mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
TERMINATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED BY THE PRESIDENT ON FEBRUARY 15, 2019
Peter A. DeFazio (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2019-2-26

today had I been present, I would have voted in strong support of the bipartisan, privileged resolution to terminate President 's proclamation ``Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States.'' I was detained due to severe weather and cancelled flights in Oregon. prgtoken While there is no doubt that our immigration system is broken, the president's wall and his proposed funding level is an irresponsible waste of taxpayer funds for a structure that would be ineffective and do very little for our national security. The emergency declaration is nothing more than a power grab by the president to fulfill a campaign promise, violating existing law and our constitutional system of separation of powers. prgtoken Congress has already rejected the president's proposed border wall, and alternatively, by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, made robust investments in our border security. These investments include $1.375 billion for approximately 55 miles of physical barrier along the southern border, $564 million for imaging equipment at our ports of entry, $100 million for new, additional border security technology, serious investments in the Alternative to Detention program to provide relief to over-crowded detention facilities, and additional funding for attorneys and courtroom expansion to assist with our country's growing immigration court system backlog. prgtoken Despite these important investments, the president has proposed taking more than $6.7 billion to build his wall, including $3.6 billion from the Department of Defense's (DoD) high-priority military construction projects. These funds are meant to support much-needed improvements on military bases around the world, and misallocating these funds could undermine the training, readiness, and quality of life for our men and women in the Armed Forces. He has also proposed stripping $2.5 billion from the DoD's drug interdiction program, which could have serious impacts on our ability to combat the flow of illegal narcotics. prgtoken Furthermore, the Military Construction Codification Act only authorizes the Secretary of Defense to reallocate funds for construction projects during a national emergency if the project is ``necessary to support'' a ``use of the armed forces.'' Our Armed Forces are not responsible for enforcing our immigration laws and using these funds in this way is in direct violation of existing law. prgtoken Of serious additional legal concern is the fact that the administration would need to seize significant amounts of property not owned by the federal government in order to build a wall. Currently, more than two thirds of border property is owned by private parties or the relevant states. In 1952, the Supreme Court held in Youngstown Sheet and Tube that President Truman's declaration of national emergency, even in the midst of an international armed conflict, did not permit him to unilaterally seize
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ACT
Joe Cunningham (Democrat, SC) \u2014 2019-2-26

I am proud to stand here today in support of H.R. 972, the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park Act. prgtoken I joined Majority Whip Clyburn in reintroducing the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park Act, which expands the Reconstruction Era National Monument in Beaufort, South Carolina, and makes it a national park. prgtoken This bill also creates a national network of reconstruction era historical sites so they can receive the recognition that they deserve. prgtoken The Lowcountry's vibrant reconstruction history is often overlooked or misunderstood, and this act would seek to correct that. prgtoken I am honored to work with Majority Whip Clyburn to preserve, protect, and promote reconstruction history. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 972.
GUN VIOLENCE
Seth Moulton (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2019-2-26

last year I attended a rally where the father of a gunshot victim spoke, and he talked about all the things that he and other people around this country are doing to end senseless gun violence. prgtoken Then he turned to the crowd and asked: But what is Congress doing? And tens of thousands of Americans, as if they had rehearsed it hundreds of times, all said in unison: ``Nothing.'' prgtoken But what is Congress doing? Nothing. prgtoken Standing in that crowd was not a proud moment for me, because he is right. prgtoken , 37 Americans have died from gun violence in my district alone in the past 5 years. Gun violence is now the second leading killer of young people Nationwide, trailing only car accidents. prgtoken For too long, Congress has done exactly what the crowd said: nothing. prgtoken This week, we are putting forth legislation to enhance background checks, but this alone isn't enough. Thoughts and prayers won't cut it. Only action saves lives. This is just a start.
Nomination of Eric D. Miller (Executive Session)
Maria Cantwell (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2019-2-26

