mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
Tribute to Johnny Isakson (Executive Calendar)
Doug Jones (Democrat, AL) \u2014 2019-12-11

I know I am not in the right order, but since we have a gap here, I thought I would just jump in. prgtoken I am honored to be here today for the Johnny Isakson memorial tribute part two. Being the lower person in the Senate on the totem pole here, I didn't get a chance to talk last week, but I did sit through the Senators' remarks, which I found very compelling. prgtoken I have found Johnny Isakson to be very compelling. You know, there are times when you watch a movie or a TV show, and there are these special moments when two people meet, and there is one person who has that spark, who has that magic, and when they touch, when they embrace with a hug or a shake of the hands, all of a sudden, the other person realizes they are talking to somebody very special. That is Johnny Isakson. That moment is built around Johnny Isakson. prgtoken From the first time I had the chance to meet him on January 3, 2018, I knew all of those things that are being said about his bipartisanship, about his friendliness, and about how he wants to work with people and how he cares about people were absolutely true. I could tell by the first handshake and the ``Welcome to the Senate, Doug.'' prgtoken I will say that I think meeting me and having that spark was a real test prgtoken of Senator Isakson more than anybody in this body because you have to understand that when we first met, it was about 5 days before his beloved Georgia Bulldogs were going to face the University of Alabama in the national championship game. prgtoken For those who don't know this, I am telling you, you can think of ``partisanship'' and ``tribalism'' as political terms here in Washington, DC, but if you ain't experienced football partisanship and football tribalism as far as SEC rivals, you ain't experienced nothing. So the fact that Johnny Isakson embraced me, a from his neighboring State of Alabama, was very, very special and something I will always cherish. prgtoken I truly mean that, Johnny. I have watched you as a member of the HELP Committee with me. I have watched you in so many hearings and listened to you and your wisdom. That wisdom often came from personal experiences. Whether it was business or education or whether it was the tragedy with your grandson, everything about what you have done in the U.S. Senate has been personal. prgtoken I think that is something we should all strive to do. Everything we do in this body needs to be personal because for all of our constituents, it is personal to us. It is personal to our States and personal to everyone, but we don't always seem to act that way. A lot of times, we act in a way that it seems to be more political than personal. I have never seen that in Senator Isakson. I have seen that time and again, where everything he has spoken about--whether or not I agreed with him was not the issue. I could tell that what he was speaking of was personal, that it meant something to him, and tha
DELAWARE DAY AND HEALTHCARE ENROLLMENT
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2019-12-11

I rise again to call this Chamber to wake up to the threat of climate change, and in this particular case, to say about the Paris agreement and to say in chorus with literally millions of Americans, we are still in. prgtoken In truth, America is still in the Paris agreement. When you look at the States that are still in and will honor their commitments, when you look at the cities that are still in and will honor their commitments, when you look at the companies and the universities that are still in, it is the vast majority of the entire American economy. Despite President 's fossil fuel nonsense, we really are still in. prgtoken Last week, I traveled to Madrid with Pelosi and the delegation of House committee chairs and climate leaders for the U.N. Conference of the Parties--what is called the COP--to support the Paris agreement climate goals. The mood in Spain was optimistic. There was a somber confidence. The administration, of course, has begun the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord. prgtoken That is an abandonment from our American tradition of international leadership and adherence to higher ideals. It is abandonment of our own national security imperatives and economy well-being. This abandonment demeans the Nation that has from John Winthrop to Ronald Reagan called itself a ``city on a hill.'' prgtoken Our military well understands the national security imperative. Back in 2013, Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of the U.S. forces in the Pacific, warned that upheaval related prgtoken to climate change ``is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen . . . that will cripple the security environment''--``the most likely thing.'' prgtoken He added, ``You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level . . . If it goes bad, you could have hundreds of thousands or millions of people displaced and then security will start to crumble pretty quickly.'' prgtoken That command is still concerned about it. Preparing for these risks was a centerpiece of a recent Indo-Pacific Command briefing I attended at their headquarters in Hawaii. prgtoken To understand the threat to our economy, we need only ask our government-backed mortgage institution, Freddie Mac. Freddie Mac predicts that rising sea levels will prompt a crash in coastal property values, greater than the housing crash that caused the 2008 financial crisis. That warning by Freddie Mac is echoed by the biggest, most important financial institutions in the world, both in the United States in the Federal Reserve system and abroad. prgtoken The Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Canada, and European Central Bank, are all warning of ``systemic'' economic risks from climate change. ``Systemic,'' that is central banker speak for something that poses a risk to the entire economy, perhaps from stranded fossil fuel assets when
CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. 1790, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020
John Garamendi (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2019-12-11

