mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
INVESTING IN A NEW VISION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SURFACE TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA ACT
Garret Graves (Republican, LA) \u2014 2020-6-30

I appreciate the gentleman for yielding time. prgtoken , I have been listening to this debate now for several minutes, listening to all this talk, and it really is just incredible to me to listen to some of the things that are being said. prgtoken I have heard people say that we have resiliency provisions, but that doesn't address the cause of climate change. Well, let's be clear. You can stop all emissions today--all of them--and we already have momentum built up to where it is going to continue warming. You have got to make investments in resilience. prgtoken , I heard our distinguished chairman earlier say it doesn't make sense to invest in roads because they are going to be underwater, which is why I offered an amendment in committee that actually invests in predisaster mitigation for roads. And I thank the chairman for accepting the amendment. prgtoken So, we have led efforts to try to improve the resiliency of these infrastructure investments. prgtoken , I also remind the chairman that the DRRA legislation that we just did last Congress, that I sat down in his office to negotiate with him, to talk through policy solutions with him--and I appreciate the time, and we made huge progress. I would say that as a result of that legislation and other actions that last Congress, we made more progress on resiliency than any other time this was done under a Congress, but more importantly, it was done in a bipartisan manner. prgtoken , now, I have heard people stand here and talk about, ``Oh, we have to reduce emissions.'' , for every ton of emissions we have reduced in the United States, China is increasing their emissions by tons, by multiple tons more. prgtoken Climate isn't a national or a continental issue. It is a global issue. You can't reduce emissions by reducing them in the United States and having other people increase theirs multiple times more than our reduction. That doesn't make sense. prgtoken Why would we penalize--I will say it again--the poorest among us, those who can't afford it, in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic, in the middle of some of the highest unemployment rates we have seen in our lifetime? People have lost their jobs, and we are going to impose more costs on them. This bill doesn't make sense. prgtoken , there is all sorts of talk about electric vehicles, about how we need transitional electric vehicles I noted earlier that we don't have the electricity infrastructure--and this bill doesn't address it--to power all of those cars. prgtoken I will say it again: Where is the energy going to come from? Our current generation capacity, our current grid infrastructure, cannot support it. prgtoken Another question: I hear my friends on the other side of the aisle often talk about the fact that we don't have enough investment in infrastructure. The highway program is paid for as a user fee. It is paid for by a gasoline tax. It is a user fee. prgtoken Yet, this bill
INVESTING IN A NEW VISION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SURFACE TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA ACT
Eric A. "Rick" Crawford (Republican, AR) \u2014 2020-6-30

a well-crafted infrastructure bill could put millions of Americans back to work and reinvigorate the American economy. Unfortunately, today, we are not here to debate a well-crafted infrastructure bill. prgtoken This is a radical departure from MAP-21 and the FAST Act, both in terms of content and process. This bill ignores the economic realities of COVID-19, embraces environmental radicalism, and weaves Green New Deal mandates throughout its core programs. In fact, approximately 40 percent of this bill's allocation will be spent on Green New Deal programs. prgtoken When the GOP controlled the majority, we consulted the minority on both MAP-21 and the FAST Act. We, in this effort, were ignored in the name of climate, despite the Senate having a bipartisan climate title in their bill. prgtoken To quantify how starkly partisan this bill is, the FAST Act had 115 amendments; this bill, 388. While we know this bill stands no chance of being enacted, the rail title will be disastrous if it was. prgtoken Despite spending $60 billion over 5 years on rail--none of which is paid for, by the way--no one in the rail industry supports any provisions in this rail title. At a time when demand for all modes of public transportation is in doubt, this bill increases funding to Amtrak. It spends 13 times what FAST Act allocated to the Northeast Corridor. It spends 160 times what FAST Act allocated to Amtrak's national network. This bill guts programs to help our regional and short-line railways to give more money to--you guessed it--Amtrak. prgtoken , our intermodal freight system saved this country from the worst of COVID-19, and this bill aims to drive that system to the ground in the name of environmental extremism. prgtoken This is the first surface reauthorization I will be voting against, and that is a sad decision I have to make with a heavy heart. prgtoken I am glad that some of my bipartisan Buy American amendments made it into this bill in markup, and that offers a glimpse of what could have been if the majority had come to us and we had worked together to create a serious bill.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
James M. Inhofe (Republican, OK) \u2014 2020-6-30

