives, and opinions to be heard, and then the true, correct, and useful ideas tend to rise to the top. prgtoken Madison wrote: The increased variety of parties comprised within the Union, increase . . . security. prgtoken At this point, I would add that the definition of ``parties'' here is best understood to encompass information, ideas, and opinions--all things that tend to unify people around one faction or another, one party or another, one group of people or another. prgtoken But, oh, how many have lost their way since then. Be it through mandates, censorship, cancel culture, or something else, it seems that this dialogue of ideas and information is being rejected by many segments of our society. What a shame that is. It is an even greater shame that, often, this is the result of government action. prgtoken Yesterday, I came to the Senate floor with one of my dozen bills to try to counteract President 's vaccine mandate. This bill that I offered up yesterday required only that the Secretary of Health and Human Services provide the information the Department already has on adverse COVID-19 vaccine effects to the public. We have already got this information. We just wanted them to share it with the public, with the American taxpayer--those who have been footing the bill all along. Regrettably, the senior Senator from Washington objected to the bill and described it as a waste of time and one that would somehow undermine trust. prgtoken My response to that is simple: Why would we ever want the Federal Government to hide any health information from Americans? If we want to build confidence in these vaccines, and we do--I certainly do--then the Federal Government must get out of its own way and build trust and confidence with concerned Americans by sharing information. prgtoken Allow me to be abundantly clear. I am very much against the vaccine mandate, but I am for the vaccine. I have been vaccinated. I have encouraged others, including my family, to be vaccinated, and they have done so. I believe these vaccines are miracles. They are helping many millions of Americans to avoid the harms of COVID-19. But there are many Americans who are deeply concerned with the vaccine. They are not going to be people who are simply convinced by cruelt
GAIN OF DYSFUNCTION IN WASHINGTON
Billy Long (Republican, MO) \u2014 2021-10-27

you hear a lot today about the gain of dysfunction research. prgtoken Gain of dysfunction research is going on right here in Washington, D.C and I say it is time we put a stop to it. This gain of dysfunction research leads us to all kinds of problems in our country that we weren't facing before January 3 of this year and most definitely before January 20 of this year. prgtoken Our friends across the aisle have proposed $5.5 trillion in new spending, $2.1 trillion in new tax increases, the highest level of spending and highest level of tax increases in history. prgtoken Now, they can say no one under $400,000 has to pay these new taxes, but through the dysfunction of Congress and the White House, this gain of dysfunction research must stop. prgtoken People under $400,000 are paying 42.1 percent more for gas. It is kind of a status symbol today to be able to fill your tank up with gas. prgtoken Gas utilities are up 20.6 percent. I only wish in my hometown that is all we were going to face this winter. Propane, kerosene, firewood are up 27 percent. prgtoken The energy crisis, national average for gas up to $3.38. prgtoken And not to mention the dysfunction going on at our border, the worst border crisis in 30 years, 192,000 in apprehensions. prgtoken I say it is time to end the state of dysfunction in Washington, D.C. research.
RECOGNIZING THE LIFE OF WALTER GANN
Trent Kelly (Republican, MS) \u2014 2021-10-27

. Madam , I rise today to celebrate the life and service of Corporal Walter Gann, an American hero from Mississippi, who defended liberty against impossible odds in the Pacific during World War II. prgtoken Walter, born in Calhoun City on January 31, 1922, joined the U.S. Army on July 3, 1941. By July 15, he was aboard the USS Coolidge deployed to the Philippines as a member of the Army Signal Corps assigned to 409th Signal Company (Aviation) at Nichols Field outside Manila. The plan was to erect radar towers, but none of the equipment needed arrived on the ship with them. prgtoken Imperial Japan attacked the Philippines on December 8 and all the critical airfields were destroyed by December 10. Walter's company and the airmen were soon sent on combat prgtoken duty in the Bataan Peninsula. He was assigned to U.S. Army Forces Far East (USAFFE) headquarters at Little Baguio near the tip of Bataan. prgtoken The troops on Bataan, running out of ammunition, food, and medicine, with no hope of resupply or reinforcement, were surrendered by their commanding officers on April 9, 1942. Walter was among 86,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war who were forced on what became known as the infamous Bataan Death March, one of World War II's worst war crimes. In the tropical sun, deprived of food, water, and mercy, the men trekked 65 miles up Bataan to a train station. There they were packed standing 100 to a boxcar for the next 24 miles. Men died where they stood. Survivors marched another eight miles to their first POW camp, O'Donnell. prgtoken Walter, POW No. 203, was shipped to Japan in July 1943 packed in the dark, fetid hold of the hell ship Clyde Maru with 500 other POWs. He was sent to be a slave laborer at Fukuoka No. 17 POW Camp attached to the Mitsui-owned Miike coal mine in southern Japan close to Nagasaki. Starved, beaten, and denied medical care, he was forced to dig coal in a primitive mine until the camp was liberated in September 1945. The coal mine is now a UNESCO Industrial World Heritage site, albeit without mention of the thousands of POWs held there or that the mine had remained reliant on manual labor and not modem machinery. prgtoken Although asked to testify in Japan at the war crime trials held from 1946 to 1948, Mr. Gann could not return because he remained too sick from the various illnesses he suffered from during his three and one- half years as a POW. For the remainder of his life, Walter bore the weight of all the horror and inhumanity he had witnessed. When he was able to work, Walter was a truck driver. prgtoken In 1949, Walter moved to Booneville, Mississippi, and married Juanita Goddard. Together they raised four children. In 1963, he lost both his wife and his stepson. In his later years, he lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, until he passed away on October 14, 1980. prgtoken During his lifetime, Walter was awarded the Good Conduct Medal, the Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, th
EXECUTIVES SESSION
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2021-10-27

