mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF S. 475, JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY ACT
Guy Reschenthaler (Republican, PA) \u2014 2021-6-16

I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and such time as I may consume. prgtoken , the rule before us today provides for consideration of S. 475, a bipartisan bill establishing a national holiday on June 19, known as Juneteenth National Independence Day. The June 19th date marks the date that Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery and the Civil War. prgtoken I am honored to stand here with my colleague from Pennsylvania as the Battle of Gettysburg, of course, took place in Pennsylvania, involving the largest number of Civil War casualties, and marked the turning point of the war. prgtoken In fact, , the Keystone State played a crucial part in the Civil War. My State provided over 350,000 soldiers and sailors, more than any other Northern State except New York. Pennsylvania also served as a vital resource for military equipment and food for the Union Army. As I already mentioned, the Commonwealth was the site of the world's largest battle, that of Gettysburg. prgtoken So, it probably comes as no surprise that Pennsylvania already recognizes Juneteenth. In fact, since 1980, 47 States, including, as I said, my home State of Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, have issued legislation recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday or as a day of observance. prgtoken Designating June 19 as a national holiday would increase awareness and education on Juneteenth; it would celebrate Black history and culture; and it would recognize the Americans who fought and died to end slavery. prgtoken , .
Utah (Executive Calendar)
Mike Lee (Republican, UT) \u2014 2021-6-16

100 years ago, in 1921, a young and newly married couple named Percy and Verabel Knudson saw the need for a gathering place in their community. Knowing they could make money selling ice cream and candy, they started Idle Isle Ice Cream and Candy Store. prgtoken A few years later, after raising the necessary funds, Percy and Verabel Knudson--with the help of David H. Call and his wife LaRita-- shifted their business from sweets to full-service meals, and Idle Isle Cafe was born. prgtoken Over the course of the last century, Idle Isle Cafe has endured remarkable events in history and served important people. It survived the difficulties of the Great Depression and World War II, all while serving locals and national celebrities alike, including Wallace Beery, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, and Paulette Goddard. prgtoken During the fifties, Idle Isle even served ``The Duke'' himself, Mr. John Wayne, who stopped in on a number of occasions while visiting Utah on hunting trips and movie shoots. prgtoken In those years, the cafe also served as a meeting place for members of the Brigham City unit of the Utah National Guard, who were later called to prgtoken serve their country in the Korean war. Idle Isle Cafe has endured both good times and bad over the last century. But whatever the times, it has always been a place where people from every walk of life could share a meal, enjoy friendship, and bear one another's burdens as they endured the ups and downs of life together. prgtoken As the cafe celebrates its 100-year anniversary this year, it is worth recognizing all the good that it has done for Utah and for Brigham City. Of course, bearing one another's burdens is one of the things that Utahns do best. prgtoken Travis and Jana Porter, the current owners of Idle Isle Cafe, epitomized this spirit. Everyone who befriends or works with the Porters quickly sees their love of community and their dedication to their country. Nearly everything they do, both inside of the restaurant and outside, stems from their passion for helping others and their optimistic outlook on life. prgtoken Even with their five kids and the business of running the restaurant, the couple finds intentional time each day to love and serve those who work in the cafe and all who come to visit. As a result of their service, Idle Isle Cafe endures. prgtoken We, as Utahns, are engaged in the work of enduring together. In fact, the State's economy is so robust, in large part, because neighbors care for neighbors, friends care for friends, and strangers even look out for strangers. It doesn't matter who you are. In Utah, you belong. Whether in the cafe or the community, there is a place for you at the table. Our doors are open. So, too, are our hearts. You see, Utah is one of these places where it doesn't matter how long your family has been in the State or whether you have been here for 5 minutes; to us, you are a Utahn. prgtoken
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION
Tommy Tuberville (Republican, AL) \u2014 2021-6-16

