mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
SECURING GROWTH AND ROBUST LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN AVIATION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
James Lankford (Republican, OK) \u2014 2023-9-27

I have come to this floor several times over the past many years and several times even recently to talk about a bill that Senator Hassan and I have together that we have worked on very hard to end government shutdown threats forever. prgtoken This whole conversation that is happening right now in Washington, DC, about a government shutdown is not something that has always happened in our Republic. This conversation of a government shutdown has only really been since the mid-1980s to the present. Before that, there were no government shutdowns. Even when appropriations lapsed-- and we had multiple times when appropriations lapsed in the past--we didn't have government shutdowns at that time. It wasn't until there was actually an executive opinion back in the seventies that there was created this moment to say, no, we are going to end up having a government shutdown if appropriations lapse. prgtoken We are in this moment again. This is a distinctly modern issue in American history that we need to bring to a close, this chapter. There is a way to do it. prgtoken In conversations that we have had for years of how do we actually stop government shutdowns, there have been very partisan bills on both sides, and Senator Hassan and I sat down 5 years ago and said: Let's just have a dialogue. How can we stop government shutdowns without having a partisan bill at the end of it? It would be a way to be able to fix this that both sides of the aisle can say: That is a good way to be able to end it. prgtoken We have a very simple goal: End government shutdowns. Do appropriations bills. prgtoken That shouldn't be a radical concept. That should be a head nod from everybody, quite frankly, in this room to prgtoken say: Sure, we can agree to end government shutdowns and to do appropriations bills on time. prgtoken Our simple idea was this: If you don't finish your work during class, you have to stay after class to finish your work. It is just not that hard. It is something all of us experienced growing up in school. prgtoken If I can make it even simpler, when my older brother and I would get into an argument, my mom would put the two of us in a room and would say: You two guys have got to go in this room. Once you solve everything, then you can come out. prgtoken That is the genesis of this simple bill. It says: If we don't have our appropriations work done and we are still arguing about appropriations, the government continues to function as it has in the past year--exact same budget line. Everything continues as normal. The American people are held harmless. Federal workers, Federal contractors--all of them--still continue as they have. prgtoken But we experience the shutdown here in Washington, DC, not the rest of the country. We would be in session 7 days a week. We could not move the bills other than the appropriations bills. So we are locked in a box to say: If you haven't finished your appropriations bills, yo
HONORING THE LIFE OF W.K. WEBB
Trent Kelly (Republican, MS) \u2014 2023-9-27

I rise today to celebrate the life of W.K. Webb, who passed away on August 13, 2023. Born in Saltillo on January 26, 1941, to the late Elzy Carr Webb and Myrtle Parker Webb, W.K. graduated from Saltillo High School and remained a devoted, dedicated and engaged citizen of the town he dearly loved all his life. He was married on August 25, 1961, to Jewell Franks, his life partner for over 60 years, and they were blessed with 3 children and 6 grandchildren. prgtoken W.K. served 20 years as Saltillo's mayor in a time of unprecedented growth and development for this north Lee County town. A ``people's mayor,'' he was beloved by the citizens and his family. Prior to serving as mayor, he served 12 years on the Board of Aldermen. W.K. won numerous awards and served as president of the Mississippi Municipal League, was on its Board of Directors for 18 years and was inducted in the Mississippi Municipal League Hall of Fame. Under his leadership, the town was selected as one of the top 100 best places to live and one of the fastest growing towns in Mississippi. prgtoken A longtime member of the Saltillo Baptist Church, where he served as a Deacon, W.K. was also president of the Saltillo Men's Club. He and his wife, Jewell, were members of the Saltillo Methodist Church at the time of his passing. Locally, he served as chairman of the Lee County Council of Governments and for 16 years, was chairman of the Lee County 911 Board. He was active in the Mississippi Municipal Association and won many awards for his stellar leadership. One of W.K.'s proudest commitments to civic leadership and youth engagement was forming the first Park and Recreation Department, which resulted in Saltillo City Park, Wesson Park, and the W.K. Webb Sportsplex, which was named after him. prgtoken W.K. was a devoted public servant and trusted friend. It was an honor to know this distinguished and extraordinary Mississippian. He is survived by his wife, Jewell Franks Webb of Saltillo; his children, Randy Webb (Renie) of New Albany, Mike Webb (Amy) of Oxford, and Kristi Montgomery (Mark) of Saltillo; his grandchildren, Isabella and Amelia, Victoria and Brayden, and McKinley and Ramsey; siblings, Hazel Raines of Guntown, Ann Taylor of Saltillo, and Larry ``Tody'' Webb of Saltillo. He was preceded in death by his parents, Elzy Carr Webb and Myrtle Parker Webb, and his brother, Miles ``Spud'' Webb.
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024
Bill Huizenga (Republican, MI) \u2014 2023-9-27

