mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
PROTECT AND ENHANCE SOCIAL SECURITY
John B. Larson (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2024-1-10

. I thank the gentlewoman for her continued input and support over the last several decades. prgtoken , from Pennsylvania (Mr. Cartwright), who has been key as an original cosponsor of the Social Security 2100 Act and also for his passion about the people in his district who are in such need of Social Security to make sure that it is there today, tomorrow, and in the future.
Israel (Executive Calendar)
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2024-1-10

as people around the world gathered last week to ring in the new year, it was a heartbreaking moment for families of the remaining Israeli hostages, whose loved ones have been forced to begin a new year in Hamas captivity. prgtoken Over the past month, I was devastated to learn that two of the hostages whom I have spoken about have since died. Israeli-American Judih Weinstein and Gad, her husband, both died from injuries they sustained on October 7. Their bodies are still being held in Gaza. prgtoken Gad was a retired chef, a jazz musician, and a gifted flautist. A father of four and a grandfather of seven, he was a man full of humor who knew how to make other people laugh. prgtoken Gad's wife Judih was a person of peace. A New York native, she loved making puppets and teaching English to children with special needs. She was a wellness expert who used meditation and mindfulness techniques to help those traumatized by years of rocket fire. She was also a pacifist who advocated for Palestinian rights. In one of the poems she wrote and shared on social media, Judih described herself as a ``lone pilgrim, enveloped by ancestors''--listening to a ``flute's homage beckoning [her] on.'' prgtoken The deaths of Judih and Gad are a sad conclusion to a long and horrifying saga. It is also a disturbing reminder of the perils faced by other hostages. prgtoken I recently returned from a congressional delegation trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, and I can tell you that the suffering and the grief the Jewish people and innocent Palestinian people have faced daily are truly devastating. The collective anguish, fear, and horror is palpable. prgtoken The path to peace--with all hostages being returned, the rebuilding of a Palestinian state without Hamas, and with the support and investment of the Arab and Muslim world--is now more urgent than ever. prgtoken When meeting the families of the hostages, the urgency and anguish in their eyes was devastating. To know that your loved one could be suffering unspeakable horrors and that they may be on the edge of death and feel powerless to stop it is a pain that no family member should ever be forced to bear. They have spent every living day and moment since October 7 fighting to get their loved ones home. This nightmare must end now. prgtoken One of the families I met with told me about their loved one, Doron. A 30-year-old veterinary nurse, she hid under the bed in her apartment as Hamas terrorists rampaged her kibbutz. The last her family heard from her was from a voice message in which she said: They've arrived, they have me. prgtoken Doron has a stomach condition, and her family worries her health will deteriorate without her daily medication. They worry about rape and sexual violence and sexual torture. They worry she will not survive the horrors of her captivity. prgtoken I also met again with the families of Itay Chen and Omer Neutra--two New Yorkers w
PROTECT AND ENHANCE SOCIAL SECURITY
Steven Horsford (Democrat, NV) \u2014 2024-1-10

I thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for bringing us together for this important Special Order and to thank him for his tremendous leadership on Social Security as the ranking member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and for introducing the Social Security 2100 Act, which I am proud to be an original cosponsor of. prgtoken , I rise today to speak about the urgent need for us to take action to protect and to improve one of the most important programs in our Nation, Social Security. It is shameful that it has been more than 50 years since Social Security benefits have been improved. prgtoken Social Security is vital to making sure our senior citizens, the disabled, and many children in Nevada and all across the country are able to keep a roof over their heads and to keep food on the table. prgtoken , there are 149,700 Social Security recipients in Nevada's Fourth Congressional District, which I am honored to represent. This includes 113,832 retirees, 8,380 children, 11,279 widows and spouses, and 16,209 disabled workers. Collectively, they receive $248 million in monthly benefits in our district alone. prgtoken When beneficiaries receive their Social Security checks, what do they do? They turn around and spend that money in our communities, helping to churn the local economic engine. prgtoken I know some of my colleagues on the other side will say we can't afford it. Well, the truth is, we can't not afford it. By simply ensuring millionaires and billionaires pay just their fair share of FICA that everyone else who works every day does, we can absolutely afford it. With these funds, we can increase benefits for all recipients by 2 percent, which would be the first general increase in Social Security in over 52 years. You tell my constituents we can't afford it, and meanwhile they are struggling to afford their rent and their food. prgtoken Something else that I hear a lot about from my constituents is the fact that this bill, as proposed by Congressman Larson, repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision, the WEP, and the Government Pension Offset that currently penalizes many workers who have worked in the public sector, including teachers in Nevada. prgtoken , I have one of the most diverse districts in the country, and I also have a significant military presence and many veterans who live in my district. prgtoken Social Security's progressive benefit formula is particularly important for groups that tend to earn lower wages during their working lives, which include African Americans and Latino families. For example, in 2020, average earnings were about $41,000 for African Americans and $38,000 for Hispanics. prgtoken The progressive formula means benefits replace a higher share of preretirement earnings for low-wage workers. prgtoken People of color are less likely to work for employers who offer pensions and less likely to receive pension benefits in retirement, which wea
Border Security (Executive Session)
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2024-1-10

