mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR
Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2017-11-15

I rise today to discuss the nomination of Dr. Mark Esper to serve as the next Secretary of the Army. The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on his nomination on November 2, and he was voted out of committee shortly thereafter. prgtoken Dr. Esper is a proud graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. Following his graduation from West Point, Dr. Esper served as a rifle platoon leader and subsequently deployed with the 101st Airborne Division during the 1991 Gulf war. He went on to command an airborne rifle company that supported a NATO rapid reaction force. As such, Dr. Esper has learned the trade of a soldier from the very basics, leading other young Americans in combat. To me, that is probably the best training one could have to be a Secretary of any service. prgtoken Following Dr. Esper's active duty service, he transferred to the Virginia National Guard. He ultimately retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. prgtoken In addition to Dr. Esper's military career, he also has a wealth of public policy service, having worked on Capitol Hill as Majority Leader Bill Frist's national security adviser, as well as serving in the Department of Defense during President 's administration. prgtoken Finally, for the past 7 years, Dr. Esper has worked at Raytheon, where he rose to the senior echelons of the company to serve as the vice president for Government Relations. prgtoken The U.S. Army is one of our greatest institutions, and if Dr. Esper is confirmed today, he will be leading an organization at a time in which it is facing many challenges. Most urgently, the Army must continue to improve full spectrum readiness while, at the same time, deploy soldiers around the world. prgtoken The Army also continues to grapple with modernizing the force, to include how best to make targeted investments in programs and canceling those efforts that are underperforming or are cost prohibitive. prgtoken Based on Dr. Esper's qualifications and experience, as well as his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, I will vote in favor of his nomination to be the next Secretary of the Army. prgtoken Dr. Esper's unique perspective will enable him to tackle many challenges facing the Army head-on, and I trust that as the next Secretary of the Army, he will do his best to lead the men and women, and their families, who serve this Nation so ably and courageously. prgtoken Once again, I would like to say that with his experience as an infantry platoon leader at the front, with soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, he knows--as few people do--the real cost of our national security and the real challenge of being in our Army. It is keeping faith with those men and women and it is doing everything they can and we can to protect this Nation. With that experience, I am very confident that he will be an extraordinary Secretary of the Army. prgtoken . prgtoken I suggest the absence of
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1, TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT, AND PROVIDING FOR PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PERIOD FROM NOVEMBER 17, 2017, THROUGH NOVEMBER 24, 2017
Jared Polis (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2017-11-15

I rise in opposition to the rule and the underlying bill. When I was growing up, I am sure, like most of us here in this body, I was fortunate to be surrounded by hardworking, dedicated teachers who cared about me, challenged me, and helped me succeed. prgtoken Throughout our public schools in any State and across the country, there are teachers who are giving everything they have to help students thrive. prgtoken Carolyn, a teacher from Louisville, is a great example. Carolyn shared with me how she spends her own personal money on school supplies for students who can't afford to buy their own. To help mitigate this cost, there is a Federal tax deduction that allows teachers to get back up to $250 of their personal money they put towards supplies in their classroom, but the bill before us denies Carolyn and all of the other teachers that deduction and eliminates the tax benefits in the name of cutting taxes for wealthy international corporations. prgtoken This bill also rolls back a critical education tax benefit that allows employers to provide up to $5,250 of tuition assistance, pretax. prgtoken In practice, it encourages workforce training and apprenticeship programs. In fact, this very week is National Apprenticeship Week, and yet the tax bill pulls the rug out from under businesses and workers, actually discouraging apprenticeships by stopping this tax benefit. prgtoken , I was privileged to serve, before I came here, as the chairman of our State Board of Education and school superintendent. I wanted to be the ranking member of the Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee. I have really seen how important these tax benefits are to teachers and students. prgtoken I offered amendments last night in Rules to simply restore these important tax credits for children. Unfortunately, in a party-line vote, my amendments were denied. prgtoken These damaging provisions are just a small part of the overall harmful, misguided attempt at tax reform. Let us reset and let us begin a bipartisan discussion about tax reform that values education, educators, and kids. For this reason and so many others, I oppose the rule and the underlying bill, and I suggest a ``no'' vote. prgtoken , .
CONSEQUENCES OF PASSING THE REPUBLICANS' TAX PLAN
Peter Welch (Democrat, VT) \u2014 2017-11-15

