mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
VETERANS' ACCESS TO CHILD CARE ACT
Elissa Slotkin (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2019-2-8

I rise today to offer an amendment to H.R. 840, the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act. prgtoken As a former national security official, as the wife of a retired Army officer, and a stepmom to a new Army lieutenant, I strongly support H.R. 840, the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act, and any legislation that helps our veterans access and use VA healthcare that they have earned and to which they are entitled. prgtoken My amendment would take a simple but important step toward better serving military families and veterans. Specifically, it would authorize the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs to consult with the Secretary of Defense in implementing this legislation. prgtoken The need for better DOD-VA coordination on every front is not new. From education to job training and healthcare, Congress has taken many steps to encourage, to prod, to require, and, in some cases, to demand that DOD and the VA work together and better coordinate the services they provide to military families and veterans. prgtoken And as I can tell you from very personal experience, you do not have to spend much time with veterans in my district to know the stories of faulty connections, gaps in communication, and mismatched systems that confound our ability to serve military families and veterans evenly. prgtoken I am standing here today because I believe we should take every opportunity to encourage the kind of coordination that eases these connections. Childcare is an area in which DOD and the VA can and should collaborate more closely, especially as the two departments work to better coordinate the provision of healthcare benefits to millions of retirees and their families. prgtoken The Veterans' Access to Child Care Act would add valuable childcare services to VA patients to help them keep vital medical appointments that they might otherwise have missed in the absence of childcare options. prgtoken Simultaneously, the Department of Defense has been working to expand childcare options for military families, addressing an urgent need for services that don't just care for families, but contribute to military readiness. prgtoken Both of these efforts are vitally important, which means that the Department of Defense and VA should look for any opportunity to work together and expand childcare options for the families they serve. What's more, thousands of military members on Active Duty and in the Reserve component are married to veterans. Thousands of dual military families today will eventually become military and veteran families tomorrow, and my stepdaughter is married to a military officer, so this one is particularly personal. prgtoken This is just another reason that coordination between the Department of Defense and VA childcare programs can help us better serve these populations. prgtoken Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment to push for stronger coordination between the VA and the Department of Defense.
VETERANS' ACCESS TO CHILD CARE ACT
Jared F. Golden (Democrat, ME) \u2014 2019-2-8

. Mr. Chair, I want to start, first of all, by thanking the chair and ranking member of the committee, Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Roe. I appreciate their work on this bill and the committee bringing this forward so early on in the year. prgtoken I also want to thank Congresswoman Ann Kuster for cosponsoring this amendment. prgtoken I offer this as one of many veterans who has depended on VA mental health services. Like so many other veterans, I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress after my service in Afghanistan and Iraq. prgtoken When I returned home to Maine after completing my service, I struggled a bit. It took me over a year to accept that I actually needed help of any kind, but when I did finally get to that point, one thing that helped me was readjustment counseling at a local vet center. prgtoken Readjustment counseling is another term for mental health services that help veterans and their families transition from the battlefield to civilian life. Readjustment counseling helped me to better understand that the physical and emotional reactions I had returning from Iraq were, in fact, normal. Once I understood this, it became easier for me to deal with these reactions head-on. prgtoken I know firsthand how easy it is for real life to get in the way of seeking the mental healthcare that a veteran needs. You will make almost any excuse that might come your way--or reasonable excuse, sometimes--to avoid seeking these services, so I think it is important to knock down those barriers and make it as easy as possible for veterans to access the ability to go to an appointment. prgtoken Knowing how difficult it can be sometimes when life gets in the way, I am not surprised that 10 percent of veterans have had to cancel a necessary VA appointment because they didn't have childcare. When you consider that number, it is clear that veterans and their families sometimes need access to childcare so they can get to their mental healthcare appointment. prgtoken This bill, the Veterans' Access to Childcare Act, makes that childcare available to vets and their families when they need it. prgtoken None of my fellow veterans should have to choose between caring for their children and getting the mental healthcare that they need; and, just like I did, many veterans need readjustment counseling. My amendment makes sure that readjustment counseling services are covered under this bill. prgtoken Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this important amendment, and .
VETERANS' ACCESS TO CHILD CARE ACT
Gerald E. Connolly (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2019-2-8

. Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 840, the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act, which permanently authorizes the Veterans Affairs' (VA) Child Care Program. prgtoken Absent Congressional action, the VA's Child Care Pilot Program will expire on October 1, 2019. prgtoken This bill would ensure that all veterans who are primary caretakers have a safe, reliable, and cost-free option for child care when they access VA healthcare. prgtoken I have previously supported this bill, when the House of Representatives passed H.R. 95 in the 115th Congress. prgtoken I support H.R. 840, and I would vote for this legislation tomorrow. However, I will be speaking at the funeral of a dear friend.
MORNING BUSINESS
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2019-2-11

due to the actions of the Department of Justice, I have placed a hold on Donald Washington to be Director of the U.S. Marshals Service. This hold does not reflect any misgivings I may have prgtoken against Mr. Washington. I believe he is a man of great integrity, and his previous role as a U.S. Attorney has prepared him for the post he has been nominated to. Mr. Washington is an excellent candidate, and I look forward to supporting his nomination. However, I cannot allow his nomination to proceed at this time due to the actions of the Department of Justice. prgtoken On December 10, 2018, the Department of Justice agreed to provide my staff with a briefing on the Marshals' apparent misuse of the Assets Forfeiture Fund. Then on January 7, 2019, less than 24 hours before the briefing was set to take place, the Department cancelled on account that I was no longer the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. prgtoken As I have explained several times, it is the constitutional duty of every Member of Congress to conduct oversight. Furthermore, at the time that the Department communicated their cancellation, I was still chairman of the Judiciary Committee. prgtoken I am placing this hold on Mr. Washington, a Department of Justice nominee, until the Department of Justice fulfills the promise to provide my staff with a briefing of the Assets Forfeiture Fund.
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2019-2-11

imagine going into a U.S. prison and announcing that a substantial number of the prisoners had to be released immediately--no exceptions, even if the prisoners in question had participated in serious crimes or committed violent offenses. That is an unthinkable scenario, and no one would seriously suggest going into our Nation's prisons and immediately releasing thousands of prisoners, including violent offenders onto the streets. Yet that is exactly what are proposing as part of a border security agreement. prgtoken Over the weekend, proposed capping the number of illegal immigrants who could be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Incredibly, they are refusing to allow an exception to the cap for violent criminals. Under ' proposal, if Immigration and Customs Enforcement needed to detain more than 16,500 violent criminals in the interior of our country, they simply wouldn't be able to do it. Instead, immigration enforcement officers would have to choose which violent criminals to release back into our communities. Think about that. prgtoken Obviously, everyone who has come here illegally has broken our laws, but in a lot of cases in question, we are talking about people who have violated other laws, like laws against assault, rape, murder, theft, drug trafficking, and more. We are talking about limiting law enforcement's ability to make sure that those individuals are detained. prgtoken It isn't just about future detentions either. If the ' enforcement cap went into effect, Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be forced to release criminals already in detention onto our Nation's streets. prgtoken Additionally, there are an estimated 180,000 criminal illegal aliens in the United States who currently are not in custody. prgtoken So, under the ' proposal, not only would Immigration and Customs Enforcement be forced to release violent criminals, for all practical purposes, it would also be prohibited from trying to take additional dangerous criminals off of our streets. prgtoken Let's be very clear about what we are talking about here. We are talking about limiting the ability of a law enforcement agency to enforce criminal laws. No administration of either party would accept an arbitrary limit on the number of criminals it would be able to detain. No administration would or should sign off on a law that would force law enforcement agencies to leave violent criminals on our Nation's streets. prgtoken As of a couple of days ago, the s, I would say, were encouraged by the bipartisan nature of the negotiations to prevent another government shutdown. Then the came forward with this absurd proposal to limit law enforcement's ability to detain even dangerous criminals. prgtoken Are trying to derail negotiations with a poison pill at the eleventh hour and force another shutdown? The question has to be asked sinc
MAKING FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019--MOTION TO PROCEED
Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK) \u2014 2019-2-11

