mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2020-6-16

our economy has taken a huge hit from the coronavirus, and we have a lot of work to do to recover. There are encouraging signs, and one of those has been the success of the Paycheck Protection Program. prgtoken The pandemic has presented a particular challenge for small businesses that frequently have very limited cash reserves to draw on. That is why, thanks to the efforts of Senators Rubio, Collins, and others, Congress established the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans to small businesses to help them keep employees on their payroll during this crisis. prgtoken So far, more than 4.5 million small businesses nationwide have received relief from this program, and the majority of the loans have gone to the smallest businesses. Nearly 3 million of the 4.5 million total loans have been at or under $50,000. In my home State of South Dakota, more than 21,000 businesses have benefited, including some of the many seasonal businesses that have a limited amount of time each year to make the money that they need to survive. prgtoken I am very grateful to the thousands of bank and credit union employees around the Nation who processed these loans under challenging circumstances during the pandemic. All told, millions of small business jobs have been saved, and a lot of small businesses that might have gone under during the pandemic are hanging on thanks to this program. prgtoken In fact, the Paycheck Protection Program is undoubtedly one of the main reasons that the May jobs numbers were not as bad as expected. Instead of net job loss, the economy actually gained jobs. prgtoken Now, that is not to suggest that the May jobs report was rosy. Our unemployment rate is unacceptably high, to put it mildly, but the fact that we gained jobs is a positive sign. It is definitely a step in the right direction, and the Paycheck Protection Program helped us get there. prgtoken So far, Congress has provided $2.5 trillion to respond to the coronavirus, including the almost $700 billion allocated to the Paycheck Protection Program. That is a staggering amount of money, equal to roughly half of the entire Federal budget for 2020. These were extraordinary circumstances and extraordinary action was required. prgtoken However, are now pushing for Congress to rush another massive bill out the door. It is important to remember that every dollar Congress has provided to fight the coronavirus has been borrowed money. Now, as I said, it prgtoken is money that we needed to borrow, but it is still borrowed money that will have to be repaid. prgtoken Will we need to provide more money to confront the pandemic and its effects? Probably. But we need to make sure that we are only appropriating what is really necessary. Rushing a $3 trillion bill through Congress, as want to do, before the $2.4 trillion we have already provided has even been fully spent is not a responsible way to go about pro
TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--Continued
Lamar Alexander (Republican, TN) \u2014 2020-6-16

there is a reason why 800 conservation organizations, every U.S. Secretary of Interior from Babbitt to Zinke, and the President of the United States, President , support the legislation we are going to be voting on at about noon tomorrow, and that is because, in my view and in the view of many others, it is the most important piece of conservation legislation this country will have passed in at least half a century. And why is that? It is because it takes nearly $14 billion--up to $14 billion--over the next 5 years from energy exploration on our public lands and spends it to cut in half the deferred maintenance backlog in our national parks, our national forests, and our national refuges, and also to rebuild Indian schools. prgtoken In addition to that, it does something that Congress has been trying to do for 60 years, since the midsixties. It permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which supplies to both the Federal Government and States money to create national parks and routes to fishing access and to other places in the country that we all treasure. prgtoken In the middle of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the people of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina looked around and said: Why are all the national parks out West? Well, it was because the Federal Government owned a lot of the land out West and carved a bunch of it up to make national parks--Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and other places that we know. So they looked around the United States in the east and said: Where can we have a national park? And they settled on the Great Smoky Mountains. So they created a park that is half in Tennessee and half in North Carolina. It wasn't easy to do in the midst of the Great Depression. prgtoken Governor Austin Peay of Tennessee brought the legislature--mostly --to East Tennessee twice by train to see this 500,000 acres of land. The State of Tennessee couldn't come up with enough money to buy it, and neither could North Carolina. Then John D. Rockefeller, Jr offered $5 million in honor of his mother, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, if anybody would match it. So the State legislatures in both States--Tennessee and North Carolina--appropriated $2 million each, and then the remaining million was raised by public subscription--schoolchildren, teachers. People all over the region raised the money, and that $10 million bought 500,000 acres that today is visited by 12 million Americans every year. It is by far the most visited national park, attracting two, three--four times as many visitors as many of our most popular western parks because it is located in the east and because it has the highest mountains in the east. prgtoken But here is the problem with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: The 12 million visitors a year are about to use it up. Too many of the 800-plus miles of trails are worn, so when you walk on them, you stumble. Too m
TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--Continued
Josh Hawley (Republican, MO) \u2014 2020-6-16