today, I want to discuss an issue that many folks may not be familiar with, but they should be. After today, they will be. When I first heard about this, I couldn't believe it was true, but I have learned up here that just when you think you have seen or heard the worst, the swamp will always surprise you. prgtoken One of the many important roles of the Department of Justice is to represent the United States in civil and criminal trials. Sometimes the DOJ decides that a pretrial monetary settlement for a lawsuit is the best route to take. The DOJ directs the money from the settlement to the victims or to the Treasury. That is the way our system is supposed to work. prgtoken But during the administration, the DOJ took a different course. Rather than direct settlement money to victims, the DOJ pushed the defendants to give money instead to third-party organizations favored by the Department. This was a slush fund for groups chosen by the DOJ. What is more, the DOJ would count the dollar amount of any donation as double toward the settlement. Money paid to the victims or the Treasury would only count dollar for dollar. So it was a huge incentive for these defendants to pay a third party, and these third parties often had nothing to do with the lawsuit. prgtoken When companies like JPMorgan, Bank of America, or Citigroup had to pay settlements based on mortgage lending practices, the DOJ intentionally directed millions of dollars to liberal activist groups. You don't have to take my word for it; here is an email from the Office of the Associate Attorney General in 2013 talking about the DOJ settlement with JPMorgan: Can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money toward an organization of our choosing? prgtoken Those are the key words there: ``of our choosing.'' prgtoken Let me continue to quote: We have been discussing having the agreement provide that JPM agreed to pay $9 billion but that, if, by the time we sign the settlement agreement, JPM has given $60 million to X, they will have to pay only 8 billion. prgtoken I think that is OK. We understand that we would not have control over what X organization does with the money. prgtoken The ``Tony'' referred to there is Tony West, an Associate Attorney General, who was at that time No. 3 in the Department of Justice. prgtoken Two days later, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote to the Office of the Associate Attorney General to lobby on behalf of a group called VOICE. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights includes the biggest activist arms of the political left, including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Big Labor's AFL-CIO, and the teachers unions. prgtoken On No. 3 here, but when the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights contacted the DOJ, it was because VOICE wanted funds from the JPMorgan settlement. Not surprisingly, VOICE ended up receiving $1 million from JPMorgan. prgtoken Th
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR
Joni Ernst (Republican, IA) \u2014 2021-6-16

I thank Senator Scott, and I appreciate the time to speak today on this topic. Certainly, I am rising to also support the Stop Taxpayer Funding of Hamas Act. prgtoken The United States should no longer provide any recognition or resources to Hamas, a terrorist organization supplied by Iran disguised as a Palestinian political party. Hamas is a longstanding terrorist organization whose attacks and efforts against peace threaten the lives of civilians and innocents. prgtoken Using the population of Gaza as a human shield, Hamas fired more than 1,500 rockets into Israeli civilian areas in an unprovoked attack last month. The attack was not the action of a responsible political party but the violent outburst of an Iranian proxy bent on the destruction of Israel and peace. prgtoken Hamas's roots and rationale have very little to do with a broader struggle for freedom of worship or narrow land use disagreements. It is far simpler than that. Iran supplies rockets, and Hamas launches rockets on innocent Israelis because they share a common goal: eradication of the Jewish people in Israel. It is that simple. prgtoken Hamas couldn't be more clear in their goals. Their charter states: There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. There is no way out except by concentrating all powers and energies to face this Nazi, vicious Tatar invasion. prgtoken No mention of peace or advancement for people--Israel's defensive actions against a terror group that compares their people to Nazis and is dedicated to their destruction are to be expected. Self-defense and protection of citizens is a core responsibility of every country. Hamas attacked innocent civilians, fully expecting them to be attacked in return. Their plan was to purposely create civilian casualties. prgtoken We must be unequivocal in support for our ally. The President and Secretary of State must remain strong in American support to Israel and not lose sight of the true threat Hamas's backer, Iran, poses to Israel. prgtoken The administration must abandon its attempts to return to the deeply flawed nuclear agreement with Iran. Their attempt to return to the failed nuclear deal only emboldens Iran's nuclear ambitions. prgtoken Iran provides Hamas and other genocidal terrorist organizations with rocket systems, rocket parts, assembly training, and cash support every year. And Iran's goal mirrors that of Hamas: to wipe Israel off the map, bottom line. prgtoken Just as no country--Israel or otherwise--would tolerate such terrorism and aggression against its citizens, no true ally would turn their backs on a friend in their moment of need. They certainly would not continue funding the organization responsible for the attack. So now, more than ever, the United States must stand with its ally, condemn the attacks against Israel by Hamas, and affirm our commitment to support Israel's peace and security. prgtoken The
Juneteenth (Executive Calendar)
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2021-6-16

