mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
TRIBUTE TO ETHAN DAVIDSON
Steve Daines (Republican, MT) \u2014 2018-10-11

this week I have the honor of recognizing Ethan Davidson of Lewis and Clark County for his outstanding academic achievements. prgtoken Ethan Davidson epitomizes hard working Montanan's, his work ethic has shown in his academics Ethan recently received a perfect score on his ACT, being one of the 2,760 high school students across the United States who received a perfect score of 36. About 2 million high school students take the test each year. prgtoken At a young age, Ethan devoted himself to his academics, always striving towards being a straight-A student. He attends Capitol High School in Helena, where he is involved in many extracurricular activities, ranging from being the cocaptain of the cross country team, to being a member of the math and science club. To add to his accolades, Ethan is a National Merit semifinalist and has earned the rank of Eagle Scout. prgtoken I congratulate Ethan on his impeccable academic achievements, as well as his willingness to give back to his community by being a role model for all high school students I look forward to seeing his success in his future endeavors.
AUTHORITY FOR COMMITTEES TO MEET
Mike Rounds (Republican, SD) \u2014 2018-10-11

I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. prgtoken Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: Committee on Armed Services prgtoken The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, October 11, 2018, at 9:30 a.m to conduct a hearing on China and Russia. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs prgtoken The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, October 11, 2018, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing entitled ``Exploring the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem.'' Committee on Environment and Public Works prgtoken The Committee on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, October 11, 2018, at 10 a.m to conduct a hearing. Committee on Foreign Relations prgtoken The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, October 11, 2018, at 10:30 a.m to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: John Mark Pommersheim, of Florida, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan, William H. Moser, of North Carolina, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Donald Armin Blome, of Illinois, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia, all of the Department of State. Committee on the Judiciary prgtoken The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, October 11, 2018, at 10 a.m to conduct a business meeting and hearing on the following nominations: Jonathan A. Kobes, of South Dakota, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, Kenneth D. Bell, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, Stephanie A. Gallagher, to be United States District Judge for the District of Maryland, Mary S. McElroy, to be United States District Judge for the District of Rhode Island, Carl J. Nichols, to be United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, John M. O'Connor, to be United States District Judge for the Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma, and Martha Maria Pacold, Mary M. Rowland, and Steven C. Seeger, each to be a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship prgtoken The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, October 11, 2018, during the first vote, to conduct a hearing. Select Committee on Intelligence prgtoken The Select Committee on Intelligen
AMENDING THE WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE TRIBE WATER RIGHTS QUANTIFICATION ACT OF 2010
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2018-10-11

I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the message from the House to accompany S. 140. prgtoken The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, that the bill from the Senate (S. 140) entitled ``An Act to amend the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act of 2010 to clarify the use of amounts in the WMAT Settlement Fund'' do pass with an amendment.
Guardians of Democracy (Executive Calendar)
Jeff Flake (Republican, AZ) \u2014 2018-10-11

there are no more consequential words spoken than those spoken by the President of the United States. prgtoken The words of a President reverberate around the world like no other world leader's, and as attentive as Americans are to what our President says, the rest of the world is probably paying even closer attention, as it is often their fate that hangs in the balance when our President speaks. prgtoken Americans can ignore certain utterances from the President. The rest of the world often has no such luxury. prgtoken Another audience for Presidential utterances is the despot, the strongman, the authoritarian, and the dictator. From this President, that horrible focus group has received a great deal of sustenance. prgtoken In fact, the oppressors of the world have taken to parroting some of their favorite lines from the White House. Anything critical of their regimes has become ``fake news,'' and the press is the ``enemy of the people,'' just to name two of our President's greatest hits. prgtoken As I mentioned in this Chamber in January of this year, a State official in Myanmar recently said: There is no such thing as Rohingya. It is fake news. prgtoken He was, of course, referring to the persecuted ethnic group. prgtoken In February of last year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad brushed off an Amnesty International report that some 13,000 people had been murdered in his military prisons by saying: You can forge anything these days. We are living in a fake news era. prgtoken In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has complained of being ``demonized'' by ``fake news.'' Last year, according to a news report, with our President ``laughing by his side,'' Duterte called reporters ``spies.'' prgtoken In July 2017, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro complained to the Russian propaganda outlet that the world media had ``spread lots of false versions, lots of lies'' about his country, adding: ``This is what we call `fake news' today, isn't it?'' And on and on. This feedback loop is appalling. prgtoken We are in an era where the authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself to challenge free people and free societies everywhere. We cannot give convenient language to authoritarians, language that is used against their own people. prgtoken Now, with the apparent brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, some of the real enemies of the people and enemies of freedom seem to have taken license to eliminate a man their regime viewed as a threat. prgtoken We need to know exactly what happened in that Saudi consulate in Turkey earlier this month. Put bluntly, we cannot do business with the Saudi Government if they directed or were complicit in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. We in this body had best be very careful about who the enemies of the people are and who they are not. prgtoken The free press is the guardian of democracy and the enemy of tyrants, and the man or woman who speaks fro
HEALTHCARE INSURANCE PLANS
John Kennedy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2018-10-11

