mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
HIGHLIGHTING ISSUES WITH THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
Randy K. Weber, Sr. (Republican, TX) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Madam , tomorrow, January 20, 2022, is a day that will live in infamy and marks 1 year since was sworn in as President. prgtoken I remember saying: This is the most important election of our lifetime. prgtoken Unfortunately, I was right. prgtoken In 1 year--under one-party rule and in just 1 year--it has been one huge, continuing debacle and crisis. prgtoken We went from energy independence to energy crisis, Madam ; from a rebounding economy to the highest inflation in 40 years; from international peace through strength to increased tensions with our greatest adversaries; and might I add, losing the confidence of our allies. prgtoken We went, Madam , from border security to 2 million illegal alien crossings; from the end of the pandemic to the never-ending pandemic, particularly with unconstitutional mandates. prgtoken What is the cause? prgtoken One disaster after another, and Americans are losing faith not only with the performance of the current administration, but also with our governmental agencies: the FBI, the DOJ, and the CDC. You name it. The list is endless. prgtoken are showing who they are: Socialists, police defunders, open border advocates, and anti-parents who just want a say in their child's schooling. Is that too much to ask? prgtoken That is what are. This is their brand, and that brand, I might add, is a disaster. We s need to point it out every day in every way. prgtoken So to my colleagues I say, let's go brand `em.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
James Lankford (Republican, OK) \u2014 2022-1-19

in the last 6 years, have filibustered 589 bills and nominations--589. That was their right as the minority at the time. That right has been protected. It was their right to demand that their voice be heard, but it seems like that was then; this is now. prgtoken Two years ago, when Senator Tim Scott brought a serious policing reform bill to the Senate floor to debate at a moment of national debate on supporting law enforcement, filibustered that bill and would not allow open debate on that bill. prgtoken Just last week--just last week--55 Senators voted for sanctions on Russia as they surround the borders of Ukraine. Just last week, 55 Senators voted for that, but that wasn't enough, and the voice of the minority was protected when blocked sanctions on Russia as they threatened Ukraine. That was their right to do, but it seems like that was then; this is now. prgtoken This letter in 2017 was sent. Twenty-seven ic Senators wrote a letter to Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer asking that there be no changes in the legislative filibuster, including this sentence that they all wrote together: We are mindful of the unique role the Senate plays in the legislative process, and we are steadfastly committed to ensuring that this great American institution continues to serve as the world's greatest deliberative body. Therefore, we are asking you to join us in opposing any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate, as we consider legislation before this body and in the future. prgtoken That was then; this is now. prgtoken Then-Senator , Chris Coons, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, Joe Manchin, Angus King, Mark Warner, Bob Casey, Martin Heinrich, Jeanne Shaheen, Sherrod Brown, Brian Schatz, Maria Cantwell, Mazie Hirono, Jon Tester, Tom Carper, Maggie Hassan, Tammy Duckworth, Tim Kaine, Jack Reed, Ed Markey, Debbie Stabenow, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Bob Menendez all asked me to join them in opposing any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate. prgtoken I will. I would be glad to join you in that because I believe this body is a unique body in the world, just like you did in 2017. I don't know what has changed. Debate is still debate. Difficult issues are still difficult issues. And when my ic colleagues filibustered almost 600 times in 6 years, it was their right, as it has been for two centuries. prgtoken This is the one place in American Government where the voice of the minority is heard--the one place. This is the one place where minority opinions have to come to the forefront. prgtoken A discussion about changing the rules of the Senate with simple 51 votes and to be able to shift this to a body, on
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Tim Scott (Republican, SC) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Thank you, , for the opportunity to talk about something really important to all Americans but specifically important to Americans from the Deep South who happen to look like me. prgtoken As I listened to the President talk about the importance of stopping what he characterized as Jim Crow 2.0, I felt frustration and irritation rising in my soul. As I keep hearing the references to Jim Crow, I ask myself how many Americans understand what Jim Crow was. I am so thankful--thankful--that we are not living in those days. prgtoken But just for those who don't appreciate the Jim Crow that was, it was a time when my grandfather, born in 1921, would have experienced it. If he were still alive, he could tell the stories of the Jim Crow South and the Jim Crow era, an era where, in order for a black person to vote, you had to pass a literacy test. prgtoken Now, if you could read at that point, it would not just be a test on whether or not you could read, it would be a test on ``Do you know who your Governor was 20 years before you were getting ready to vote?'' It would include the threat of being lynched--literally killed--because those in power wanted to stop Black folks from realizing and fully participating in the greatest Nation on Earth and exercising what I believe is a fundamental responsibility and right of Americans, the right to vote. prgtoken It would include beatings and the power of intimidation, the loss of your job if you dared to show up to vote. And so when I