mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 1370, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY BLUE CAMPAIGN AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2017; PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4667, FURTHER SUPPLEMENTAL...
James P. McGovern (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2017-12-21

we are strongly opposed to this rule. prgtoken , I have to say to my colleagues that this is really a sad day, not only for the institution, but for the United States of America. prgtoken It is frustrating that we are here today doing a third continuing resolution. For those who are watching these proceedings, we should be actually passing appropriations bills that fund the government for an entire year. We shouldn't be funding the government week to week, month to month. prgtoken Yet my friends have ended up doing just that. They can't seem to get their act together, notwithstanding they are in control of the House of Representatives, they are in control of the United States Senate, and they are in control of the White House. They simply cannot govern. They are lucky that the American people can't sue them, because they would be sued for political malpractice. prgtoken The one thing that they are supposed to do is to keep this government running and to keep the lights on, yet we lurch from one crisis to another crisis to another crisis to another crisis. prgtoken Today, what they are saying is: Let's kick the can down the road until January 19. You know what will happen then? prgtoken Another crisis. Then we will be in the same situation, and we will probably kick the can down the road another few weeks. prgtoken That is not the way government is supposed to run. People need certainty, and this Congress has delivered anything but certainty. It has to stop. It is frustrating. prgtoken A solution, if I can be so bold as to suggest a solution to dealing with some of the problems that the leadership is confronting, might be a little bipartisanship, might be opening up this process a little bit, might be a little bit more deliberation on the floor of the House of Representatives. prgtoken There are a couple of ways they can govern. One is, they can govern in a way where they respect all points of view, where they actually respect the viewpoint of the minority, where they open the process up so the minority can, every once in a while, offer some amendments and offer some alternatives, where they negotiate on spending bills in good faith, where they know they are not going to get everything and the minority knows they are not going to get everything, but they end up in a compromise that is good enough to get bipartisan support. prgtoken That is the way things used to be done around here. I don't know why it is so difficult to get back to those days, but if they want the government to run better, that is what they need to do. They have to stop this my-way-or-the-highway approach to every single piece of legislation that comes before this body. prgtoken My friends have had more closed rules than any other session of Congress. This is the most closed session in the history of the Congress. That is what this session will go down in history as being: the most closed session in the history of Congress.
DACA
Elizabeth Warren (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2017-12-21

just yesterday, the -controlled Congress passed a massive tax giveaway that will shovel truckloads of money into pockets of giant corporations and the superrich, while it leaves working families behind. And that is just the latest in a laundry list of presents that have been doled out to folks at the top. For everyone else, it has been one broken promise after another. prgtoken One of those promises was to protect 800,000 Dreamers who were brought to the United States as kids. broke this promise when he ended DACA, the program that allows Dreamers to live, work, and study in the United States without fear of being deported to countries they barely know. Because broke his promise, it is up to Congress to stand up and protect Dreamers by passing a clean Dream Act--a bill that gives legal status and a path of citizenship to those young people. prgtoken I want to introduce you to one of those Dreamers--Elias Rosenfeld. Elias was 6 years old when his parents brought him and his sister to the United States. He doesn't have many memories of his life in Venezuela, but he did hear stories from his parents and his grandfather about the everyday risks that they faced. One day, while his mother was driving, she pulled up to a stop light, and a man pulled a gun on her. Another day, his grandfather withdrew money from an ATM and then was robbed at gunpoint. prgtoken So when Elias's mother, who was an executive at a multimedia company, had an opportunity to transfer to an office in Miami, FL, she jumped at it. Elias's family came to the United States legally. They applied for and they received a visa that allows executives and managers from other countries to work in the United States and eventually apply for permanent resident status. Under that visa, the entire family would become permanent residents and would never have to worry about losing their status in the United States. ``Permanent'' is the key word here. Well, at least that had been their plan, only things didn't go the way they had been planned. prgtoken When Elias was 11, his mother died of cancer. He didn't know it at the time, but the day his mother died, Elias and his family lost their path to permanent resident status and became undocumented. prgtoken After his mother died, Elias clung to the belief that an education was his ticket to a better life. He challenged himself academically, taking 13 advanced placement courses and earning A's in almost every class. He also juggled a number of extracurricular activities, including speech and debate, student government, volunteering with children and the homeless, and starting his school's first traveling Model United Nations. His excellence earned him a place on the dean's list, as well as a long list of awards, including the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust Change Maker Award. prgtoken Elias so impressed the school's staff that his high school activities director called Elias a hero an
HONORING MARY COBB-HILL
Barbara Lee (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2017-12-21

