mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
DEBBIE SMITH REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2019
Joni Ernst (Republican, IA) \u2014 2019-12-17

I stand proudly before this body today in support of the passage of the Debbie Smith Act of 2019. Since its enactment in 2004, the Debbie Smith Act has been renewed twice with overwhelming bipartisan support. With the tireless work of Senator Cornyn and Senator Feinstein, we will renew this vital piece of legislation for a third time today. prgtoken I want to thank Senator Cornyn very much for being such a diligent leader on behalf of this act. prgtoken The Debbie Smith Act removes one of the most substantial and burdensome roadblocks to survivors of sexual violence achieving the justice they deserve. I have told many people about the time I volunteered when I was a young woman in Iowa State University. I volunteered for a crisis hotline and a woman's shelter. The type of work I was able to volunteer for at that time was responding with a beeper to crisis calls at the hospital for women who had been through a rape. That, in itself, is very difficult, but the follow-on work that has to be done can often be just as difficult if evidence is not processed timely. prgtoken The Debbie Smith Act does this by providing funding for crime labs that process DNA evidence and by strengthening the national DNA database used to help solve these horrific crimes. In addition, this bipartisan bill supports audits of evidence awaiting analysis at law enforcement agencies and charges the Justice Department with the task of developing national testing guidelines. prgtoken We all know the criminal justice system isn't designed to be fair to survivors of sexual violence, and it is not easy on them. It certainly is not a comfortable process. prgtoken Coming forward as a survivor is not the end. It is just the beginning. That is why it is so important that this Congress, with Senator Cornyn's leadership, and our criminal justice system support survivors of sexual violence by funding the availability of DNA evidence to help bring these predators to justice. prgtoken Again, for his diligent work on this. The bipartisan Debbie Smith Act helps to bring us to the end that our survivors need and they deserve. Thank you for your leadership. prgtoken With that, .
AUTHORITY FOR COMMITTEES TO MEET
James M. Inhofe (Republican, OK) \u2014 2019-12-17

I have 6 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. prgtoken Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry prgtoken The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 10:30 a.m to conduct a hearing. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources prgtoken The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing on the nomination of Lanny Erdos, of Ohio, to be Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Department of the Interior. Committee on Environment and Public Works prgtoken The Committee on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 9:30 a.m to conduct a hearing. Committee on Foreign Relations prgtoken The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: John Hennessey-Niland, of Illinois, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Palau, Dorothy Shea, of North Carolina, to be Ambassador to the Lebanese Republic, Todd C. Chapman, of Texas, to be Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil, and Donald Wright, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania, all of the Department of State. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs prgtoken The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at 9:30 a.m to conduct a hearing on the nomination of Paul J. Ray, of Tennessee, to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. Committee on the Judiciary prgtoken The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing.
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MUSEUM COMMEMORATIVE COIN ACT
Mario Diaz-Balart (Republican, FL) \u2014 2019-12-17

. Madam , I rise to support this bill, and particularly, I want to talk about the transportation and housing portion of it. Chairman Price and I worked with our Senate colleagues to craft a fair agreement to meet our Nation's transportation and housing needs. prgtoken The T-HUD discretionary total is $74.3 billion, which is $1.5 billion below the House-passed level. prgtoken I would note that there are a lot of pressures in this bill. We required $2 billion above last year just to meet housing inflation and another $2 billion just to make up for lost receipts, so there is a $4 billion hole to start with. prgtoken Some tough choices had to be made. Let me talk about specifics: $2.4 billion for highway grants, which provides funding directly to our State DOTs, $1 billion for BUILD grants to help transform communities, and $225 million for port infrastructure. This bill also emphasizes safety, and that is something we should be proud of. prgtoken For HUD, we provide $3.4 billion for Community Development Block Grants, a huge priority for Members, both and s. prgtoken The bill meets our commitment to provide housing assistance to our most vulnerable, including the elderly, the disabled, and our veterans. prgtoken I am proudly particularly proud and pleased that the bill provides $2.8 billion for homeless assistance grants. I have seen the results of this program firsthand. In Miami-Dade County, we, in essence, effectively eliminated homelessness among veterans in our county. prgtoken As a final point on the T-HUD bill, I would note that this agreement drops all the controversial riders in the bill. Once again, Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Granger led us through difficult negotiations by working day and night and never giving up, and we are grateful for their leadership. prgtoken Finally, I thank Chairman Price for his friendship and his partnership. He has been a joy and a delight to work with, as well as our Senate counterparts, Senator Collins and Senator Reed. prgtoken I am proud of this bill. I think it is a great bill for transportation and infrastructure, and also for our housing needs, and I urge a ``yes'' vote.
TRIBUTE TO OFFICER MICHAEL LOHMAN
Rick Scott (Republican, FL) \u2014 2019-12-17

