mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
BORDER SECURITY
Marsha Blackburn (Republican, TN) \u2014 2023-10-18

I know that we are all watching what is happening with Israel and then also looking at how that affects our national security. And in doing this, one of the things we have paid attention to is what is happening at our southern border. prgtoken As you look at the numbers there, it really is quite frightening to see how people from all across the globe are coming to our southern border. Indeed, last year, we had individuals from 176 different countries that came to our southern border. Among this number, there were hundreds of gang members, there were thousands of convicted criminals, and there were individuals of interest--names of interest-- that our Border Patrol watched, and, indeed, there were people on the Terrorist Watchlist. prgtoken Last year, in 2023--that is, our fiscal 2023--there were 151 apprehensions of individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist. Now, this number is really quite a dramatic increase. In 2022, there were 98 individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist who were apprehended at the southern border. In 2021, there were 15. And in 2019, there were zero-- not a one. prgtoken Now, as you look at these numbers and as you look at what is happening here, it is natural to think: What has caused this uptick in terrorists that are coming to our border? If you are going to be honest about these numbers, what you would have to do is say: OK, what has changed from 2019 to 2021 and 2022 and 2023? And in a sane world--which maybe this is not a sane world right now--it would lead you to look at this administration's border policies: the ease with which people can come to the border, raise their hands, and claim asylum; the way the cartels have expanded around the globe as global businesses, indeed, moving human trafficking from having been a $500 million-a-year business in 2019 to today, this year, $150 billion--``billion'' with a B. Those are the numbers that we are dealing with. prgtoken And for terrorists who want to get in this country--and I would say it is not a stretch to think they are coming here to do us harm--maybe they are saying: It is the easiest way. You can claim asylum. You can grab a child and say you are bringing your child to America for a better life. prgtoken But the numbers are not my numbers. They are not numbers. They are not Senate numbers. These are the numbers that come from the Department of Homeland Security. This is what they have logged. prgtoken Now, the other thing that we have to look at is that in fiscal year 2022, DHS reported that 2.4 million individuals tried to force their way across the southern border. And, indeed, we have to say that. And, in that, we also have an additional 600,000 ``got-aways.'' Those are the ones who can be seen on surveillance but they can't get to. prgtoken Those are pretty hefty numbers, and those are the 2022 numbers. In 2023, the numbers are even above that. It is impossible to control an influx of this magnitude, which
IN MEMORY OF ROY KIDD
Andy Barr (Republican, KY) \u2014 2023-10-18

. Pro Tempore, I rise today to honor a legendary Kentuckian, Roy Kidd. He was a renowned football coach at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky and he passed away on September 12, 2023. prgtoken Coach Kidd was born in Corbin, Kentucky on December 4, 1931. He was a star athlete at Corbin High School, playing 3 sports. He attended Eastern Kentucky University, where he was an outstanding quarterback and also played center fielder. His coaching career began at the high school level where he coached from 1955 to 1961. He entered the college coaching ranks at Morehead State University and moved to EKU one year later. Coach Kidd served as head football coach for thirty-nine years, retiring in 2002. He amassed an outstanding record, winning over 300 games, with two I-AA national titles and two runner-up titles. Coach Kidd's teams had 25 consecutive winning seasons. He was twice named the NCAA Division I-AA National Coach of the Year and received the prestigious American Football Coaches Association's Amos Alonzo Stagg Award. prgtoken Coach Kidd was well respected and beloved by his former players. He was a staunch ambassador for his alma mater, Eastern Kentucky University. His impact on the university was significant, resulting in the football stadium being renamed Roy Kidd Stadium in his honor and the street in front of the stadium named Roy and Sue Kidd Way. He was a member of the EKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni, the EKU Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame, the OVC Hall of Fame, and the Madison County Sports Hall of Fame. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association's highest football award is named the Roy Kidd Award. prgtoken Coach Kidd is survived by his wife Sue. They were married for 62 years and have 3 children, six grandchildren, and four great- grandchildren. He was a member of First Baptist Church in Richmond. prgtoken Roy Kidd was highly respected as a coach and a leader throughout the Commonwealth of prgtoken Kentucky. He was a man who of integrity who contributed greatly to his players by the lessons he taught both on and off the football field. I am honored to lift up his contributions to Kentucky before the United States Congress.
UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. RES. 413
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2023-10-18