. That is another way of saying I want to complete my remarks. prgtoken Let me say this about the Senator from Maine: Of all the Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he is the one who is always there and getting involved in these things with a sense of urgency that he feels in his heart, and I appreciate him as a very valuable member of that committee. for all of his service. Russia prgtoken , earlier this morning, I was at the White House with a few other Members to receive a briefing on the reports of Putin putting bounties on troops in Afghanistan. You have been hearing about this. After a very long briefing, I am confident that President did not know about the reporting. There is some confusion in terms of our own intelligence, and it just didn't rise to the level of the President at that time. prgtoken Another takeaway from the briefing is that our intelligence agencies aren't in complete agreement on this even now. This is going to continue to be a Washington, DC, story--one where they try to make the President look bad. prgtoken Here is what we also know, and we don't need any special intelligence to tell us. Putin is a murderer, a thug. He hates America. He hates our interests. We know that, and we are doing something about it. President has taken a whole list of steps to protect our troops and stand up against Russia's actions. prgtoken In the Senate, the NDAA is focused on our top priority of taking care of our troops and also aligning our military to better deter against China and Russia. As we continue consideration, let me just give a brief update as to where we are right now. prgtoken We talk a lot about our troops and our military strength in this bill. prgtoken At the end of the day, the bill affects all American families and our communities directly. It is about their security, their freedom, their prosperity. prgtoken We introduced an amendment last night that included 79 bipartisan amendments. As we speak, we are working on building a managers' package that includes dozens of bipartisan amendments. We are really doing the job the way it is supposed to be done, the way we did last year and the year before. prgtoken The safety of the American people is not negotiable. With the fiscal year 2021 NDAA, we move one step closer to ensuring the safety of and closing the gap between our military and those of China and Russia. prgtoken For some reason, this never gets out in the media. Nobody ever talks about this and, to me, it is so significant that during the years--the last 5 years, which would have been between 2010 and 2015-- he reduced spending on defense by 25 percent. That is 25 percent in a 5-year period. I don't think we have ever seen that before. At the same time that we were reducing by 25 percent, Russia was increasing by 34 percent. If you think that is bad, at the same time China was increasing
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Roy Blunt (Republican, MO) \u2014 2020-6-30

I am always pleased to be on the floor with my good friend from Oklahoma, Mr. Lankford, but I am particularly glad I was able to be here today. Early, in his remarks, he was talking about a family, remembering that family in prayer, and then very thoughtfully going around the world of where people are, at this minute, who defend us. It is a good thing for us to think about; it is a good thing for us to keep in mind; and it is good that when we say we are remembering people in our prayers, to be sure they really understand that we are. I am glad to be with my neighbor here today and also with Senator Hoeven on the floor. prgtoken This will be the 60th time in a row, if we do our job, that we pass the National Defense Authorization Act. I don't think there is any other bill--in fact, I am sure there is no other bill--we pass every year. When we pass this bill every year, we reestablish, every year, that defense is our No. 1 priority. Defending the country is the one thing that almost everybody admits they can't do for themselves. The States don't think they could do this without us. prgtoken This is a national responsibility, and the threats we see today are complex. They are more pronounced than any our Nation has ever faced. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dunford, recently said that our military has to be ready to fight across regions, to fight across domains, and across functions. This bill moves forward in all of those areas, being sure that we are interoperable where we need to be; that we are quickly mobile where we need to be; and that our armed services work as well together as we could possibly hope they could work together. prgtoken The President has launched policies and programs to ensure the safety and the well-being of Americans. Certainly, the people who defend us who serve in the military are doing their part to protect our Nation. Now it is time for the Congress to do its part, led by the Senate and led by Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Reed bringing this bill to the floor. It is not a small bill, and it is not a bill that gets done just without a lot of work and a lot of compromise and a lot of determination as to what is really doable at this time, but this is the bill we are voting on. prgtoken Since we do it every year, a lot of it is not absolutely new, but all of it is, in my view, as updated as the committee could bring it to the floor, and we are going to have a discussion of what needs to change, even being that this year the Senate's version of the bill provides $740 billion to support the Department of Defense. prgtoken We see this at a critical time when our adversaries, including China and Russia, seek to undermine our influence around the world. Russia was just accused of putting a bounty on the head of not only American service people but our allies in some parts of the world. If that is true, a price should be paid for that. We are go
EXTENDING THE AUTHORITY FOR COMMITMENTS FOR THE PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM
Susan M. Collins (Republican, ME) \u2014 2020-6-30

