mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
RECOGNIZING THE IOWA HAWKEYES WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2023-4-19

on behalf of the Hawkeye State, I am proud to congratulate the Iowa women's basketball team for a historic run in the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. All season long, the Hawkeyes played before sellout crowds at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. Fans from across the State got swept up in the adrenaline rush of remarkable athleticism and a fast-paced offense that delivered high- scoring games and thrilling victories throughout the regular season, from the home court buzzer beater against second- ranked Indiana on February 26, to bringing home the hardware on March 5 from the Big 10 Championship game at ``Carver North'' at the Target Center in Minneapolis. prgtoken Leading the team to its fifth Big 10 Conference Tournament title, Iowa's homegrown guard Caitlin Clark wowed the world all season long, setting the bar higher and higher and delivering one of many historic firsts yet to come in postseason play, namely the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA tournament history. Only after, the West Des Moines native and stellar student-athlete from Dowling Catholic High School registered the third triple-double in Big 10 tournament history, the first time ever in the championship game. Clark's phenomenal ability to connect with teammates in transition, net 3 pointers from half court, and score lay-ups and jumpers while being double-teamed captured the attention of the entire country. From one game to the next, Clark's trademark ability to swish a basket from the logo mesmerizes spectators, bewilders the defense, and opens up opportunities for her teammates to shine. A sensational athlete, Clark earned player of the year from multiple outlets this season. prgtoken Throughout the thrilling contests during Iowa's deep run in the NCAA tournament, Hawkeye fans from around the world and across the State of Iowa were thrilled with pride to be along for the ride. The journey began at home on St. Patrick's Day with a resounding win over Southeastern Louisiana 95-48. In the second round, the Hawkeyes beat Georgia 74-66 before a sellout crowd in Iowa City before advancing to the Sweet 16 against Colorado and on to face Louisville in the Elite Eight at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA. The spellbinding teamwork the Iowa Hawkeyes brought to the court broke attendance records for Women's NCAA tournament regional play as they locked in 87-77 and 97-83 victories, respectively, to punch their ticket to the Final Four at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Next up, a contest against the defending champion South Carolina, who was on a 42-game winning streak. In a spectacular upset on Friday, March 31, the Iowa Hawkeyes secured a spot in the national championship game with a 77-73 victory over the Gamecocks. prgtoken The electrifying victories and hard-fought contests during the 2022/ 23 season made household names of Hawkeye starters Caitlin Clark, Monica Czinano, Gabbie Marshall, McKenna Warnock, and
DISAPPROVING THE ACTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COUNCIL IN APPROVING THE COMPREHENSIVE POLICING AND JUSTICE REFORM AMENDMENT ACT OF 2022
Andrew S. Clyde (Republican, GA) \u2014 2023-4-19

I thank Chairman Comer for yielding. prgtoken , I am grateful that today we are considering my commonsense resolution, H.J. Res. 42, which would block the implementation of the D.C. Council's so-called Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022. prgtoken H.J. Res. 42 is essential to both increase public safety and combat rising crime in our Nation's Capital City. For far too long, Washington, D.C which is supposed to represent a beacon of freedom, patriotism, and prosperity for all America, has been overrun by violent criminals. prgtoken As millions of people visit D.C. every year, it is imperative that our Nation's Capital is safe for all residents and visitors. Unfortunately, this simply is not the case. prgtoken While many local officials continue to bury their heads in the sand, such as D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who insists there is ``not a crime crisis in Washington, D.C'' the data reveals the inescapable reality of an out-of-control crime wave taking over our city. prgtoken According to the Metropolitan Police Department, so far this year, there have already been more than 60 homicides, nearly 50 cases of sexual abuse, 2,000 incidents of motor vehicle theft, over 750 robberies, 300 burglaries, and more than 2,200 cases of theft from auto. The list goes on and on. In fact, crime overall is up 25 percent from last year. prgtoken These dangers are widely known across the District, but especially here on Capitol Hill. In the last few months, both a congressional reporter and a Member of Congress had the wheels stolen off of their cars. One of Senator Rand Paul's staffers was horrifically stabbed in broad daylight. A Member of this body, Congresswoman Angie Craig, was violently assaulted in an elevator in her apartment building. prgtoken Crime is clearly out of control in our Nation's Capital. Who is charged with protecting the people and streets of Washington? prgtoken The Metropolitan Police Department. prgtoken Instead of providing MPD officers with the resources, support, and political backing required to combat crime, the D.C. Council is determined to kneecap MPD's capabilities, subsequently emboldening dangerous criminals. prgtoken The council's anti-police law creates undue burdens on the MPD. A few of these policies include: Limiting physical contact with the suspect. They prgtoken claim it bans choke holds, but choke holds have been banned for decades, since 1985. So this ban is really just a cheap attempt at a political talking point. It goes further, placing liability on officers just for touching near the neck area without any intent whatsoever. prgtoken Additionally, this legislation sets MPD officers up for failure by prohibiting officers from viewing body-worn camera footage when writing initial reports. This reform requires the Mayor to publicly release the names of officers in all instances of serious use of force, allowing radical activists to targ
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS RELATING TO "REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES...
John Boozman (Republican, AR) \u2014 2023-4-19

