mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
RECOGNIZING PARTICIPANTS OF THE 2019 PITTCHFEST
Glenn Thompson (Republican, PA) \u2014 2019-6-25

I rise to recognize the participants of the 2019 PITTchFEST, which was held in conjunction with this year's Showcase for Commerce in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. prgtoken The event is designed to support the next generation of great ideas in Cambria County and the Allegheny region. The Shark Tank-style competition was created as a way for local entrepreneurs to present their innovative ideas and creations to potential investors. Programs like these are essential to attracting new businesses and a skilled workforce to our region. prgtoken One of the competition's categories is specifically for students at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. These students are a part of the summer accelerated program with PITTchFEST, which is used as a launchpad for their work. prgtoken This year's top student entrepreneurship teams included Smarchitecture, led by Alex Schork. This team project provides architects, designers, and artists the ability to render digital imagery that can be instantly shared and edited with clients in real time. prgtoken Skill Spirit was led by Ben Wargo. This team developed an incremental learning app that provides incentives and rewards for learning new languages. prgtoken Supernal Siesta was led by Laura Johnson. Laura's team focused on helping women manage hot flashes and the effects of menopause by creating a fashionably created mattress with the technology to cool and provide for a full night's sleep. prgtoken For the third year, PITTchFEST also included the social entrepreneurship category, which highlights incredible efforts and ideas for building vibrant communities. The top teams in this category included the Conemaugh Valley Conservancy team, which is developing plans to expand the Path of the Flood Trail, which would be the first safe and easily followed bicycle route from downtown Johnstown to the historic Little Conemaugh River gorge. prgtoken The Central Park Square/Gallery on Gazebo team aims to promote the arts in downtown Johnstown. prgtoken The Friends of the Inclined Plane Trails team is planning the Inclined Plane Riverside Park, which will include zip lines and a downhill mountain-biking course. prgtoken The three finalists in each category received a cash award that supports their innovations. The judges for PITTchFEST represented various aspects of the community, including social agencies, private industries, advocacy groups, and higher education. prgtoken Finally, , I would like to thank the sponsors of PITTchFEST who made the event possible, including Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Cambria Regional Chamber, Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, Croyle-Nielsen Therapeutic Associates, Enterprise Venture Capital Corporation of PA, Entrepreneurial Alchemy, JARI, JWF Industries, and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. prgtoken PITTchFEST was a tremendous success, as it showcased the community spirit and the innovative minds of the greater Johnstown region. prgtoken
TRIBUTE TO SUMMER HOLTZHOWER
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2019-6-25

today I honor Summer Holtzhower, the Sumter County Teacher of the Year from Wildwood Elementary School in Wildwood, FL. prgtoken Summer, a 4th grade math and science teacher, just completed her second year and designs her classroom activities to challenge her students. She has a teaching activity called the Density Lab, where students experiment with placing certain liquids in measuring cups and hypothesize where they think the liquids will settle. Students then test to see if their hypothesis are correct and answer Summer's ``higher order thinking'' questions about their lab results. prgtoken Summer, who believes that one of her goals as an educator is to make her students feel valued, does this by encouraging her students to participate in days such as National Compliment Day. She believes that events like this will allow her students to feel empowered and know that they are capable of success in the future. prgtoken I offer my best wishes to Summer and look forward to hearing of her continued success in the years ahead.
IN RECOGNITION OF THE TRADITION OF BREAKFAST ON THE FARM IN MARINETTE COUNTY
Mike Gallagher (Republican, WI) \u2014 2019-6-25