it is another day and another really bad idea that is coming from the to fund their reckless tax-and- spending spree. It seems like, to fund this massive amount of spending, they are trying desperately to come up with new revenue sources, so much so that, as of yesterday, still under consideration was a tax on unrealized gains--in other words, on income that people haven't received yet. prgtoken Let's just put that into perspective. prgtoken If carried to its full conclusion and it became a precedent as part of the tax policy in this country--and it never has been before--to put it in terms for people to understand, a lot of people participate in the 401(k) or they have some sort of retirement plan from their employers. If there were a gain in a particular year--say that the total value of the portfolios of assets in their retirement plans, those 401(k)s, went up by 20 percent--they could be taxed on that 20 percent even though they haven't received the income yet. prgtoken That is what is being talked about here in terms of precedent. Never before has that been attempted or tried or implemented in American history, where you would actually have a tax on income before people actually ever received the income. prgtoken Of course, if you carry that to its natural conclusion, as we all know, markets go up and markets go down. If you had a year wherein your total value went down by 20 percent, then what? Do you get a refund from the Federal Government? My understanding is that they would offer some sort of a tax credit, in a case like that, if you had a year when you had losses. prgtoken Just think about the precedent that would establish, what that could mean for the American people, if at some point the government literally could tax you--tax you--on income that you hadn't received yet. prgtoken That is the latest really horrible idea which I think is being shot down by because they recognize what a horrible idea that is. But it is a good example of the desperate lengths to which are trying to come up with new ways to fund this reckless tax-and- spending spree that they seem to be insistent on trying to force through Congress. With an evenly divided Senate and evenly divided House of Representatives, it is hard to imagine that you could do something that radical, but this entire proposal is that radical, which is why they are having such a hard time getting even people in their own caucuses to agree with it. prgtoken Two years ago, introduced their original Green New Deal resolution. While the guiding principles of the Green New Deal was climate change and energy, didn't limit themselves to these issues. They outlined a radical, comprehensive socialist revamping of our society with the Federal Government inserting itself into nearly every aspect of American life. And while haven't advanced one all-inclusive bill to implement the Green New D
GOVERNMENT SPENDING
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2021-10-27