I rise in opposition to a nomination we are going to be vote on very soon--the confirmation of Eric Miller to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. prgtoken As a U.S. Senator, I take my obligation to advise and consent on judicial nominations very seriously, and I believe Mr. Miller's confirmation process has gone against longstanding Senate tradition and norms and limited our role to advise and consent on his nomination. prgtoken This nomination has proceeded over the objection of both myself and my colleague from Washington, Senator Murray. For more than 100 years, conferring with Senators and allowing them to advise and consent on judicial nominees in their home State has been our process. prgtoken Since 1936, only eight judges have been confirmed when one home State Senator objected. In every case, confirmed nominees have been supported by at least one Senator from the nominee's State, and to this day no circuit court judge has ever been confirmed despite opposition from their home State Senators. All that would change if Mr. Miller is confirmed. prgtoken His confirmation hearing was held during a recess last Congress, when the vast majority of Senators were back in their States. In fact, only two Members of the U.S. Senate were present at the hearing, and neither one of them were . Mr. Miller was questioned for less than 5 minutes--5 minutes--and when the Judiciary Committee requested another hearing, that request was rejected. prgtoken Confirming Mr. Miller without a full vetting by both and s is the wrong way to proceed on a lifetime appointment. Moreover, confirming Mr. Miller without approval from Senator Murray and I would set a damaging precedent. prgtoken I do have concerns about Eric Miller's record. He has spent much of his career fighting against the interests of Tribal governments and Tribal sovereignty. He has argued cases opposing Tribal fishing rights, challenging Tribal sovereignty, and fighting against the protection of Native American religious and traditional practices, so it is no surprise that organizations representing all 573 Tribal nations around the United States, including the National Congress of American Indians, oppose Mr. Miller's confirmation. prgtoken I urge my colleagues to stop this process and oppose Mr. Miller's confirmation to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 8, BIPARTISAN BACKGROUND CHECKS ACT OF 2019, AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1112, ENHANCED BACKGROUND CHECKS ACT OF 2019
Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat, TX) \u2014 2019-2-26

as a senior member on the Judiciary Committee and senior member on the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, I, too, am glad of the underlying discussion regarding the protecting of women. prgtoken I rise today to support H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, to close the gun show loophole, supported by 80 percent of the American people, so unlicensed dealers cannot, undercover, out of the back of their trunk, sell to people who would create and perpetrate either mass murders or individual abuse and gun violence. prgtoken I also support H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019, that would, in fact, have stopped the deaths at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where worshippers were shot down, nine of them. prgtoken To listen to the debate in the Judiciary Committee, 10 hours of rebuffing these simple legislative initiatives, I beg of my colleagues to stand with us. It is clear that we have an amendment, Horn and Murphy, that clarifies great bodily harm, includes domestic violence, dating partner violence, sexual assault, stalking, and domestic abuse. We want women to be protected and others involved in domestic abuse circumstances. prgtoken My amendment that will be brought up as well will provide the information as to how many times the FBI has had to deal with petitions that have been denied. prgtoken Let us not have another 20 years before we have bills that deal with gun safety legislation. Let's do it now. prgtoken , I rise in strong support of the rule governing debate on H.R. 8, the ``Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019'' and H.R. 1112, the ``Enhanced Background Check Act of 2019,'' as well as the underlying legislation. prgtoken These legislative proposals address and strengthen the background check system that is already in place to purchase a firearm. prgtoken A 2013 study found that approximately 80 percent of all firearms acquired for criminal purposes were obtained from sources who were not required to run a background check, and that 96 percent of inmates who were not prohibited from possessing a firearm at the time they committed their crime obtained their gun this way. prgtoken This loophole exists largely because unlicensed sellers need not conduct any background check under current law, even if the sellers sell a large number of guns. prgtoken H.R. 8, the ``Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019,'' would make it illegal for any person who is not a licensed firearm importer, manufacturer, or dealer to transfer a firearm to any other person who is not so licensed without a background check. prgtoken Individuals seeking to transfer a firearm under this measure would be required to visit a licensed firearms dealer to run the necessary background check before the transfer could be finalized. prgtoken H.R. 8 is intended to provide an accurate and speedy manner to ensure firearms do not end up in the wrong hands. prgtoken An interna
Declaration of National Emergency (Executive Session)
Patrick J. Leahy (Democrat, VT) \u2014 2019-2-26

