mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER THE DISAPPEARANCE OF DAVID SNEDDON
Mike Lee (Republican, UT) \u2014 2018-11-29

David Sneddon was a 24-year-old Brigham Young University student who tragically vanished while traveling in the Yunnan Province of China in August of 2004. After a cursory investigation, Chinese officials concluded that David must have died while hiking alone through Tiger Leaping Gorge, but the officials' story didn't add up. prgtoken For starters, David was an avid and experienced hiker, unlikely to make a mistake that would have led to his death on the trail. Over 14 years later, a body has never been found. David's family retraced his steps and found eyewitnesses that both interacted with him on the trail and saw him in a Chinese city at the end of the hiking route, suggesting that he made it safely through the other side of the gorge. prgtoken In fact, there is much evidence to suggest that the North Korean government was responsible for David's disappearance. prgtoken For starters, he was traveling near the so-called Asian Underground Railroad, a network of mostly Christian missionaries who help North Korean defectors flee to safety. North Korean agents are known to operate along the route, ruthlessly hunting down defectors and returning them to execution or permanent captivity on the gulag peninsula of North Korea. prgtoken Second, David was last seen leaving a Korean restaurant. Korean restaurants are reportedly used as outposts for North Korean espionage and illicit enterprise. prgtoken Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, 1 month before David's disappearance, North Korea took the rare step of releasing an American captive, 64-year-old Charles Jenkins. North Korea forced Jenkins to teach English to its spies at a military university during his almost 40-year captivity. After his release, the regime would have needed a substitute teacher. prgtoken David Sneddon, unfortunately, would perfectly fit the bill. A highly educated Asian languages major, he spoke fluent Korean and was learning Mandarin. prgtoken Subsequent intelligence from inside North Korea has strongly supported these facts. David Sneddon was taken by the North Korean regime in 2004. He likely has been held captive in that country ever since. prgtoken I, along with my colleagues Senators Hatch, Coons, Fischer, Sasse, Rubio, Flake, Gardner, and Sullivan have introduced a resolution expressing our grave concern about the disappearance of David Sneddon. prgtoken Our resolution directs the State Department and intelligence community to investigate all plausible explanations for David's disappearance including abduction by North Korea. Further, it encourages them to reinvigorate diplomatic efforts and work closely with our allies in the region. prgtoken Lastly, it calls upon the State Department and intelligence community to continue to work with and inform Congress and the Sneddon family on efforts to recover David and resolve his disappearance. prgtoken We owe it to David, who had his whole life ahead of him before setting out to hi
UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--CALENDAR NO. 670, S. 3405
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2018-11-29

it is Thursday, and that means it is typically time for me to recognize somebody in my State who has made a big difference for Alaska, sometimes someone who has made a big difference for America. We like to call that person the Alaskan of the Week. prgtoken For the pages, I know this is your favorite time of the week because these are usually great stories about great Alaskans, great Americans. Today, I guarantee you I am not going to disappoint you talking about another great Alaskan. prgtoken I like to brag about Alaska--its beauty, its mystique, its great people, its vastness, its welcoming communities, its tough people, and its tough environment. Everybody should visit. prgtoken If you are watching, come on up, and come on up in winter, by the way, not just the summer. The northern lights are out. You can see them. They are beautiful. We actually get a lot of tourists in the winter, believe it or not. prgtoken There is something else that is very unique about my State, very special, and it is this: It is one of the most patriotic States in the entire country. There are more veterans per capita than any State in America. We like to brag about that. I certainly like to brag about my constituents who serve in the military and their families' sacrifice. So many of these veterans--like they do throughout the country, so many of our Alaskan veterans devote time, energy, and resources to giving back to the community but to also helping with other veterans. prgtoken We all know that a few weeks ago we celebrated Veterans Day. As part of that celebration and as part of our ``Alaskan of the Week'' series, I want to recognize today's Alaskan of the Week, Mr. Ron Travis, along with his wife Linda, and what they have done in terms of spending years making a difference for American veterans--Alaskan veterans--hundreds, if not thousands. prgtoken Let me tell you a little bit about Ron. He came from a patriotic family. His father fought in World War II. His mother was a member of the VFW Auxiliary. In 1961, Ron joined the Navy, where he served from 1960 to 1964 as a machinist's mate, third class, on the USS Providence. This was a guided-missile cruiser and was the first U.S. Navy ship to travel up the Saigon River and park in front of Saigon during the Vietnam war. So he is a Vietnam vet. We love our Vietnam vets. prgtoken After he got out of the military, he used the GI bill to go to college at what was then Eastern Washington College in 1967. There was a lot of turmoil during that time in our country, particularly on college campuses. This was during the height of the Vietnam war. There were a lot of protests. prgtoken When he was in college, like so many Vietnam veterans, he was certainly upset to see a lot of the protests. He was particularly infuriated to see his professors canceling class so they could join the protestors. He said: ``A lot of the teachers we had didn't even know what Vietnam was,'' but
TRIBUTE TO LARRY COTTER
Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK) \u2014 2018-11-29

