mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
INCREASING COAST GUARD ASSETS IN THE POLAR REGIONS
Ralph Lee Abraham (Republican, LA) \u2014 2018-11-29

I rise today to recognize the urgent need for increased U.S. Coast Guard assets in the polar regions of the globe. prgtoken America has been a world leader and a dominant force in the Arctic and Antarctic regions for over a century. While both of these areas are currently models of internationally shared territory, the geopolitical relevance of the polar regions is rising, and with it comes a larger and stronger presence of countries such as Russia and China. prgtoken Russia and China have both declared plans to grow and strengthen their presence in the polar region. China recently announced its status as a near-Arctic nation and continues to rapidly grow its ice-breaking fleet. Over the last 3 years, Russia has constructed six new bases in Russian Arctic territory. prgtoken These are concerning and clear signs that Russia and China have intentions to change the nature of their presence in the polar regions. prgtoken In order to compete with these countries, we must protect our sovereignty in the Arctic and our national interests in the Antarctic. It is time for Congress to reinvest in Coast Guard assets in this area. prgtoken The Coast Guard's sole heavy icebreaker, the Coast Guard cutter Polar Star, is 40 years old, and the task of accessing the polar region becomes more difficult for this ship every ice season. prgtoken Immediate investments in new heavy icebreaker ships, the Polar Security Cutter fleet, is critical to ensuring a long-term presence for the U.S. in these polar areas. prgtoken The U.S. Coast Guard has created a 6-3-1 approach to rebuilding its polar region fleets. With this 6-3-1 position, the Coast Guard will build a fleet of six polar icebreakers, including three Polar Security cutters similar to the Polar Star, and the U.S. Coast Guard's first Polar Security cutter. prgtoken These new heavy icebreakers provide continued access to the polar region and, ultimately, will prevent the U.S. from ceding any ground to our political adversaries. prgtoken I appreciate the hard work done by the folks at the Coast Guard, not only in the polar regions, but across the world. Their efforts play a role in ensuring our national security, and it is vital that we continue to provide the Coast Guard with the funding they need in order to do their jobs. prgtoken This investment will arm the Coast Guard with the tools, equipment, and personnel it needs to complete its missions on the polar front. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues in Congress to join me in supporting the requested $750 million in funding.
Michigan Veterans (Executive Session)
Debbie Stabenow (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2018-11-29

representing Michigan in the U.S. Senate is such an honor, and one of the best parts of this job is the work I am able to do on behalf of Michigan's over 600,000 veterans. prgtoken Our veterans have always been first in line to defend our democracy. That is why they should never be at the back of any line--for a job, for healthcare, for housing, or for education. prgtoken Our government has made our veterans promises--important promises-- and those promises must be kept. That is true of the administration, as well as every other administration. Unfortunately, many of our veterans are now finding that promises the government made to them regarding their education are being broken. prgtoken For weeks now, student veterans have spoken out about their GI bill benefits being delayed or incorrect. One of those veterans is Brendan. He serves his country in the Michigan National Guard, and he is a student at Lake Superior State University in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. prgtoken A few months ago, Brendan's GI bill benefits didn't go through even though he had done everything he was supposed to do. Brendan told his local station, WWTV: I got emails saying, you need to pay your tuition. It stresses you out because you are wondering if you are going to get paid, and if I can't pay tuition, then I can't enroll in the next semester. prgtoken Bill, another student at Lake Superior State University, is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. His housing stipend was 36 days late. ``It upsets me,'' he told WWTV. He added: ``When I was active duty, you are expected to be anywhere in the world within 24 hours, boots on the ground, ready to complete a mission. . . . When it comes time to pay veterans back for their service, it takes me 35 days to get a check in the mail.'' prgtoken That is simply outrageous. prgtoken What is even more outrageous is that this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it does not intend to reimburse veterans who were paid less than they were owed. That is after the administration promised a House committee earlier this month that it would make sure veterans are reimbursed. The Department blames computer issues and says that going back to fix the mistakes would only delay further claims. That is completely unacceptable. You can bet that if Brendan or Bill or any other veteran tried to blame computer glitches for not paying their phone bill or failing to complete an assignment, it wouldn't work. prgtoken These veterans have done everything--everything--we have asked of them. It is our government's responsibility to provide them with everything they have been promised, and I am committed to doing everything in my power to make sure that happens. That is why earlier this month I called on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to address this issue with the urgency it deserves--in other words, now. This isn't the first time the VA has faced back
HONORING FONDA MAGEE
Bennie G. Thompson (Democrat, MS) \u2014 2018-11-29