I want to read here, briefly, from the law of the United States of America. This is the existing law; I am not trying to pass a law today. And it says: section 212(a)3(B), subsection--I am not going to read the whole number. The law of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act mandates that you are ineligible to enter into the United States if you endorse or espouse terrorist activity or persuade others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization. prgtoken What that basically means is, if you are a supporter of a terrorist group or you encourage others to support the actions of a terrorist group--a designated terrorist group--the statute defines what that is, you are not supposed to get a visa. prgtoken And so it is reasonable to conclude that if you are already in the country--understand what I am talking about, I am not talking about American citizens; I am talking about someone who is a foreign national and that person is in the United States on a visa and that person is out there defending or encouraging others to defend and take the side of a terrorist organization, like, for example, Hamas or maybe Hezbollah or somebody else--if they are not supposed to have a visa to come into the country, once they are already here, if they do that, they should lose that visa. That is applying existing law. prgtoken And so what I am going to come here on the floor and try to do today is pass something that I, frankly, thought was common sense, doesn't go any further than this, that basically urges--it is not even a new law. It is in the resolution. It basically says the Senate is asking the administration, if they come across anyone who is here--a foreign national on a visa who supports Hamas--that that person's visa should be canceled, and they should be removed from the country through the proceedings involving removal. prgtoken That is what this resolution does. It, obviously, does things like condemns anti-Semitism and condemns the horrible attack from Hamas. But all it basically says is if you are a foreign national in the United States, you are here on a visa as a visitor and you support Hamas or you encourage others to support Hamas, you should lose your visa and you should be gone. That is what I hope to be able to do here today. prgtoken I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 413, which is at the desk; further, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
ISRAEL
Thom Tillis (Republican, NC) \u2014 2023-10-18

I come here to join my colleagues to talk about the events of the past 10 or so days in Israel and the horrible attacks. prgtoken I want to talk a little bit about two visits that I have made there over the past year or so, the most recent one back in February. But I want to start with holding our Members accountable here on Capitol Hill. prgtoken This was posted on social media, and it reads like false statements that we have seen from Hamas and other groups that want to foment hate and death in the region. It reads like this: Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital building, killing 500 Palestinians--doctors, children, patients--just like that. prgtoken That was within an hour or two of the bombing. Before we knew anything, before any of us could have possibly had a secured briefing, before we had gotten an assessment from the President of the United States or any of our intelligence sources here, before we could go down to the SCIF and actually understand the details, that statement was made. prgtoken You would think that would come from a member of Hamas, but it came from a Member of our Congress. If that Member of Congress wants to take responsibility for the protest that we now see in Beirut--good on you, in Jordan, in Amman, and in Egypt. This sort of leadership or failure of leadership has no place on Capitol Hill. prgtoken Now I want to talk about why I think Hamas is evil and why Iran is a part of this and why this is not surprising that the very details of this attack took place. prgtoken Earlier this year, in February, I was in--well, let me back up. A couple of years ago, I was in Israel, and we went down to the Gaza Strip. We saw a tunnel head. We actually walked into a tunnel that was discovered by the Israelis. We went to a Patriot battery or an armed dome battery that every day is prepared to shoot down missiles because that always happens. Before this attack, it happened almost on a daily basis. I have literally been in Israel when I am having lunch, in northern Israel--this was near the Golan Heights--and I am asking somebody to pass a plate of food, and a bomb goes off. And the people living in this kibbutz did not even miss a beat. Every day they have to live with this stuff. prgtoken So now, down in Gaza, we see the tunnel system that is in Gaza. If you go north to the Lebanese border, you will see an entire network of tunnels that the Israelis identified just in time. It had been a project, it was estimated to be, 10 years in the making, funded by Iran. Hezbollah is in Lebanon. Hamas is down in the Gaza Strip. They had developed these tunnel networks, and they were prepared to do the same thing in northern Israel that we saw in southern Israel over the past week and a half. They even want to design this to strike fear and terror in the Israeli people. They want them to think--they want their children to think that they are going to pop out of the ground and kidnap them
ISRAEL
Todd Young (Republican, IN) \u2014 2023-10-18