. Madam , I rise in full support of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. prgtoken First, I thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Thornberry, the committee staff, and others who worked tirelessly on this bill. It is a good one, and I urge support from all. prgtoken As chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, I worked closely with Members on and off the committee to ensure that this bill addressed three priority areas. prgtoken First, the NDAA requires the Department of Defense to plan for and respond to the threat that climate change poses to military installations and military operations by developing installation master plans that fully assess current and future climate vulnerabilities and updating building standards for military construction to promote energy conservation, climate and cyber resiliency, among many other important aspects. prgtoken Second, the bill includes a number of provisions aimed at addressing problems associated with the management and oversight of military family housing programs, including that military services must establish a tenants' bill of rights for our military family housing. prgtoken Third, the bill authorizes additional funding and includes bipartisan provisions to mitigate contaminated drinking water for households and agriculture resulting from PFAS and fluorinated compounds that have been used on military installations. prgtoken I am also pleased that there is a 3.1 percent pay raise for our troops and also that the bill includes provisions from my bill, H.R. 2617, the OATH Act, the Occupational and Environmental Transparency Health Act, which requires the DOD input any occupational environmental hazard that troops may have been exposed to. prgtoken Finally, a couple of things that are positive, but there are also some concerns. The bill does not delay the deployment of the new low- yield nuclear warheads for submarines, which I believe is not a good idea at all for our boomers. Secondly, the bill does not deal with the funding for our military programs and for the military that had been ripped off for the wall.
TELEVISION VIEWER PROTECTION ACT OF 2019
Anna G. Eshoo (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2019-12-11

I rise in support of H.R. 5035. I thank the leadership of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Communications and Technology Subcommittee for reaching this bipartisan agreement. prgtoken This bill includes important consumer protections based on my bill, the TRUE Fees Act, that will provide consumers with an ``all-in'' price before a consumer signs up for cable or satellite TV. This includes all fees and taxes. The bill also gives consumers 24 hours to cancel without penalty. prgtoken The average consumer pays $450 a year in opaque and confusing company-imposed fees on their cable bill (excluding taxes), according to Consumer Reports. This is a game of bait and switch and this legislation ends it. prgtoken As is the nature of a compromise, not all of the protections from my TRUE Fees Act were included, but the legislation takes an important step forward in providing consumers with transparency. prgtoken Another provision of H.R. 5035 empowers groups of small cable operators to negotiate better prices for consumers and decreases the likelihood of broadcast blackouts. This is something Mr. Scalise and I championed in our bipartisan Modern Television Act. It is important because large broadcaster networks take advantage of small cable operators during negotiations, leading to increased costs for consumers. Worse, stalemates in negotiations cause broadcast blackouts. prgtoken While I'm pleased we're taking this important step, I also hope our Committee will revisit the issue of broader reforms to the video marketplace soon. Specifically, we need to protect consumers from other harmful practices, such as broadcast blackouts, and modernize outdated laws and regulations that hurt consumers in their wallets. Mr. Scalise and I propose such reforms in our bill H.R. 3994, the Modern Television Act. prgtoken So far this year, broadcasters have caused nearly 300 blackouts, which is a record and more than double the number from five years prior. Furthermore, cable and satellite companies paid over $11 billion in retransmission consent fees so far this year, which is also double from five years prior. Consumers are paying more than ever while blackouts are more frequent than ever. We must revisit these issues and protect consumers from blackouts and rising costs. prgtoken I support this legislation and urge my colleagues to do the same.
LOWER DRUG COSTS NOW ACT OF 2019
Carol D. Miller (Republican, WV) \u2014 2019-12-11