we are here this Monday afternoon to continue debate on S. 47, which is our Natural Resources Management Act, which we introduced just last month with Senator Cantwell. We have been working on this bill with not only Senator Cantwell and Senator Manchin but with the chairman and ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee. We did that last fall when the composition of that committee on the House side was a little bit different and now in this new year. We have been working forward with the commitment from our respective leaderships to bring this measure to the floor early in this Congress, and here we are. prgtoken I am very thankful and appreciative to Leader McConnell and Senator Schumer for keeping their word to allow us a few days of debate on this very important natural resources and lands package. We have a great partnership going on in working with my new ranking member on the committee, Senator Manchin, in working with his team in conjunction with ours, and, again, in building on the great, great work that we have had with my friend and colleague from the State of Washington, Senator Cantwell, and her team. There have been so many who have really come together in a very collaborative way and in a very dedicated way to help make this happen. prgtoken I make mention of the contributions of a few Members on our side and a few Members on the ic side who have really been engaged with us throughout this process--Senator Gardner, Senator Daines, Senator Wyden, Senator Heinrich--and of the dozens of Members who are on this measure as cosponsors. We truly appreciate it. prgtoken We made some good progress last week. We reached agreement to enter into debate on our bill. We considered two amendments. Both of those amendments were tabled in order to preserve what we would refer to as the spirit of the bicameral-bipartisan agreement. We anticipate one more amendment to process today before we move to a cloture vote. I am pleased that we are at this point as we near the end of the floor debate on this measure, and I would like to spend just a few moments this afternoon, if I may, speaking to the really extensive process that has gone into this bill. prgtoken It is a substantive bill. There is no doubt about it. It is substantive because of the many, many different, discrete, small provisions that have been incorporated into it. Reaching this point has been no small task. I mentioned last week the way that we handle many of these lands matters before the U.S. Senate. It is an imperfect process--that is certainly for sure--but so many of these issues are so parochial that they just do not command the floor time that is available here. Invariably, what we effort to do is to put together a package of these measures. We really haven't seen a lands package before the Congress that has been ready to move out or, actually, be signed into law--that is, I guess, the best way to say it--
BORDER SECURITY
Tim Burchett (Republican, TN) \u2014 2019-2-11

I rise today to ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to finally come to the table for a meaningful discussion around securing our Nation's borders. prgtoken The ' leadership would have the entire country believe that our President and the s are the ones holding up negotiations to avoid another unnecessary government shutdown, but it is the President and the House s who have come to the bargaining table in good faith. prgtoken Just this week, there were rumors that a deal was near with less border funding than the President and my party wanted. That is what happens in negotiations: We give, and they take. prgtoken Now that we are close to a deal being cut, the are moving the goalpost, . This brand-new cap on ICE detention beds came out of thin air and is proof that the are willing to do anything to keep from making a deal with the President and the s. prgtoken What is worse, the move by the would make our country less secure. It is just a backdoor attempt to get rid of ICE entirely. prgtoken The citizens of this country deserve better, . They deserve a government that works. Let's do the job our constituents sent us here to do.
BORDER SECURITY
Liz Cheney (Republican, WY) \u2014 2019-2-11

I rise today because every American should know that we are now at the point where the are demanding that ICE release dangerous criminals onto the streets of the United States. prgtoken First, they demanded that we not build a wall. Their leader said that would be immoral. Now they are demanding that we release dangerous criminals we have already apprehended. prgtoken , they are threatening to shut the government down, they are so committed to this position. Most Americans know their government's most sacred obligation is the defense of the Nation. The want to abolish one of the very agencies tasked with this responsibility. This is a backdoor effort to do so. prgtoken Under this latest proposal, ICE has said they could be required to release as many as 15,000 criminals on to our streets. The far left radical positions of today's are threatening the security of our Nation. prgtoken It is time to build the wall, secure our borders, support our law enforcement, and keep dangerous criminals off our streets.
CREATING ADVANCED STREAMLINED ELECTRONIC SERVICES FOR CONSTITUENTS ACT OF 2019
Garret Graves (Republican, LA) \u2014 2019-2-11

I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding. prgtoken , years ago, they created something called the internet. If you are not familiar with it, I would urge you to go to your local library, go to the card catalog system to get the right Dewey decimal number, go find a book, and read up on it, because apparently many in our Federal Government haven't realized that this has been created. prgtoken As was noted a little while ago, in 1974, there was an act called the Privacy Act that was passed--1974. Since that time, we have had companies like Apple and Amazon and Microsoft and many others that have proliferated and are now worth billions and billions of dollars, some of the largest companies in the world. prgtoken , this is similar to us having to mail in a form to get an ambulance to come to our house. prgtoken As was noted by some of the previous speakers, in many cases, people contact us because of emergency situations. We have had family members contact us when their loved ones were stuck overseas in emergency situations. We have had people contact us because there was water filling up their home and they needed emergency services at the time. Under the Privacy Act of 1974 that was written 45 years ago, we were unable to help them, as Mr. Meadows noted, unless they sent us a signed privacy release form. prgtoken I remember distinctly, in August of 2016, when we had a record flood in my home State of Louisiana, talking to constituents who were on their cellphones saying that their homes had 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 feet of water and asking for help with FEMA, the Small Business Administration, and other government services, and myself or other folks on our team having to tell them: You bet, we want to help you. All you need to do is go to your computer, go to this website, click the link, print it out. prgtoken You can imagine the response from people: I would love to be able to go to my computer right now. I would love to be able to find it, if it wasn't under 4 feet of water right now. prgtoken Incredibly frustrating. prgtoken , the government today has a customer service approval rating of 70 percent--70 percent is the customer service approval rating. While that was sufficient to get me through high school, that is not okay for the Federal Government. It is entirely inappropriate. prgtoken This bill simply updates the Federal Government to put it online with how we file our taxes, how we handle our banking, insurance, and virtually everything else we do, ensuring that when people contact us, we can use those same technologies to protect privacy, that we can ensure the right people are asking for the right approvals, and we can quickly, within minutes, begin providing them services through their own Federal Government. prgtoken , I thank my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for persevering and continuing to work with us on this. I want to thank my friends, Mr. Meadows from North Carolina and Ms. H
ISSUES OF THE DAY
Ted S. Yoho (Republican, FL) \u2014 2019-2-11