. Mr. Chair, I wish the gentleman hadn't necessarily yielded back his time because I would have loved to have a little bit of a colloquy on this. prgtoken I fully understand the USCIS is a fee-based institution. It takes in those fees. prgtoken In addition to the $600 per petition fee, they also had proposed a tripling of a fee for the named employee. If you are putting in--and the gentleman knows this issue very well. If you have a particular person that you are requesting to come into the country, this administration tripled that fee. If you have an unnamed person for an H-2A or an H-2B, they doubled that fee increase. prgtoken I had an amendment that was going to attempt to address those two issues, as well. The Rules Committee ruled that nongermane. We can have that discussion outside of that, but they did rule this particular proposal and this amendment as germane, as relevant to this discussion. prgtoken While we have seen a fee already that is in place be increased, we are not able to do that, but this is a brand-new fee that the administration, again, has labeled the ``asylum program fee.'' prgtoken We all know that there are serious issues at the southern border, and it is something the gentleman has talked about pretty extensively. I just don't see how penalizing small businesses and people who are using the system legally and increasing their costs which are going to be passed along to the general public, how that makes sense in this case. prgtoken I talked to a farmer back in southwest Michigan who regularly employs about 100 seasonal temporary workers. It doesn't take a math genius to figure out 100 H-2A visas with a $600 fee, that is $60,000 in additional fees that this farmer is going to have to put up front before they have done the harvest, before they have actually reaped any of the benefit of the work. prgtoken That is why I believe this is so crucially important to U.S. agriculture. prgtoken While I understand the gentleman may oppose this particular amendment as it is sitting, I hope he wouldn't oppose the spirit of this. I would love to work with him on this because I do believe we need to address this issue. prgtoken Mr. Chair, I again urge all of my colleagues to vote for this amendment. I believe it is a commonsense amendment. prgtoken Mr. Chair, .
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024
Andrew Ogles (Republican, TN) \u2014 2023-9-27

the section 1260H list maintained by the Department of Defense was created by the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and intended to identify any Chinese military companies operating directly or indirectly in the United States. prgtoken Section 1260H is a part of a largely bipartisan, years-long effort to name and shame CCP companies operating in our Nation. prgtoken While the administration has made important additions to this list, including military companies such as ChemChina and China State Construction Engineering, the administration has still fallen short of a full commitment to countering the malign influences of the CCP. prgtoken Earlier this year, we saw Secretaries Yellen, Blinken, and Raimondo take trips to China as part of a diplomatic overture. prgtoken Many of my colleagues would undoubtedly agree that the CCP could care less about diplomacy and that these trips have very little, if any, bearing on how China chooses to behave on the international stage. prgtoken One could argue that these trips only serve to demonstrate the limits and the lack of American resolve to confront the PRC's obviously petulant behavior. prgtoken For instance, it is a daily occurrence to see the PRC infringe on Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone. The PRC regularly makes threats to wage war against Taiwan. prgtoken They manipulate international organizations to do their bidding. They entrap developing countries into contracts that make them de facto vassal states. They construct dual-use ports across the world, and it goes on and on and on, . prgtoken In the face of the CCP's belligerent escalatory actions, the gut reaction of the American administration ought not to be for the Secretary of the Treasury to fly to China and consume psychedelic mushrooms. Yet, that is what we saw from Janet Yellen. prgtoken Before Secretary Raimondo's visit to China, the Department of Commerce, acting through the Bureau of Industry and Security, unilaterally removed 27 CCP entities from the bureau's so-called unverified list. prgtoken Our Department of Commerce literally chose to make a concession to an aggressive state in order to get the CCP to meet with our Secretary of Commerce. prgtoken It is clear that this President's judgment cannot be trusted. This administration's assessment of China has only emboldened our Nation's foremost enemy. Appeasement has long failed as a strategy, and it continues to fail today. prgtoken .
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2023-9-27