it is great to be here with Senator Carper and Senator Capito--two dear friends but also two leaders in the recycling effort, not only recycling in general but the Recycling Caucus--to raise the visibility of the importance of recycling from an environmental standpoint as well as the important role the industry has in our economy. prgtoken Of the many caucuses that I am a member of, the Senate Recycling Caucus is one of the most active. prgtoken The attention to recycling in Congress is night and day compared to what it was a couple of years ago, in large part because of Chairman Carper's leadership. So I want to thank him so much for his commitment not only in word but in deed. prgtoken When China implemented its ``National Sword'' policy in 2018, that halted the import of plastics and other materials destined for its recycling processors. As a result, we really began to see how crippled our domestic recycling abilities were. But through a lot of hard work, we are beginning to help the policymakers and the public and private sectors understand how recycling is common sense. prgtoken This is not a red or a blue State issue. Recycling is good for the economy, it creates jobs, and helps the environment. Everyone should be able to get on board with those incentives. prgtoken Recycling is a critical part of the United States, with it being a $200 billion industry that has created over 680,000 jobs. However, with the recycling rate in the United States currently sitting at around 32 percent, there is certainly room for improvement. prgtoken It will take a team effort to get where we want to be. Corporations, manufacturers, and leaders from across the spectrum all have a role to play in developing the best ways our country can be a global leader in this important industry. prgtoken One of the bills we are introducing today is the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act. This is a data collection bill at its core. prgtoken As it stands, there is no standardized data for our national recycling system, since there are upward of 10,000 individual recycling systems in the United States at local and State levels. It is hard to fix a recycling problem--it is hard to fix any problem--if you don't have a baseline data point to work with. That is what this bill is all about. prgtoken The other bill that we are championing is the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act. This pilot program will award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities to improve recycling accessibility in a community or communities within the same geographic area. prgtoken While these bills will not completely fix our Nation's recycling system, we know it is progress. If we keep building on commonsense wins, I am confident the United States can become the leader globally in recycling, as it should be. prgtoken I look forward to further working with Senator Carper and Senator Capito and, again, thank them for their leadershi
ADDRESSING THE DEBT LIMIT
Kevin McCarthy (Republican, CA) \u2014 2023-4-19

the American people have elected a divided government. Our government is designed to find compromise. That is why the House, the Senate, and the White House should be negotiating a responsible debt limit increase right now. prgtoken If you gave your child a credit card and they kept maxing it out to the limit, you wouldn't blindly just raise the limit, you would change their behavior. That exact same thing is true with our national debt. prgtoken We need to lower inflation, reduce our dependence on China, and lift Americans out of poverty. America has a $31 trillion debt, and Washington is on the clock. prgtoken What are doing? prgtoken President is skipping town to deliver a speech in Maryland rather than sitting down to address the debt ceiling. He is giving America's debt the southern border treatment: Ignore it and hope that it goes away. In fact, he has been avoiding the issue for 77 straight days and counting. prgtoken Senator Schumer is just missing in action. Rather than find common ground with the House, Senator Schumer is having the Senate vote on a nonbinding resolution commending and congratulating the University of Connecticut Men's Basketball Team for prgtoken winning the 2023 men's basketball championship. prgtoken That is not all Senator Schumer has been doing. Last month he approved March as Maine's Maple Syrup Month. Talk about taking on big issues. I wonder what May's month will be about. prgtoken While President and Senate waste time, House s are taking action. prgtoken Today, I am proud to announce that we are introducing the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023. prgtoken This responsible legislation will be led by our Budget Committee Chairman, Jodey Arrington, and would responsibly raise the debt limit into next year and provide more than $4.5 trillion in savings to the American taxpayers. prgtoken Here is how we do it. prgtoken First, we limit government spending. Our plan would return discretionary spending to pre-inflationary fiscal year 2022 levels, and then limit the growth of spending to 1 percent per year. prgtoken , these are the same levels we had just 4 months ago. I didn't hear a single complain about that level of spending. prgtoken The spending limits are not draconian. They are responsible. Federal spending exploded in the past 2 years when controlled all, and that doesn't include the trillions of COVID-era spending. prgtoken By limiting government spending we will reduce inflation and restore fiscal discipline in Washington. If Washington wants to spend more, it will have to come together to find savings elsewhere--just like every single household in America. prgtoken Second, we are going to save taxpayers money. prgtoken , the pandemic is over. House s have already passed the bill to officially end the pandemic, and President signed it into law just last week. prgtoken Our bill would actually claw back billions of do
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2023-4-19

