mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
PAYING TRIBUTE TO RICHARD BARNETT
Jesús G. "Chuy" García (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-1-14

. Madam , I am delighted to be on the floor this afternoon and to join the gentlemen in honoring the life and the memory and the legacy of Richard Barnett. prgtoken Richard was a neighbor of Chicago's Lawndale community. He lived just a few blocks from my house. He worked as a U.S. Postal Service employee prior to his retirement in 1982. He was very devoted to his wife and his children and was involved in his local community--in the schools, in the parks, and in the churches--and every aspect of civic life as a good community resident. prgtoken But Richard was also a mentor to me in my earliest days as a candidate for political office. From the early 1980s, when I first stepped up, I learned how to organize in communities of color so that they could become politically empowered at the local, State, and Federal level. prgtoken He helped enrich my understanding of the Voting Rights Act and how the Federal law could help Chicago's Latino communities in the early 1980s elect people to Chicago's city council, to the State general assembly, to the Cook County board, and, yes, even to the Federal Government, a position that I can say I hold, in part, because of the mentorship of Richard Barnett. prgtoken Richard was deeply committed to dismantling the infamously corrupt and discriminatory and exclusionary Chicago political machine with new political movements that were rooted in Chicago neighborhoods, and he wanted to usher in an era of equitable and honest government. prgtoken Richard was instrumental in bringing together multiracial, multiethnic, and faith coalitions across Chicago to advance progressive public policies. prgtoken He helped me in my elections to the Chicago City Council, to the Illinois Senate, to the Cook County board, and to Congress. I will be eternally grateful for all of his assistance and mentorship and friendship over nearly a period of four decades in the city of Chicago. prgtoken Richard was a true son of his community, his people, and people all over Illinois and across the country because he sought to empower and to give a voice to the people who were voiceless. prgtoken Long live Richard Barnett. General Leave
HONORING THE LIFE OF JODY WILSON
Tom O’Halleran (Democrat, AZ) \u2014 2020-1-14

. Madam , I rise today to pay my respects to Jody Wilson, a veteran who passed away last month. prgtoken Jody was dearly loved by her friends, family, and community. She served bravely in the United States Army for 9 years. prgtoken After her military service, Jody served her community as a clerk, a nurse, and later as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. Her kindness, sense of humor, and infectious smile were sources of joy for those who knew and loved her. prgtoken Arizona has lost an incredible community member, veteran, and public servant. prgtoken Pat and I are keeping Jody's family, friends, and community in our prayers as we mourn her passing.
TRIBUTE TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL SARAH D. ECCLESTON
Jon Tester (Democrat, MT) \u2014 2020-1-14

I rise today to recognize LTC Sarah D. Eccleston for her exemplary dedication to duty and service to the U.S. Army and to the United States of America. prgtoken Over the past year, she has served as the congressional analyst and congressional liaison in the Office of the Army Surgeon General. prgtoken LTC Sarah Eccleston was born and raised in Dillon, MT, and began her Army service in 2001 as a cadet in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, ROTC. prgtoken In 2004, she was commissioned as a distinguished military graduate from the University of Utah ROTC Program and received her bachelors of science degree in nursing from Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT. prgtoken On her initial assignment as a lieutenant, she served as a staff nurse on a 32-bed multidisciplinary medical-surgical unit at the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, TX. She then attended the Critical Care Nurse Course at Brooke Army Medical Center, BAMC, in Fort Sam Houston, TX, where she began working as a clinical staff nurse in the surgical trauma intensive care unit at BAMC. prgtoken In 2009, she deployed with the 10th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Carson, CO, to Baghdad, Iraq, where she worked as a critical care nurse. Shortly thereafter, she began working as the 2nd Brigade ROTC nurse counselor at Fort Dix, NJ. She completed her time with ROTC in May of 2012 and was selected for long-term health education and training through Widener University, where she received a master's in nursing. After graduating as a critical care clinical nurse specialist, Lieutenant Colonel Eccleston was assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis, WA, where she oversaw policy and quality of practice in three intensive care units. prgtoken Prior to her current assignment, in the summer of 2018, Lieutenant Colonel Eccleston was selected to serve as the executive nurse fellow to the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Army Nurse Corps. prgtoken After graduating as a critical care clinical nurse specialist, Lieutenant Colonel Eccleston was assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Fort Lewis-McChord, WA, where she oversaw policy and quality of practice in three intensive care units. prgtoken Montanans and all Americans owe LTC Sarah Eccleston the deepest gratitude for her decade of active service to this Nation. I wish Sarah and her family all the best as they continue their journey of service. (At the request of Mr. Rounds, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)
Impeachment (Executive Session)
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-1-14