President declared a national emergency 2 weeks ago. He did this in order to build a pet project of his. In the process, he said it was his intent to siphon billions of dollars that Congress had appropriated to help our men and women in uniform. Now, I am not sure what lawyers he consulted, but those lawyers seem to have overlooked our Nation's founding document--the U.S. Constitution. prgtoken I know the President likes to communicate in 280 characters or less, so I will point him to a 77-character phrase he may want to review: ``No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.'' prgtoken That is a short sentence, but our Founders knew what it meant. They enshrined it in article I, section 9 of the Constitution, and they established that Congress--and Congress alone--possesses the power of the purse. That Congress has exclusive power over our government's spending priorities is one of the most critical checks and balances in our constitutional system. The President can propose funding for whatever project he wants. He has the absolute right to propose funding, but it is the job of Congress to decide where to invest the American people's hard-earned tax dollars. prgtoken Let's review the facts. For over 2 years, the President has repeatedly tried and has repeatedly failed to convince Congress that building his southern border wall is a good idea. He has failed to get a deal with Mexico despite giving his word and promising his supporters more than 200 times that Mexico would pay for it. He promised that Mexico would pay for it while knowing, of course, that Mexico would not pay a cent for it. Then he failed to get a deal with his own party even during the 2 years when the s controlled the Presidency, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. He also failed to get a deal after he forced the country into a 35-day government shutdown over the issue--a shutdown, incidentally, that cost our country at least $11 billion, to say nothing of the number of people whose lives were so disrupted that many either lost their apartments, were unable to pay their mortgages, were unable to pay their bills, or were unable to pay for the medical care they needed. prgtoken Yet, in the face of all of these failings, he has decided to go it alone. He has decided to stretch his powers--beyond all recognition-- under the National Emergencies Act. There is no rational basis to justify the use of this authority. So we should look at what a bipartisan group of s and wrote--a group of 58 former senior national security officials who had to help secure our country under both and ic Presidents. prgtoken They wrote: ``There is no factual basis for the declaration of a national emergency'' on the southwest border. prgtoken I ask unanimous consent that the Joint Declaration of Former United States Government Officials
Nomination of Eric D. Miller (Executive Calendar)
Christopher Murphy (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2019-2-26

there have been some days recently when I kind of wonder why we even show up to the Senate any longer. This job is not what it used to be. prgtoken When I get the chance to read about the history of the Senate, I read about these things called debates that we used to have on the floor of the Senate. I read about something called an amendment, which apparently is a way that an individual Senator calls up a proposal or an initiative and puts it on the floor for an up-or-down vote. prgtoken Those things don't really happen anymore in the U.S. Senate. We don't have open-ended debates on the big policies of the day. prgtoken I get it. When s control the Senate, they control the agenda. When control the Senate, they control the agenda. At the very least, I would have hoped that the Senate majority, now in hands, would put their policy initiatives before the Senate so we could have an open debate. That doesn't happen any longer. All we seem to be doing these days is voting on judges. prgtoken Now, that is a really important function of the U.S. Senate, and I am glad we are doing it, but today we are going to do something truly exceptional, which causes me, once again, to wonder what my job here is and to feel a little bit of sadness as to how it has changed and how much less substantive the input of each individual Senator is in the direction of this country. prgtoken Today, for the first time in the history of blue slips, we are going to vote and, I assume, confirm a judge who didn't get one blue slip from either of the home State Senators from which that judge comes from and is going to serve. prgtoken This has never happened before. Yet today we will vote on Eric Miller's nomination to be a judge on the Ninth Circuit from Washington. He is 43 years old, so he is going to be there for an awfully long time. prgtoken Eric Miller did not get a blue slip from either of Washington's Senators. Let me say that again. That has never happened before in the Senate. In fact, the last time a judge was confirmed without both blue slips was in 1989. That was the last time before this Congress that any judge was confirmed without both blue slips. prgtoken In that instance, it was a ic chairman of the Judiciary Committee who was confirming a judge over the objection of another . This is very different. These are two ic Senators from Washington, neither of them returning a blue slip on Eric Miller. Yet the majority has decided to go ahead and proceed with this confirmation. prgtoken This is a serious break with precedent. The last time controlled the U.S. Senate, Chairman Leahy was the head of the Judiciary Committee, and he did not hold a single hearing on an nominee who did not have two blue slips--didn't hold a single hearing even when there were exceptional circumstances. There was one time when Senators initially returned the blue slips but lat
TERMINATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED BY THE PRESIDENT ON FEBRUARY 15, 2019
Jerrold Nadler (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2019-2-26