I rise to speak again today about the crisis in Venezuela--a defining human rights issue of our time. prgtoken Nicolas Maduro is starving his own people, and innocent children are dying. It is a genocide right here in our hemisphere. Every day that passes, the situation in Venezuela grows more dire. prgtoken The United States and all freedom-loving countries around the world must do more. As Governor, I strictly prohibited the State of Florida, including all State agencies, from investing in any company that did business with Maduro's repressive regime. prgtoken I am grateful for the bipartisan support this bill has received, and I specifically thank Senator Rosen for her leadership and for joining me in this effort. prgtoken We must never give up on the fight for freedom, and I look forward to all of my colleagues joining me in support of the people of Venezuela. prgtoken , I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate in Spanish.
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MUSEUM COMMEMORATIVE COIN ACT
Jenniffer González-Colón (Republican, PR) \u2014 2019-12-17

. Madam , I thank Ranking Member Granger for this opportunity, and I appreciate the hard work and bipartisan work that the gentlewoman, Chairwoman Lowey, and the leadership have put together to make this bill a reality. prgtoken I rise in strong support of the spending package for fiscal year 2020 because it includes several provisions that directly impact 3.2 million citizens living in Puerto Rico by providing funding for the Nutritional Assistance Program, as well as the Puerto Rico Air National Guard projects, and the Army Corps of Engineers, among others. prgtoken I am especially pleased that the agreement provides 2-year funding for the island's Medicaid program. The funding levels included in the bill will give certainty to the 1.1 million beneficiaries who rely on this program to meet their healthcare needs, as well as to put into effect several critical sustainability measures designed to enhance the provision of healthcare. This guarantee of funding for the next 2 years constitutes an important step towards correcting the problems arising from the chronic underfunding of the program. prgtoken I look forward to continuing this conversation for a long-term solution that guarantees citizens in Puerto Rico a standard of healthcare that we can expect from a nation as great as ours.
DHS CYBER INCIDENT RESPONSE TEAMS ACT OF 2019
Charles J. "Chuck" Fleischmann (Republican, TN) \u2014 2019-12-17

. Madam , Ranking Member, and Chairwoman Lowey, I rise today to lend my strong support to all of the appropriations bills that will be before us today, but specifically as the ranking member on the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, I am here to speak about the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, specifically. prgtoken As we have heard today from speakers on both sides of the aisle, this is not an ideal bill, but I think it is a very good and strong bill. It is a good bill crafted in a difficult environment--probably one of the most difficult environments I have seen in my almost 10-year tenure. I tell you, Madam , it is worthy of our support, as are all the bills here today. prgtoken I specifically, though, as the ranking member, the highest on prgtoken this subcommittee, want to thank Chairwoman Roybal-Allard. She is the head and we have worked well together. We don't view the world and we don't view this bill in total agreement, but we got it done, and that is very important, again, in these trying times. prgtoken This Homeland Security bill before us provides nearly $1.4 billion for continued construction of border barriers in high-priority areas identified by Customs and Border Protection and provides funding for the same level of detention beds as we had in fiscal year 2019. It also maintains the same transfer and reprogramming authorities. prgtoken The Department of Homeland Security is a vast agency and, looking at the bill beyond the investments in border and immigration enforcement, there are so many activities, programs, and initiatives that we all agree on across the aisle, across the Capitol, and really across the great United States of America. As I have said before, 90 percent of the funding in this bill we all can agree on. prgtoken We have solid investments in our great United States Coast Guard, and let's remember, Madam , this is the one branch of the military that did not get paid during the government shutdown last year, but the men and women of the Coast Guard bravely continued their missions. For the Coast Guard--the military branch with so many domestic missions on top of its contributions to the Nation's defense--this bill provides desperately needed new air and marine assets as well as reinvesting in personnel. prgtoken We have plus-ups for the Secret Service to continue leading law enforcement on national special security events and protection for all the Presidential candidates. prgtoken We have plus-ups for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to help keep our government's IT system secure, as well as providing for technical assistance to States, Tribes, and localities. prgtoken We have more than $17 billion for FEMA disaster relief to ensure that we are ready for whatever storms hit our homes plus increases of over $90 million for grants to State and local communities to prepare for and mitigate disast
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 1158, DHS CYBER INCIDENT RESPONSE TEAMS ACT OF 2019; PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 1865, NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT...
Chip Roy (Republican, TX) \u2014 2019-12-17