today I wish to give special recognition to Lawrence P. Cotter on the occasion of his retirement. Larry is a great friend and dedicated Alaskan whose contributions to our State are significant and lasting, benefiting our State's fisheries and rural communities to this day and into the future. prgtoken As a resident of Alaska for almost half a century, Larry's work has taken him from fish processing plants to the halls of our State capitol and beyond. After arriving in Alaska in 1974, he spent over 4 years as a seafood processing worker in Juneau and 8 years as a labor organizer and representative for processing workers and longshoremen. prgtoken Larry shaped critical fisheries policy through his service on the advisory panel to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, of which he was a member for 6 years. This service was followed by an additional 6 years as a voting member on the Council during a critical time in the development of our Nation's domestic fisheries. Larry worked to ensure that foreign fishing in our exclusive economic zone was phased out and that our domestic fishing and processing capabilities were stepping up to replace the foreign fleets. prgtoken This shift to an all-domestic fleet allowed the United States to finally harvest our fishery resources for the sole benefit of American fishermen and processors. It was also during this period that allocation issues among U.S. fisheries interests were first coming to the forefront. These were challenging and exciting times, during which Larry's leadership thrived. His legacy in Alaska fisheries cannot be overstated. prgtoken Most recently, until late this year, Larry served as the founding CEO of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, or APICDA. As one of six community development quota organizations in western Alaska, APICDA has used the benefits of Bering Sea and Aleutian fishery resources to support its member communities in some of the most rural and remote parts of Alaska. prgtoken In helping to develop, implement, and sustain the CDQ program, Larry did perhaps his best work, accomplishing goals that will have positive impacts on western Alaskan communities for generations to come. Larry's visionary work on the formation of Alaska's CDQ program has benefited all of the participating communities through workforce, infrastructure, and economic development. prgtoken Many observers, myself included, have correctly noted that Alaska has the best managed fisheries in the country, and I know we could not have achieved this hard-earned status without Larry's tireless dedication to making our seafood industry truly sustainable. prgtoken Thank you, Larry, for your tremendous contributions to sustainable fisheries and to the participation of our coastal communities in those fisheries. I wish you a restful retirement and the best of luck in your future endeavors.
Yemen (Executive Session)
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2018-11-29

we saw yesterday that the vote on the Yemen War Powers Resolution has brought to light the broader issue of our alliance with Saudi Arabia. This is an issue that people have heard a lot about, obviously, in the last few weeks with the murder of a journalist, and the Yemen resolution vote has become a proxy over that matter. prgtoken I have been outspoken in the past about why it matters that we speak out strongly about and against the murder of this journalist, Khashoggi, but also that we talk more broadly about what we need to do about it and how it applies to our alliance with Saudi Arabia. prgtoken I want to tailor my comments today by briefly talking about exactly what the implications are based on the questions I get from people. Why does the murder of Khashoggi matter, and why should we care about it? prgtoken First, this is part of a pattern. The Crown Prince, who is effectively governing Saudi Arabia now, has been continually testing the limits of the world's patience and also the limits of our alliance. There is a pattern here. We have seen it. He kidnapped, over 2 weeks, the Prime Minister of Lebanon. He has fractured an alliance that once existed with the Gulf Kingdoms. All of it has implications on U.S. national security. So this is just one more escalation in a pattern of testing the limits of our alliance. prgtoken Then there are human rights. Why do human rights matter? For a practical reason, human rights matter. From a practical perspective, when human rights are violated, the result is a humanitarian crisis, as we have seen often around the world, which often leads to mass migration. prgtoken Let me they tell you something else a violation of human rights leads to: radicalization. When you violate a group of people, you mistreat them and abuse them; you leave them ripe for radicalization--for a radical group to come in and basically pull them in and say: We are the ones with the power, the weapons, and willingness to fight. Join us to go after your oppressors. prgtoken In fact, if you look at what is happening in Yemen, much of it and the Houthis comes from years of abuses against the Shia. It doesn't justify the radicalization, but it explains that, as it does what we have seen in Iraq and in Syria. prgtoken Here is one other thing that happens with human rights abuses. The abusers often get overthrown. Here is the problem. When an abusive government that violates human rights gets overthrown, the people who take over hate us because we have been supporting their abusers. These are practical reasons why human rights matter. prgtoken And there is a moral one. Perhaps in the ranking and order, that is the most important one--the moral one. It is because that is what makes us different from China and Russia and other countries around the world. This is what makes America different. In fact, I would say that the murder of Mr. Khashoggi is more about us. When it comes to our debate
Land and Water Conservation Fund (Executive Calendar)
Cory Gardner (Republican, CO) \u2014 2018-11-29