I rise today to honor the remarkable life of Mary Alice Cobb-Hill, a singer, and pianist, and impresario of the negro spiritual, who passed away on December 9, 2017. prgtoken Ms. Hill was born in Oakland, California on March 16, 1945 to Mary Magdalene and Roosevelt Cobb. Her parents instilled in her from an early age a love of music, and in particular the spiritual and gospel music which was a staple of their family worship services. Mary's mother was a teacher, and she imbued the music with a strong understanding of the history behind it, especially the experiences of the black struggles for freedom from slavery. prgtoken Mary attended Golden Gate Academy in Oakland, and later studied at Merritt and Laney Colleges, along with the Pacific Union. She also took private music lessons in classical opera singing. prgtoken Mary made the preservation of the Negro spiritual her lifelong passion. Throughout her life, she spent more than 50 years singing and performing in this historical tradition. She also worked to advance the tradition by writing three original musicals, Flowers from Heaven, Dis Train, and The Seven Exaltations of Simeon of Cyrene. prgtoken In addition to her work as a performer and writer, Ms. Hill also dedicated her life to teaching others about the history and technique of the Negro spiritual. She founded and served as the creative director for the Voices of Legacy, a community choir that performs in churches, schools, and community events, and was selected to perform at the inauguration of then mayor Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco. Through her work as an educator, Ms. Hill has trained scores of new performers and fostered a love of the Negro spiritual tradition in new generations. prgtoken Through her tireless efforts, Ms. Hill endeavored to use the Negro spiritual tradition to maintain a link between those whose experience and yearning for freedom initially created the music, and modern generations who can learn from that struggle to continue the push for true equality. I am grateful to her for her dedication to promoting African American culture and history, and keeping alive the stories and traditions of our ancestors. prgtoken Ms. Hill is survived by her husband, Carl, and her daughters Maranatha and Gabrielle, as well as her grandchildren Duane, Josiah, and Nicole. She is also survived by her brothers Paul & Michael, her sisters Gloria Jean, and Sharon, and their families. prgtoken Today, on behalf of California's 13th Congressional District, it is my honor to commend the life and achievements of Ms. Mary Alice Cobb- Hill. I offer my sincere gratitude for her continued commitment to promote the arts and arts education, and for the profound legacy she has left in our East Bay community. I also offer my condolences to Ms. Cobb-Hill's family and friends as they cope with this immeasurable loss and join together to celebrate her life.
TRIBUTES TO AL FRANKEN
Jeff Merkley (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2017-12-21

back in 2007 and 2008, a group of us who had never run for Congress or for the Senate jumped into campaigns against incumbent Members of this body, hoping to fight for a vision of government of, by, and for the people. Al Franken was one of those individuals taking on an incumbent, Norm Coleman, and as I heard Senator Franken on the campaign trail, I heard what we heard today in his speech: a willingness to fight for that vision so embodied in our Constitution of government that would provide a foundation for families to thrive, that would lift everyone up; not a government of, by, and for the privileged; not a government of, by, and for the powerful. prgtoken It takes a lot of guts to throw yourself into the political world, but because he did and because he won that campaign, we were able to advance a number of policies. prgtoken I shared with Al the experience not only of running against an incumbent but not having results on election night. However, I only had to wait 2 days; I didn't have to wait the many months that he did to come and be part of this body. prgtoken Because he came, we were able to pass the Affordable Care Act. My home State of Oregon went from 15 percent uninsured to 5 percent uninsured. Hundreds of thousands of people gained access to healthcare through the expansion of Medicaid and through the healthcare exchange made affordable by the tax credits provided by that bill. In that bill, we were able to provide free preventive healthcare practices. We all know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and we embodied that in the healthcare bill. In that bill, we fought for folks to be able to stay on their parents' policies until age 26. In that bill, we fought to say that if someone had a preexisting condition, they wouldn't have to pay any more than anyone else would, creating healthcare opportunities for millions of people who thought they would never have a chance to have an insurance policy again. prgtoken Al Franken threw himself into public life, and he made that happen not just for the folks back home in Minnesota but for people across this entire Nation. prgtoken Another such battle was the Dodd-Frank battle, and again I doubt we would have been able to win that battle without his coming to share in that effort. I think about the fact that we had seen so many millions of families devastated by predatory mortgages with exploding interest rates--interest rates that, upon presentation, started at 3 percent or 4 percent but 2 years later would jump to 9 or 10 percent, and a family would end up in foreclosure. The fact is we had Wall Street writing securities based on those mortgages, which then disintegrated in 2007, 2008 and caused people not to just lose their homes but to also lose their jobs, to lose their retirement, and to be incredibly devastated and see their whole lifetime's work to become financially stable evaporate, des
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY BLUE CAMPAIGN AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2017
Steny H. Hoyer (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2017-12-21