``No end in sight''--that is how one Border Patrol chief described the influx of migrants in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the southern border in March 2021. ``No end in sight.'' That was 2\1/2\ years ago, and there is still no end in sight to this crisis. prgtoken On Friday, we learned that 232,972 individuals were caught trying to illegally cross our southern border in the month of August--232,972. That is the highest August number yet for the administration. All signs suggest that we are on track for a third recordbreaking year of apprehensions at the southern border. In fact, roughly 11,000 individuals were apprehended attempting to cross our southern border in just 24 hours this past weekend--11,000 in 24 hours. prgtoken If the White House really thinks it is ``stopping the flow at the border,'' as the White House Press Secretary said last month, it should think again. prgtoken It is important to note that the numbers I have mentioned only reflect individuals who were actually apprehended. They don't include individuals who have made their way into the country illegally without--without--being caught. Since the beginning of the administration, there have been at least 1.5 million known ``got- aways,'' individuals the Border Patrol detected but was unable to apprehend. prgtoken The administration's so-called border plan is clearly not working, and State and local governments are stretched thin. And I am not just talking about border towns and border States; I am talking about places like New York City, Chicago, Massachusetts. As migrants flood into these locations, blue States and blue cities are learning what border States have been experiencing for years, and they are struggling with the costs this crisis is imposing. prgtoken Denver, CO, has spent almost $25 million sheltering migrants. prgtoken Chicago is projected to spend more than $250 million this year on migrant care. prgtoken New York City could spend $12 billion--billion with a ``b''--by 2025 on the migrant crisis, possibly precipitating cuts to city services. Just to give you one example of the current crisis, the city has begun housing 3,000 illegal immigrants at a makeshift shelter on local soccer fields, eliminating a popular source of activity and recreation for local children. prgtoken Here is what New York City Mayor Eric Adams had to say about this crisis the other day, and I quote: Let me tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to--I don't see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. prgtoken That from the mayor of New York. prgtoken The border crisis we are experiencing is a predictable outcome of the decisions made early in the administration. The President's team was warned of the possibility of a migrant surge. Yet the moment the President took office, he set about dismantling the immigration policies of
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2023-9-27

more than 4\1/2\ months ago, title 42 expired. That was on May 11 of this year. Title 42, just to refresh everybody's memory, was a public health order that was designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly from people entering the country from other countries around the world. prgtoken In the lead-up to title 42's expiration, the administration rolled out its plan to address the expected surge in migration. This plan was called the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule, and it was sold as a way to discourage illegal immigration and restore some sense of order along the border. prgtoken As I and countless others have pointed out, this wasn't a real solution. This was a shell game. It was an attempt to conceal the scope and scale of the border crisis and to process migrants into the United States at an unprecedented rate. Let me just paraphrase that. This was not designed to deter people from illegally immigrating to the United States. It was a way to greet them and welcome them and then invite them to enter into the United States without following the legal rules and laws that Congress had passed. prgtoken Well, despite the people who pointed out that this was really a ruse--a Trojan horse, if you will--the administration moved forward with the plan. Just days before title 42 was lifted, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tried to assure the American people that the administration was in control. prgtoken He said: The border is not open; it has not been open; and it will not be open subsequent to May 11. prgtoken Well, at the time, it was clear that at least two parts of his statement were false. The border was open. That is why more than 10,000 migrants a day were crossing the southern border in the final week of title 42. How do you say the border is not open when 10,000 people are traversing the border each day without going through our legal immigration system? And the border had been open, and that is why the United States broke nearly every record in the book for border crossings on President 's watch. So it was open, and it had been open, and it is clear today that the border is still open even with the administration's new plan in place. prgtoken Despite the initial drop in border crossings after title 42 was lifted, illegal border crossings have surged once again. In August, Customs and Border Protection apprehended just under 233,000 migrants, setting the record for the busiest month this calendar year. As you might have predicted, the cartels simply sat back to assess the lay of the land and this new state of affairs and adapted their operations to exploit the rule's numerous loopholes. prgtoken Unfortunately, the challenges at the border have only grown since August. Over the last few weeks, areas along the entire U.S.-Mexico border have experienced a new surge in immigration. One area that is under tremendous strain is the west Te
HONORING THE VALIANT MILITARY SERVICE OF SERGEANT MALCOLM E. WOLCOTT
Diana Harshbarger (Republican, TN) \u2014 2023-9-27