. Thank you, . I come to the floor today to talk about a very important conservation program--the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This is one of the crown jewels of our Nation's conservation effort. The preservation, protection, and conservation of our public lands is something we take great pride in in the western part of our country and, in fact, all four corners of our State, and this great country takes great pride in the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the efforts that it pursues to maintain our public lands, to show our public lands, to allow the exploration and use of our public lands for generations to come. prgtoken The Land and Water Conservation Fund has had over 40,000 projects in its existence, billions of dollars in consumer spending driven by the outdoors--$2 billion in State and local tax revenue driven by our love of the outdoors. Hiking, hunting, fishing, skiing in the winter, rafting in the spring are all tied to the incredible conservation work we do in these incredible programs through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. prgtoken Colorado's outdoor recreation activities have made it the destination, not just part of the year but all of the year, for people looking for adventure opportunities in our great outdoors. As I mentioned, we generate $28 billion in consumer spending just in the State of Colorado for our outdoors economy. prgtoken The Land and Water Conservation Fund isn't just about preserving land because we want to conserve the land; it is about our economy--our recreation economy--and those $2 billion in State and local tax revenues generated by that. It employs over 200,000 people in an outdoors economy. The Land and Water Conservation Fund is a critical part of that. We have this economy because of our public lands--the extensive efforts we have undertaken to conserve them in a condition that the next generation will also get to enjoy. prgtoken One of those tools, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has lapsed. It has been 60 days since the Land and Water Conservation Fund expired. Those who would permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund cleared the committees of jurisdiction in both the House and the Senate. The Land and Water Conservation Fund authorization of full funding has bipartisan support-- and support, House and Senate support. It is a program to sustain access to land that would otherwise be cut off--public land held and owned by the American people that we don't prgtoken have access to. We can't get to that land, even though we own the land--the American people own that land--because it is closed off. The Land and Water Conservation Fund allows us to get to that land, to recreate on that land, and to hunt on that land. prgtoken In the days leading up to the Land and Water Conservation Fund expiration, a report was published by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. It published some figures on
Immigration (Executive Session)
James Lankford (Republican, OK) \u2014 2018-11-29