I would be glad to. Just by way of introduction, I thank the ranking member for his leadership. prgtoken As the gentleman said, the biggest challenge we face in this country--and it is not a or issue--is that wages have been stagnant for Americans for 20 years. They haven't had a pay raise. That is a huge challenge because the American Dream has always been premised on the fact that our parents have made an economy that has provided more opportunity for their kids. prgtoken Wages are flat. America hasn't had a pay raise in 20 years. So the fundamental question for me on a tax bill is whether that tax bill will increase opportunity for hardworking Americans. And it doesn't matter where they are prgtoken from, rural or urban. It doesn't matter what their race is. It doesn't matter what their gender or their sexual orientation is. Most Americans want to work and they want to take care of the people they love and they want to have an opportunity. prgtoken This tax bill comes up real short. By the way, I want to be somewhat self-critical of the . We haven't been where we have needed to be, oftentimes, which is for hardworking Americans, but I think we are solidly where we need to be on this tax bill. prgtoken , I will give the gentleman a couple of examples in explicit response to his question. I went out to a school that provided training for young Vermont men and women who wanted to become welders. That is a great job. They get out of school and they get a job that pays them good wages. They have got to borrow money in order to do that. prgtoken In some cases, they have an employer who pays their tuition. Under this tax bill, that young woman or that young man who gets tuition assistance from his or her employer has to declare that as income and pay taxes on it. prgtoken That is an opportunity tax. A lot of those folks have borrowed money. We have got a wonderful Vermont Student Assistance Corporation program. It doesn't matter whether you are a child or a ic child, you get low interest loans. They have lost their tax deduction. prgtoken This is when they are beginning their career, so their income is not great, and they are trying to pay their bills, maybe get a condominium; maybe, if they are really lucky, get a house. They have got to pay more taxes as a result of this bill. prgtoken The other thing is private activity bonds. This is unbelievable because what those bonds are--I didn't know much about this before I came to Congress--but it is a benefit where there can be an opportunity to borrow money from the private market, by the way, in order to provide low interest rates. The people who buy these bonds get the benefit of a tax deduction in order to provide a continuing benefit to lower interest rates for kids who are trying to get a welding degree or a community college degree or a higher education degree. prgtoken We are taking that away. We are taking away op
Republican Tax Plan (Executive Calendar)
Michael F. Bennet (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2017-11-15

all year the majority has tried to ram through legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with proposals that, in effect, cut healthcare for millions of people to finance tax cuts for those who make millions of dollars in income. All year the American people have made it perfectly clear that this was the opposite of what they wanted. Fortunately, those repeal efforts failed. prgtoken Now, instead of listening to the American people and learning from that failure, the majority has doubled down on its tax plan. Like healthcare, they have made no attempt to bring both sides together. In the Senate, we only saw the bill last Thursday. I am on the Finance Committee. I have been on there for years. It wasn't even in legislative language on Thursday. prgtoken I remember back in the healthcare debate, 9 years ago, when people were saying: Read the bill. Read the bill. We came to the markup yesterday to offer amendments. There still wasn't a bill. There was not a bill. prgtoken Thomas Jefferson used to say--and it didn't happen--that he hoped that when these legislatures were put together in the U.S. Congress, you would have to introduce a bill and, then, it would take 365 days before it could be enacted into legislation. Maybe that is where the tea party got the idea in 2009. Where are they now? We have not had a single hearing on this bill. prgtoken Now they are marking up the most consequential tax policy in 31 years, one affecting every single American and moving around trillions of dollars in this economy. prgtoken Remember back during the healthcare debate when it was 16 percent of our economy and people were saying: Read the bill. You had better read this bill. There is not a school board in Colorado that would accept this process. There is not a city council that would accept this process. We have more process for a small decision about where parking meters should go than we have had in this process. prgtoken People are upset for good reason. When you rush big things, when you don't listen to different views, you get bad policy. I have heard the majority leader say that on this floor. prgtoken There is a reason why they are trying to rush it through. There is a reason why they don't want America to have a chance to read the bill or for their representatives to this Chamber to read the bill. That is because, just like the healthcare proposals they made, the majority's tax plan is fundamentally flawed. Over the course of the campaign, President --then Candidate --promised the American people: ``No cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.'' That is not fake news. That is what he said. prgtoken He said that ``everybody's got to be covered,'' speaking of health insurance. prgtoken He said: Everybody's got to be covered. . . . Everybody's going to be taken care of much better than they're taken care of now. prgtoken He promised the public: ``You're going to e
VOTE EXPLANATION
Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2017-11-15