throughout their history, the children of Israel have known persecution and sorrow. They have lived in exile and enslavement. They have faced bigotry and violence. Entire nations and civilizations have sought to extinguish them and vanished, but the Jewish people remain, and, against all odds, millions of their descendants gathered together in the Holy Land and founded a nation. prgtoken Today, Israel is a vibrant democracy in the Middle East and a strong ally of the United States of America. Many people of faith would say the existence and perseverance of the State of Israel is itself evidence of divine providence. prgtoken Yet, even today--even today--Israel faces existential threats. On October 7, Hamas terrorists carried out the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust: the slaughter of 1,400 people; the decapitation of babies; the execution of grandmothers; and the taking of nearly 200 hostages, including children, women, seniors, and American citizens. Thirty Americans were among the murdered--30 Americans. Many of our fellow citizens have friends and family in Israel. prgtoken Regardless of our faith, we are all, I know, heartbroken for the loss and sickened--sickened--by the cruelty. And, on behalf of the Hoosiers I represent, I want to express my deepest condolences to the people of Israel as they mourn and pray and bury the dead. prgtoken As it has since its founding, against alliances of far larger nations and armies, this country, which is four times smaller than Indiana, will defend itself, and America will be here for Israel and support its right to confront this violence, this barbarism. We will do this because our values are the same: dedication to liberty and order, to tolerance, and to human dignity. prgtoken Make no mistake, the days ahead will be difficult. As Members of this body know too well, Israel is still under threat, and the risk of additional fronts opening up is real. prgtoken Over the past several days, I have been heartened by the strong bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate for the people of Israel. During this time of peril, this body cannot succumb to isolationism. We cannot abandon Israel any more than we can abandon our friends in Ukraine or Taiwan. On urgent matters of national security, we are stronger when we stand together, and in the difficult days ahead, we will work to support the people of Israel. I know we will continue that spirit. prgtoken Relatedly, I call on the administration to consult and closely work with this Congress to quickly fulfill-- prgtoken quickly fulfill--any urgent Israeli requests for assistance and do all we can to fully support Israel. prgtoken Now, colleagues, the Constitution of the United States lays out our responsibilities. Congress--Congress--has an important constitutional role in determining how the United States will respond to any additional acts of aggression. prgtoken As we support and stand with our a
LAST SALUTE
Jefferson Van Drew (Republican, NJ) \u2014 2023-10-18

. Pro Tempore, today, I want to honor the mission and dedication of the Last Salute. Last Salute, a nonprofit veteran's organization, is dedicated to providing profound and dignified funeral ceremonies that pay homage to the honor and dedication of military service. Their services adhere to the high standards expected by both families and deserving service members. These ceremonies encompass various elements, including the dignified transfer of remains through military transport, a Civil War cannon artillery salute, the solemn tolling of a memorial bell three times, a three-volley rifle salute, the rendition of Taps, and the meticulous folding and presentation of a memorial flag. Furthermore, Last Salute commemorates fallen individuals by placing their prayer card or image into their Memorial Prayer Box, signifying their enduring membership within the honor guard. Last Salute provides its services at no cost and relies solely on donations to sustain its vital mission of honoring the fallen and upholding the values of military service. Their services help honor the sacrifice of our fallen soldiers in the most commendable way, and I thank them for their dedication to their mission. God Bless Last Salute and God Bless the United States of America.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Kennedy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2023-10-18

the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--we call it the CFPB--has struck again. It has made another bad decision--this by an Agency that has become famous for bad decisions. Here is what is going on. prgtoken You will remember the Dodd-Frank Act, of course, which this Congress passed after the financial meltdown in 2007, 2008, and 2009. There was a section in the Dodd-Frank Act called section 1071--fairly innocuous. Congress directed certain information to be collected about small business loans. We were curious about small business lending in America, so we directed, in this section 1071, certain covered financial institutions--I call them small banks because most business loans to small business people come from small banks. We directed small banks to start collecting information about their loans to small business people because we wanted to know and see if we could do something to make their services more efficient. prgtoken We, the Congress, asked that 13 pieces of information be collected. It is the sort of stuff that you would imagine, very routine stuff, like ``What was the date of the loan, the small business loan? How much was the loan?'' that sort of thing. prgtoken Well, the CFPB has taken our work and totally perverted it. The CFPB has promulgated a rule that totally perverts our intention in section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. prgtoken First, we intended for only small businesses to be covered in providing this information. Now, if you look at the definition of a ``small business,'' most people use the definition that has been put out by the National Federation of Independent Business. That is the NFIB. It says that a small business is a business that has 10 or fewer people and sales of about half a million dollars a year--not according to the CFPB. They want to cast the net as far and as wide as they can. Their definition of a ``small business'' will almost double that--more than double that. They say a small business is a company with $5 million in revenue or less from the previous fiscal year, not $500,000 but $5 million. So this is going to throw the net of government much, much wider than Congress ever intended. prgtoken But, secondly, the most egregious thing the CFPB has done is they took our 13 pieces of information that we asked for, by Congress, and they expanded it to 81. All of a sudden, they want a book. prgtoken Here are some examples of what the CFPB is going to require small banks to ask of small business women and small business men when they come to the bank and ask for a loan. The bank has to ask the small business person how long it has been in business. That is fair. The bank has to ask the small business woman or small business man about its annual revenue. That is fair. But then it gets a little intrusive. It gets a lot intrusive. prgtoken The bank has to ask the small business woman or small business man what their race is. The bank has to ask the small busi
RECOGNIZING SAFE SCHOOLS WEEK
Brian K. Fitzpatrick (Republican, PA) \u2014 2023-10-18