negotiations continue on border security reforms to be included in the national security supplemental, and I am thankful that after 3 years of chaos at our southern border, have, at least, finally come to the table, because it is long past time to get the situation under control. prgtoken As I said, for 3 years--almost since the day President took office--we have confronted chaos at our southern border. Rather than improving, this crisis has just grown worse and worse with time. Fiscal year 2021 saw a recordbreaking 1,734,686 migrant encounters at our southern border. Then fiscal year 2022 broke that record, and then fiscal year 2023 broke that record. prgtoken And if fiscal year 2024 continues on its current trajectory, we will, yet again, end up breaking another record. December reportedly saw a staggering 302,000 migrant encounters at our southern border--not only the highest December number ever recorded, but the highest number ever recorded for any month, period. prgtoken My colleague from Pennsylvania recently compared September's nearly 270,000 border encounters to having the entire population of Pittsburgh crossing our southern border in one month--in one month. The comparison is even more apt with December's numbers. We can't afford to have a major city's worth of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border every single month. prgtoken As border cities have long known and as major ic cities are now finding to their cost, this simply isn't sustainable. New York City, which has seen 150,000-plus migrants enter the city since last spring, is facing cuts to city services as a result of the influx. In fact, just yesterday, it was reported that Mayor Adams is actually temporarily removing students from their classrooms to house migrants. prgtoken It is not just New York that is overwhelmed; so are cities like Denver and Chicago. The mayor of Chicago recently noted that the situation his city and others are facing is ``unsustainable.'' So there are massive practical problems associated with having a city's worth of people coming across our southern border each and every single month. prgtoken But that isn't the worst of it. The even bigger concern is the national security crisis that this represents. Our Nation cannot be secure while we have hundreds of thousands of migrants flooding across our southern border each month, frequently to end up released into the United States with court dates that are, literally, years into the future. The sheer volume smooths the way for criminals, terrorists, and other dangerous individuals to make their way into our country. prgtoken And there are dangerous individuals trying to make their way into our country. Make no mistake about that. During the first 2 months of fiscal year 2024 alone, 30 individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist were apprehended on our southern border. That is, literally, one every other day. Fiscal year 2023 saw
Border Security (Executive Calendar)
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2024-1-10