I was unavailable for rollcall vote No. 274, on the nomination of Mark T. Esper, of Virginia, to be Secretary of the Army. I believe Mr. Esper is well qualified to be the Secretary of the Army. Had I been present, I would have voted yea. prgtoken I would also note that I was unavailable for this rollcall vote because I was serving as ranking member at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for judicial nominees--and specifically a panel of four district court nominees from Kentucky and Kansas that had been enthusiastically endorsed by Majority Leader McConnell and Senators Roberts and Moran earlier that morning. Senator Cruz--who was serving as the acting chair of the committee for this hearing at this time--and I had hoped that the vote would be held open long enough for us to participate. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)
Tax Reform (Executive Calendar)
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2017-11-15

I was very pleased to be here for the remarks of my colleagues and friends, and I would just respond by saying that we are all for growth. We are all for growth of the American economy. I think, on this side, we are just a little bit less sure that you grow the economy by growing the share of the economy that goes to the superrich and to big corporations or that you grow the economy by growing benefits to corporations that move jobs from America overseas, and I am pretty confident that on our side we don't believe the prgtoken solution to the deficit is a tax bill that raises the deficit.
CONSEQUENCES OF PASSING THE REPUBLICANS' TAX PLAN
Mike Thompson (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2017-11-15

there have been no hearings on this bill, there have been no expert witnesses. The only help that we have gotten are from the outside organizations and the universities that crunched these numbers to be able to give us some glimpse of what is going to happen and the benefit of some analysis from the Joint Tax staff, but there have been no hearings, there have been no experts, nobody from our district who lives and breathes this, no one from our districts who are going to be impacted by this. prgtoken This was done from the top down and crammed through in the most bastardized system that I have ever seen in my years here.
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Tim Ryan (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2017-11-15

. Madam , I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this. prgtoken The last time there was tax reform was 31 years ago. Since then, 96 percent of income growth went to the top 10 percent of the people in the country. Ninety-six percent went to the top 10 percent. The top 1 percent control 90 percent of the wealth in this country. prgtoken Sixty-three percent of average families in the United States of America could not withstand a $500 emergency. prgtoken We have pensions collapsing, we have communities that have eroded, wiped out, and the plan to fix all of this is to go to the Chinese Government, borrow $2.3 trillion and bring it back to the United States and give it to the wealthiest people in this country. prgtoken That is not going to fix a damn thing in the United States. It is not going to help Flint, or Springfield, or Youngstown, or Pittsburgh, or Gary. I am talking about Gary, Indiana, will get hammered from this thing. prgtoken We have tried this before, and many of you were here. President did prgtoken this. He said: We are going to cut taxes for the wealthy. It is going to lead to growth. Wages are going to go up. prgtoken We had the most stagnant decade of growth since the Great Depression, and it ended in a complete economic collapse. This is a canard. This economic philosophy stinks. It doesn't work, and it hammers working class people. prgtoken To put a little salt in the wound, Madam , you keep the deduction that allows a corporation to outsource jobs from our communities to other countries.
FOUNDATIONS FOR EVIDENCE-BASED POLICYMAKING ACT OF 2017
Derek Kilmer (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2017-11-15