on May 5 of this year, NASA launched the InSight rocket. That probe, the InSight probe, has traveled 300 million miles since May of this year and has touched down safely on Mars. It is a remarkable achievement. The United States is the only country in the world that has any probes on Mars. We have several now that are moving around and are stable. The technology behind that--the thought, the design, the engineering, the work--is a remarkable achievement for the science community. prgtoken The 300 million-plus miles that it has traveled since May and to be able to land safely is a remarkable achievement. I compared that 300- mile journey of the InSight probe and safely landing on Mars to our now two-decades-long conversation trying to solve immigration. prgtoken As Americans, we have figured out how to travel 300 million miles, but we have not been able to figure out how to manage our own immigration policy. This is the 10th time I have come to this floor to talk about immigration in just the last 3 years. prgtoken Earlier this year in February, we had a tremendous amount of work that was happening here in the Senate to try to come to a set of agreements about how we can manage the immigration policy in the United States, and those agreements failed. While InSight was traveling 300 million miles, the Senate still did nothing to solve the issue of immigration. prgtoken We watched today several thousand people in Tijuana living in a soccer stadium after they left from Honduras. They traveled into Guatemala. The Guatemalans deported several thousands of them and said: You didn't cross legally from Honduras into Guatemala. prgtoken Then they approached the border between Guatemala and Mexico, and Mexico put their law enforcement and their military on the border and said: You can't just cross the border illegally from Guatemala to Mexico. Then they charged the bridge, overran the law enforcement and the military of the Mexican police, went around into the river, and then regrouped again and continued to move forward to Mexico. prgtoken Mexico offered them asylum, which I thought was incredibly gracious, based on the way they crossed into Mexico. Mexico offered them asylum and the ability to stay in Mexico. They offered them assistance all along the way. They did arrest some troublemakers along the way. prgtoken Now they have made their way all the way through Mexico, and they are just outside San Diego. A few days ago, the same group rushed our border to see if our border would cave the same way the southern border of Mexico did. Yet we did not. prgtoken Interestingly enough, that group of several thousand people who rushed the border, who are now parked on that border, are literally living within a few 100 yards of the largest legal border crossing in the world--the San Diego crossing. There are 100,000 people a day who legally cross the border from Mexico into the United States, within feet of where t
Department of Veterans Affairs (Executive Calendar)
Jerry Moran (Republican, KS) \u2014 2018-11-29

I rise this afternoon to discuss the Department of Veterans Affairs and this Department's continued challenges with properly implementing the letter of the law. prgtoken As we know, the VA has faced significant difficulties and change over the past 5 years--issues that have spurred Congress to act. In this Congress we have passed multiple pieces of legislation designed to reform numerous policies, from accountability to education under the GI bill to transforming healthcare. prgtoken Recent news has put a spotlight on the VA struggles to implement the Forever GI Bill Act, which has resulted in delays or improper accounting of veterans' earned educational benefits. Financial problems with their earned benefits is unacceptable and causes an unnecessary strain on veterans as they pursue higher education. It is critical that the VA fix this problem. This should not be a matter of ``if'' but ``when'' the VA fixes this issue and provides accurate earned benefits to deserving veterans. Based upon these struggles of implementing the Forever GI Bill Act, I have concerns that similar challenges will occur in the implementation of the VA MISSION Act, which was signed into law in June of this year and is the most transformative legislation for the VA healthcare system in over 30 years. prgtoken We are closing in on a 6-month mark before the VA MISSION Act must be implemented. June 6, 2019, will be when the new community care program under this act takes effect. This law requires several major critical reforms to the VA healthcare system. I want to quickly outline some of the biggest changes that the VA is required by law to implement. prgtoken First, the VA must establish new eligibility criteria for veterans to receive care in the community, and that criteria must be based on clearly defined, easy-to-understand access standards. The VA must establish and apply quality standards to make certain that all VA and community care facilities are providing our veterans with the highest level of care--the care they deserve. prgtoken The VA must create thorough and reliable processes for the VA and community care partners to coordinate care for a veteran who is receiving care in the community to make certain that the burden is no longer on the veteran and accountability is instead on those prgtoken who are charged with providing the care. prgtoken The VA must start to plan and properly project their healthcare expenses. This requires the VA to establish a well-vetted strategic planning document that better forecasts healthcare demands and what the VA and the community can supply to our Nation's veterans. prgtoken I certainly understand how large of an undertaking this is. Implementation of the MISSION Act, while it is important, is also a challenge. There are many within the VA who share our desire to transform the VA's healthcare system so it can continue to provide care for veterans for generations to come. There are
WELCOMING PASTOR WILLIAM HILD, JR.
Vern Buchanan (Republican, FL) \u2014 2018-11-29

it is an honor for me to welcome to the United States Capitol my pastor, William Hild, who led us in the opening prayer today. prgtoken Pastor Hild is not only a tremendous community leader in my hometown of Sarasota, Florida, but he has been a great friend to Sandy and me, and a resource to me and my family, for nearly 18 years. prgtoken Since 1997, Pastor Hild has served as the pastor of FirstSarasota, the Downtown Baptist Church. Under his leadership, the church has grown. It is very dynamic. It makes a big difference in my community. Also under his leadership, we have seen the incredible outreach that he has done in terms of strengthening and encouraging people on our beautiful Gulf Coast. prgtoken My wife Sandy and I want to personally thank Pastor Hild for what he has done for us in our life and what he continues to do in our community to make it a better community. It is a privilege to have Pastor Hild and his family here today.