yesterday, the Senate moved a historic bill one step closer to President 's desk. The Senate unanimously passed legislation to finally make Juneteenth a Federal holiday and to preserve the legacy of that momentous day for generations to come. prgtoken For more than a century, Texans have celebrated Juneteenth and commemorated the anniversary of the day slaves in Texas were first informed of the news that they were, indeed, free. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but the news didn't reach Texas for 2\1/2\ years, until June 19, 1865. prgtoken We were the first State to make Juneteenth a holiday and, of course, it commemorates an event that occurred in Galveston, TX. But over the last four decades, many other States have joined us. prgtoken It is finally time to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday. I reintroduced this bipartisan bill with the Senator from Massachusetts, Senator Markey, this year, and I have been proud to work alongside my fellow Texan Congresswoman, Sheila Jackson Lee, in the House to get the bill passed and signed into law. The bill now heads to the House and according to Congressman Steny Hoyer, the House will actually pass it today. prgtoken I will have more to say about the history and significance of Juneteenth tomorrow, but for now, I want to thank the dozens of Senators on both sides of the aisle who have supported this effort. I think, particularly now at this point in our Nation's history, a little reconciliation can go a long way. prgtoken It is also an opportunity to learn from our past. America is the greatest Nation in the world, but we are not perfect and, indeed, the original sin of slavery when this country was created has caused this country a lot of angst, death, and injustice over the years. We fought a civil war, and 600,000 Americans died. If you extrapolated that to current population, that would be like 3 million Americans dying. prgtoken Of course, we went through the civil rights movement in the sixties, and, of course, the latest manifestation of racial strife is the unfortunate killing of people like George Floyd and the lack of trust that exists between some law enforcement and the communities that they serve. prgtoken While America is not perfect, we continue to do the work to strive to be ``a more perfect Union,'' in the words of the Constitution
SELF-INFLICTED CRISES
Louie Gohmert (Republican, TX) \u2014 2021-6-16

emails--as this headline says from Wendell Husebo--emails show Anthony Fauci scrambled at the beginning of the pandemic to determine the potential U.S. role in funding coronavirus research abroad, and that was because he provided money to a firm that provided money to the Wuhan lab. prgtoken As this points out, after Fauci made that comment that we didn't do that, a couple months later, the man responsible for steering U.S. Government funding to the Wuhan Institution of Virology, Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, thanked Dr. Fauci on April 18, 2020, for publicly dismissing the theory coronavirus may have leaked from that lab to which they furnished money. prgtoken Here is another story from the same person. Anthony Fauci said in released emails: Drugstore masks are not really effective. prgtoken He told us, Oh, gosh, you know, we need to be taking a mask, everybody should be wearing a mask, but that was only after he had been against it before he became for it. prgtoken And this points out and quotes him as just being one of the biggest hypocrites. And in fact, that he completely lied to the American people, because he says that ``Masks are really for infected people . . . '' He goes on further: ``The typical mask you buy in the drugstore is not really effective . . . '' and he says, ``I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location. Your instincts are correct, money is best spent on medical countermeasures such as diagnostics and vaccines.'' prgtoken But as Fauci emails show, the U.S. scientists knew COVID looked engineered only days before insisting that the virus was natural. And that is another one of the reasons that Representative Taylor Greene filed the Fire Fauci Act, and I would encourage people to get on board. prgtoken But the virologist who told Fauci that SARS-CoV-2 potentially looked engineered--he eliminated his Twitter account. That article is June 7th. prgtoken And then we find out that ``weight-adjusted hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin boosted survival of ventilated COVID-19 patients by 200 percent,'' according to a study. We have had hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died while Fauci and others belittled a hydroxychloroquine regimen, and the good that it could do, and the good it has done for most of those who have taken it. prgtoken So we know that in the 1950s President Eisenhower said: No, we got no U-2 flights going over the Soviet Union. And they shot one down. He had to go on TV and say: I am sorry, I lied. I am very sorry, I thought I was doing the right thing by the country. prgtoken In the 1960s, President Kennedy, he went on television, and said: I am sorry. It is my fault, basically, that people died in the Bay of Pigs invasion. prgtoken But who is going to come forward and say, you know what, this was my fault? It is not going to be Fauci. We don't know if it will be President , but somebody owe
ESG DISCLOSURE SIMPLIFICATION ACT OF 2021
Vicky Hartzler (Republican, MO) \u2014 2021-6-16

on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, I missed the vote on rollcall No. 165. Had I been present I would have voted: ``nay'' on rollcall No. 165. members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress Barragan (Gallego) Cardenas (Gomez) Cleaver (Davids (KS)) DeSaulnier (Thompson (CA)) Gaetz (Greene (GA)) Gonzalez, Vicente (Gomez) Granger (Arrington) Grijalva (Garcia (IL)) Horsford (Jeffries) Hoyer (Brown) Johnson (TX) (Jeffries) Kim (NJ) (Pallone) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Langevin (Courtney) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lieu (Raskin) Lowenthal (Beyer) Meng (Clark (MA)) Mullin (Lucas) Napolitano (Correa) Nehls (Fallon) O'Halleran (Stanton) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Wexton) Roybal-Allard (Escobar) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Underwood) Sewell (DelBene) Sherrill (Pallone) Speier (Scanlon) Strickland (Kilmer) Wilson (FL) (Hayes) Amendment No. 4 Offered by Mr. Hill
Police Departments (Executive Calendar)
Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2021-6-16