it is common knowledge that America's southern border has been in crisis since President took office 3 years ago. Since then, 6.7 million--6.7 million--migrants have shown up at the border, only to be released by the administration into the interior of the United States. prgtoken That 6.7 million people is higher than the and the administration combined, and that was over a period of 12 years. In just 3 years, we have experienced more illegal immigration than we did in the preceding 12 years. prgtoken Well, despite the eye-popping statistics, leaders in the administration have repeatedly tried to mislead the American people into believing everything at the border is just hunky-dory. In other words, they are saying: Don't believe your lying eyes. prgtoken President has consistently attempted to downplay concerns about the border crisis. Of course, my State, the State of Texas, which has 1,200 miles of common border with Mexico, we are a ground-zero. But the President has even refused to visit the border until last January, nearly 2 years into his presidency, and then he did sort of a drive-by in El Paso after much of the evidence related to the crisis had been cleaned up. prgtoken At one point, the President defended his decision not to go to the border by saying: Well, there are more important things to do. What an abdication of responsibility. prgtoken Other leaders in the administration have offered weak and unconvincing claims that there is no reason to be concerned. Some have just lied. That sounds harsh, but there is simply no other reasonable conclusion. prgtoken In the fall of 2022, Vice President , the appointed border czar by President , said: We have a secure border. prgtoken I don't know how she reached that conclusion, other than maybe being just wishful thinking. She certainly has traveled to the border. She certainly hasn't studied the phenomenon associated with this mass migration of humanity across our border into the United States. prgtoken And then the official principally responsible for border security, Alejandro Mayorkas, made a nearly identical proclamation, saying--this is under oath, penalties of perjury--he said: The border is secure. prgtoken Well, it is easy to see that these statements are demonstrably false. After all, the American people can turn their TV set on and watch news footage of migrants streaming across the border, caravans making their way to the border mostly to just turn themselves in because they know the administration will release them into the countryside. We see photos of migrants lining the streets and sidewalks of our major cities like New York and Chicago, which are more than 1,000 miles away from the United States-Mexico border. prgtoken We watch as people in communities die from fentanyl poisoning and know that the vast majority of that fentanyl comes across the border from Mexico. <
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin (Executive Session)
Thom Tillis (Republican, NC) \u2014 2024-1-10

I am going to be brief. prgtoken I decided this morning that I wanted to come and talk about the events involving Secretary Austin and what we now know are his challenges with prostate cancer. I want to look at it from two different perspectives. prgtoken One, I want to be very brief. I think that Secretary Austin made a mistake by not notifying Members of Congress and by not notifying the administration--in other words, moving through the transition. I think that was a mistake, and I hope Secretary Austin has learned from that. But I am not here to talk about that. That was just a mistake. It shouldn't have been made, particularly in the circumstances we are in now with conflicts in Israel, conflicts in Ukraine, threats across the world, and threats to this country. prgtoken I am here to talk about this because it was 2 years ago this month that I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I made a decision very quickly after I learned about it. It took me about a month. I had gone to my doctor for my annual checkup. You always check your PSA. I found out in probably the September-October timeframe that my PSA was up. I went back for a followup exam through the Christmas holiday. Then, in the first or second week of January 2021, my doctor said: You have prostate cancer, and you need to take some course of action. And there are several different courses of action, but I made the immediate decision to be public with the fact that I was going through prostate cancer. prgtoken Secretary Austin chose not to. For any individual person, that is your right. I hope you are not embarrassed by the fact that you have cancer any more than a woman would be embarrassed for having breast cancer, because back in the day, when breast cancer was stigmatized, a lot of women died because they were ashamed of something they had no control over. prgtoken So my point is that Secretary Austin is a global figure. Secretary Austin is somebody whom people around the world know. Secretary Austin, as personal as it is to have to deal with a cancer diagnosis, needs to know, as a public figure--I, as a U.S. Senator; he, as the Secretary of Defense--has an obligation to save lives. And one of the ways you save lives, when you get prostate cancer as a male, is to not be ashamed of it and to tell other males. Any male who has a history of prostate cancer--and their family--needs to tell those young men, you don't get to wait until you are 40 to get a PSA test; you should start getting it when you are 30. And every man over 40 should be getting a PSA test every year. And then do your homework. Study the courses of therapy, whether it was, in my case, a procedure similar to what Secretary Austin got--removal of the prostate; it could be hormone therapy; it could be radiation therapy. prgtoken Cancer--and prostate cancer in particular--is one of the most treatable cancers there is. It is highly likely I still have cancer. The goal with
Ukraine (Executive Session)
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2024-1-10

