mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
Ukraine (Executive Session)
Rob Portman (Republican, OH) \u2014 2022-5-9

I come to the floor today to talk again about the illegal, totally unjustified, unprovoked, and brutal attack on Ukraine by Russian forces. prgtoken This is the 11th week in a row I have come to the Chamber to talk about this because I think it is really important that the American people know what is going on over there and that we rally to the defense of our allies in Ukraine. prgtoken This week is the 77th anniversary of what is called V-E Day. That is the day the war in Europe ended--World War II--when the United States finally led the allies to defeat the tyranny of Nazi Germany and liberated millions of people. Then, in the Cold War, we led the world again to defeat the encroachment of Soviet communism on Eastern Europe. Again, millions of people were liberated, including Ukrainians. prgtoken We cannot forget this because, as we look at Ukraine, what do we see? The same thing--people who yearn to be free. That is all they want is to live in freedom in their own sovereign, independent country. Once again, the United States and our allies in Europe are standing with these Europeans in fighting to hold onto their freedom in the face of this illegal, unprovoked, and brutal attack. prgtoken When Vladimir Putin spoke at ceremonies in Russia this week to commemorate the same V-E Day, he used it to justify Russia's invasion, saying: The danger was growing day by day, [so] Russia [gave] a preemptive response to an aggression. prgtoken Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The Ukrainians were never the aggressors. The Ukrainians just want to live in peace with their neighbors, including with Russia. prgtoken Here is a map of Ukraine today, and this is what has been going on. prgtoken In the dark red, what you see here is what the Russians took in 2014--the year that Ukraine decided definitively they wanted to turn to the West to be a free, democratic country. Russia responded with this: taking over Crimea and taking over the Luhansk and Donetsk parts of the Donbas. prgtoken The light red is what they have taken in this latest invasion, and what they intend to take, according to their military generals who have spoken, is a much bigger area here. prgtoken The blue, of course, is where the Ukrainians have pushed back, where they have gone on the counteroffensive. They have actually pushed the Russians out around Kyiv, around the northern part of the country and other parts and, right now, as you can see, in various parts of the Donbas region, including around this town of Kharkiv. prgtoken Now, Kharkiv is an interesting situation. It is actually a sister city to Cincinnati, OH, my hometown, and I was on the Sister City Committee decades ago when we developed that relationship. They have a beautiful river running through the city. It was and will be, in the future, a beautiful city; but now, as these Ukrainians are in the fight of their lives just to keep their democracy, you see w
Internet (Executive Session)
Marsha Blackburn (Republican, TN) \u2014 2022-5-9

it has been a wonderful weekend in Tennessee. We had the annual West Tennessee Strawberry Festival out in Humboldt, TN. Quite honestly, I think the strawberries were better and sweeter this year than ever before. There was wonderful strawberry shortcake and deserts. It was a wonderful weekend. It provided such a great opportunity to talk with parents and to hear from Tennesseans, from moms and dads about things that were of concern to them. prgtoken I had a mom make a comment to me that I think each of us should listen to and take to heart. I know the Presiding Officer knows how hard a parent's job is because she is a mom. prgtoken I look at my children and my grandchildren, and I thought about this lady's comment. She said, you know, when she was growing up, she felt like that when she came home, that was the safe harbor; that is where she knew she was going to be safe. But today, she said she feels like many times, the enemy is within those four walls because of what children are exposed to online. prgtoken Like many parents, she began to pay more attention during COVID, and what she has found out has just astounded her. Like many parents, she feels the hardest part of her job is keeping her children safe and providing them with the environment that helps them grow into the very best person they could possibly be. prgtoken I really related to that. My husband often would say: We need to teach our children how to love and how to laugh and how to work and how to pray. That is something that we have done. We have raised our children so that they would love one another and their fellow man and love this country and appreciate the opportunities that we are given. We have raised them to believe in their faith and to exercise that faith every single day. We have also taught them and reared them to believe in a very purposeful life--always giving more than you take and leaving things in better shape than you found them. prgtoken Now, as Chuck and I reared our family, what we didn't want to do was hand down a bunch of mandates to the kids and not give them explanations. What we tried to do was to teach them and give them the knowledge that they would be able to function without us and would develop that discernment and make those wise decisions. I know that that is something that most parents do: teach those children so that they can make wise decisions on their own and leave the door open so when they feel threatened or vulnerable, they know they can come to you and talk about it. prgtoken On this point, Big Tech and the radical left have one thing in common. Their interests are best served if parents are not spending time parenting, because what Big Tech and many of the radicals are doing is using social media platforms to take children who are vulnerable and then push them into actions on social media platforms. It is, indeed, a toxic environment for our children on these platforms. That online
WOMEN'S HEALTH PROTECTION ACT
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2022-5-10