I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma and the gentleman from New York for yielding time, and I respect the amount of work they have put into this legislation. prgtoken , I rise, without surprise to anyone in this room, in opposition to the legislation. prgtoken I keep hearing this phrase: ``this bill provides.'' I keep hearing my colleagues saying this. But this bill doesn't provide anything. The American people provide. This bill borrows, and it borrows at a time when we can't afford to borrow more. prgtoken Our Nation is $23 trillion in debt, now racking up more than $100 million of debt per hour. prgtoken We haven't figured it all out yet, but it appears this bill spends $50 billion more than 2019 spending levels. Don't worry, everybody will go back home and campaign on a balanced budget amendment that has no prayer of passage. prgtoken This bill is filled with massive policy changes that we should debate and vote on individually. prgtoken It has a bailout for Big Insurance cloaked as tax relief. prgtoken It embraces the very partial Care repeal that s have argued props up Care, yet they now embrace. prgtoken The bill changes the tobacco age nationwide, turning federalism on its head, with nary a whimper from s who like to talk about the 10th Amendment in speeches back home. prgtoken The bill extends the big giveaway to huge corporations like Boeing in the form of Ex-Im for 7 years. prgtoken The bill funds bureaucrats who wish to target your Second Amendment rights. prgtoken It funds abortion through Care plans. prgtoken The biggest problem is, we haven't read the bill. prgtoken Days like today, everyone declares bipartisanship. But in this version of bipartisanship, it is the bipartisan smell of Christmas jet fumes and everyone's desire to get home fueling the worst kind of bipartisanship, the kind that says: ``To heck with it, keep spending money we don't have and leave it to our kids and grandkids to clean up.'' prgtoken No one has read the bill. It is a massive, unreadable, 2,313-page bill filled with government-expanded goodies and spending, and it was dropped on us yesterday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. My staff got their first look at 4:30. prgtoken The bill is a blatant violation of the House's 72-hour rule, a pretty weak rule requiring that we have at least 72 hours to review legislation--everyone back home is saying, ``Are you kidding me?''--in this case, 2,300 pages.
USMCA RATIFICATION IS A GREAT WIN FOR AMERICA
David Rouzer (Republican, NC) \u2014 2019-12-17

after months of delay, the House is on the cusp of approving the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a landmark trade deal that fulfills President 's promise to renegotiate and improve NAFTA. prgtoken This agreement reduces tariffs, cracks down on unfair trading practices, and removes other barriers to American-grown and -made products. This is particularly true for many North Carolina products. prgtoken Mexico and Canada are North Carolina's most important trade partners. North Carolina exported nearly $10.5 billion in total goods to Canada and Mexico in 2018, and our agriculture industry is particularly dependent upon trade with these two countries as well. prgtoken My home State exported more than $3.5 billion in agriculture products in 2017. Under this agreement, North Carolina farm families can expect to export even more. prgtoken Ratification of this trade deal means stability and more prosperity for our farm families as well as for North Carolina's economy as a whole. prgtoken , I want to thank Ambassador Lighthizer and his entire team at USTR, as well as the fine professionals at USDA, for their tireless work to make this achievement possible. prgtoken This is a great win for America.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Rand Paul (Republican, KY) \u2014 2019-12-17