there has been a lot of discussion lately, here in Congress, about the national security concerns posed by TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese-owned ByteDance. prgtoken Chinese law requires social media technology companies to provide information, including individually identifiable personal information, to the Chinese Government, when asked. prgtoken This obviously has implications for Americans' personal security and privacy and raises troubling questions about how the Chinese Communist Party could use TikTok for its own ends, whether that is using personal data to develop sources for espionage or manipulating content to advance the Communist Party's agenda. The Director of the CIA, the FBI Director, and the Director of National Intelligence have all outlined national security concerns with TikTok, and Members of Congress are currently discussing various ways of addressing these concerns. prgtoken In March, Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and I introduced bipartisan legislation called the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act--or the RESTRICT Act, the acronym--to address the national security concerns posed not just by TikTok but by other technologies from foreign adversary countries. prgtoken I am pleased that our bill, which is cosponsored by a full quarter of the U.S. Senate, has received a lot of attention in the media, attention that I hope will ensure our legislation receives a full hearing in the Commerce Committee and a vote on the Senate floor, but along with the attention our bill has received has come a lot of misrepresentation about the bill's content. And I want to take just a moment today to set the record straight on some misconceptions about the RESTRICT Act. prgtoken First of all, many critics of the bill seem to be unaware of the fact that the bill is closely modeled after a 2019 Executive order by President as well as a subsequent rule by the Commerce Department. So I wanted to underscore that the RESTRICT Act seeks to codify a policy that was put in place by President . Unlike some of the other TikTok bills out there, our bill is not exclusively focused on TikTok and would instead create a framework for reviewing not only TikTok but any technology from a foreign adversary nation that poses an undue national security risk. prgtoken This has led to some claims that our bill is too broad or gives the Federal Government too much power, but nothing could be further from the truth. prgtoken Our bill is, in fact, narrowly tailored, and it is designed not to expand the Federal Government's power but to update authorities the Federal Government already has to account for the digital age. prgtoken Both and administrations have taken Executive action to counter the threat posed by technology from foreign adversary countries, but they have been limit
FIRE GRANTS AND SAFETY ACT--Continued
Mike Braun (Republican, IN) \u2014 2023-4-19

I come here this evening because I have got a problem, and the problem is the IRS. It has a bad track record. They often fail to be good stewards of taxpayer money and to protect highly sensitive information as well. They don't do a good job at that. prgtoken Despite this, Congress and President recently gave the IRS $80 billion in new funding--$80 billion--most of which we had to borrow, probably. prgtoken Last week, the IRS released a 150-page document outlining how it will spend $80 billion in new funding. The report is very vague about how that will be done. ``Enforcement activities''--I would love more specifics. prgtoken The IRS has a history of being weaponized against conservative organizations and for hassling hard-working taxpayers and small business owners with audits. I don't know that the wealthy are going to be held to account. They have got their lawyers, and they fight this stuff off routinely. I am worried that it is going to hit middle America. With this huge funding boost, these problems, I think, will only grow. prgtoken It is unacceptable to treat American taxpayers this way. The IRS does not need more power. It needs to be reformed to ensure that it serves the best interests of all Americans. prgtoken I have got a solution: Simplify, don't amplify, the IRS. And let's just put ``act'' right after that. prgtoken Last Congress, I introduced a bill with several IRS reforms to hold the Agency accountable and protect taxpayers. The Simplify, Don't Amplify the IRS Act would stop the administration from continuing to grow the power of the IRS. prgtoken This bill would stop attempts to target Americans and small businesses by snooping in their bank accounts, credit union accounts, Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App. prgtoken The bill would also repeal the ban on cutting State taxes, hold IRS employees accountable when they release private taxpayer information, and ensure that the IRS spends its time helping taxpayers rather than on unofficial union activity. prgtoken We can debate how much money the IRS needs to do its job, but we also need commonsense policies like the Simplify, Don't Amplify the IRS Act. This bill would immediately add value to the American taxpayer and help restore faith to a dysfunctional government Agency that affects every American. prgtoken Therefore, , I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 1101 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
FIRE GRANTS AND SAFETY ACT--Continued
Ted Cruz (Republican, TX) \u2014 2023-4-19