the Senate as it is currently meeting is in the normal course of business, but in just a few days, this Senate Chamber will change. It will no longer be the Senate considering resolutions and legislation; it will be a Senate considering an impeachment proceeding. It will be a piece of history for those who watch. This will be only the third time in the history of the United States of America that the Senate will be convening for an impeachment proceeding relative to the President of the United States. It is a matter of the most serious constitutional gravity, and I hope all of us as Members of the Senate will consider it and approach it that way. prgtoken Under the Constitution, we have a unique role as Members of the Senate. We are the jurors; we are the jury. There are 100 Senators who will decide whether the Articles of Impeachment should be voted on and whether the impeachment of the President of the United States should proceed. prgtoken We are also in a unique role under the Constitution in that we aren't just jurors sitting silently in the jury box. We are also judges in one respect. We set up the procedure, the way the trial moves forward. prgtoken Before I was elected to Congress, I used to practice trial law, and jurors had the ultimate word in terms of the fate of my clients, but the jurors didn't decide the procedure of the trial. That was decided by a judge. When it comes to an impeachment proceeding under the Constitution, the actual process or the procedure of the impeachment trial is decided by the jurors, the Senators. It is very unusual, but it was a decision made by our Founding Fathers to put this ultimate test of impeachment in the hands of the Senators. prgtoken Why pick the Senate? It could have gone to the Supreme Court or some other tribunal. Alexander Hamilton said that there were two reasons they wanted to bring the impeachment trial to the floor of the Senate. He said that the Senators, by their nature and political composition, would be ``independent and dignified''--his words, ``independent and dignified.'' I hope he is right. prgtoken I was here 20 years ago during the Clinton impeachment trial, and I can remember very well how the temperament and mood and environment on the floor of the Senate changed when the impeachment proceedings began. There was the arrival of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in his judicial role to sit where the current Presiding Officer of the Senate is sitting and to preside over the trial. Instantly, when you walked into the Chamber and saw the Chief Justice, you knew this was different. This was a new challenge. This was being treated differently by the Constitution. prgtoken Then, of course, each of us, having been sworn in to be Senators representing the States that sent us, take a separate oath when it comes to our responsibilities under impeachment. That oath is fairly routine, but it includes one phrase that stands out when
UNITED STATES-MEXICO-CANADA TRADE AGREEMENT
Sherrod Brown (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2020-1-14

last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It is called USMCA. I did something I have never done. I voted for it. I have never voted for a trade agreement in my time in the House of Representatives and my time in the Senate. In fact, I helped to lead the opposition to the original NAFTA among freshmen Members of Congress because I recognized that every single one of these trade agreements basically had the template of corporate interests at the center of them. In other words, these trade agreements--whether it was NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, whether a half generation later it was the Central America Free Trade Agreement, whether it was the free trade agreement with South Korea, or whether it was the Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China--all of them were written by corporate interests serving the profitability of the executives and prgtoken the major stockholders of these companies. prgtoken They all tended to precipitate this under these trade agreements in this Congress, under Presidents of both parties, I might add. I disagreed with the first President , then President Clinton, then the second President , and then President . All of them would submit trade agreements that were written for corporate interests, I believe, at the expense of workers. prgtoken What happened, typically, was that companies that lobbied Congress to pass these trade agreements would shut down production in Provo, UT, in the Presiding Officer's State, or Cleveland or Dayton, in my State. They would shut down production there, move their production overseas, get their tax breaks, and get their low-wage labor, often worked on by--almost always--nonunion workers, sometimes underage workers who were very inexpensive. The products would be manufactured and then sold back into the United States. That became the business model for company after company after company since the North American Free Trade Agreement, where corporations outsourced jobs in order to save money, always at the expense of communities, particularly in the industrial Midwest, always at the expense of workers, and always at the expense of the middle class. prgtoken It was welcome news to me when Candidate , with whom I agree with on almost nothing, said he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. So I tried to work with him. I told him that I supported his renegotiation. prgtoken I worked with Ambassador Lighthizer, the Trade Representative, the Ambassador for President --the so-called U.S. Trade Representative. I said to them that we want workers to be the centerpiece of this trade agreement. prgtoken Well, what happened? A year into his Presidency, President proposed the same kind of trade agreement that we had seen all along--a trade agreement where corporations were at the center of the agreement and workers were betrayed. prgtoken This i
Rashida Tlaib (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2020-1-14