I rise today to oppose H.R. 3. prgtoken Every single person in our country deserves lower prescription drug prices. Congress needs to act. But the bill on the floor today is not the answer. prgtoken With this legislation, my colleagues across the aisle have decided that, once again, government should be in the business of healthcare, picking winners and losers, taxing lifesaving cures, and ignoring that private innovation is the main driver in advancing healthcare. prgtoken House s have a bipartisan solution, one which will deliver the transparency, affordability, and predictability we need: H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act. prgtoken With this bill, we can make sure that every person--the parents of a newborn baby, a young adult with a chronic illness, a coal miner coping with black lung disease, or a senior citizen taking their daily pills-- has access to the drugs they need at the affordable, predictable prices they deserve. prgtoken We need the innovators to be at the forefront of creating new, better drugs to improve quality of life for all Americans in need. H.R. 19 delivers this. We can have it all. That is why I oppose H.R. 3.
INCENTIVIZE BUSINESS TO HIRE VETERANS
Ron Wright (Republican, TX) \u2014 2019-12-11

a lion of the Legislature in Texas is serving his last term in office. prgtoken Since 2003, State Representative Bill Zedler has been a champion of liberty, a champion of free enterprise, a champion of religious freedom, a champion for life. He has been a champion like few others in the Texas Legislature. prgtoken Whether the issue was taxes, education, healthcare, veterans benefits, whatever it was, his was a voice to which others listened because that voice has always been a voice of truth and wisdom. That voice will be greatly missed. prgtoken All of us in public office at the end of our time of service have to answer the question, did we leave things better than we found them? For my friend Bill Zedler, that answer is a resounding yes because Texas today is better because State Representative Bill Zedler served in the Texas Legislature. prgtoken At the end of the movie ``Troy,'' Odysseus is commenting about how history will be written. He says that he lived among giants, that he wanted it to be said that he lived in the time of Hector, that he lived in the time of Achilles. Well, members of the Texas Legislature can be proud that they served in the time of Bill Zedler. prgtoken I thank Bill for all of his magnificent service to the Texas Legislature.
Senate Legislative Agenda (Executive Session)
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2019-12-11

it is no secret that Washington have been itching to impeach President since the moment he took the oath of office. Remember the Washington Post's headline on Inauguration Day in 2017: ``The campaign to impeach President has begun.'' That was the Washington Post's headline on Inauguration Day in 2017. prgtoken Just a few months later, in April of 2017, one leading House had already made up her mind. She declared she would ``fight every day until he's impeached.'' As an aside, this same senior is one of the committee chairwomen whom Pelosi asked to help lead the impeachment process. She was literally standing at the 's shoulder as she announced yesterday that she will bring two articles of impeachment up for a vote. Yet she had had her mind made up more than 2 years ago, long before this supposedly fair inquiry. This is sort of emblematic of their whole process. prgtoken House announced yesterday that they will rush ahead and prepare to send the Senate articles of impeachment based on the least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry prgtoken in modern history. Well, the House ' denigration of their solemn duty will not cause the Senate to denigrate ours. If the House continues down this destructive road and sends us articles of impeachment, the Senate will take them up in the new year and proceed to a fair trial. prgtoken Now, in the meantime, our colleagues' obsession with impeachment has left us with a host of important, bipartisan legislation that is still unfinished at this late date. prgtoken For months, Senate s have been calling on our ic colleagues to go beyond picking fights with the White House and actually legislate for the American people. Yet, for practically the entire autumn, our ic friends' political calculation seemed to be that these vital pieces of business could wait until the eleventh hour because impeachment was the higher priority--and wait they have. prgtoken Finally, after weeks of pressure from the s and from hard- working Americans across the country, Pelosi backed down yesterday and announced that she will let the House vote on President 's USMCA. The have stalled this agreement for so long that it is now impossible for the USMCA to become law in 2019, especially given all of the other urgent things they have stalled right alongside it. The have simply run out the clock. Assuming the House send us articles of impeachment next week, a Senate trial will have to be our first item of business in January. So the USMCA will continue to be a casualty of the ' impeachment obsession for several more weeks before we can actually turn to it. Yet I am glad the is finally beginning to bring her USMCA obstruction to a close. prgtoken As we triage in the coming days, the s hope we will be able to pass not only the NDAA conf
CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. 1790, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020
Mike Rogers (Republican, AL) \u2014 2019-12-11

. Madam , I thank Ranking Member Thornberry and Chairman Smith for their leadership in bringing this conference report to the floor. prgtoken I am very pleased that Space Force, an issue that my good friend, Jim Cooper, and I have been working on for several years, is finally becoming a reality. This report establishes the U.S. Space Force in title 10 as the sixth Armed Service of the United States under the Department of the Air Force. It is the first new branch of the military since 1947. prgtoken It also recognizes space as a warfighting domain and authorizes the transfer of Air Force personnel to the newly established Space Force. This is an important step for our national security. Our adversaries are moving quickly in space, and this new service will allow us to quickly realign our resources and efforts towards countering them. prgtoken Finally, the original House-passed NDAA that every opposed, included a number of open border provisions that would have undermined our efforts to secure our Southwest border. I am pleased that those unreasonable border security restrictions have been removed. prgtoken Madam , this is a strong defense bill, and I urge the House to support this legislation.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG POLITICS OVER PROGRESS
Roger Marshall (Republican, KS) \u2014 2019-12-11