I rise today to give tribute to a great American, a great Texan, a great friend, and a 24-year veteran of this institution who has dedicated his career to serving the needs of his fellow citizens. His name is Jason Fuller, and he has served as my regional director in the southeastern part of Texas, including my home city of Houston, for the last 5 years. He is now retiring and moving on to the private sector. prgtoken Jason is a native Texan. Born in Corpus Christi, he graduated from the University of Houston, where he served as student body president. He is a proud Houston Cougar. prgtoken Jason started working in the Senate in late 1994, after working on my predecessor Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's 1994 campaign for a full term in the Senate. At the time, Jason said he was only going to come to DC for 2 years, work for Senator Hutchison, and move on. He ended up working in the Senate for 19 years. During that time, he served as Senator Hutchison's personal aide, until 1997, when he moved back home to Texas and worked for her regional office in Houston. He eventually became regional director and served in that role until Senator Hutchison left office in 2013. prgtoken In 2018, Jason heard the call to once again serve his fellow Texans, so he came on board as my regional director of southeastern Texas. His region stretches from the Texas-Louisiana border down south towards Victoria and all the way to the upper Texas gulf coast. prgtoken Jason hates to be on the sidelines, and he is always eager to help others in a crisis. When Hurricane Katrina happened and everything was chaos, Jason had 12 people, 6 dogs, and 3 cats squeezed into his downtown residence. He helped out in the shelters in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. When the Santa Fe shooting horrifically happened in May of 2018, Jason was there to lend a helping hand to the victims and their families, as well as to law enforcement. Many of those people became his personal friends. prgtoken When Jason is not helping his fellow Texans, he likes to travel to some of the most exotic and hard-to-get-to places on the planet. When Jason is getting ready for a trip, he spins the globe and sees where his finger lands. He has been to Iraq, China, Russia--anywhere that is going to give my State director and national security advisor heartburn. prgtoken He has often helped people in stressful situations, navigating the leviathan of Big Government on behalf of fellow Texans in their time of need. He has taken the time to connect with them personally and to listen as a friend listens. prgtoken In the coming days, Jason will start his new job in the private sector. We will miss him greatly, but we wish him well. The Senate, the people of Texas, and the thousands of people and families he has helped over the course of 24 years of service will miss him too. prgtoken Thank you, Jason, for your hard work, your determination, your passion, and your patrioti
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2023-4-19

we are 2 years into the latest chapter of Washington ' war against our own domestic energy. America spent decades working toward affordable, reliable energy independence, and have tried to reverse it all, turned it all around: less exploration for American oil and gas, more dependence on immoral Chinese supply chains. Even as the left wants Big Government to gamble our whole grid on less reliable new technologies, they don't even want to let us mine here in America on our own soil for the rare earth minerals those technologies actually require. prgtoken The have fundamentally misunderstood both the economics and the geopolitics of American energy. So the result is going to be fewer jobs for our workers, bigger bills for our families, less security for our country, and more vulnerability to foreign actors who don't like us. prgtoken Just last week, the EPA announced it will try to slap a radical and unprecedented new mandate on our country regarding electric vehicles. The same people who can't handle inflation and can't secure our border want to stick their noses into Americans' garages and our driveways. The administration's radical plan would cut down the marketplace of affordable and reliable vehicles that most Americans actually want to drive. It would massively increase demand on already highly taxed electrical grids with no workable plan to grow capacity, and it would force rich liberals' lifestyle choices onto the whole country. prgtoken Good luck--good luck farmers, ranchers, rural Americans. California wants to dictate what you drive. See, California is the proving ground for these bad ideas. They have already set their own punitive targets for electric vehicle sales, and--surprise--the math actually doesn't work. At the same time Governor Newsom is mandating his citizens buy electric vehicles, he is telling people not to plug them in--don't plug them in--for fear of blackouts. prgtoken California expects to see 15 times more electric vehicles on the roads and on their electrical grid by 2035--the same California that already had to spend last summer begging citizens to turn down their air-conditioning because their grid can barely survive as it is right now. prgtoken want less American energy, less production, and, of course, less reliability. s want more, more, and more--more production, more independence, more affordability, and more security. prgtoken The House majority's landmark H.R. 1 goes right at this very issue. It would be a huge shot in the arm for American energy. But here in the Senate, the ic leader controls the floor, and he has declared the bill ``dead on arrival''--dead on arrival here in the Senate. prgtoken It is the clearest possible contrast. s are fighting for cheaper and more reliable power, stronger supply chains, and a stronger America on the world stage; and , they are