. and fellow colleagues I rise today to honor a worthy member of our society, Mrs. Fonda Magee. prgtoken She earned her bachelor's degree in accounting from Alcorn State University. After graduating with a degree in Accounting she worked for the IRS in Atlanta. She moved back to Mississippi and worked as a project manager for Skytel for 9 years. She taught 6th grade and 8th grade math at Siwell middle school. prgtoken Later, she opened her own accounting firm named LKT Professional Tax where she has been in business for 18 years and her business continue to grow each year. prgtoken Mrs. Magee founded a young girls group called YLOTS where she mentors girls and has a girls only summer camp. Her passion is working with the youth and helping to make changes in this world. She takes countless number of youths all over the states on HBCU tours, encourage each student to attend college as well as educating them of the many choices out there. Mrs. Magee serves on the Youth department at her church Emmanuel Baptist to help raise money to send students to college. Mrs. Magee has been married for 25 years and together they have two girls and three foster sons. prgtoken , I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mrs. Fonda Magee.
Nomination of Thomas Farr (Executive Session)
Robert Menendez (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2018-11-29

I rise today in opposition to the nomination of Thomas Farr to the Eastern District of North Carolina. Those who sit on the Federal bench are bound to uphold the Constitution for all Americans, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or political leaning, but Mr. Farr cannot be trusted to defend equal justice under the law. prgtoken Working to disenfranchise voters with a particular hostility toward African-American voters has been his lifelong passion. Consider his work for Jesse Helms' 1990 Senate campaign. We all know Helms' record on race. prgtoken When the Justice Department brought a lawsuit against the Helms campaign for sending over 100,000 postcards to mostly African-American voters, falsely warning them that they were ineligible to vote and could be prosecuted for casting a ballot, it was Mr. Farr who defended the scheme. Yet, despite having served as the Helms' campaign attorney, Farr denied having any involvement with the postcards in his Senate questionnaire. prgtoken Mr. Farr claimed he did not ``participate in any meetings in which the postcards were discussed before they were sent,'' but according to the former head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Gerald Hebert, ``the answers in [Farr's] questionnaire are contrary to the facts.'' prgtoken Mr. Hebert took contemporaneous notes while investigating the Helms campaign--notes that place Mr. Farr at prgtoken a meeting on the postcard scheme just 3 weeks before they were sent. prgtoken Years later, Farr led a 3-year legal battle to defend North Carolina law that disgracefully shortened early voting, instituted onerous government ID requirements, and eliminated same-day voter registration and out-of-precinct voting, all of which are known to disproportionately suppress minority, elderly, and disabled voters. prgtoken Federal courts ruled the law unconstitutional for targeting African- American voters ``with almost surgical precision''--purposeful, surgical precision--calling it the most restrictive law since the era of Jim Crow. prgtoken I know s want to confirm as many judges as possible, but why this judge when there are so many other qualified jurists to choose from? I think it is because they know the GOP agenda of enriching big corporations at the expense of everyday working families is incredibly unpopular with the American people. prgtoken Consider that while the s held onto the Senate this year, they lost by 16 million votes nationwide. Democracy is supposed to be a battle of ideas, but when it comes to healthcare or student loan debt or climate change, they don't have any. When you can't win a fair fight, what do you do? You tilt the playing field in your favor. prgtoken s want to stack the court with judges who will do their bidding--grossly out of step with the American people on everything from voting rights and redistricting to healthcare and climate change, to the constitutionality
TOXIC CAPITALISM
Joseph P. Kennedy III (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2018-11-29