. Madam , I rise today to recognize the tradition of Breakfast on the Farm in Marinette County. prgtoken Breakfast on the Farm is an iconic Marinette County tradition that provides the community an opportunity to see first-hand how a dairy farm operates and learn about the significant role the dairy industry plays in Wisconsin's economy. Community members meet dairy farmers, explore the barns and equipment, and enjoy a delicious breakfast prepared on the farm. prgtoken I am grateful to Van De Walle Farm for hosting the 2019 Marinette County Breakfast on the Farm. Van De Walle Farm is a multigenerational dairy farm that milks 140 cows daily. In addition, the Van De Walles raise all their young stock and farm about 450 of feed for their cattle. Because of their love of animals and the dairy industry, the Van De Walle Family maintains exceptional cow comfort and health to produce high quality milk. The Van De Walle Family takes great pride in their work and plans on teaching future generations about the industry. prgtoken Marinette County Dairy Promotions organizes Breakfast on the Farm by recruiting host farms, sponsors and volunteers to support this popular event. In addition, the organization has a mission to promote agriculture and dairy products at various community events throughout the year across Marinette County. prgtoken Madam , l urge all members of this body to join me in commending the efforts of Breakfast on the Farm to educate the community through this time-honored tradition. Thank you to the Van De Walle Family, Marinette County Dairy Promotions, and all the sponsors and volunteers for their continued support of Wisconsin's dairy industry.
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020--Continued
Thom Tillis (Republican, NC) \u2014 2019-6-25

I come before you, first and foremost, to thank Senator Inhofe for his great leadership as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a special thanks to the staff who are working very, very hard to process the hundreds of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that came out of the committee with broad bipartisan support. prgtoken I am here to talk specifically about some provisions that I think are pretty important that actually started in the Personnel Subcommittee. I chair the Personnel Subcommittee for Senate Armed Services. Early this year, we heard of what I consider to be absolutely unacceptable conditions in military housing across the country. In North Carolina-- and, , in your great State of Tennessee--we have bases, and we have military housing. We have men and women, many of them very young. Oftentimes the spouses are deployed, so the family is back home taking care of their children, taking care of their own jobs, and living on the base. prgtoken About February, we got reports--and these are not just one-off reports; these are reports across the country of mold, mildew, damage from storms, and all kinds of conditions that I think in the private sector you would find objectionable. I think it is particularly objectionable when you are talking about people whose families are with that husband or wife who serve in the military or serve in this country. prgtoken We decided to have a number of hearings where we brought the private housing providers into the Senate and my Personnel Subcommittee and the full committee to get an explanation. Quite honestly, there wasn't a good explanation. prgtoken Back in 1996, the Federal Government decided to get out of the housing business. I am glad they did because they were doing a really bad job. For about 10 years, we had a great story to tell in terms of the quality of housing, the service to the tenants, and the satisfaction of the military families. But then something got sideways in a very, very bad way. prgtoken This is a shower. If you see this kind of mold and mildew in your shower, prgtoken would you think it is acceptable? If you go in and see children's toys--and this is actually the bottom side of a crib--mold and mildew in these folks' housing with small children in them, people with respiratory conditions living in these kinds of conditions, I expect the garrison down at the bases and I expect the private housing providers to move Heaven and Earth to eliminate these sorts of problems. We are making progress, but I feel, in order to make sure it is not progress that is being made just when they all of a sudden get the attention of this Senator and other Members of the U.S. Senate, we have to change the rules in terms of the authorities that the Department of Defense has and the expectations that we have for the private housing providers. prgtoken I have to give thanks to the Acting Secretary o
TRIBUTE TO JOHN SCHMIDT
Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, WV) \u2014 2019-6-25

I wish to recognize a dedicated public servant and proud West Virginian, John Schmidt, on the occasion of his retirement from the West Virginia Ecological Services Field Office, WVFO, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located in Elkins. I would especially like to recognize his leadership and contributions to fish and wildlife conservation. Innumerable West Virginians have benefited from his tireless efforts to improve wildlife conditions in our great State. John has been a vocal champion for creating a conservation legacy through collaboration and strong working partnerships with local stakeholders. prgtoken John has been working as a biologist for 32 years. For 25 of those, he has served the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working with landowners and State and Federal agencies. Currently, he helps nongovernmental organizations as a project leader to help restore, enhance, and protect fish and wildlife throughout our state. prgtoken Due to his leadership, contributions, and dedication to his community, John is being awarded the Superior Service Award by the U.S. Department of Interior. John has highlighted the need for providing restoring wildlife and recreational safety for West Virginians. prgtoken Beyond the critical assistance that the WVFO provides to the wildlife in West Virginia, it also has a positive effect on the economy. John and his staff volunteered numerous hours on a project to remove three legacy dams, leading to savings of nearly $60,000 per year for the municipal water system and its ratepayers. This work helped connect over 47 miles of formerly segmented river and drastically improved the water quality in the West Fork River. prgtoken Outside of his work for the WVFO, John has played an active role in giving back to his community. Some of his volunteer work has included time spent helping community leadership and conservation organizations such as the Tygart Valley Lions Club, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, and the Virginia Tech Monogram Club. He has also served as a swim coach and official for 30 years at all primary school levels. John has shown that he is dedicated to help all West Virginians in numerous efforts. prgtoken I would like to thank John for all his insight and advice over the years. My office has relied upon him countless times for guidance and input. On a personal level, he was kind and helpful not only to me, but to my staff as well. They often spoke highly of how attentive, patient, and kind he was to everyone with whom he worked. I wish John the very best during his well-deserved retirement, and I hope he can enjoy more time with loved ones. West Virginia owes John our gratitude, and I thank him for all his excellent work over his decades-long career.
OBSERVING ALZHEIMER'S AND BRAIN AWARENESS MONTH
Doug LaMalfa (Republican, CA) \u2014 2019-6-25