. Pro Tempore, I rise today to acknowledge the annual Safe Schools Week. Safe Schools Week is celebrated every year to raise awareness about the importance of school safety and promote strategies for keeping students, teachers, and staff safe. This year for Safe Schools Week, I am proud to see so many schools in my district in Pennsylvania prioritize advocating for school safety policies. prgtoken As a member of the Bipartisan School Safety Caucus, I work with my colleagues to advocate for common-sense policies which center on improving the environment where our students learn and grow. We owe it to our students, educators, and school communities to prioritize their safety. Recent tragedies across our nation highlight the need to invest in substantive solutions to make our schools more secure, and I am proud of what is being done on the local, state, and federal level to ensure our schools are places of growth. prgtoken This week, it is also important to acknowledge the dedicated school officials, such as School Resource Officers, who protect our children. SROs are essential to crime prevention in schools and ensure that schools have a first responder already on campus in the event of an emergency. Beyond law enforcement, many SROs also serve as mentors in fostering relationships and reinforcing positive behaviors with students. Alongside my School Safety Caucus peers, I introduced the Strengthening Our Schools Act of 2023. This legislation would increase funding for SROs and ensure they have the resources required to support and protect students and school staff. I am grateful to the many School Resource Officers across Bucks and Montgomery counties for all they do to support our schools and communities. prgtoken In Bucks County, we are fortunate to have several school districts that have invested heavily in having SROs in their schools and we have many others that are in the process or laying the groundwork for an SRO program. The Bucks County school districts that have an existing SRO program include the following: Quakertown, Central Bucks, Council Rock, Neshaminy, Bensalem, and Bristol Borough. prgtoken As we acknowledge School Safety Week across the country, and raise awareness about the importance of strategies for keeping students and educators safe, I urge my colleagues to continue to focus on key policies to ensure schools have the necessary resources.
ELECTION OF SPEAKER
Tom Cole (Republican, OK) \u2014 2023-10-18

. pro tempore, I rise for the purpose of placing in nomination the name of the Honorable Jim Jordan for the position of of the House at the direction of the Conference. prgtoken pro tempore, 2 weeks and 1 day ago, I was on this House floor and in this Chamber defending my very good friend and our former , Mr. McCarthy, from an effort to vacate the Chair. prgtoken In the course of that speech, I made the remark that those who did this, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were going to put the Congress in a state of chaos and the country into a state of uncertainty. I think the last 2 weeks have vindicated that observation. We have a chance today to end that chaos and to end that uncertainty. prgtoken When these races happen, there are always a lot of hard things said on both sides of the aisle. There is a lot of finger-pointing that goes on. I don't intend to be involved in any of that today. I think the decision in front of us is far, far too important for that. prgtoken I am very proud, very proud, to place in nomination the name of our good friend, my good friend, our candidate for , the Honorable Jim Jordan of Ohio. prgtoken I have had the privilege of knowing Jim Jordan for a long time. I have been in Congress for a long time. For his entire period in the House, I have had the honor of serving with my friend. prgtoken My friend is not exactly a shrinking violet. You don't win national championships in college; you don't come to this floor with a sincere set of beliefs and a desire to make a change and be shy about it. My friend is not a shy person. prgtoken I have learned some things about him over the years. He is a person of absolute personal integrity. I have never once had to question something that he told me. He is an honorable man. prgtoken I also think we all know he is a pretty direct man, too. I don't think anybody in here on any issue of any substance would have to guess where Jim Jordan is going to stand. prgtoken He doesn't deceive. He doesn't dissemble. He simply tells you straight up that this is what I believe; this is why I think it is the right thing to do for the country; and that is what I am going to try and accomplish, and I am going to work with you in any way that I can to do it. prgtoken The other thing I think we have found in the last couple of weeks is what it takes to be a . The one thing I know--never having been one and never having aspired to be one--is that it takes a spine of steel to do this job. prgtoken My friend has that kind of determination, has that kind of character, and has that kind of spine. I think the next is going to need that quality, and I know my friend has it in great abundance. prgtoken If you are a , it ought to be a pretty easy decision, my friends. This is somebody who believes what we believe and has fought for and shown that over and over again. prgtoken When I first got to know him, a lot of his focus was on s