on Monday, GM went to bed with a record $3.2 billion in profits last quarter alone. Its shareholders went to bed with a 5 percent surge in stock prices, plus the $10.6 billion the company has spent on buybacks since 2015. Meanwhile, 14,000 GM workers spent a sleepless night wondering if their jobs and livelihoods would still be there for them the next morning. prgtoken There is no better snapshot of our country's current, toxic brand of capitalism, where we are operating in a system that demands that workers labor harder and harder to meet basic human needs but refuses to share even a slice of the success that they helped create. prgtoken For those of us in this Chamber this morning, it is about more than one company or one balance sheet. It is about 50 years of giving the private sector explicit permission to cast workers aside. It is about an economy that has become the antithesis of what our country stands for: equity, decency, justice, and hard work. prgtoken President has made his response to these economic inequities very clear. His is a country of bitter rivalry between fellow citizens forced to endlessly spar over the scraps of that system: ``My wages can't go up unless your food stamps are taken away.'' ``Your medical bills can't fall unless my insurance goes.'' So Americans spend their days fighting each other over economic crumbs while our system quietly delivers the entire pot to those at the top. prgtoken That is the reality that our new ic majority must address for the coal miner in Kentucky, the daycare worker in New York, the fifth- generation farming family in Ohio, the first-generation immigrant family in Massachusetts, the mostly White towns in West Virginia devastated by an opioid epidemic, and the communities of color across our country terrorized by the war on drugs. prgtoken Forget where they are from or what they look like or how they vote. All of these Americans face an economy that does not operate for them. They live in cities and towns that are likely to be medically underserved, educationally ostracized from today's job market, plagued by inadequate infrastructure, and burdened by crumbling homes or houses that no one can afford. prgtoken They disproportionately shoulder the hard words that can make life hurt: ``eviction,'' ``addiction,'' ``bankruptcy,'' and ``violence.'' prgtoken They hail from the places where polling locations disappear, where the biggest economic engine is a payday lender, where lead poisons their children's water, and where injustice and insufficiency fester for generations before a government thinks to step in. prgtoken This is the challenge of our time. It is the injustice that we have to solve not just because of our politics, but because our system will not survive if we don't. prgtoken I believe in that system. prgtoken American capitalism has done great good for a great number of people. It has given the average American a better standard of liv
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
Margaret Wood Hassan (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2018-11-29

this month, I am proud to recognize as our Granite Stater of the Month an individual who has gone to great lengths to serve his community, Portsmouth police officer Thompson E. Potter III of Epping. After filling in at Portsmouth Middle School as a school resource officer, he was inspired to launch a fundraising campaign to provide the funds for six boys from traditionally underserved backgrounds to attend summer camp. prgtoken Officer Potter said that he attributes the YMCA camp he attended as a boy with helping instill in him the values of respect and responsibility, and putting him on a path to success. He also credits the camp with raising his self-esteem, and he believes that other young men could benefit from that same type of experience. prgtoken His goal was to raise $5,000 to send five boys to the YMCA camp, and donations immediately began coming in. As Officer Potter put it, the whole community worked to ``help take care of these boys,'' with Portsmouth Middle School staff and parents, friends, businesses, and other community members supporting the effort. prgtoken Ultimately, Officer Potter raised $13,000, which was enough to send six boys to camp and outfit them with all of the gear they would need. prgtoken Officer Potter intends to continue his efforts next summer, with the goal of sending five boys and five girls to camp. He says that he wants to give these students something to look forward to and give them a foundation to build upon. prgtoken For his commitment to his community, the young people of Portsmouth, and the better future that these young people will build, I am proud to recognize Officer Potter as the November 2018 Granite Stater of the Month.
ELIMINATE BIGOTRY AND HATE
Al Green (Democrat, TX) \u2014 2018-11-29

once again, I rise, proud to be an American, proud to have the opportunity to speak for people who cannot speak for themselves in this place. prgtoken , I rise today to mention the midterm elections of 2018, said by many who count and who are supposed to know to be one of the highest turnouts ever, exceeding 100 million voters, said to be approximately 48 to 50 percent of those who are eligible to vote, depending on how you count and who is counting. prgtoken In Texas, it is said that, on November 1, the number of Texans voting early exceeded the entire turnout for 2014. The numbers indicate that 3.3 million or more 18-to-29-year-olds voted early, a 188 percent increase over 2014. It was a record turnout. prgtoken Why was there a record turnout? is the question that we have to grapple with. Yes, people turned out because they wanted better healthcare. They turned out because they want better jobs. They turned out because they want better schools, better education. They want better housing. prgtoken But they also turned out because they were opposed to bigotry and hate. Nobody can give you the empirical evidence to support entirely the number that turned out because they were antithetical to bigotry and hate. But we know by anecdotal evidence that many people turned out, in addition to the other things, because they want to see bigotry and hate not managed, but they want to see it eliminated in the greatest and richest country in the world. prgtoken Many people turned out with the expectation that we would do something about all of the things that I have named, including bigotry and hate. Many people turned out because they want bigotry and hate to become more than talking points. They want bigotry and hate in this country to become action items. prgtoken They want to see us visibly do something about the bigotry and hate that has found a means by which it can multiply, it can grow, in this country. prgtoken We have seen evidence of it in elections, a Senator who says: I'd go to a public hanging. prgtoken We have seen evidence of it in our places of worship, people killed in a synagogue. prgtoken We have seen evidence of it in the streets with words and behavior that are unacceptable. ``Jews will not replace us,'' they said in Charlottesville. prgtoken We have to do something about bigotry and hate, and it has to be more than simply talk. Talking points are good; action items are better. It is time for the Congress of the United States of America to stand up for the many people who suffer from bigotry and hate in this country.
NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM FURTHER EXTENSION ACT OF 2018
Maxine Waters (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-11-29