once again, I object to the request from the Senator from New York for the reasons I have previously stated, and I will repeat again what I have said publicly and what I have committed to. prgtoken I support removing prosecution of sexual assault, the types of crimes that Senator Gillibrand discussed, from the chain of command. But her bill goes further to include crimes not related to sexual assault. The removal of sexual assault crimes from the chain of command will be an historic change in the military justice system and one which Senator Gillibrand can claim great responsibility for effecting. We must take care, however, that we do it thoughtfully, in a manner that does not break the military justice system. prgtoken The worst thing we can do to victims of sexual assault is to move a bill through that can't be implemented effectively or on time, creates too large a workload for too few qualified military judge advocates, imperils prosecutions, leads to convictions being overturned on appeal, or results in neglected cases because the necessary attention cannot be devoted to them. prgtoken According to the Department of Defense, the number of full-time colonels, lawyer disposition authorities required to execute the system as proposed, which would take effect 180 days from enactment, exceeds the number of judge advocates in that senior grade. And this doesn't account for her bill's requirement that these O-6 judge advocates have significant trial and criminal law experience or that they would not then be available for other important assignments reserved for O-6s, such as military judges and division, corps, or combatant command judge advocates. prgtoken The heads of the service Judge Advocate General's Corps have previously raised concerns about the implementation timeline, the resources necessary to execute, and a host of other inconsistencies with the current system that would have to be addressed to be sure of successful implementation. These are the very military lawyers that Senator Gillibrand's bill would empower to make prosecutorial decisions, which includes an evaluation of a far greater number of cases than simply those that end up in court-martial. These are the issues that we need discuss in the committee and not dispose of in an amendment on the floor. The committee will do this and do it faithfully. And I am very confident that we will be able to move legislation that does remove any crimes related to sexual misconduct from the current command to a system that Senator Gillibrand is proposing. prgtoken With that, I would reiterate my objection.
CLIMATE CRISIS
Sean Casten (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2021-6-16

I would like to close, as I often do, by observing that there are really only three things we have to do as a country. prgtoken The first thing we have to do is cut the energy--double the efficiency with which we convert energy into economic activity. If we were to cut our energy use per dollar of GDP in half, we would almost be at the level that Switzerland has already achieved. I think we are prgtoken better than Switzerland, personally, but let's at least aspire to be as good as Switzerland; double our efficiency. prgtoken The second thing we have to do is do the research and development to figure out how to decarbonize industries like steel- and cement-making because we don't know how to make silicone; we don't know how to make steel; we don't know how to make cement; we don't know how to make fertilizer without fossil fuels today. That is an R&D challenge we have to figure out. prgtoken Then we have to get to zero CO2 emissions; not by 2050, not by 2030, by 1990. We have to get back to 350 parts per million in the atmosphere because that is the point that we can say to our children: We are leaving you a better planet than the one we inherited, where wildfires are not the norm, where droughts are not the norm. prgtoken And is it going to be easy? prgtoken No. But we know how to do it. prgtoken The first thing we ought to do is take our hand off the emergency brake. Stop subsidizing yesterday's technology. Embrace markets. Embrace innovation. Embrace all that makes us American. Stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry by $650 billion a year. prgtoken Unleash the power of our innovators. Unleash the power of our entrepreneurs. Unleash the power and the innovation of all our great universities and national labs who will figure out how to do these hard things. prgtoken And then, yes, even after we do all that, make significant Federal investments in the things that the private sector is not very good at, like transmission, like coast-to-coast broadband, like EV stations. We have done it before. That is how we built the railroads. It is how we electrified the country. prgtoken It is not going to be easy, but it will be necessary. It will be inspiring, and it will be a story that we will tell our grandchildren about because we will be able to tell them that we were there, in this moment; we saw what was necessary, and we made it possible. I think that is something worth doing. prgtoken It is our opportunity. It is our moment. prgtoken , .
JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY ACT
Danny K. Davis (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2021-6-16

. Madam , I rise in strong support of the recognition of Juneteenth as a national holiday to celebrate the ending of the most horrific period and the most horrific policy and practices this Nation has ever known: slavery. prgtoken I heard one of my colleagues suggest a moment ago that perhaps the cost of Juneteenth is not known. I guarantee you, Madam , that whatever the cost, it will not come close to the cost of slavery. prgtoken Juneteenth is the recognition that darkness can come to light and that there is a celebration as my forefathers and -mothers struggled to endure the horror they experienced. So, celebrating Juneteenth as a national holiday is simply an idea whose time has come. prgtoken Madam , I am proud to vote for the resolution.