mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF SPECIAL OLYMPICS WYOMING
John Barrasso (Republican, WY) \u2014 2022-9-20

I rise today to recognize the 50th anniversary of Special Olympics Wyoming, an organization that has made a profound difference in the lives of many Wyoming citizens. prgtoken In October, Special Olympics Wyoming will celebrate its 50th anniversary held in conjunction with its annual State Fall Tournament in Casper. prgtoken Special Olympics was founded in 1962 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. It began in Maryland as a summer camp for youth with intellectual disabilities. Rosemary Kennedy, Eunice's sister, had an intellectual disability and was the inspiration for Eunice. By 1968, Special Olympics had become a worldwide sensation. Over 1,000 participants competed in the first International Special Olympics Games in Chicago. prgtoken Special Olympics Wyoming was established 10 years later in 1972 by Helen and Lloyd Wampler. Their first event was the Wyoming Summer Games at Natrona County High School, where 215 athletes competed in track and field or swimming. prgtoken Special Olympics Wyoming offers year-round athletic and sports training for youth and adults who have an intellectual disability. They provide ``opportunities to develop physical fitness skills, express courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of talents, skills and friendship with their families, friends, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.'' prgtoken As the Wyoming athletes strive to meet their athletic goals, their participation and success within the program accentuates why Special Olympics Wyoming was started. Today, there are roughly 1,600 active athletes throughout Wyoming who participate in 16 different sports. prgtoken Special Olympics Wyoming hosts five annual statewide events that promote healthy competition, refine athletic skills, and build friendships statewide. These events include the State Winter Games, State Summer Games, Summer Sports Classic, Equestrian Show, and the State Fall Tournament. prgtoken Former Special Olympics Wyoming CEO, Priscilla Dowse, is an exceptional example of this type of dedication. During her 44-year involvement in the program, Dowse more than tripled the number of athletes, expanded the unified partners from 70 to 525, and increased fundraising efforts from $15,000 to $186,000 with the partnership from Wyoming law enforcement. prgtoken Her commitment to Special Olympics Wyoming led her to travel internationally and incorporate different training and leadership programs in an effort to improve Special Olympics Wyoming. Dowse described Special Olympics Wyoming as `` . . . a place that individuals with intellectual disabilities had a place to shine, to be successful, to have fun and laugh. And I was mesmerized,'' prgtoken Since Dowse's retirement, the organization has continued to grow under the leadership of Jen Haines. As Dowse said ``if you put a team together, there's almost nothing they can't do.'' Jen's unwavering commitment will be a strong asset as the organization
Immigration (Executive Session)
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2022-9-20

our overwhelmed Customs and Border Protection personnel have already encountered more than 2 million illegal immigrants and counting just this fiscal year. prgtoken This is a larger group of people than the entire populations of 14 States, and this record-shattering 2 million apprehensions only counts the subset of people who were actually caught. Experts estimate hundreds of thousands more people on top of that number who simply got away. prgtoken The latest reports say that CBP encountered more than 200,000 people just in the month of August alone, and more than 20 percent of those people were not first-time border crossers but rather repeat offenders who had already previously been expelled or deported; tens of thousands of individuals who had already been thrown out, flooding back in every single month. prgtoken Orderly, legal immigration is part of what makes America strong; anarchy and open borders make us weak. prgtoken There is nothing compassionate or humane about the border crisis that ' mixed signals and failed policies have unleashed. prgtoken It is not fair to American citizens; it is not fair to law enforcement; and it is not fair to the people who have been encouraged to undertake desperate and dangerous journeys by years of signaling to the world that there are no real consequences for breaking our laws and cutting in line. prgtoken Vice President says ``the border is secure.'' The American people know better, and they are furious. Illegal immigrants know better as well. prgtoken For years, Washington have attacked s for calling for basic border security and law enforcement. The ic Party line throughout the last 5 years has been that enforcing existing immigration law would be cruel and securing our borders would be xenophobic, but over the last few days, some liberals seem to have changed their tune. prgtoken Out of desperation, a few Governors along our southern border are now giving some -run States and cities just a tiny, tiny taste of what border communities have been enduring, literally, for years. prgtoken According to the Washington Post, the total number of individuals whom Texas and Arizona have helped relocate to New York, Washington, and other places in recent months is roughly on the order of the number of illegal immigrants who arrive at our southern border in a single day--1 day. prgtoken All those cities combined have had months to accept, between them, approximately 1 day's share of our Nation's illegal immigration. prgtoken But the ic mayor of New York City is now declaring that his government's resources are ``at a breaking point''--at a breaking point. prgtoken According to the Post, these border States have sent to New York City less than 1 day's worth of illegal crossers, spread out over more than a month, and the self-proclaimed sanctuary city apparently cannot take it. prgtoken The Governor of
JOINT CONSOLIDATION LOAN SEPARATION ACT
Gregory F. Murphy (Republican, NC) \u2014 2022-9-20