I want to commend the Senator from Maryland, the ranking member on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, for bringing this legislation forward this evening. prgtoken I also want to commend my neighbor from New England, Senator Shaheen. Senator Cardin and Senator Shaheen, along with the chairman of the committee, Senator Rubio, and I crafted the Paycheck Protection Program that has literally been a lifeline to small businesses and their employees throughout this country. prgtoken More than 4.8 million loans have been made under this program. These are forgivable loans. As long as the small business, the employer, uses the percentage that is established now at 60 percent in order to pay for his or her employees, then the loan, at the end of the day, is forgiven. prgtoken This has made the difference between a small business shuttering its doors forever, laying off its employees permanently, and surviving this pandemic. Small businesses do not want to lay off their employees. Their employees are their family members, their friends, their neighbors. They are committed to them. They are committed to their communities. prgtoken Through no fault of their own, the pandemic has led to government- issued orders that have closed businesses down or their customer base has simply dried up. As a result, these small businesses were facing extreme cashflow problems, with no liquidity, and were unable to keep their businesses going without the assistance from the PPP. prgtoken I am proud of what we have been able to do. I know the difference that it has made in the State of Maine, where more than 26,000 small businesses--that is almost 75 percent of small businesses in our State--have received more than $2.2 billion worth of forgivable loans. That is equal to nearly half of the entire State budget for the State of Maine. prgtoken Those forgivable loans have sustained paychecks for nearly 200,000 employees in my State. It has allowed small businesses to retain employees; it has allowed them to recall employees; and it has allowed them to send paychecks to employees who have been furloughed due to a lack of work. prgtoken Most of all, it has kept that bond between the small business employer and his or her employees intact so that, as restrictions are lifted and as the economy reopens, the small business and its workforce can be quickly reunited. That benefits every community in this country. prgtoken So I am very pleased that the legislation that we brought to the Senate floor under the leadership of Senator Cardin tonight has been approved so that we don't see an interruption in this program. prgtoken I, too, understand the concerns raised by Senator Scott. In our negotiations on a phase 2 program of the PPP, we are looking at having a revenue test, and I think that is likely to be a provision included in the next stage of this program. prgtoken But in the meantime, let us make sure that we continu
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021--Continued
Mike Lee (Republican, UT) \u2014 2020-6-30

that was the first error that I think deserves to be mentioned in this context--the error apparent in the fact that the Supreme Court ignored the fact that the plaintiffs before the Court lacked standing. They just glossed over this issue. Why? Well, because it involves abortion, and I guess abortion is different. prgtoken The explanation provided by the plurality and by the Chief Justice-- understanding that in order to form a majority, sometimes you have to cobble together a concurring opinion with a plurality opinion, and that is what happened here. prgtoken Their analysis on the standing issue in this case simply doesn't wash. It doesn't add up. In fact, I believe it defies what every first- year law student is taught in American law schools. It doesn't work. prgtoken Secondly, this draws attention to another problem with the Court's jurisprudence in this area. When abortion is treated differently than other things, it leads to a fair amount of tail-chasing by the Court because the Court has stepped in--starting with Roe v. Wade and continuing with Casey and the other cases since then on this topic--the Court has stepped in essentially as a superlegislative body, and it has attempted to set out a rule saying that you can't undermine what the Court has declared to be a right to access abortion. prgtoken So let's set aside, for a moment, that question of what we would be looking at if we were dealing with a law prohibiting abortion, but this isn't that. Again, this was a law, Act 620, adopted by the Louisiana State Legislature that simply required that doctors and clinics performing abortions be run by doctors having admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. prgtoken It is not an abortion ban. It is just a public health and safety regulation of the same sort that you might see in effect with respect to surgical centers or other outpatient treatment clinics throughout that State. prgtoken And so, nonetheless, you have got Roe v. Wade and its progeny in which the Supreme Court has stepped in, basically, as a superlegislative body saying you can't impose too heavy of a burden on a woman's access to or ability to obtain an abortion. prgtoken The problem with that is there is nothing in the Constitution that says that. There is nothing in the Constitution that makes this a Federal issue. There is nothing in the Constitution that takes what is essentially a legislative judgment; namely, the legality or prgtoken lack thereof of a particular medical procedure and makes it a question not only of Federal constitutional law but of Federal constitutional law that can be written and then addressed and then allowed to evolve solely within the hermetically sealed chamber of the Supreme Court of the United States. prgtoken This is what produces this kind of tail-chasing. This is what produces this nonsense, and it is also, by the way, what produces a whole lot of the political vitriol and venom surroundi
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2020-6-30