hear my President, your President, our President of these United States, just a little while ago, a week or so ago, talk about Jim Crow 2.0 and using as the poster child of this new Jim Crow South being the Georgia voting law, I rushed to read the law one more time so that I could understand what in the world is he talking about. prgtoken I am here this afternoon because I had a conversation with the South Carolina NAACP about 2 hours ago, and they encouraged me to come to the floor and make my comments as public as possible so that people understand prgtoken what I have read in the Georgia law and compare it to the Jim Crow South. prgtoken So what we know about the Georgia law--and I have read the law--what we know about the Georgia law is the controversies the President spoke about and that we have heard Members of Congress speak about over the weekend is it is illegal to get water while waiting to vote. prgtoken Now, that claim has been proven false. It is not illegal to get water while waiting in line. That is false. The only time you can't get water while waiting in line to vote, according to the Georgia law, is if it is a partisan; someone campaigning for someone--campaigning for someone--you can't bring them water. But if you are an election worker or a relative, you can, of course, bring a person water. So that was completely false. prgtoken But if that is the threshold of the new Jim Crow era, it looks nothing like the past. How
RECOGNIZING LIEUTENANT JASON MOLONEY
Beth Van Duyne (Republican, TX) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Madam , I rise today to recognize Lieutenant Jason Moloney and the Southlake Fire Department for their selfless acts of service to protect our State during the recent wildland fire deployments. prgtoken Over the holiday season, Southlake Fire Department personnel took part in two different deployments as part of the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System to assist with wildland fires in the Texas panhandle. The fire covered nearly 24,000 acres and stretched 23 miles long. prgtoken Southlake Fire Department Lieutenant Jason Moloney fearlessly served as the Strike Team Leader of a specially trained team, which included five wildland brush trucks and a command vehicle. prgtoken During the second deployment, the strike team was deployed on January 4 and was safely demobilized on January 9. While Lieutenant Moloney was on the front line, his wife, Velvet, worked tirelessly treating COVID- 19 patients as a respiratory therapist and taking care of their two young children. Both Jason and Velvet served to protect our State and sacrifice time at home during the holidays as a family. prgtoken Madam , I thank Lieutenant Moloney and the entire Southlake Fire Department for their dedication, bravery, and providing world class service to our community.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Deb Fischer (Republican, NE) \u2014 2022-1-19

something I have been hearing a lot lately from members of the media, from many of my ic colleagues here in the Senate, and even from the President of the United States is that democracy is at stake, that democracy will die if we don't make drastic changes to our election system, that we are just one election away from the end of the experiment our Founders began in 1776. prgtoken If my colleagues really believe that our democracy is teetering on the edge of the cliff, that it is going to fall over the edge unless we transform the way we run elections across the entire country, then they need to be able to tell the American people why. But, instead, all I am hearing from --even from the President, himself--is that democracy is on its deathbed; that Americans are no better than George Wallace or Jefferson Davis if they dare to question that; and that the only solution is for one party to rewrite the rules of the U.S. Senate to pass a completely partisan Federal takeover of State and local elections. Those are truly some wild claims. prgtoken If you take these assertions at face value, I can see why some Americans might be concerned about the State of voting rights in this country, but not a word of what they are saying is true. prgtoken The good news is that most people live in the real world, where America shattered records for voter turnout in the 2020 election and 66 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot, the highest level in 120 years. That translates to 156 million Americans, the most in history. prgtoken In my State of Nebraska, 76 percent of voters cast a ballot in the last election. We have been proud to be a no-excuse State for absentee voting for years since long before the pandemic. We have that law because we want to make it easier for Nebraskans to vote. And there are many other States that don't require voters to provide a reason before voting by mail, not just Nebraska. prgtoken Across the country, turnout was up in the last election, regardless of race, class, or any other demographic. And according to Pew Research, 94 percent of 2020 voters said voting was easy. Yet still say voter suppression is rampant in the United States. The logical response to that is to ask: OK, where? prgtoken In Georgia, say. prgtoken After Georgia passed a new law last year, things have apparently gotten so bad that the President picked Atlanta to give a recent speech on the issue. But if you listened to President 's speech, you might have noticed that he barely talked about the Georgia law at all. And when he did, he twisted the law into an unrecognizable caricature, into Jim Crow in the 21st century. He has shamelessly and intentionally misrepresented the Georgia law for months, and his speech last week was no different. prgtoken But something he didn't say in his speech is that the Georgia law extends early voting to 2\1/2\ weeks. That is longer than blue Stat
H.R. 2930, THE STOP ACT
Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (Republican, AS) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Madam , I rise as an original sponsor of H.R. 2930, The STOP Act, to celebrate the House's passage of this important legislation and to express my disappointment over the fears that led to 57 of my colleagues voting against the bill and will lay out the facts to dispel those fears. The fact is the bill incorporates the concerns of the various stakeholders impacted by the legislation. This melding of concerns was eloquently stated on the House floor by Chairwoman Leger Fernandez, The STOP Act's sponsor who told the House that: ``This version reflects negotiations with Tribal leaders, Federal agency experts, and the Authentic Tribal Art Dealers Association,'' all of whom are impacted by the legislation. Chairwoman Leger Fernandez comments on the melding of stakeholder concerns were reinforced by Ranking Member Westerman on the House floor when he stated: ``I want to thank the sponsor of the legislation for working with stakeholders impacted by this bill, including the Acoma, the Pueblo, the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, and others.'' Clearly, there was bipartisan recognition that the concerns expressed by the bill's various stakeholders were legitimate and had to be incorporated into the final product. I am providing here, for the record, the ways in which The STOP Act meets the concerns of all the stakeholders mentioned by Chairwoman Leger Fernandez and Ranking Member Westerman, which should dispel the fears of those opposed to bill. For starters, the bill does not ban all exports of Native American items as some fear. The bill only prohibits the export of items in violation of NAGPRA and ARPA, no other items for export are prohibited. In fact, the bill clearly states: ``an item made solely for commercial purposes is presumed to not qualify as an Item Requiring Export Certification;'' while an additional provision specifies that Certification requirements be ``sufficiently specific precise to ensure that an export certification is required only for Items Requiring Export Certification.'' Clearly, the bill provides for a targeted ban on the export of illegal items, not the broad ban opponents fear. The facts dispel the fear that certification provenance requirements would lead to a de-facto export ban given the limited provenance of many items. The fact is the bill explicitly states: ``include all available information regarding the provenance,'' so the bill clearly only requires ``available information'' and does not require the historical provenance of the item. Finally, opponents fear that The STOP Act placed the burden of proof on the citizen, not the government. In fact, the bill had no need to address this issue. It is a foundational principal of our democratic system of laws and governance that the burden of proof is on the government, not the citizen. In conclusion, I would like to, once again, congratulate the House for pas
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK) \u2014 2022-1-19

I have had an opportunity to listen closely to my friend Senator Kaine, who asked the important question about voting rights, about when--when are we going to act? And that is a question that is something that we, each of us, need to ask ourselves is ``when.'' But I think we also need to keep in mind the ``how'' we act because I think how we act is important--because I think we recognize that when we act unilaterally as a party on issues that are of great weight and great political debate in this country, that solutions to these difficult problems come best when we are able to be working together. prgtoken I know that we are very fractured in this body, and it has made it hard, but hard does not mean it is impossible. It is only impossible if we give up, and we say it can't be done. prgtoken To my friend from Montana--and I appreciate the commonsense words of a man of the earth, a good farmer--amen to what you said about this body and our dysfunctionality. We are not the same Senate that I came to close to 20 years ago. I beat you by about 5 years, 6 years. We are not that same body. We are not operating in the manner with which I think we really were designed to be--that tempering body, that deliberative body. We are supposed to be the world's greatest deliberative body, and we don't demonstrate that on any single day out there. prgtoken But I question whether or not changing the rules actually works to change the attitude because that is what I think we have going on here. The rules have been in place for a long while. It is just how we have chosen to utilize them to our advantage and to the disadvantage of the other side, and that is unfortunate. prgtoken I don't know how--it is much easier, I think, to change the rules than it is to change attitude. It is much easier to try to do things alone than to try to build consensus. Just ask any one of the 10 of us who worked tirelessly last year to advance a bipartisan infrastructure bill. There were so many points along the way where any one of us or any half of the group could have said: We are done. This is just too hard. We are never going to make progress. prgtoken But just because it is hard doesn't mean it is impossible. prgtoken The Senator from Montana urged us all to read the measure before us, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, now pending before the Senate. It has a few new things that have been added in, but much of it is what we saw previously with the Freedom to Vote Act. prgtoken I voted against that motion for cloture when it came before us because I looked at that as being a bill that was overly prescriptive. In my view, it really did work toward nationalizing elections. I come from a State where things are just a little bit different there. You hear me talk about it all the time. Part of it is dictated by the geography. Part of it is dictated by an indigenous population where the language that is on the ballot doesn't align
HIGHLIGHTING ISSUES WITH THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