we have before us today the National Defense Authorization Act to authorize the programs and policies of the Department of Defense. We will be taking a vote to finalize this bill shortly. prgtoken Our national defense is incredibly important. It is mandated in the Constitution. Our national defense is arguably Congress's primary constitutional responsibility. prgtoken I have great respect and honor for those in uniform who serve. In fact, I recently introduced a bill to give each soldier who served in the War on Terror a $2,500 bonus and, at the same time, officially end the war in Afghanistan. Ending the Afghan war would save us about $50 billion a year. prgtoken Unfortunately, the bill before us does not end any of our multitude of wars. The bill before us simply continues the status quo and throws more money around the world at conflicts we can't even begin to fathom. prgtoken Before rubberstamping more money, it is worth a moment for us to take a step back and consider two things. First, we need to ask ourselves whether borrowing millions of dollars year after year to fuel our appetite for more military spending is a wise policy in the years ahead. prgtoken Second, we need to look at how this bill has been loaded up to carry things only somewhat related or not related at all to national defense. prgtoken As I have reminded my colleagues often, Admiral Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the national debt was our greatest national security threat. His exact wording was ``the most significant threat to our national security is our debt.'' That was in 2010. prgtoken When he made that remark, our debt was only $13 trillion. Our debt is now over $23 trillion. We just keep borrowing and borrowing, and there is no end in sight. prgtoken Under the new budget deal passed by s and , we are borrowing $2.75 billion every day. In fact, we are borrowing nearly $2 million every minute. prgtoken We spend more on our military than the next seven largest militaries combined. Our Defense Department is so large that it took them a decade to even figure out how to audit themselves. Then they said that the audit itself would cost over half a billion dollars. But then, last year, they arrived back at square one. After all that effort, they said: Well, we just can't figure it out. It is too big. We can't audit the Army, the Navy, the Marines, or the Air Force. prgtoken We spend so much money that the Department of Defense literally can't keep track of all of it. We don't have a great idea of exactly how much we are wasting because no one can get a grip on how much is being spent. prgtoken A few years ago, the Defense Business Board, which is a defense advisory panel of corporate executives who report to the Secretary of Defense, recommended that the Department of Defense can save $125 billion in administrative expenses. prgtoken According to news accounts, that report scar
TRIBUTE TO NEWELL HARWARD
Mitt Romney (Republican, UT) \u2014 2019-12-17

I rise today to honor the extraordinary service of one of Utah's most dedicated county commissioners, Mr. Newell Harward. He has served Wayne County for the past 7 years, but he has taken on responsibility well beyond that, advocating for rural Utah with honor and distinction as chairman of the Six County Association of Governments. Newell has had an esteemed career and life of service to family, country, and God. prgtoken Growing up on the family farm in Loa, UT, Newell gained an early appreciation for the value of community, family, and hard work. He also developed a spirit of adventure, later serving a mission abroad in Scotland and joining the Wayne County Flying Club. prgtoken As the founder of Harward and Rees Construction, Newell is also an entrepreneur whose craftsmanship is literally built into Utah's infrastructure. His company has undertaken everything from city water projects, designs at Lake Powell, to a new bridge over Hell's Backbone in Southern Utah. prgtoken Newell is perhaps most widely known as a public servant who was elected to serve as Wayne County commissioner. After 4 years, Newell considered stepping down due to illness, but he was undeterred. With a writing campaign, Newell Harward was reelected in a landslide. In October of this year, the President welcomed Newell to the White House to recognize him for his lifelong advocacy on behalf of rural Americans. prgtoken A true appreciation for Newell's life of service would be incomplete without recognizing his unwavering faith and service to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Newell has served in three bishoprics, as bishop of a large ward, and in the stake presidency. As a loving father to Kelly, Lynette, Sarah, Shonna, Carol, and Travis, a grandfather to 18, and a great-grandfather to 3, Newell has left an indelible mark on Wayne County, the great State of Utah, and indeed our Nation. prgtoken All of us should strive to live our lives as Newell does, with an overwhelming love of family and community, an enduring faith, and a boundless spirit of adventure. prgtoken Newell, Gloria, and their family continue to be in our prayers as they fight health challenges with great courage. May God bless the Harward family. prgtoken .