now on another matter, as I have said for weeks, our domestic challenges cannot take Congress's eye off the ball of world affairs. So, as the Senate passed other major bills and the Senate s tried to advance police reform until blocked us, our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee have worked hard to assemble the next National Defense Authorization Act. prgtoken Every year, the NDAA allows us to speak clearly about the Senate's priorities on matters of national defense. As China continues to treat maritime arteries like its own backyard sandbox, the men and women of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and the entire Indo-Pacific Command remain on call to maintain order. As Russia doubles down on its support of brutal dictators and attacks democratic regimes from dark corners of the web, U.S. Cyber Command remains vigilant and our NATO relationships remain vital. As tyrants, from Tehran to Pyongyang, pave over their citizens in pursuit of power, we need our sharpest minds and best tools watching their every move. prgtoken Our Armed Forces stand watch over our homeland, and they stand watch over an entire international order that shares our peaceful values and benefits our Nation. prgtoken Now our military has also risen to the unique task of helping respond to the pandemic. Military medical facilities have added critical capacity during the first surge of COVID-19, from Navy hospital ships to soldiers from the 531st Hospital Center at Fort Campbell. National Guard personnel have established and manned temporary testing facilities across the country. DOD research facilities have joined the race to develop treatments. prgtoken As our servicemembers confront challenges new and familiar, our job is to advance an NDAA that supports them and their families. Chairman Inhofe and Senator Reed led a productive, bipartisan process in committee. I hope we will see a bipartisan amendment process out here on the floor as well. prgtoken But already the bill will make major steps forward. It supports servicemembers not only while they are at their duty stations but also on the homefront. prgtoken This year's bill encourages expanded telemedicine capabilities in the military healthcare system, and it will help retain highly trained providers. It implements new quality standards for acquisitions of military family housing and increases impact aid to school districts that support large numbers of military children. It revises sexual assault-prevention policies to destroy barriers to victims seeking justice. prgtoken It includes further steps to ensure all these efforts are supported by a more efficient and transparent administrative structure over at the Pentagon. That means changes to compensation to attract top talent, expanded access to cutting-edge software, and new checks on the Department's planning process to increase accountability. prgtoken The U.S. military is the greatest fighting force the w
INVESTING IN A NEW VISION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SURFACE TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA ACT
Lloyd Smucker (Republican, PA) \u2014 2020-6-30

I rise today in opposition to this partisan infrastructure bill. prgtoken This House can work together and can accomplish things for the American people. It wasn't long ago that Members from both parties came together in the face of an unprecedented pandemic to pass the CARES Act. That act of bipartisanship saved thousands and thousands of jobs-- millions of jobs--and preserved the livelihoods of small business owners all across this country. prgtoken Now, in the face of a new challenge, repairing our infrastructure, have chosen a different path. They have chosen to go it alone with a messaging bill that is not a serious effort to improve our roads, bridges, and railroads. prgtoken I offered a number of amendments to improve the underlying bill, including some bipartisan proposals, which I offered with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. While I appreciate that one of those was adopted, the fact is this legislation was drafted with no consultation with s. prgtoken This bill will cost taxpayers an astounding $1.5 trillion, disproportionately favoring urban centers at the expense of rural America. But the real cost of this bill is the missed opportunity. What better time to address our infrastructure needs, when interest rates are as low as they are now and when we want to see the economy begin to boom again. prgtoken , I remain committed to supporting legislation which would effectively invest in improving our transportation infrastructure in a way that would provide States additional flexibility to meet their unique needs without onerous mandates. Yet this bill doesn't do that. This bill kicks the can down the road rather than advancing those badly needed priorities. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.