first, I want to thank my friend and colleague, the Senator from Michigan, for coming to the floor to share his own powerful and personal story and the stories of his constituents about why so many of us are here on the Senate floor this evening, and it is because 8 days ago, our country received a terrible wake-up call. A leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States indicated that a majority of five Justices may be on the verge of overturning the constitutional protections of reproductive freedom set forth in Roe v. Wade. prgtoken We don't know if this draft opinion will be the final decision, but we do know there is a very high chance that the Supreme Court of the United States will soon blow up 50 years of precedent and strip women of their constitutional right to make choices about their own body and their own self-determination. prgtoken And while the content of this opinion is shocking, it is not totally surprising. This is the premeditated outcome of years--years--of plotting and planning by the rightwing legal movement and the Party. prgtoken Candidate promised the Nation he would handpick Justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. On the campaign trail, he even claimed that Roe would be overturned ``immediately'' once he assumed office. And he stated on national television that women who receive abortions should be punished. Leader McConnell and Senate s made up their own rules and then broke their own rules in order to play their part in this scheme. prgtoken First, Senate s refused to even hold a hearing on President 's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, on the grounds that it was a Presidential election year. prgtoken Four years later, Senate s rushed through one of President 's own Supreme Court nominees just weeks before the 2020 election. prgtoken And in between, Senate s carved out an exception to the Senate filibuster rule so they could push through all three of 's anti-choice Supreme Court picks: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. prgtoken Each of these nominees raised their right hand before the Senate Judiciary Committee and swore under oath that they respected the weight of judicial precedent. In fact, when Brett Kavanaugh was asked about Roe v. prgtoken Wade, he pointed to Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed the core holding in Roe establishing a constitutional right to abortion, and he called the decision in Casey ``precedent on precedent,'' a double precedent. prgtoken But let's be very clear, this draft opinion has no respect for judicial precedent. If the draft holds, all three of President 's nominees to the Supreme Court, along with some others already on the Bench, will have deliberately deceived and defrauded the American public. prgtoken Rightwing ideologues set out to stack the Court with Justices ready and willing to overturn Roe v.
SUPPLY CHAIN SECURITY TRAINING ACT OF 2021
Gerald E. Connolly (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2022-5-10

such time as I may consume. prgtoken , I rise in support of S. 2201, the Supply Chain Security Training Act, led by Chairman Gary Peters of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. prgtoken I thank Representatives Joe Neguse and Scott Franklin, who did excellent bipartisan work here to lead the House companion, H.R. 5962, which was reported by the Oversight and Reform Committee on February 4 without opposition. prgtoken This important bill to defend our Nation's information and communications technology supply chains cannot be enacted soon enough. prgtoken In December 2020, a Government Accountability Office report revealed that Federal agencies had failed to fully implement supply chain and risk management standards for information and communications technology. prgtoken That same month, the discovery of the SolarWinds breach made urgently clear how dangerous supply chain vulnerabilities can be. The networks of at least nine Federal agencies were compromised by Russian actors, allowing prgtoken them access to Federal systems for months before they were even discovered. prgtoken To help address these concerns, the Supply Chain Security Training Act establishes a training program for agency employees with responsibilities related to supply chain risk management, better preparing them to identify and mitigate supply chain threats associated with the acquisition of products and services. prgtoken The training requirements created by this bill will ensure that the acquisition workforce has the capability to identify items in the supply chain that could be used to exploit Federal information systems. prgtoken As the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world, the Federal Government relies on a complex supply chain that spans continents and is continuously targeted by foreign adversaries and cybercriminals scheming to breach Federal information systems. prgtoken To protect our national security interests and guard against these attacks, we must equip our Federal acquisition officials with the expertise and skills they need to reinforce our cybersecurity defenses through purchasing decisions. prgtoken I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and .
Women's Health Protection Act (Executive Calendar)
Elizabeth Warren (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2022-5-10