I thank Mrs. Lowey for yielding. prgtoken Here we are again, . Two weeks ago, the majority asked for another 2 weeks to write an appropriations package to fund the government, yet now they are asking to kick the can down the road one more time. prgtoken We all knew that those 2 weeks were a pretense for getting the votes to pass their tax bill. We didn't make any progress on a bipartisan appropriations bill. prgtoken Before that, s asked for an additional 12 weeks in September. We all voted to give that 12 weeks. prgtoken All of us know exactly why the can keeps being kicked farther and farther down the road. It is because the majority cannot muster a majority of their own Members to support bipartisan funding bills. Because the governing party, which controls the House, the Senate, and the White House, has not been able to govern. prgtoken Senate Whip John Cornyn said on Sunday: ``The can always seems to be kicked down the road.'' prgtoken Yet here we are again with s doing exactly that. prgtoken , let's call the CR for what it is: a chaotic retreat from rational, regular, and fiscal responsibility. We have alongside it a supplemental funding bill that provides some prgtoken additional emergency relief to those affected by natural disasters, but it ought to do more, in my opinion, to help those in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. prgtoken It has been 3 months since Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and since Hurricane Harvey visited so much water on Houston. prgtoken Many still do not have electricity or running water in Puerto Rico. These are our fellow Americans. We owe it to them and to ourselves to help them in their time of need. prgtoken , Congress can do better, and it should do better. We should act in a bipartisan way. prgtoken I was on the Appropriations Committee as an active member for 23 years. I was a member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. I told people that you could take the 13 of us--we were eight and five s-- and thrown us up in the air, we would have come down in random seats, had a markup, and you would have been hard-pressed to identify the or the , because we believed our responsibility was to fund the priorities of this country. prgtoken Now, I know that we passed 12 bills.
44 YEARS OF HOME RULE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Eleanor Holmes Norton (Democrat, DC) \u2014 2017-12-21

I come to the floor this evening to commemorate 44 years of home rule. The Home Rule Act was signed by President Richard Nixon on Christmas Eve 44 years ago after the Home Rule Act was passed by a bipartisan vote. prgtoken Although it was a ic Congress, I think it is worth noting what President Nixon said in his signing speech. I am going to quote a few of his sentences: ``As a longtime supporter of self-government for the District of Columbia, I am pleased to sign into law a measure which is of historic significance for the citizens of our Nation's Capital. I first voted for home rule as a Member of the House of Representatives in 1948, and I have endorsed the enactment of home rule legislation during both my terms as President.'' prgtoken Then he went on to say: ``It is particularly appropriate to assure those persons who live in our Capital City rights the privileges which have long been enjoyed by most of their countrymen.'' prgtoken The bill enjoyed bipartisan support throughout those congressional deliberations. prgtoken , surely we can get back to that moment. The District of Columbia is proud and pleased that it has been steeped in American history ever since the site of the Nation's Capital was chosen by George Washington himself. prgtoken We are proud to be not only hometown D.C but the Capital of our country. prgtoken So this evening, I want to speak about those two roles and about the role of Congress as we move past December 24, 44 years ago--1973--to today, when D.C. residents have every reason to believe that our country is ready and overdue for D.C. statehood itself. prgtoken Now, my colleagues understand fully our role as the Nation's Capital. They understand it because they welcome their own constituents, prgtoken the tourists who come here. There are something upwards of almost 20 million. Many of them come to their own congressperson's offices first. But s often dissolve the District's role into their role without making the appropriate distinction. prgtoken Now, I appreciate it is not easy to understand a jurisdiction that has a double identity, a hometown identity and a Capital identity. prgtoken No, we are not schizophrenic here. So let's discuss this evening what this means. I want to discuss it in part because the inevitable turnover in the Congress means that I should come to the floor and explain this dilemma of our creation periodically. prgtoken The first thing we want to do is to avoid the slander that the Framers of our Constitution, the Founders of our country, meant to create a Capital City whose residents were not the equals of residents everywhere in the country, because if that had been the case, you wouldn't have had the Capital in the first place. prgtoken The Capital was created from two jurisdictions, Maryland and Virginia, where residents had the right to vote and where they had every single right of American citizens. Those two States were
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY BLUE CAMPAIGN AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2017
Betty McCollum (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2017-12-21