I want to talk for just a few minutes about our efforts to get control of health insurance costs in America. With me today is one of the colleagues from my office, Ms. Katie Dwyer. prgtoken The Affordable Care Act has not worked for the American people. I wish it had. I am disappointed that it hasn't. We were promised upon the passage of the Affordable Care Act that our lives would be better. Our lives are worse. We were promised upon passage of the Affordable Care Act that health insurance would be cheaper and more accessible. It has been neither. prgtoken As you know, the Senate has tried to come up with a health insurance reform effort to replace the Affordable Care Act. We have not been able to do that, but we didn't quit, as you well know. We have started, through a number of small but meaningful measures, along with the administration, to lower the cost of health insurance for the American people, and we have made substantial progress. It has been lost in the noise, but it is real, nonetheless. I want to briefly talk about two such efforts. prgtoken First, association health plans. As you know, one option that has often been missing from our array of health insurance choices is the ability to get together as a group of people, sometimes across State lines, and buy health insurance. Let me explain what I mean by that. Let's suppose you have a chamber of commerce, as many cities and towns do. Those chambers of commerce in my State would join with chambers of commerce in Mississippi, which would join with chambers of commerce in Arkansas, and they would pool all of their members and say to a health insurance provider: Here are all these people who want to buy health insurance. Give us the best deal you can. prgtoken Through the economy of scale, we could lower the cost of health insurance. It makes sense, but forever and a day, it hasn't been legal in the United States of America. It now is. In 2017, President issued an Executive order directing Federal agencies to draft regulations to allow the American people to enjoy the fruits of association health plans. In January of this year, the Department of Labor proposed a rule expanding the scope of groups and individuals eligible for banding together as associations and purchasing coverage through an association health plan. The rule was finalized on June 21 of this year, and it became effective on August 20, 2018. prgtoken I am not suggesting that association health plans are going to solve all the problems of access to insurance and cost of health insurance in America, but they will help, and they will help because the principle underlying association health plans is that they allow the free market to work. prgtoken If you are a member of a Rotary Club, and you want to join with Rotary Clubs in other States or other parts of your State, pool a large group of people together, and go to a health insurance provider and say ``I have
No Internment Camps Act (Executive Session)
Jeff Merkley (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2018-10-11

. Thank you, . prgtoken Today I rise to bring attention to the No Internment Camps Act. This is an important bill to make sure that America does not repeat the mistake of World War II and develop and expand internment camps here in the United States of America. prgtoken One may think that this is something that is farfetched, that of course the United States would not establish internment camps, but the fact is, we already have 3, and the House passed a bill to greatly expand those internment camps. We have 35 sponsors of a bill here in the Senate to expand internment camps. We have the President issuing an Executive order asking Congress to expand internment camps. Recently, the President put forward a draft regulation to expand internment prgtoken camps without the consent of Congress. So it is all very real. prgtoken Where did this story begin? It began, as far as public awareness, on May 7, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a speech. He called this his zero-tolerance policy. I listened to the description of the zero-tolerance policy on arresting people at the border, and I said: You know, when you take away the fancy rhetoric, it sounds like he has criminalized families who are fleeing persecution from overseas. I thought, that is a pretty stunning situation because we in America often look to Lady Liberty and the words inscribed on the base or pedestal of Lady Liberty that say ``Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'' prgtoken The idea that our Attorney General is saying we are going to criminalize flight from persecution--and it was found, furthermore, that they were going to immediately throw adults into jail and rip away the children from their families. That is not possible. That is not possible here in the United States of America. prgtoken So I arranged to go down to the border. I went down on June 3 and visited the McAllen processing center. The McAllen processing center is a location that the press had never been allowed into, so they were stationed outside saying: What are you going to find inside? What are you going to see? What is in there? prgtoken I expressed surprise that the press here in America was excluded from this facility to see what was going on. prgtoken I went in. I was given a tour. What I found was pretty shocking--a room in which huddled masses of families were shoved into wire link cages with nothing but an aluminum foil Mylar blanket. Then in an adjoining larger space, a warehouse space, we saw larger cages, 30-by- 30 foot cages where families were being separated into fathers in one cage, mothers in another, daughters in a third, and sons in a fourth. prgtoken I stood in front of one 30-by-30 foot chain link cage and said: These young boys, who are lining up by height to prepare for being fed; these young boys, with the smallest being just knee-high to a grasshopper, maybe 4 years old; these young boys have been separated from
S. 3021
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2018-10-11