. Madam , I rise today to recognize June as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. prgtoken Alzheimer's disease affects more than 5 million Americans. It is also our Nation's most expensive disease. prgtoken We have got to continue working toward finding a cure for Alzheimer's; but, in the meantime, we have to cut down on preventable hospitalizations and lower the cost of care. That is why I cosponsored the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act last Congress, which President has since signed into law. This bill will help educate community members and doctors on dementia detection, diagnosis, and symptom management. prgtoken This Congress, I cosponsored the bipartisan Younger Onset Alzheimer's Act, to ensure younger people dealing with dementia or other symptoms have access to the counseling and support they need. prgtoken I urge my colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors to do their part and know the warning signs of Alzheimer's disease. Education and awareness can make a huge difference in a person's life.
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND SECURITY AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER ACT, 2019
Doug Collins (Republican, GA) \u2014 2019-6-25

. Madam , I will end with this. Some people will come down here tonight and vote, and they are going to feel good about themselves, Madam . But I will tell my colleagues this, and I have said it before from this well: What makes them feel good does not heal them. prgtoken Don't pretend, Madam , or anyone else who wants to vote for this, that it has solved something, that it has accomplished something until my colleagues take the situation and ask: Why are they coming? How do we fix it? How do we give the men and women what they need to fix this? prgtoken If my colleagues walk away feeling good about themselves, it may be time tonight, Madam , before we go to bed, to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask why.
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3401, EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND SECURITY AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER ACT, 2019
Tom Cole (Republican, OK) \u2014 2019-6-25

such time as I may consume. prgtoken If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to immediately bring up H.R. 3056, the Border Crisis Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2019. prgtoken Unlike the bill before us today, H.R. 3056 provides all the necessary funding that the administration has requested to address the humanitarian crisis on the southern border. The bill provides funding for the Department of Defense, which has expended significant resources responding to the crisis. It also provides the funding for refugee and entrant assistance and for U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the administration has requested and has told us is necessary to meet the crisis. prgtoken Most notably, this bill does so without adding any of the partisan riders that plague the majority's version of the supplemental. We can provide funding to meet this crisis without tying the hands of the administration and leaving them no wiggle room or flexibility. prgtoken , I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3401, EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND SECURITY AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER ACT, 2019
Chip Roy (Republican, TX) \u2014 2019-6-25

this legislation falls short. This legislation that the House leadership has put forward has been late, does not address the problem, and will, in fact, make the problem worse by binding the hands of Border Patrol and binding the hands of the people whom we have asked to do their job. prgtoken We should reject this legislation. We should work together to provide legislation that would actually solve the problem and stop enriching cartels on the backs of human beings because the strongest nation in the history of the world refuses to acknowledge the problem that cartels are exploiting asylum laws and human beings for profit.
FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020
Steve King (Republican, IA) \u2014 2019-6-25