here on the floor yesterday, I warned that the administration's efforts to deter Iranian-backed Houthi threats to international shipping and American credibility were grossly insufficient. Just hours later, the Houthis proved my point with a significant escalation in the Red Sea. prgtoken Tehran's proxies fired more than 18 suicide drones, along with anti- ship cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, into one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. At great cost, American and British Navy vessels launched expensive interceptors to defend against these relatively inexpensive Houthi weapons. prgtoken On January 3, America and coalition partners warned that ``the Houthis will bear responsibility for the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, or the free flow of commerce in the region's critical waterways.'' Well, the Houthis crossed that redline. The question is now whether President will finally impose sufficient consequences on the Houthis and their patrons in Tehran. The world is watching. prgtoken But American credibility and security isn't just on the line in the Red Sea; our Nation is facing the most serious array of national security challenges since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Senate's responsibility to address them remains unfilled. prgtoken Take the first major land war in Europe since 1945. On one side of the war in Ukraine is a free world that recognizes sovereignty; on the other is an autocrat with imperial ambitions that extend beyond Ukraine's sovereign borders. prgtoken With assistance from a nuclear-armed, rogue state--the most active state sponsor of terrorism--and a friendship without limits with America's top strategic adversary, Russia has spent a decade trying to subjugate Ukraine militarily. prgtoken Putin is waging a war of torture and brutality. In some cases, his forces' crimes--like those of the Hamas terrorists responsible for October 7--are documented proudly by the perpetrators themselves. And Moscow has mobilized a war economy, ramping up military production while also tapping into the industrial capacity of its axis partners in Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang. prgtoken The war has clearly jolted our European allies out of a holiday from history. Producers in Norway are racing a prgtoken streamline production of critical air defense systems. Governments like Poland and Germany have announced major increases in defense spending. Denmark, for example, has resurrected an entire dormant industry to contribute ammunition. But even these historic, overdue investments have not yet turned the tide. This conflict has also exposed the glaring shortcomings of America's own arsenal and supply chains for critical capabilities. prgtoken As I have explained repeatedly and in great detail here on the floor, our supplemental appropriations to support Ukraine included heavy investments in expanding our defense industrial base and purchasing the
Border Security (Executive Calendar)
James Lankford (Republican, OK) \u2014 2024-1-10

. Senator Tillis, that is correct that during the past several administrations, we had millions of people who have actually crossed our border, have either never requested asylum--at the border, they declared they were going to ask for asylum but, literally, never did, never filled out the paperwork, never even tried because they knew they weren't eligible--or they travelled through multiple countries on the way, never requested asylum because they wanted to come to America, which I don't blame them. It is the greatest country in the world. But that is not what asylum is. ``Asylum'' means I have fear in my entire country. There is no safe place in my country, so I fled to the next safe place. That is what the international definition of ``asylum'' is.
TAIWAN NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT OF 2023
Young Kim (Republican, CA) \u2014 2024-1-10

I thank Mr. McHenry for yielding and supporting my legislation. I also thank Representative Green of Texas for co-leading this bill, H.R. 540, and making it a bipartisan effort. prgtoken , I rise in strong support of this bill, H.R. 540, the Taiwan Non-Discrimination Act. prgtoken Longstanding U.S. policy towards Taiwan has supported its membership prgtoken in international organizations where statehood is not a prerequisite. prgtoken The U.S. also advocates for Taiwan's voice to be heard where membership is not possible. This principle has lasted decades across and ic administrations, and it has repeatedly been reaffirmed in bills passed by Congress. prgtoken My bill is straightforward. It requires the Treasury Department to implement our Taiwan policy at the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. prgtoken Taiwan is not required to be a member state of the United Nations in order to gain membership in the IMF. For example, Kosovo, also not a U.N. member, has belonged to the IMF for over a decade. prgtoken If Taiwan seeks admission to the IMF, then the Treasury Department should carry out our longstanding U.S. policy and support its application. While Taiwan awaits its admission to the IMF, H.R. 540 encourages the U.S. Governor of the IMF to support integrating Taiwan into the IMF's regular economic monitoring activities and Taiwanese nationals with equal employment opportunities at the IMF. prgtoken The IMF is devoted to monetary cooperation, exchange rate stability, and the growth of international trade. Taiwan is one of our top 10 trading partners, and it has the fifth largest cash reserves of any foreign country; greater than Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, or any European country except Switzerland. prgtoken At a time when China has been threatening the work of the IMF through its nontransparent lending abroad and its lack of cooperation with other creditors, we must focus the IMF on effective international cooperation. prgtoken , advocating for Taiwan's membership in the IMF would also unlock additional opportunities for the country in other international financial institutions, as was mentioned, one of which is the World Bank which requires countries to first be members of the IMF before becoming a member of World Bank. prgtoken With Taiwan's election taking place this week, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 540 and send the Taiwanese people a strong message of solidarity and support for their democracy.