I rise today to offer a few thoughts about the Bostock case handed down by the Supreme Court yesterday. I have it here. I have now had a chance to read the case, the decision by the majority of the Court, and the two dissenting opinions. prgtoken I have to say I agree with the news reports that have said that this is truly a seismic decision. It is truly a historic decision. It is truly a historic piece of legislation. prgtoken This piece of legislation changes the scope of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It changes the meaning of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It changes the text of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In fact, you might well argue it is one of the most significant and far-reaching updates to that historic piece of legislation since it was adopted all of those years ago. prgtoken Make no mistake, this decision, this piece of legislation will have effects that range from employment law to sports to churches. prgtoken There is only one problem with this piece of legislation. It was issued by a court, not by a legislature. It was written by judges, not by the elected representatives of the people. And it did what this Congress has pointedly declined to do for years now, which is to change the text and the meaning and the application and the scope of a historic piece of legislation. prgtoken I think it is significant for another reason as well. This decision, this Bostock case and the majority who wrote it, represents the end of something. It represents the end of the conservative legal movement or the conservative legal project as we know it. After Bostock, that effort as we know it, as it has existed up to now, is over. I say this because if textualism and originalism give you this decision, if you can invoke textualism and originalism in order to reach a decision, an outcome fundamentally that changes the scope--meaning and application of statutory law--then textualism, originalism, and all of those phrases don't mean much at all. prgtoken Those are the things we have been fighting for. That is what I thought we had been fighting for. Those who call ourselves legal conservatives, if we have been fighting for legalism and textualism and this is the result of that, then I have to say that it turns out we haven't been fighting for very much, or maybe we have been fighting for quite a lot, but it has been exactly the opposite of what we thought we were fighting for. prgtoken This is a very significant decision. It marks a turning point for every conservative, and it marks a turning point for the legal conservative movement. The legal conservative project has always depended on one group of people in particular, in order to carry the weight of the votes, to actually support this out in public, to get out there and make it possible electorally, and those are religious conservatives. I am one myself. prgtoken Evangelicals, conservative Catholics, conservative Jews--they are the ones--let's be honest--t
TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--Continued
Tim Scott (Republican, SC) \u2014 2020-6-16

we are at a critical time in our Nation's history. I think we can all sense the opportunity that is before us. Through the challenges of COVID and the death of George Floyd and its aftermath, we can affect real, lasting change. prgtoken Perhaps the most famous line in Dr. King's letter from Birmingham jail is ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' Let me say that one more time. ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' More than at any time I can remember, people of all ages and races are standing up together for the idea that Lady Justice must be blind. prgtoken Although COVID has delayed this now-annual reading of Dr. King's letter, it has truly never been more important than it is right now. prgtoken I want to thank all of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle for reading today and Senator Jones for putting this together again. prgtoken Every time we hear them, the words of Dr. King teach us something new. I hope the Nation hears these words with an open mind and an open heart and we all come together unified for a bigger purpose. prgtoken Senator Jones, let me close by saying that the letter from the Birmingham jail was a letter written to the clergy of the time. As Senator Hawley was speaking about the importance of standing up for our religious liberties, the one thing he said at the end was that we should stand up now for all the issues facing our Nation--the economic issues, the racial issues. prgtoken I thought it important and appropriate that following that speech, you have the reading of the letter from the Birmingham jail to the leaders, the religious leaders, to become involved and engaged in this current struggle. That is how change comes to America. Thank you for leading this process.
TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--Continued
John Kennedy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2020-6-16

with me today is one of my colleagues from my office, Mr. Blain Callas. prgtoken In the words of Dr. King's letter from a Birmingham jail: April 16, 1963. My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ``unwise and untimely.'' Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my working ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of a day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I will try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against ``outsiders coming in.'' I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their ``thus saith the Lord'' far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ``outside agitator'' idea.
ARMS SALES NOTIFICATION
James E. Risch (Republican, ID) \u2014 2020-6-16

section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. prgtoken In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.
TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--Continued
Ted Cruz (Republican, TX) \u2014 2020-6-16