. Madam , I thank Congressman Carter for his leadership as a community pharmacist. prgtoken You and I have worked together in different cities but on the same projects trying to help patients out. And here we are gathered in Congress now for this same purpose. prgtoken I thought I might talk about Alzheimer's disease for a little bit this evening. prgtoken It is hard to imagine that over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. And I bet there is not a person in this room, a person at home watching, that doesn't have a loved one that they have watched them suffer and go through the stages of Alzheimer's disease--5 million Americans. And it is hard to imagine, in three decades we are going to have 14 million Americans with Alzheimer's. prgtoken For the sake of humanity, we need a drug to cure this. And you and I both know that we are truly this close, that there are medications in the pipeline that are going to help treat Alzheimer's. prgtoken The economic impact of this disease on our country is also extraordinary. Right now, we are spending about $300 billion a year treating Alzheimer's patients. Again, in three decades, it is going to be over a trillion dollars a year. A medication that would cure Alzheimer's is going to save this country, literally, trillions of dollars. prgtoken When I go back home, people ask me a couple of things. Number one is, they want us to lower the cost of healthcare, to lower the cost of prescription drugs. But they also want us to balance the Federal budget. If we are ever going to be able to balance the Federal budget, we have to start driving the cost of healthcare down. And innovation is the way that we are going to do this. prgtoken I hope everybody understands that the ' H.R. 3 does just the opposite. By their price fixing, they are going to stop innovation. Drugs that are going to cure Alzheimer's are never going to come, and I haven't even started talking about hepatitis. prgtoken When you and I were in college, and in medical school and pharmacy school, there weren't cures for hepatitis, but now we have vaccines for it. Hepatitis C was a death sentence. Now we have medication, a medication you take, one pill a week for 12 weeks--95 percent cure of hepatitis. So that patient that was going to end up with a liver transplant that was going to cost $500,000, we have cured them with an outpatient medicine. prgtoken I think about all the cures for cancer, CAR-T cell therapy, new innovations out there, spinal muscular atrophy--so many things-- cortical blindness. For the sake of humanity, we cannot let H.R. 3 happen. prgtoken We need H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act. That is what is going to drive down the cost of healthcare and bring great solutions, great new innovation to this country. prgtoken And again, Madam , I thank Congressman Carter for leading on this very important issue.
CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. 1790, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020
Elise M. Stefanik (Republican, NY) \u2014 2019-12-11

. Madam , I rise in strong support of this bipartisan bill and the accompanying conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. prgtoken As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities, I am proud of our oversight and legislative activities this year. prgtoken The bill before the House incorporates four broad subcommittee themes. prgtoken First, it recharges our national security innovation base to confront emerging threats and advance our science and technology ecosystem, while also making it easier for small businesses to engage with DOD. We authorize the establishment of new partnerships in the field of hypersonics and quantum sciences. We extend unique hiring authorities to the Joint AI Center and to DARPA to ensure that the best talent available is made available to solve our hardest national security problems. This bill also establishes a White House working group to protect Federal research and intellectual property from foreign interference, espionage, and theft. prgtoken Second, this bill recognizes the urgency and importance of U.S. leadership in 5G technology and mandates the development of a DOD 5G strategy. prgtoken Third, this NDAA strengthens congressional oversight of cyber operations and enhances the Department's cybersecurity strategy and cyber warfare capabilities. It builds upon the work of previous NDAAs to ensure cyber is a fully integrated warfighting function across the Department. It increases congressional notification requirements for military cyber operations and improves cybersecurity cooperation with the Defense industrial base. prgtoken Finally, this bill contains important authorities for sensitive military operations and activities, including cyber, counterterrorism, and intelligence. These authorities are vital to meet the prgtoken threats identified in the National Defense Strategy. prgtoken Before I conclude, I would like to thank Ranking Member Thornberry, Chairman Smith, Senator Inhofe, and Senator Reed for their leadership through this conference process. prgtoken I particularly want to thank my partner and the subcommittee chair, Congressman Jim Langevin from Rhode Island, for his strong partnership and what we have delivered from this subcommittee. prgtoken Madam , I urge a ``yes'' vote.