I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. prgtoken , as I was talking earlier about the drugs coming in, the methamphetamine and the fentanyl that is coming in, these aren't coming in by the honest farmer or ranch hand or farmworker in Mexico. These are orchestrated by drug cartels. prgtoken Keep in mind, the methamphetamine and the fentanyl coming into this country primarily comes via China, so you have nation-states that are sending products into this country. China is trying to re-create the Opium Wars of the 1800s with our youth in this country. prgtoken , Mr. Walker brought up the deaths, and I feel really bad for his family to have his brother-in-law go through that. I can't imagine the pain and the horror. prgtoken There are 300 opioid deaths a week in this country alone, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. prgtoken A good friend of mine, he is a heart surgeon in Gainesville, Florida. He said: Ted, that is just the tip of it. I have a young lady in, and it is her fourth heart valve replacement. At 25 years of age, the fourth heart valve replacement, because as they use the drugs, they don't use sterile techniques. They get infected. Their immune system goes down, and the bacteria will grow on the heart valve. Her fourth one. prgtoken I said: Tom, what is the cost of that? prgtoken He said: The average heart valve is close to $100,000. $400,000, and if she dies, she doesn't die from a drug overdose. In the records, it is from heart failure. prgtoken So the 300 a week who we know are dying from drug overdoses, that is just the tip of the iceberg. prgtoken We talk about the cost. You can put a monetary cost on the deaths and the EMTs and all the emergency support staff and the ERs that we as taxpayers are funding, because, as he said, guess who paid for that? I said the hospital. He said: Absolutely. No insurance. prgtoken We can put a price on that, a monetary price, but you can't put a price on the disruption and the loss of a family member, as Mr. Walker's family went through. The price of that goes on forever. prgtoken If we look at just numbers, from a typical number standpoint, we get 2,000 inadmissible migrants arriving at our southern border daily. That means, since January 2, when the took over, 41 days approximately, that means there were 82,000 inadmissible migrants who came into this country or were trying to. prgtoken Of the family units--that is a spouse, a husband and wife, or just a mother and father with their children--in the last 41 days, that equates to 36,395 family units. prgtoken If you look at the illegal aliens arrested for homicide charges just in the last 41 days, it is more than 228 arrests. prgtoken Let's take politics out of this argument, and let's do what is right by the American people: fund our government, fund DHS, secure our borders with any means from above. prgtoken , I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his passion about this.
PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY DONATION REFORM ACT OF 2019
Mark Meadows (Republican, NC) \u2014 2019-2-11

such time as I may consume. prgtoken , I rise in support of H.R. 1063. I appreciate the gentlewoman's remarks as it relates to this particular bill. The bipartisan Presidential Library Donation Reform Act, which was introduced by the gentleman from Maryland, my good friend, Mr. Cummings, is certainly one worthy of our support, . prgtoken Under current law, Presidents can fundraise for their Presidential libraries through private, unlimited donations while they are still in office. There are no current requirements for any Presidential library fundraising organization to disclose the source or size of the donation it receives. Donations can be from individuals, companies, associations, and foreign governments, with no transparency. prgtoken Presidential libraries have become more expensive throughout the years. President Clinton's library cost $165 million. President 's cost $250 million. President 's is projected to cost more than $500 million. prgtoken This bill requires Presidential library fundraising organizations to disclose to the National Archives information about contributors who have donated $200 or more in any quarter. The National Archives would then be tasked with making the data available on its website in a downloadable format. prgtoken H.R. 1063 also sunsets the disclosure requirement to when the management of the actual library is transferred to the National Archives. prgtoken , this is a bipartisan piece of legislation. It is a pro- transparency bill that has already passed the House, as my colleague mentioned, not once but three different times, with overwhelming support under both ic and majorities. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and .