first and foremost, I want to say how deeply I appreciate Mr. Price's hard work over the last couple of years on S. 1098. I thank him very much for his efforts on this key and very bipartisan issue. prgtoken It is clear that there is bipartisan support that victims of spousal abuse should be able to sever these consolidation loans without penalty or delay. I don't think that is the question. The question here is the change in the calculus because of what President has done. prgtoken While I support the intention of this bill to separate these loans, President 's unconstitutional, only-able-to-be-done-because-of- his-abuse-of-power student loan giveaway has drastically changed the context in which we consider this bill. The President, in his actions, has undermined what was a clear bipartisan effort. prgtoken S. 1098 gives the administration the authority and creates a pathway which could be used for loan forgiveness, again taking money from people who didn't benefit from a college education and making those individuals pay for it. prgtoken Once these loans are separated into the Direct Loan Program, these loans will be eligible for 's near-trillion-dollar student loan giveaway. s made a good-faith effort to amend this legislation to protect taxpayers, but refused to close this loan forgiveness loophole. prgtoken Our solution, the Simplified Joint Consolidation Separation Act, will allow borrowers to separate their loans in a more timely manner to expedite financial freedom while protecting taxpayers by focusing on the administration's authority to directly aid those most in need. prgtoken This targeted, commonsense legislation should garner immediate support from both sides of the aisle and will actually correct the issue that we all want solved.
Inflation (Executive Calendar)
Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, WV) \u2014 2022-9-20

since the administration really likes to celebrate things, I rise today on the 1-week anniversary of their party last Tuesday for their so-called Inflation Reduction Act. prgtoken Last Tuesday, most Americans and, certainly, most West Virginians weren't in a celebratory mood. West Virginians started their day with news that inflation rose to 8.3 percent in August, while President and his party and climate activists began setting up for their Inflation Reduction Act party at the White House. prgtoken Meanwhile, that same day, the U.S. stock market had its worst day since June 2020, as the White House and its fellow celebrated their green spending bill that would only extend inflationary pain, but it does expand U.S. and IRS enforcement on Americans who are struggling to afford basic necessities. prgtoken Days after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published an analysis that the Inflation Reduction Act would actually not reduce inflation, particularly in the short term, President announces that he will do student debt cancelation that would add another trillion dollars to the deficit. prgtoken Today and tomorrow, the Federal Reserve, which is our U.S. monetary watchdog, is meeting to set new interest rates in a bid to tame inflation. The body has had to raise interest rates aggressively by three-quarters of a point. In June, Chairman Powell, who is the Chairman of the Fed, admitted that the rate increase is ``unusually large'' and would not be ``common.'' The Fed will likely raise interest rates again by the same amount tomorrow, for the third consecutive time in a row. These are the most aggressive rate increases since the 1980s, when my mortgage was way into the teens, that Chairman Powell has plainly stated will bring ``pain to households and businesses.'' prgtoken We can't forget that the alone passed a bill last year that they called the American Rescue Plan, which rescued nothing and, instead, endangered our fragile economy coming out of COVID by hypercharging inflation. alone drafted and pushed forward their most recent bill, bypassing the normal committee process, and alone passed it, rejecting every amendment along the way. prgtoken In short, these policies continue to destabilize every single corner of our economy. Well, how do we know this? We see some of the statistics that I talk about. Well, I know it because West Virginians have lived it, and I hear from them frequently about their legitimate concerns. A retiree from Clarksburg, WV, wrote to me recently saying that she and her husband are ``struggling every month'' despite having done their due diligence to save well for their retirement. She says they are trying not to dip into their 401(k)s or their TSP retirement accounts but that it is getting ``harder and harder'' not to do that. prgtoken As inflation drags on, the lifespan of retirement savings will
JOINT CONSOLIDATION LOAN SEPARATION ACT
Virginia Foxx (Republican, NC) \u2014 2022-9-20

the balance of my time. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to consider the solution s have put on the table. Borrowers wanting out of joint consolidated loans should have the opportunity to separate, but the method we use to get this done is important. prgtoken S. 1098, the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act, will take the Department 12 to 18 months to implement, far too long for some borrowers who are in urgent need of help. This legislation could also backfire on the very borrowers we are all working to help. prgtoken Additionally, this bill's sloppy and vague language could pave the way for even more Federal power grabs over the student loan system. Given what we have seen from this administration, we cannot open any doors to further student loan debt schemes. prgtoken Bottom line, S. 1098 delays support for borrowers who need assistance immediately, cedes more control to the Education Secretary, and fails to protect the borrowers and taxpayers. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation, and .
ECONOMICS 101
David Schweikert (Republican, AZ) \u2014 2022-9-20