I rise in opposition to this continuing resolution. prgtoken The Federal Government's fiscal year started 3 months ago. The Congress still hasn't passed a full year of Federal spending. Rather than protecting our Nation and meeting the needs of the American people, we are now debating a third continuing resolution to kick the can into January. prgtoken s control this House, the Senate, and the White House, but, clearly, they do not take their responsibility to fund the Federal Government seriously. Frankly, they should be embarrassed. prgtoken For the past 3 months, have sought to work with s to secure a budget agreement and responsibly pass appropriations bills, but s have been too busy to meet this basic responsibility. Instead, they have spent months working in secret on their deficit- busting tax scam. prgtoken Let's be clear: the tax scam is part of this CR as well. The CR contains language to exempt the 's lavish tax cuts for big corporations and billionaires from the statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act. prgtoken s passed their tax scam knowing it was fiscally irresponsible and that it would trigger cuts to Medicare, the Crime Victims Fund, and other vital programs, and trigger an increase in Federal student loans. Now they are asking to help bail them out. prgtoken While I didn't vote for the tax scam and I am not going to paper over their mistakes so that President can sign it into law, here is what I will do, . prgtoken As the ranking member of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, I know appropriators are as frustrated I am. I want to work with them to find common ground and to responsibly fund our government. It is time for appropriators to do our jobs and for s and to work together. It is time for us to get back to work and fund the Federal Government responsibly.
INTERDICT ACT
Sherrod Brown (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2017-12-21

as we await Senator Markey's and Senator Johnson's remarks, I wish to set the stage. The CDC released a new report last night showing a massive increase in the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses. prgtoken My State is second to the Presiding Officer's State. It has the second highest rate of deaths per capita in the country. In my State of Ohio, unfortunately, far too many people die from opioid overdoses than any other State in country. Families are torn apart. Children lose parents. Parents lose sons and daughters. prgtoken The CDC pins much of the blame of this epidemic on this relatively new deadly synthetic fentanyl. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin. Senator Capito knows that, as do Senators Johnson and Markey. All of us in the Senate are aware of that. prgtoken This drug is being illegally trafficked into this country from Mexico and China. We have a bill to stop this today. The INTERDICT Act. I want to thank Senator Markey for his leadership on this bill and also my colleague Senator Portman for his support. Senator Portman and I have been working on a number of issues across party lines for months and months. It would provide more funds for Customs and Border Protection to screen packages effectively and safely, to stop fentanyl whenever possible before it reaches Akron, Toledo, Dayton, or the smaller cities of Chillicothe, Mansfield, and Zanesville. prgtoken This passed the House with only two or three negative votes. It has the support of major law enforcement organizations, including sheriffs and police officers. Our law enforcement officials, better than anybody, see the devastation that fentanyl causes our communities. They know the risk our officers face dealing with this deadly substance. That is why this bill needs to pass into law. prgtoken Just this week, the National FOP, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative--a recent phenomenon, unfortunately--all publicly asked us to pass the bill. prgtoken Americans are dying in record numbers. Life expectancy in our country--I believe, for the first time in the lifetimes of any of us-- actually dropped last year. Think about that. prgtoken We have made progress, as I mentioned, in this body. I wear a pin on my lapel of a canary in a bird cage. The mine workers in West Virginia, Ohio, and elsewhere would take this canary down to the mines. If the canary died, the mine worker was on his own. He didn't have a union strong enough or a government that cared enough to help him. In those days, people lived 45 years on average--for a person born in the United States in 1900. prgtoken Today we live 30 years longer for a whole host of public health reasons--from Medicare to Medicaid, to safe drinking laws, to clean air, to minimum wage--all the things that we do. For the first time, I believe, in our lifetime, life expectancy actually has dropped because of drug overdos
IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL STUDIES
Donald M. Payne, Jr. (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2017-12-21

our public schools and public universities are essential for economic growth and educating future generations. prgtoken But knowledge alone is not enough. Our Nation's future depends on innovative ideas, and innovative ideas require diverse people working together. In the public schools and public universities across the country, educators are helping foster diverse ideas through cultural studies. prgtoken One such educator, Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams of New Jersey City University, has used poetry, film, scholarship, and service as a way to help young people explore issues that affect women and minorities. She has spent her career helping public university students understand the experiences of marginalized communities in the United States. prgtoken , I commend Dr. Ellis-Williams and cultural studies educators like her for helping future leaders develop the knowledge and wisdom to work together for a better future. She has been an asset to educating young people in the State of New Jersey for years, and I commend her.