President 's declaration of a national emergency, as an excuse to build a wall that Congress explicitly rejected, is an abuse of his constitutional oath, and cannot be tolerated by a coequal branch of government under the Constitution. We must reject this unlawful power grab and reassert Congress' authority to exercise the power of the purse. prgtoken The Constitution could not be clearer: ``No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.'' That command reflects a fundamental principle that is older than our democracy itself: The chief executive cannot unilaterally spend taxpayers' money or redirect a budget set by the people's representatives. prgtoken Earlier this year, Congress reached a bipartisan compromise to fund the government, and it was signed by the President. Congress allocated limited funding for fencing in certain areas, but squarely rejected the President's request to build a medieval barrier across the southern border. prgtoken Almost immediately, the President decided to rewrite the budget set by Congress, and he told us exactly why. He was not satisfied with what he got from the process that the Constitution dictates, so he did an end run and made it an emergency. prgtoken He and his aides have barely even tried to pretend that the so-called emergency is a real one. They know that illegal immigration is at historically low levels. They know that children and families fleeing violence are coming here to make lawful asylum claims, not as some kind of invading army. prgtoken They know that illegal drugs overwhelmingly get smuggled through ports of entry, and that a wall would do nothing to change that. But they refuse to let the facts and the law stand in the way of their political agenda. prgtoken Even worse, the emergency law that President invoked allows the military to redirect funds only if an emergency ``requires the use of the armed forces.'' And those funds can be used only for construction projects that are ``necessary to support such use of the armed forces.'' prgtoken But a wall cannot possibly be ``necessary to support'' a military operation on the border because our laws prohibit the military from engaging in law enforcement activities. The military cannot enforce an immigration law, so the President's actions are doubly unlawful. There is no real emergency; and even if there were, the President could not redirect military funds for a purpose expressly prohibited to the military. prgtoken Fortunately, the Constitution does not get suspended based on President 's preferences about what is convenient or ``faster.'' Our Nation's Founders left it up to all of us, including those of us in Congress, to act as guardians against exactly this type of assault on our constitutional order. prgtoken In that spirit, I proudly support this joint resolution, and I call upon my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up and do th
Climate Change (Executive Calendar)
Thomas R. Carper (Democrat, DE) \u2014 2019-2-26

I rise this evening to speak on a subject that, with the groundswell of activism, has once again captured national attention--and rightfully so. prgtoken Many years ago, I was a young naval flight officer stationed at a mock field naval air station in the Bay area out in California, preparing for the first of what would be three tours of duty in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. I joined there with tens of thousands of people one day to celebrate our country's first-ever Earth Day. I will never forget it. prgtoken This was back when polluters dumped waste into our waterways with impunity. Garbage littered our shores, and too many rivers oozed instead of flowed. One of them was in Cleveland, OH. The Cuyahoga River, north of where I went to school at Ohio State, actually caught on fire. Factories spewed toxic fumes, and acid rain fell from the sky. The urgency was clear then, and it is even clearer today. prgtoken That very first Earth Day was a transformative experience for me, and it will serve as an inspiration for me for the rest of my life. prgtoken As I look at what is happening across our country today, I see the movement for bold and transformative action to save our planet. I see the faces of those who were there with me that day in Golden Gate State Park. prgtoken I have had a lot of different jobs since then, but it is not lost on me that I stand here today on the brink of yet another watershed moment as the top on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works--the committee that oversees our Nation's environmental laws--to talk about climate change. prgtoken In the days and weeks ahead, Senator McConnell intends to engage in a ploy to try and undermine the Green New Deal by calling a vote for a resolution he does not even support. I believe he hopes that, in turn, there may be some disruption and damage inflicted on the ic Party and the climate change movement. prgtoken To the American people, hear this; it is a simple message: We cannot--we will not--allow cynicism to win, not now and not with so much at stake. prgtoken When it comes to climate action, there could not be a starker difference in this Chamber between the ic Party and the Party in this debate. prgtoken We, as , may not agree on exactly how we should address climate change, but we all agree it is happening. We agree that human activity is the main cause, and we agree that we must act now. prgtoken know that climate science isn't part of some grand hoax. It is not an alarmist prediction. It doesn't come from some left-leaning organization. It doesn't come from talk radio. It comes directly from our Nation's leading scientists and leading scientists from all around the world. prgtoken Just 3 months ago, 13 Federal Agencies released a comprehensive climate report that described the dire economic and health consequences we face if we fail to take meaningful action