forgive my getting organized. The floor has been moving a little faster than we expected. prgtoken , I am going to try a couple of things and try not to bore everyone out of their minds over the next hour. Some of what I am going to touch on is going to be a little technical. Part of it is really cranky. prgtoken I have a number of different boards, and they are going to try to hit different points in different orders. I will beg of staff, help me sort of get them all stacked up right here, if we could. prgtoken First thing, I want to go to geek town for a moment. Just to put this in perspective, I have come to this floor since January talking about inflation. Now, how many of you remember the discussions we were all having--actually, it would be more had at us--that inflation was transitory. Now, they sort of apologize--the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Secretary Yellen, hopefully the White House, though the White House seems to be disconnected from reality--that it is not transitory. prgtoken If you saw the numbers that came out last Thursday, Friday, we have something called structural. What does that mean to anyone? Does this place even care to understand? prgtoken First, let's do the first bit of geeky. When you hear a discussion that the yield curve is inverted, how many of you immediately reach over to your television and say, ``Oh, God, I have the wrong channel on,'' and turn it off? It is not that complicated. It is a way of people using big words to try to sound smart. prgtoken Inverted yield curve just means, hey, I expect over the next 2 years to have higher inflation so the value of my dollar goes down faster than I do over the 10 years. prgtoken That means if I buy a 10-year bond, I might be willing to take an interest rate here, but I expect inflation to be so high in the next 2 years, I want a higher interest rate because, theoretically, it is real simple: When things take longer, you should have more risk and, therefore, want a higher interest rate. prgtoken Why is this important to a conversation on the floor of the House? Go look on your favorite financial website right now. The 2 years has a higher interest rate than the 10 year. The 5 years has a higher interest rate than a 10 year. The 7 year has a higher interest rate than the 10 year. That is the markets telling you that they expect inflation to be with us for years. prgtoken You also saw in the inflation report we received last week, you saw my brothers and sisters on the left: Hey, energy prices are down--yay. Oh, why is the core inflation so high? prgtoken Congratulations, you did it. Functionally, 30 years of substantial stability in inflation, and we got ourselves a wage-price spiral. We dumped, in March 2001, so much money into the economy that it set off what is called a wage-price spiral. Wages go up; you have to raise your prices. Well, if you raise your prices, you have to pay your workers more. If you pay your workers more, you
AMENDMENT TO MONTREAL PROTOCOL (``KIGALI AMENDMENT'')
Ted Cruz (Republican, TX) \u2014 2022-9-20

reserving the right to object. prgtoken Let me start by expressing agreement with my friend from Virginia on two points he just raised: No. 1, his very good advice to the pages here and to any Senate staff that might be listening. The best thing to do probably is do not tweet. But if you must tweet--and I am guilty of that offense myself--remember that your tweets can and will be used against you; that the internet is forever. And as the father of daughters, I sometimes am terrified of what our children will say and to see it come back to haunt them years and decades later. prgtoken And the second thing my friend from Virginia said that I also agree with is he said, administrations from both parties have neglected the Americas. I think that is a serious problem. I am a strong believer in the Monroe Doctrine. I think the United States of America has a pivotal leadership responsibility in North America and in South America. And I think under both and administrations, too often the executive branch has neglected the vital role of Central America, of South America, of our friends throughout the Americas. I think that problem has been exacerbated under the administration because under the administration, not only have they neglected the hemisphere, but what little attention they have given has had the effect of elevating the extreme left in Latin America--elevating socialists, elevating Marxists, elevating terrorists, and elevating enemies of America. prgtoken We see this tragically in the recent election in Colombia, where a strong friend and ally of America is now led by someone who had been a hard-left active terrorist, and I believe the administration's actions, including delisting multiple terrorists from our official terrorism list, played a role in elevating an anti-American leftist in Colombia. prgtoken Well, how does that relate to this nomination? I rise to express very significant concerns with the nomination of Mr. Martinez Nucete. prgtoken For one thing, at the outset, Mr. Martinez Nucete is a man of the left--a man of the hard left. Now, the Senator from Virginia suggested that he may have sent an ill-advised tweet now and then, and that is true, but that is not the basis of my opposition. prgtoken He has been a hard partisan his entire life, and even further than that--and this is really quite remarkable--Mr. Martinez Nucete was actually a Socialist congressman in Venezuela. Under Hugo Chavez, he was a member or his party was a member of Socialist International, and he was a man of the hard left, the anti-American hard left. prgtoken Hugo Chavez was an unshakable enemy of America. Nicholas Maduro continues to be a brutal dictator, an illegitimate leader, and an enemy of America. prgtoken I believe President nominating a fellow traveler, a Socialist congressman from Venezuela, for a major role dealing with Latin America is astonishingly ill-adv
AMENDMENT TO MONTREAL PROTOCOL (``KIGALI AMENDMENT'')
James M. Inhofe (Republican, OK) \u2014 2022-9-20