today is the second time in the last 2 years that prgtoken I have had the opportunity to join the Senator from Alabama, coming together with a bipartisan group of Senators to read Dr. King's letter from the Birmingham jail. prgtoken I want to thank the Senator from Alabama for his leadership and bringing this group together. I have read that letter many times before, but I had never read it out loud. I had never heard the words spoken, much less heard them spoken in this historic Chamber. prgtoken I think today is a time when every American should listen to those words. Today is a time that every American should look back at the incredible call to justice that Dr. King gave us. prgtoken This is a time where our Nation is grieving. This is a time where there is anger, division, rage. This is a time where our country is divided on racial lines in a way it hasn't been in a long, long time. This is a time where we need to hear a call to unity--a call to unity and a call to justice. Dr. King's call was powerful for both, for unity and for justice. prgtoken I would like to just briefly make three observations about this historic letter. The first is that this was a letter from a pastor written to pastors. We refer to Dr. King as ``Dr. King,'' and it is easy to forget that he was also Reverend King. He was a Christian minister who preached the Gospel. prgtoken The very first words of this letter are ``My Dear Fellow Clergymen.'' That is to whom this was addressed, the leaders in the church, where he had a message of get off your rear ends and stand for justice. prgtoken If you are a person of faith, then, justice, defeating racial discrimination, defeating bigotry is not just a matter of truth, but it is a matter of morality. prgtoken Here is what Dr. King said about it in the opening paragraphs of the letter: ``I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.'' prgtoken Understand how much this was a call to church leaders. He says: ``Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried''. . . . their message. . . . ``just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town.'' prgtoken At a time when our Nation is grieving, is in anguish, is in anger, is in division, Dr. King's--Reverend King's--message to church leaders to stand up for justice, to stand up for truth resonates clear as a bell today. prgtoken As a second observation, Dr. King, in this letter and throughout his ministry, throughout his public leadership, called over and over and over to resist violence. Against the voices of those who agreed with him about the injustices, he was calling out where he said violence is not the way. prgtoken As we have seen rioting in our cities, as we have seen small businesses burned to the ground, as we have seen police officers assaulted
GREAT AMERICAN OUTDOORS ACT
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2020-6-16

the Senate will first pass the Great American Outdoors Act. It will be a big step in the history of our Nation's public lands and great news for their future. prgtoken This bill is the product of a lot of hard work by many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. It has two clear purposes: It will restore access and function to parks and facilities that have been neglected, and it will secure a stable flow of resources to support recreation and conservation well into the future. prgtoken I have detailed in recent days just how many Americans rely on our Nation's public lands--from the guides and outfitters who cater to the booming outdoor recreation economy; to the hotel workers, restaurant owners, and gateway communities that welcome hundreds of millions of annual visitors; to the researchers who study historic sites and unique habitats; to the hunters, anglers, sportsmen, and American families who explore millions of acres of open space. prgtoken It is clear that a bright economic future for America is intertwined with this precious resource, so backlogged maintenance and delayed upkeep are a real problem. Too often, tough budgetary choices have left important facilities worn down and natural treasures inaccessible. I am proud that this legislation before us will tackle these critical missions, but you certainly don't have to take my word for it; you can look to the list of no fewer than 60 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle or to the 80 Senators who voted to advance consideration of the bill last week, or you could sample from the ringing endorsements of an impressive cross-section of American recreation and conservation advocates. prgtoken Take, for example, the letter the ic leader and I received from the last six former Secretaries of the Interior. Men and women who served under Presidents of both parties came together to tell us that ``the Great American Outdoors Act will help ensure a better, brighter future for nature and for all of us.'' prgtoken Hundreds of advocacy organizations, from the Sierra Club to the American Sportfishing Association, also approve. They say the bill ``will ensure that our parks and other public lands continue to preserve our nation's heritage and recreation opportunities, and that local communities and economies . . . will continue to flourish.'' prgtoken It is not often that we are presented with the opportunity to take overwhelmingly bipartisan action that will affect a monumental part of American life for so many years to come, and the opportunity in front of us this week comes thanks to the dedicated work of several of our colleagues. prgtoken In particular, I would like to thank Senator Daines and Senator Gardner once again for their extraordinary leadership. I look forward to seeing their efforts across the finish line, and I urge all Members to join me in supporting this bill and securing our natural wonders for generations of Americans
AUTHORITY FOR COMMITTEES TO MEET
Cory Gardner (Republican, CO) \u2014 2020-6-16

I have 4 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 Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs prgtoken The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation prgtoken The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, at 2:30 p.m to conduct a hearing on nominations. 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, June 16, 2020, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing. Committee on the Judiciary prgtoken The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, at 2:30 p.m to conduct a hearing.