in a few days, President is set to gas up Air Force One and jet to Scotland for a global conference about the climate. According to press coverage, the President's agenda is clear: `` Wants to Show the World He's Serious About Cutting Emissions.'' `` gets real on climate change.'' prgtoken What we are talking about here is a meeting to review a plan that failed to get its own signatories to meet its unenforceable ``commitments;'' a deal that couldn't compel the world's largest carbon producer, China, to commit to any less than another 9 years of rising emissions before it starts--starts--to turn things around. This is a country with single companies that emit more carbon than nations the size of Canada. Let me say that again. China is a country with single companies that emit more carbon than nations the size of Canada. And all the while, the United States, from outside the deal, cut our emissions more than any major country inside the deal. We cut our emissions more outside the deal than any of the countries inside the deal. prgtoken The administration is desperately chasing bad deals to win applause from foreign leaders. That is what this is about: signing the American people up for self-inflicted pain for no meaningful gain. prgtoken The only thing that is serious about President 's environmental agenda is the trouble that it is already causing right here at home. Our adversaries like Russia are salivating over big windfalls while working American families are already feeling the pain. prgtoken Remember, on day one, this administration put a freeze on crucial development of domestic energy and killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, along with over 1,000 jobs. Combined with ' flood of inflationary spending, it is no wonder consumers are facing the highest prices at the pump in 7 years, the most expensive home heating forecast in more than 12 years, and soaring prices on the household goods that are costing U.S. manufacturers more to make. prgtoken Ah, but wait. There is more. When President jets off to next week's summit, his fellow will be busy plotting yet another reckless taxing-and-spending spree that would compound the pain with more anti-energy policies. They want to create new taxes on the most affordable and reliable forms of American energy that would put producers out of business, workers out of jobs, and make home heating even pricier this winter. They want to put billions more into ``environmental and social justice block grants,'' whatever that means. They want to subsidize the favorite products of blue State elites, like electric cars and even--listen to this--electric bicycles. prgtoken also want to pour billions of dollars into a made-up government work program they are calling the Civilian Climate Corps-- Civilian Climate Corps. This is pure socialist wish-fulfillment. We already have a worker shortage and record n
TAKE PRIDE IN OUR COUNTRY
Tim Burchett (Republican, TN) \u2014 2021-10-27

. Madam , the American taxpayers are expected to write the a blank check for this socialist scam. prgtoken want to squeeze as much money as possible from successful individuals and businesses. prgtoken Madam , this is completely wrong. We shouldn't be punishing success in America to finance this far-left political agenda. It is obvious why is pushing so hard for an aggressive expansion of government dependency programs and the dismantling of domestic energy production. He wants to virtue signal to his globalist pals during the United Nations climate summit this weekend in Scotland. prgtoken like are embarrassed and ashamed of our country. He desperately wants acceptance from European countries to boost his progressive ego. prgtoken Why do we care what foreign elitists think of our country, Madam ? needs to prioritize American citizens instead of European politicians. prgtoken We do things differently than the rest of the world. I am proud of our national values. The leader of our government should take pride in the country he leads, too.
TRIBUTE IN MEMORY OF NANCY MITCHELL
Harold Rogers (Republican, KY) \u2014 2021-10-27

. Madam , I rise to pay tribute to the memory of my dear friend, Nancy Mitchell of Corbin, Kentucky, who earned her heavenly reward on October 24, 2021 after an extended battle with cancer. prgtoken Nancy and I first became acquainted when her husband, Bob Mitchell, helped lead my first congressional campaign in 1980. I asked Bob to serve as my District Director in 1981, and for 40 years, even after Bob retired, Nancy was a tried-and-true member of Team Rogers, quickly earning the friendship of countless folks across southern and eastern Kentucky with her welcoming smile and delightful personality. When it was time to hit the road for Town Hall meetings across my expansive rural, mountainous district, Nancy put her life and her business on hold to join us for many long days and nights traveling from county to county, learning how we could help prgtoken improve Kentucky's Appalachian region. It was truly a family affair. prgtoken After Bob and Nancy's daughters, Stephanie and Jenny, were born she focused her time on raising two incredible girls. Bob and I spent many days, covering a lot of miles across Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District every week, and Nancy never failed to provide unwavering support and encouragement along the way. prgtoken Nancy was the epitome of a leading lady with tremendous class. She built Mitchell Tax and Accounting from the ground up, starting with an office in their home so she could work while raising their two girls. She grew her business from a small tax service into one of the leading accounting firms in southern Kentucky, and she did so by treating her clients like true friends and beloved neighbors. In addition to running her own business, Nancy went on to be the first woman ever elected to the Corbin City Commission, simultaneously serving two terms as Vice Mayor of Corbin. She generously shared her expertise and savvy business style as a Trustee for Union College, a member of the Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals, and the KCEOC Community Action Partnership's Board of Directors. Nancy was also a dedicated Sunday School teacher, and she had a God-given gift of making every child feel special. In every aspect of her life, she was gracious with her time, humble in her conversations, and full of joy. prgtoken While expanding her business, Nancy never lost her passion for politics and public service. She served as Vice President of the Kentucky Federation of Women, Vice Chair of the Party of Knox County, and Treasurer of Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District Lincoln Club. In 2012, Bob and Nancy were jointly inducted into the Fifth Congressional District Lincoln Club Hall of Fame. prgtoken Above every achievement and success of her own, there was nothing that she took more pride in than her family, and especially her grandchildren: Tori, Taelor, Trenton and Ethan--who are all brilliant. Nancy beamed with pride when she shared stories about their latest accola