I rise to offer my King amendment No. 3, and what it does is it strikes section 126 in the underlying bill. prgtoken Section 126 is notwithstanding language that prohibits the executive branch from using any of the funds in the Department of the Treasury's forfeiture fund, the Civil Assets Forfeiture Fund, to be used for anything, to build a wall or a road that might support a wall on our southern border. prgtoken The language is very expansive in the bill. It says none of the funds ``may be obligated, expended, or used to plan, design, construct, or carry out a project to construct a wall, barrier, fence, or road along the southern border of the United States, or a road to provide access to a wall, barrier, or fence constructed along the southern border of the United States.'' prgtoken , my amendment strikes that language, and it does so with the idea in mind that we have a President who was elected with a mandate to secure our border. This has been an ongoing battle for the last 2\1/2\ years, and still the resources are short. prgtoken I think we should have done a better job in the previous Congress to get that money into this project, but the President is going where he can to find the resources to keep his campaign promises. So I certainly want to support that by striking that language and allowing the President to then have access to what amounts to $601 million that would be generated, be freed up by my amendment. prgtoken And it recognizes this, that the U.S. Treasury has about $13.6 billion that is allocated to it under this underlying bill; and this small piece of money here is not a lot of money, but it does send a message that it is going to get harder and harder for the President to build a wall if we don't strike this language. And I want to support the President's mission to do that. prgtoken It is ironic, I think, that we are spending today--and I am the only one in Congress that I know of who tracks this spending, but we are spending at least $6.7 million a mile for every mile of the 2,000 miles of our southern border to secure that border. prgtoken Just doing the math in my head, quickly, that turns out to be about $13.4 billion. Almost the exact same amount that is freed up to the Treasury, we are spending to secure the border for something probably less than 50 percent efficiency. When you build a wall, it is 99-point- something percent efficiency. prgtoken We need to let the President be the President. He has declared a national emergency, and we need to strike this language from the bill so the President has the latitude to do that which the people have elected him to do. prgtoken Mr. Chair, .
TAX TREATIES AND PROTOCOLS
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2019-6-25

later today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to consider four protocols to the United States' tax treaties with Spain, Switzerland, Japan, and Luxembourg. I support swift action on these protocols both in committee and in the Senate, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes on them. prgtoken I encourage the committee to also take up the new tax treaties with Chile, Hungary, and Poland as soon as possible. These new treaties will provide important benefits to U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. Government. prgtoken After years of discussion and debate, the time has come to move forward on all of these bilateral agreements. prgtoken .
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020--Resumed
James M. Inhofe (Republican, OK) \u2014 2019-6-25

I just want to make one comment. I know that somehow it is popular to say demeaning things about our President and John Bolton. prgtoken I can remember the years that John Bolton was with the United Nations, representing the United States, and he did just such an incredible job. He is one that really has all the talent you could have in the background. He certainly knows more about defense than anyone else I know in this administration. prgtoken One of the proudest moments I had of this President was when he did away with that thing that John Kerry had during the last administration. They are always referring to our coddling the Iranians in the media. prgtoken I happened to be with Netanyahu when the President got us out of the arrangement with Iran, where we gave them--what--$1.7 billion to do anything they want to with, and they had to admit they would be promoting terrorism with the money we gave back to them. It was an absolute disaster. prgtoken Anyway, there is something about this President--in spite of the fact that right now we have the best economy we have had in my lifetime, and right now we have a type of full employment nationwide, and minority employment, we have never had anything at all like we are having right now. It is the result of two things this President did, and he did them with the help of the s. We all lined up and helped him with this. It was reducing the marginal rate. prgtoken Reducing the marginal rate to increase the revenue coming into the United States is something we have known for a long time. It is not a idea. That was John Kennedy. John Kennedy came up with the idea that we want to go ahead and increase revenue. At that time, he said, and his words were: We need more revenue for the Great Society programs, and the best way to increase revenue is to reduce marginal rates, and it worked. prgtoken Unfortunately, John Kennedy died right after that and couldn't see the product of his efforts. Then, after that, of course, Ronald Reagan did the same thing, and it had the same effect on the economy. prgtoken Then, when this President did it, we knew it would have that effect, but he did one more thing that they didn't, and that was he recommended, yes, you could increase the economy by reducing marginal rates, but the other way to do it is to reduce the onerous regulations that we got during the administration. prgtoken During that administration, that is the biggest problem we had. People were leaving the country to go to places they could find energy. There was a war on fossil fuels--fossil fuels: oil, gas, and coal--and he ended that war. As a result of that, just in my State of Oklahoma, for example, our exports on crude have gone up 251 percent since that time. prgtoken Anyway, he also is rebuilding the military. Look what happened to the military back during the administration. If you look at just the last 5 years of the admi