I rise today to urge the Senate to take action to protect abortion rights and defend our constitutional rights. prgtoken A far-right, extremist Supreme Court wants to force their views on every American. Roe v. Wade has protected the right to a safe, legal abortion for nearly 50 years. Though s have tried to challenge it in court many times, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed Roe over and over and over again--until now. prgtoken So what changed? Why is something that is repeatedly referred to as ``settled law'' on the threshold of being swept away like so much dust? Why is a law that literally tens of millions of people have depended on to protect access to a safe, legal abortion suddenly about to evaporate? prgtoken We don't arrive here accidentally. We are here because politicians have spent decades plotting for this moment. They have cultivated extremist judges. Groups like the Federalist Society have screened possible candidates and drawn up lists of which possible candidates could and could not be counted on. Extremist donors spent billions in dark money so that their preferred ideologues could chip away at people's fundamental rights and do it from the Bench. candidates for office pledged to support Justices who would get rid of Roe v. Wade. And, finally, when all of that still wasn't enough, s stole two seats on the Supreme Court, all to force their unpopular minority agenda on the rest of America. prgtoken I am here to sound a warning. extremism has been carefully nurtured for years. Now extremism is spreading, and now it is obvious that extremism knows no bounds. prgtoken Let's talk about the facts--the facts of extremism--and let's begin with who pays the price for extremism. Changes in abortion laws will have terrible consequences, but those consequences will not fall equally on everyone. No, those with money will always have the option to leave the State or leave the country to travel where abortion is safe and legal. No, the people who will pay the biggest price will be the most vulnerable among us--the mama already working two jobs to help make ends meet to support the children she has; the women working jobs who have no paid leave and who can't take 3 days off work to go to another State; the women in South Dakota scrambling to make an appointment at the only abortion clinic in the entire State; the 12-year-old who has been molested; the person who has been raped; the women in Texas who need lifesaving care their doctors can't provide; and the women all across the country, especially women of color, already facing shamefully high maternal mortality rates-- because in America, carrying a pregnancy to term is 43 times riskier than a legal abortion. prgtoken These are the facts about overturning Roe v. Wade, and these are the people--disproportionately low-income women, women of color, an
Roe v. Wade (Executive Session)
Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2022-5-10

my older daughter, Abigail--named for Abigail Adams, who urged her husband to ``remember the ladies''--is 7. She is generous, silly, and so, so smart. She calls herself a maker-kid and dreams of being an engineer or an army nurse but definitely not a helicopter pilot. prgtoken My younger daughter, Maile, just turned 4. Her laugh is contagious, and early on during the pandemic when I was mostly working from home, she proved that she was truly her mother's daughter by starting to pull pranks, including grabbing my phone and, oopsies, hanging up on whoever was on the other line when I was trying to conduct a Zoom meeting or review some legislation instead of playing with her. But Abigail and Maile might not be here today if it weren't for the basic reproductive rights Americans have relied on for nearly 50 years. prgtoken When Roe was decided in 1973, it changed the lives of so many women. prgtoken It saved the lives of 14-year-olds who were the victims of rape or incest, who otherwise would have had to turn to back alleys and back rooms. prgtoken It changed the lives of women who desperately wanted to be moms but who found out their pregnancies weren't viable. They would have to go through the pain and suffering and trauma of a full term, only to stillborn at the end of 9 months. prgtoken Personally, for me, it gave me my chance to be a mom, for I never would have had my creative, silly, drive-me-crazy-yet-love-them- infinitely two daughters if Roe hadn't paved the way for women to make their own healthcare decisions, as I was only able to get pregnant through IVF, a fertility process that Roe lays the foundation for. prgtoken Because of IVF, I got to experience all the joys of motherhood. Because of reproductive rights, my husband and I aren't just ``Tammy and Bryan,'' we are ``Mommy and Daddy.'' prgtoken Because of Roe and the rights and laws it protects, we are a family. Yet, last week, we learned that the Supreme Court could be just weeks away from overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a decision that, if made final, would strip away reproductive rights for millions of women, forcing them to potentially live through the horrors and indignities that their grandmothers bore if they needed reproductive care, and this would just be the start. prgtoken For while the anti-choice movement has been working for years-- decades--to get to this moment, overturning Roe is not their end goal. They want a national ban on abortion, something the Senate Leader said was a possibility just last week. prgtoken They want to undermine access to contraception. In some States, legislation has already been introduced that would make IVF a crime. In Oklahoma, one woman was even convicted of manslaughter for having a miscarriage--a miscarriage. Criminalized for having a miscarriage. I have had a miscarriage, and there are no words to describe what mothers feel in that moment. For me, I was overco
ADDITIONAL UKRAINE SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2022
Rosa L. DeLauro (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2022-5-10