the balance of my time. prgtoken , while I would prefer a longer term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, I strongly support today's extension to provide homeowners, businesses, renters, and communities with the certainty they deserve. Let me just say that I think we are all aware that for those people who are trying to obtain homeownership that live in flood zones, they won't be able to do it if they cannot get the insurance that is provided by the National Flood Insurance Program. And just think what that is going to do to the real estate market. So we have to do this in order to deal with the fact that this program literally shuts down at the end of November. prgtoken And let me just say that I have been in cities and towns that have been devastated by floods and by storms, and I want you to know the time that I spent after Katrina, helping to get people who were abandoned on highways, putting them in buses, and traveling down through the various cities, was heartbreaking. I want you to know that I went up to Baton Rouge and I was in Mississippi, and I understand the pain and the destruction that is caused by these storms. prgtoken And I am absolutely committed, make no mistake, I remain committed to putting partisanship aside and working with my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle to come together on commonsense reforms that protect the continued affordability and availability of coverage, a long-term reauthorization of the NFIP that ensures that affordable flood insurance continues to be available to communities across our country. It must be Congress' priority when we start the 116th Congress. prgtoken And let me just say, , that despite the fact that my colleague and chairman of the committee and I worked very hard to try and deal with some of our concerns and even differences, we not only both have demonstrated our commitment to long-term NFIP, and while we did not get exactly where we wanted to go, we were able to provide protection for those families who were in desperate need of insurance and to continue, even though we have had to do it on a short-term basis. prgtoken So I would like to take this moment to just thank him for the opportunity that I have had to work with him. Now, everybody knows we didn't always agree, but they didn't know what we were laughing about as we sat next to each other exchanging a few jokes every now and then. So I am going to miss him as our chairman. I don't know if this is his last time on the floor and whether or not we are going to be able to put flood insurance reauthorization into the continuing resolution. prgtoken If we are not, perhaps I will see him again, but I don't know. I just wanted him to know that his presence here in the Congress of the United States has been noted in the history of the Congress of the United States, and whether or not he was agreeing or disagreeing, he had a powerful voice on a power
PLEASANTON VETERANS POST OFFICE
Henry Cuellar (Democrat, TX) \u2014 2018-11-29

I rise today to present H.R. 1210, which will re-name the post office facility located at 122 W. Goodwin Street, Pleasanton, Texas, as the ``Pleasanton Veterans Post Office.'' This bill will show our appreciation for the veterans of Pleasanton, Texas, and ensure their service and sacrifices to our country is not forgotten. prgtoken Across my district, fine men and women of all walks of life have honorably served our country. It is critical that we honor their service and dedication to our nation. Pleasanton alone is home to over 600 veterans. Dedicating this post office to our veterans will serve as an enduring reminder of the sacrifices that our friends, neighbors, and family made while serving their country. These individuals put country ahead of self, and I am proud to recognize them with the dedication of this post office facility. prgtoken Today, I acknowledge the service of Judge Robert ``Bob'' L. Hurley of Pleasanton, TX. Judge Hurley served in the United States Air Force as a medic and eventually rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He was NCOIC of the U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Medical Clinic--Medical Records and Appointments Department. After the completion of his service, he moved back to Pleasanton. He later became president of two companies and served his hometown as both a councilmember and mayor. He now serves as a Judge for Atascosa County, a position he's held since 2014. prgtoken We owe our freedom to veterans like Judge Hurley, which is why I am recognizing him with the dedication of this post office. He is just one example of the many veterans who prioritize service to their country. The bravery and commitment of these men and women to our nation demonstrates what it really means to be an American. prgtoken I would also like to take a moment to thank the veterans' organizations throughout my district for their tireless work in providing the care our veterans need. And in the words of President John F. Kennedy, ``A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.''