I rise to honor Sergeant Malcolm E. Wolcott of Sevierville in Sevier County, Tennessee for his distinguished military service in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War Era. prgtoken SGT Wolcott proudly served our country between March 29, 1965, and October 28, 1968. During his military service, SGT Wolcott received many assignments both domestically and abroad, including Lackland Air Force Base in Texas; Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii; Griffiss Air Force Base in New York; as well as duties at Clark Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan; the Philippines; Taiwan; and a temporary duty at Yakota Air Force Base in Japan. prgtoken SGT Wolcott honorably served as Security Police, providing security for nuclear weapons storage areas, perimeter security for Presidential and dignitary arrivals, central security as a Control Communications Plotter, and led as an Area Supervisor. During his last assignment, he inspired the next generation of our service members, providing training to new security police arrivals at Griffiss Air Force Base. prgtoken Please join me in recognizing Sergeant Malcom E. Wolcott for his distinguished military service to our great Nation.
SECURING GROWTH AND ROBUST LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN AVIATION ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2023-9-27

I am going to speak about a really important bill that I am hoping we are going to pass right here on the Senate floor. It was passed, by the way, previously. It is called the Pay Our Military Act. prgtoken It is pretty simple. In the event of a shutdown--and right now, we are all working hard to make sure we avoid it--we need to make sure that the men and women who protect us get paid. That is it, simple-- really, really simple. prgtoken I know back home in the great State of Alaska, there is a lot of frustration with our government. It seems like every day the administration has another order to shut down Alaska, lock up our lands, put people out of work. There are skyrocketing prices on everything from gas to food. Interest rates are at 40-year highs. Illegal immigration, which is just flooding across the southern border, is a literal invasion happening right now. A lot of people are frustrated with what is happening. The potential of a government shutdown is not going to help any of that, in my view. prgtoken But this is something that every Member of the Senate should agree on. If there is a shutdown--a lot of us are working hard to avoid that--we need an insurance policy for our military personnel. The brave men and women who are serving on the frontlines right now, at home and abroad--dangerous work to keep us safe--they need nothing less than the unwavering support of the U.S. Senate. For the men and women who protect us, often at great personal sacrifice, the least we can do as their representatives is to ensure that they receive their hard-earned pay, regardless of the political circumstances that may unfold. prgtoken My Pay Our Military Act is not about partisan politics. It is not about ideological differences. It is about fulfilling the solemn obligation to our troops and their families, and it is about providing them the stability and peace of mind that they need to do their jobs. prgtoken Regardless of what happens here, they will continue to serve, to deploy, to train. We have seen, in the last couple of weeks, that training can also be very dangerous. We had some marines recently killed down in Australia in an Osprey accident. The last thing these men and women need to worry about is whether or not they are going to get a paycheck next week, whether or not they are going to be able to support their families next week in the event there is a government shutdown. prgtoken I want to emphasize again that I hope this bill is unnecessary, but the fact remains that this certainly could happen, a government shutdown, and, if it does, we need to pay our military right now. prgtoken There is precedent--very strong precedent--on this very bill, this commonsense bill that has historically received the strong support from both sides of the aisle and in both Houses. prgtoken Let me be specific. Facing an imminent government shutdown in 2013, which ended up lasting 16 days, this bill, the Pa
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2024
Matt Gaetz (Republican, FL) \u2014 2023-9-27

. Madam Chair, I appreciate the bipartisan support for this amendment. I thank Mr. Massie of Kentucky and Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts on the Rules Committee for having made this amendment in order. prgtoken I look forward to us working together to ensure that we have humane policies when it comes to our munitions. prgtoken Just to respond to the argument that there is somehow a Taiwan nexus here, I have studied the war games and the plans around Taiwan pretty extensively, and I have seen no scenario in which we believe that the appropriate utilization of munitions in Taiwan is going to require cluster munitions. It is largely going to be torpedoes, sea mining. prgtoken We are still demining the cluster munitions in Laos. We can make a wiser choice now and one certainly that doesn't put any of our allies in jeopardy. prgtoken Madam Chair, I encourage adoption of this bipartisan amendment, and .