there is this old document that no one reads anymore called the Constitution, and I think some of my colleagues should give it another read today. prgtoken The Constitution tells us what Congress is supposed to be doing here in DC, and that is national defense. It is right there at the top. Now, some of my colleagues don't agree with it. They don't have that as the No. 1 concern. I think the majority do, but there are some who don't. prgtoken I would say this: For 61 years now, for 61 years in a row, Congress has fulfilled this duty by passing the National Defense Authorization Act to strengthen the common defense and support our troops. That is 61 years. That is a long track record. And this year will be my 62nd, and I am proud to say that I have had the opportunity to vote on over half of them in that timeframe. So I think I have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to get this bill done and the significance of this bill. prgtoken The way this typically works is the House does their bill; then the Senate does ours; and then we go into conference and create a bipartisan, bicameral conference report. That is commonly, normally what takes place. But that takes time. It really takes months. You know I have been in a position of being active in this for a long period of time. So when I look at the legislative calendar right now, I get concerned. The days are ticking down, and, frankly, we are running out of time to get this bill done, to do it the right way, and we are talking about the most important bill that we consider all year. Now, some people don't agree with that, but I certainly do. This tells us our ability to defend and help America to survive. prgtoken Senator Reed and I believe deeply in this bill. We held a markup on June 15 and reported out a strong bipartisan bill. That was 3 months ago. Now, we have got an election in November that will likely eat away at the limited time that we have. prgtoken We saw last year what happens when this bill isn't given enough floor time. Last year, Majority Leader Schumer waited until the last possible moment to try to jam through the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, without debate right before Thanksgiving. If he delays it again, we don't get an open amendment process where every Senator has a chance to improve the bill. Now, we are talking about every Senator--not just the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee but all the others who are out there who have an interest in how to make this a better bill. prgtoken We have a virtually unlimited amendments process that we have enjoyed in the past. Now, if he delays, we get jammed in negotiating a conferenced bill with the House. The whole process would take longer, which leaves our military with more uncertainty and prevents them from moving out and getting things done. There are real consequences to waiting this long. It is bad for this institution. It is bad for our troo
AMENDMENT TO MONTREAL PROTOCOL (``KIGALI AMENDMENT'')
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2022-9-20

for each of the past 61 years straight, the Senate has passed the National Defense Authorization Act. I still remember the Presiding Officer's predecessor, John McCain, who used to rail on the Senate to get this done and making the very correct point that this should be the No. 1 priority of the U.S. Congress--making sure that our men and women in uniform received the training, the support, and the weapons they need in order to keep America safe. prgtoken The annual Defense bill is part of Congress's commitment to give our men and women in uniform the resources they need to surmount the growing threats of today and prepare for the ones that inevitably will come tomorrow. prgtoken As we know here in the Senate, the global threat landscape is not getting easier. It is getting more and more dangerous. Some of the changes happen quickly and can be traced to a single moment in time. prgtoken For example, September 11, 2001, changed everything in our conversation and our acts to fight terrorism across the world. That single day and that single act forced us to reexamine our longstanding military paradigm prgtoken and change course as rapidly as we could. prgtoken But other threats grow over time. Just look at the rise of the People's Republic of China. Over the course of roughly four decades, China has transformed itself from a poor, isolated country to the world's second largest economy. Its wealth is used to finance a powerful military, with increasingly aggressive and hostile acts. prgtoken Looking back over the last year or so, it is remarkable to consider how much has happened and how quickly the global threat picture has shifted. prgtoken Last year at this time, American troops were still on the ground in Afghanistan, but President made the decision to retreat ahead of the 20th anniversary of September 11, and our servicemembers and diplomats were preparing for what we assumed would be an orderly withdrawal. There wasn't much optimism about the long-term fate of the Afghan Government, but it was expected to hold out for at least 6 months following our withdrawal. prgtoken At the same time, tensions between Russia and Ukraine were high, but nothing really much new. The countries have had a long, tense relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but there didn't seem to be any reason for immediate alarm. Ukrainian cities were as vibrant, lively, and free as ever. prgtoken In a little over a year's time, though, all of that has changed. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan before our troops even exited, leading to a chaotic exit and the loss of 13 heroic servicemembers and other Americans left behind. prgtoken In this period of time, Russia has launched an unprovoked war on Ukraine, bringing death and destruction to the Ukrainian people. Over the past several months, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have died and more than 13 million have been displaced. Europe is now experiencing th