such time as I may consume. prgtoken , I thank Ranking Member Granger for her support for this effort. As the pointed out, this has been a bipartisan measure since we moved on March 8. I also thank Chairman Rogers for speaking here tonight as well. prgtoken The world must see that we are united in our support of Ukraine. I think the Ukrainian people--they need us. They are in desperate need of our support. Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to threaten peace and democracy around the globe, and Vladimir Putin must be held accountable. prgtoken Why is there an unprovoked attack on a sovereign Nation whose only desire is to be free, to be a democracy, to associate itself with the West? Why is that a provocation for being invaded, for the massive destruction that Ukraine is undergoing at the moment? Again, Vladimir Putin and his cronies must be held accountable. prgtoken This bill does that by protecting democracy, limiting Russian aggression, and strengthening our own national security. We must act swiftly and decisively tonight. We have not seen such a mobilization of support around the world for an ally since World War II. I am so proud that that mobilization has been led by a United States President, President . prgtoken It is a moral obligation. It is a moral responsibility. We can't sit by and watch news day-in and day-out seeing the massive destruction that is being wrought on Ukraine and its citizens. President Zelenskyy said: Light will overcome darkness. And our job is to help to provide the light. prgtoken I think it was stirring when you had, in Moscow, victory day, and President Putin with his extraordinary display of power. Then watching President Zelenskyy walk down the street of Kyiv on his own by himself, an extraordinary leader who needs to know--and I think he does know-- that the United States and the world is there to support his efforts. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to support this bill. prgtoken , I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader.
BENJAMIN BERELL FERENCZ CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL ACT
Lois Frankel (Democrat, FL) \u2014 2022-5-10

I thank the gentleman for yielding and to my colleagues for their articulate words today. prgtoken , I rise with great pride as we move forward with a bipartisan bill to award the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, a prosecutor against Nazi criminals, Mr. Benjamin Ferencz, awarding him the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest expression of appreciation for distinguished achievements. prgtoken In this day of partisan conflict, this is a rare show of bipartisanship with 296 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. Mr. Ferencz is 102 years old, and to this day, is a tireless advocate for the rule of law and international justice. I have met Mr. Ferencz because I am blessed to say he is my constituent in Del Ray Beach, Florida, and he remains very alert and very humble. prgtoken My colleagues have said it, and I am going to quickly repeat a little of his history. prgtoken Mr. Ferencz emigrated to the United States with his family--he was only 10 months old--to escape the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe. He grew up in New York City, eventually earning degrees from City College and Harvard Law School before serving in the Army during World War II. prgtoken He enlisted under General Patton before being transferred to a newly created war crimes unit to help collect evidence of Nazi war crimes. He would enter concentration camps and come face to face with the horrors of the Nazi regime's systematic murder of millions of Jews. prgtoken He once said: ``Even today, when I close my eyes, I witness a deadly vision I can never forget--the crematoria aglow with the fire of burning flesh, the mounds of emaciated corpses stacked like cordwood waiting to be burned. I had peered into hell.'' prgtoken After the war, he was honorably discharged and awarded five battle stars for his service. And that is when he was recruited for his most notable role, chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg trial, that was later called the biggest murder trial in history. At age 27, it was his first case, and yet, he rose to the occasion, reminding the courtroom and the world that this was a case that dealt with our humanity. prgtoken And in his closing statement, he concluded about the Nazis on trial: ``Death was their tool and life their toy.'' And if they were found innocent: `` . . . then law has lost its meaning and man must live in fear.'' Not only did his words ring true in the courtroom, where all 22 Nazis officials he prosecuted were brought to justice, they resonated around the world and have been quoted time and time again when the international community rallies to decry crimes against humanity. prgtoken Nearly 80 days after the conclusion of these trials, we meet here during Jewish American History Month, after having just celebrated Israel's Independence Day and observing Yom HaShoah, the day set aside for Jews to remember the Holocaust. It is important to recognize we are still fighting the ongoing battle against racism, anti-Sem