for yielding. I appreciate this time to speak on behalf of my congressional district, which I lovingly call the ``13th District Strong.'' prgtoken , instead of working on behalf of students, Secretary DeVos is enriching predatory for-profit colleges that leave students with crushing debt prgtoken and useless degrees, and I rise today because we have to stop it. prgtoken If you want to see harm caused by the legacy of the DeVos-led policies, look no further than my district. In fact, students in Michigan will suffer for years to come because of Secretary DeVos' consistent record of putting for-profit interests first. And who are Secretary DeVos' latest targets, student borrowers who were defrauded by large for-profit colleges. Scams, . prgtoken I heard from one constituent in my district who was deceived by a for-profit college that suddenly, with no notice closed its doors 6 months into her 1-year program. Now she is burdened with thousands of dollars in loans and nothing to show for them, not even a certificate or a diploma. She did apply for the forgiveness program through the Department of Education but was denied. prgtoken If we don't stop this latest DeVos rule, we will guarantee that my constituent will bear the burden of unfairly paying for a diploma she has never received. prgtoken It is outrageous that our residents are the ones being punished instead of protected from this type of fraud and abuse. Sometimes I think these words ``fraud and abuse'' are just not strong enough. These are scams, criminal activity by these corporations coming in and targeting communities like mine that the majority are people of color. prgtoken Look at the advertisement, they are targeting specific communities where I have a number of single mothers who want to go back to school and better their lives or other folks who are nontraditional students are who they target. Again, these are the most vulnerable communities that we all represent. prgtoken We need to stop Secretary DeVos from this relentless effort to protect the bottom line for corporations at the expense of our residents, the students.
PASSING OF COURTNEY EVERTS MYKYTYN
Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2020-1-14

. Madam , I rise today to share a word about the untimely passing of Courtney Everts Mykytyn. prgtoken In 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously struck down lawful school segregation in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In a unanimous decision, the Court stated, ``where the state has undertaken to provide it, [education] is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.'' Chief Justice Earl Warren went on to state that ``in the field of public education, the doctrine of `separate but equal' has no place.'' prgtoken Courtney founded Integrated Schools in Los Angeles, California in 2015 to start a grassroots movement for school integration. Integrated Schools' mission states: ``America's schools are more segregated than before the Civil Rights Movement. . . . Through national organizing to promote local action, we support, educate, develop and mobilize families to ``live their values,'' disrupt segregation, and leverage their choices for the well-being and futures for their own children, for all children, and for our democracy.'' prgtoken As champion for educational equity, Courtney recognized that school integration is one of the most powerful tools to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to reach their full potential. She understood that the work of integrating our schools can be uncomfortable and complicated, and worked to educate parents and build community coalitions. Unlike many school integration efforts that place burden solely on families of color, Courtney's mission was also to challenge white families to integrate schools. Courtney was always intentional in her efforts as she boldly stated: ``We're [white people] the ones who kind of made it all [school integration] fail. Really fixing it has to be on us.'' prgtoken Courtney educated white families about how true school integration requires both an understanding of systemic racism in America and the careful work of relationship-building free of self-interested agendas and without employing a white saviorism mentality. When I think of Courtney's leadership on this important issue, I am reminded of the Court's 1971 opinion in Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education led by Chief Justice Earl Warren. He stated, ``. . . [A]ll things are not equal in a system that has been deliberately constructed and maintained to enforce racial segregation. The remedy for such segregation may be administratively awkward, inconvenient, and even bizarre in some situations, and may impose burdens on some; but all awkwardness and inconvenience cannot be avoided . . .'' prgtoken Courtney understood the consequences of segregation for children and our democracy. She often spoke about how segregation undermines our core American ideals of fairness and equality and worked tireless to help fulfill the promise of Brown. Courtney emphasized that integrating schools was not about sacrifice, but instead about a
CLIMATE CHANGE
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2020-1-14