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. prgtoken Imagine you are a coder and you have a great idea for an app that predicts the weather or identifies traffic flows or helps people navigate the social service system. You know how to code the app, but you can't afford to set up your own system to collect the data--the weather data or the traffic data or what have you. prgtoken Now, imagine you build the app and you can pull data that the government is already collecting so you can build the app and use the data. It turns out that you have got something that is either good at predicting the weather or helping commuters or helping folks navigate the social services system or whatever and it grows into a business. You can actually employ people. You can put people to work. A project that may have started as a hobby could become your life's work. prgtoken The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, and specifically title II of this bill called the OPEN Government Data Act, will actually help make stories like that become a common thing. This bill gives entrepreneurs and innovators huge amounts of publicly funded data so that they can innovate and come up with applications that we haven't even thought of yet. prgtoken It also means that government agencies can share data more easily and ultimately provide services more effectively. Most importantly, it allows citizens to participate in their government by making government more transparent and accountable. prgtoken , data is the spark that drives innovative ideas, and I drafted the OPEN Government Data Act with Representatives Farenthold and Senators Schatz and Sasse to support new startups by providing innovators with the legal elbow room to use public information and public data and to create jobs. It reduces the burden to entry by lowering the cost to access and format data. It will open new business opportunities. prgtoken Making more government data public will pump up the data analytics boom currently driving new innovation, and I expect that access to this data will lead to things that we haven't even thought up yet. prgtoken I am proud to work with Ryan, Chairman Gowdy, and Senator Murray to incorporate that bill into this broader legislation. It will help us measure how government programs are actually working or not. prgtoken Establishing a data inventory will help government officials understand what data they have so that they can use it, and they don't duplicate work that is already getting done. prgtoken Making the government's data searchable and accessible will help public servants make better decisions, and it will help the public and the press hold government more accountable. prgtoken Let me give you an example I represent more military veterans than just about any Member of this body. Like many of us, I was horrified to learn several years ago that the Department of Veterans Affairs was struggling to provide the services and treatments
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Danny K. Davis (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2017-11-16

the tax bill is a dangerous bill that raises taxes on 36 million middle class households; takes healthcare from tens of millions of Americans; skyrockets the cost of health insurance for all Americans, but especially for those who are sick or have preexisting conditions; and directly results in cuts to Medicare and safety net spending next year--all to give corporate special interests immediate, permanent, and monumental tax cuts. prgtoken Cut, cut, cut is all that I have heard this week: cut the safety net; cut service for the needy; cut service for the physically challenged; cut the poor; cut the homeless; cut Medicaid; cut education; cut out low-income tax credits; cut out new market tax credits; cut out social services; cut block grants; cut student loans. prgtoken Winter is here. Cut the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. If you live in Chicago, Minneapolis, the Midwest, or the Northeast, without any heat, you are subject to catch pneumonia and die. There is no doubt about it. prgtoken I can imagine that college residents, hospital administrators, and managers of programs are wringing their hands, wondering what they are going to do. prgtoken I heard a minister last Sunday at one of the churches in my community asking this, and he said: Pray, organize, vote. prgtoken Vote against this bill.
TAX BREAK FOR THE WEALTHIEST AMONG US
Steve Cohen (Democrat, TN) \u2014 2017-11-16

what happened today on this floor was a massive tax break for the wealthiest people in our country. prgtoken Over half of the tax dollars will go to people in the upper 1 percent of the income strata. The big pot of gold at the end is eliminating the inheritance tax by the year 2024, so that the heirs of the richest will get millions and hundreds of millions and billions in tax relief. prgtoken This bill should have been geared toward the middle class. The middle class is getting tip change from a cheap restaurant, while the millionaires and billionaires are getting away with no AMT tax, changed rates at the top, and inheritance tax changes. prgtoken They get the money. The middle class gets shafted. It is a con job. It is a shame.
TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT
Sander M. Levin (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2017-11-16

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for all of his work he has done over the years. prgtoken The tax bill is built on massive deception. The deception is that, as the put it: ``The focus is on middle class tax relief.'' That is simply not true. prgtoken As the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation said, roughly one out of every four Americans with income between $50,000 and $100,000 would pay higher taxes in 2023, far overshadowing the $1,000 or so for other families. In 2019, those earning over $1 million would get an average tax cut of $73,000. prgtoken Even as modified in last-minute desperation, the wealthiest would receive 90 percent of the new tax break for so-called passthrough income. prgtoken Another deception is that tax breaks pay for themselves. On this, some people may have been in the past fooled once, fewer twice, but none thrice. prgtoken A further deception is that exploding the deficit and national debt to $1.7 trillion will disappear as it promotes growth. Not only is this a 180-degree turn, but it threatens Medicare and other critical programs and will worsen the vast inequalities in income and wealth in America. prgtoken It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. In this case, political necessity is the mother of desperation and deception.
VOTE EXPLANATION
Cory A. Booker (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2017-11-16

I was necessarily absent for the votes on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 300, the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 313, the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 314, and the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 313. prgtoken On vote No. 277, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 300. prgtoken On vote No. 278, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 313. prgtoken On Vote No. 279, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 314. prgtoken On Vote No. 280, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 313.