Tracey Mann (Republican, KS) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Madam , I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana for hosting this today. There are a lot of things to talk about for a year. We could talk about immigration. We could talk about inflation. We could talk about crime. And we could talk about Afghanistan. The list goes on and on. prgtoken But I want to talk for a little bit today about trade and specifically our relationship with China. prgtoken I rise today to call the administration to action regarding our trade partnership, or lack thereof, with China. prgtoken China has proven to be a bad faith negotiator, and they are using the United States as a doormat. Our country made a deal with China 2 years ago on January 15, 2020, and China has failed to live up to their end of the bargain by a long shot. As part of this deal, China committed to importing $36 billion of U.S. agriculture products in 2020 and 2021 combined, but they have fallen short by nearly $7 billion. China sold American farmers a bill of goods, and the administration has made no effort to rectify this egregious situation. prgtoken Now that phase one is expiring, farmers and ranchers are frustrated to say the least. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a feeble effort to reassure us, said: Ambassador Tai, our U.S. Trade Representative, continues to converse with China about the necessity of living up totally and completely to the phase one trade agreement, making up their deficit over the course of the next several years. prgtoken This is completely unacceptable. The next several years was never part of this deal, which is not a complex one. China said that they would purchase a certain amount of agricultural goods, and they have fallen short by a margin that suggests that they never intended to live up to their end of the deal in the first place. prgtoken Again, we have not seen any effort from this administration on behalf of farmers, which is why I am standing here today to state the obvious--the United States must either force China to comply with their end of the agreement or punish them for failing to do so. That is how deals work. At the very least, we need to see this administration developing a new, comprehensive, realistic deal to collect the deficit. The time for conversations already took place long before the deal was signed January 15, 2020, when China signed the deal. prgtoken This administration at year end needs to step up and defend our farmers, our ranchers, and our country from being financially manipulated by China--yet another unnecessary crisis.
HIGHLIGHTING ISSUES WITH THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
Brian Babin (Republican, TX) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Madam , I thank the gentleman, my good friend right across the Sabine River, for yielding. prgtoken No President has ever had a worse first year in office than . prgtoken And sadly, his deteriorating 42 percent approval rating perfectly mirrors the deteriorating state of our country. prgtoken We are facing crises on nearly every front, and our Commander in Chief who, by the way, is responsible for creating each and every one of these crises, is doing absolutely nothing to stop them. prgtoken However, the most threatening of these concerns is still the unmitigated disaster that is raging on our southern border. prgtoken More than 1.7 million illegal alien apprehensions happened under 's watch last year, and those were just the ones that we caught. prgtoken Instead of securing our borders, this administration spent all of 2021 sweeping the rule of law under the rug and using the cover of darkness to fly thousands of unvetted and untested for COVID illegal aliens across the country to be released into our neighborhoods. prgtoken How many more innocent women and children need to be assaulted, raped, and trafficked? prgtoken How many more Americans need to overdose on Chinese fentanyl that is being smuggled across the border? prgtoken How many more terrorists need to be caught trying to infiltrate our Nation? prgtoken What level of threat do we need to reach to finally garner some action from this President? prgtoken Americans are tired of paying for this administration's ignorance and political games. prgtoken This is a new year, . Use it wisely. prgtoken It is past time that you live up to the oath that you swore.
HIGHLIGHTING ISSUES WITH THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
J. French Hill (Republican, AR) \u2014 2022-1-19

. Madam , if the administration were a new TV show streaming on Netflix or HBO, it clearly would have been canceled after the end of the first season. prgtoken On this anniversary of Mr. 's failed first year, I call attention to the crisis at the Southwest border, a crisis which President and the have continuously chosen to turn a blind eye to. In just 1 year, over 1.7 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the border--an all-time high. prgtoken President spent 4 years fighting to secure our border by enacting policies to keep Americans--especially in our communities along the border--safe. After less than a month in office, President revoked the -era border policies and replaced them, Madam , with what? prgtoken Absolutely nothing. prgtoken In April, 3 months after took office and 2 months after these policies were rescinded, I made my seventh trip to the Southwest border. During that visit, I witnessed the most unstable conditions that I have seen since coming to Congress. I immediately called on President then to reinstate the -era policies that were working along our border. prgtoken Finally, just a few weeks ago in December, it was announced that President planned to re-implement President 's Remain in Mexico policy. But, Madam , we need action, not talk. President should visit the border and talk to the communities there. President should fire his Homeland Security Secretary who is not getting the job done. prgtoken So in this first failed year, President has neglected our Southwest border. That neglect is evident with deteriorating conditions, apprehensions at an all-time high, and record amounts of illegal drugs pouring across our open border and poisoning our families. prgtoken Americans deserve better. Americans deserve a secure border, and Americans deserve leadership.