the publication Grist did an article recently about climate change with a bunch of images. I grabbed a few of those images, and I have added a few in this speech because they give a pretty good overview of the mess that we are in on climate change. prgtoken Right now, the most devastating wildfires anyone can remember are ripping across Australia. Here, you see an iconic kangaroo going by a building up in flames. Those Australian fires have destroyed thousands of homes. They have killed an estimated 1 billion animals--get your head around 1 billion animals killed--and they have made a day of breathing the air in Sidney, Australia, the equivalent of smoking 37 cigarettes. In fact, I read in the news that in a tennis championship in Australia today, one of the competitors withdrew because the air was so bad that she couldn't finish her match. prgtoken Why is this going on? According to the Australia Bureau of Meteorology, Australia has warmed by about a full degree Celsius over the last century. That means a longer, hotter fire season, which loads the dice in favor of extreme winds and heat and bushfire, as they call it in Australia. prgtoken Why did it warm in Australia? The cause could not be more clear. This is the measurement of carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere, going back hundreds of thousands of years--100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800,000 years. That is way back. There was no agriculture then, no wheel then, and, for sure, no Twitter--nothing. prgtoken Over time, we have seen this steady range of atmospheric CO2 levels, running between about 180 and--here is the cresting out--just under 300 parts per million. So it is 800,000 years, all between 180 and 300 degrees. That is a 120-degree range. prgtoken We are now out of that range by more than the entire range itself. We are out by more than 120. This chart goes up to 400 parts per million. We are literally off the chart right now at 410 parts per million. Of course, this is connected to heat. That is not news. prgtoken The graphics here were compiled by Clayton Aldern and Emily Pontecorvo prgtoken of Grist. So let me take this opportunity to thank them. prgtoken This next chart shows the increase in carbon dioxide just in the last decade. This is from 2010 to 2019. If you took the previous graph, which is in here somewhere, this is just the tiniest little slice at the very edge of this--just 10 years out of 800,000. That is like one eighty-thousandths of that graph, that tiny little sliver. prgtoken In that tiny little sliver, here is what has happened. It has gone from below 390 parts per million up to 410. We hit the magic 400 back in about 2013 for the first time right here with this dot. That was a big deal. The measurement came from NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Never, ever, ever before in human history, over those hundreds of thousands of years, had we seen 400 parts per million, and in just the last deca
Nomination of Peter Gaynor (Executive Session)
Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2020-1-14

I rise to support the nomination of Peter T. Gaynor to be the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. prgtoken I have known and worked with Pete Gaynor for over a decade. Before taking over as FEMA Deputy Administrator in 2018 and becoming the Acting Administrator in 2019, Pete was the emergency management director for the city of Providence and then the State of Rhode Island. prgtoken As a U.S. marine, he was on duty near the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and helped direct important aspects of the response and recovery efforts in the days and weeks that followed. Later, he went on to serve in U.S. operations in Iraq before returning home to Rhode Island. prgtoken As EMA, emergency management agency director in Rhode Island, Pete led the response to federally declared disasters in our State and worked to successfully earn national emergency management accreditation for both the Providence and Rhode Island emergency management agencies. I know he will tap this full experience to serve the American people as FEMA Administrator, and FEMA needs solid leadership. prgtoken Indeed, as the flagship Federal Agency for disaster preparedness and response, FEMA faces extraordinary challenges, confronting the very real effects of climate-related disasters, reforming the National Flood Insurance Program, administering critical grant programs, and helping ready the Nation for possible chemical, biological, and radiological attacks. prgtoken Make no mistake, I have deep concerns about many aspects of the administration's approach to disaster recovery. Puerto Rico is a case in point. Now it is facing new challenges. As ranking member of the Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, I have been dismayed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's slow-walking of billions of dollars of disaster recovery assistance for Puerto Rico. prgtoken As the lead Agency for disaster response and recovery, FEMA must set the standard for professionalism and compassion for people and communities going through the worst experience of their lives. It is my expectation and my confidence that Peter Gaynor will work to make sure it happens. prgtoken I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm him. prgtoken With that, .