the passage of the bipartisan America's Water Infrastructure Act, more commonly called the 2018 WRDA bill, is celebrated by a wide spectrum of supporters, including environmental organizations, national associations representing cities and counties, and water and coastal business associations. prgtoken I would like to commend the chairman, the ranking member, and the staff of the Environment and Public Works Committee for their hard work on this bill. I appreciate their consideration of my requests and their willingness to work with my staff in ensuring Rhode Island's needs are well represented in the final WRDA bill. prgtoken In particular, the American Water Infrastructure Act includes my provision directing the Army Corps of Engineers to study the resiliency of harbors of refuge and hurricane barriers in the North Atlantic, like the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier in Providence, that are under threat from rising sea levels and stronger storm surge. Though they may be able to endure current conditions, extra feet of sea level rise coupled with stronger storm surges will overpower the capabilities of many of these structures. We need to get ahead of these consequences of climate change and protect our coastal communities, instead of waiting for these barriers to fail and imperil coastal homes and businesses. prgtoken As oceans overtake our coastal infrastructure, we will also need to look to new and innovative building materials and techniques that can endure corrosive saltwater and other harsh environmental conditions. This WRDA bill also includes my provision requiring the Corps to submit a report to Congress summarizing its research and investments in innovative materials, like Rhode Island-created composites, in-water infrastructure projects, and recommend in which Army Corps projects those materials could be used. prgtoken This year's WRDA bill also instructs the Corps to study the extent to which it has made use of its authority to clean up waterways littered with marine debris, like the deteriorating wooden pilings in the Providence River. It also expedites the completion of important projects and studies in Rhode Island, like the Providence River dredging project, Pawcatuck coastal risk management study, and the Rhode Island historical structure flood hazard vulnerability assessment that will bolster Rhode Island's coastal economy and prepare it for future conditions. prgtoken Overall, the bill does well to give special consideration to coastal communities, also requiring the Corps to consider natural infrastructure solutions to flood and storm damage risk reduction projects, prioritize coastal erosion mitigation projects in New England, and assess coastal resiliency needs for the Great Lakes. Though only 17 percent of total land area, the United States' coastal counties are home to over half of the U.S. population and were responsible for 48 percent of the country's GDP in 2017. Investin
PURDUE GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-10-11

more than a year ago, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and I sent a letter to Purdue University President Mitch Daniels in which we expressed our concerns about Purdue's proposed acquisition of the predatory, for-profit Kaplan University. prgtoken Kaplan was notorious in the for-profit college industry for their mistreatment of students. prgtoken They had been the subject of numerous State and Federal investigations and lawsuits for misleading marketing claims, inflated job placement numbers, and unfair recruiting. prgtoken As Senator Brown and I cautioned at the time, Kaplan's troubled history posed major risks for Purdue's current students and the institution's reputation as a top public university. prgtoken We suggested that at the very least Purdue should commit to clear protections and reforms for students if it intended to press on with the transaction. prgtoken Among our suggestions was an end to the use of predispute mandatory arbitration in student enrollment. prgtoken Predispute mandatory arbitration clauses prevent students from bringing suit against a school in a court of law when the school harms a student, like misleading them about job placement rates or luring them with other false information. prgtoken Instead, students are forced into a dispute resolution process, known as arbitration, which lacks the procedures and precedents of the court system and is often stacked against students. prgtoken The proceedings themselves, including the outcome, are secret which hides misconduct from regulators and accreditors. prgtoken The clauses are often buried in the fine print of stacks of enrollment documents that students must sign in order to enroll. prgtoken The practice, along with class action bans which prevent students from bringing suit as a group, are a hallmark of the for-profit college industry; schools like Corinthian, ITT Tech, and Kaplan notoriously used the practice to shield themselves from being held accountable while exploiting students and taxpayers. prgtoken But predispute mandatory arbitration and class action bans are almost unheard of at public and legitimate not-for-profit institutions of higher education. prgtoken In fact, in an August 30 public comment letter to the Department of Education, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, APLU, of which Purdue is a member, and other education organizations wrote, ``We fail to see how allowing [pre-dispute mandatory arbitration and class action bans] is beneficial to the public.'' prgtoken Since the Purdue-Kaplan deal was finalized, creating Purdue Global University, it turns out that the new school continues to use predispute mandatory arbitration and class action bans. prgtoken In response to it coming to light, a Purdue spokesman said that the practice was ``inherited from Kaplan,'' in an apparent attempt to deflect responsibility. prgtoken The spokesman went on to assert that the Purdue board ``has complete control over P
Nomination of Eric Dreiband (Executive Calendar)
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2018-10-11

I rise to oppose the nomination of Eric Dreiband to serve as Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. His nomination is an affront to the mission of the Civil Rights Division, the career attorneys, and to everyone in our country dedicated to advancing civil rights. prgtoken Created in 1957, the mission of the Civil Rights Division is to ``enforce[e] federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status and national origin.'' The Civil Rights Division has been indispensable in helping our country combat housing discrimination, voting rights abuses, and hate crimes. It has also intervened in cases of police misconduct in certain situations. prgtoken Mr. Dreiband is the wrong person to lead the Civil Rights Division. He has spent his entire career advocating for weaker antidiscrimination laws. He has testified in Congress against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, and ban- the-box regulations. prgtoken Looking at this record, Mr. Dreiband will do more to undermine than to protect efforts to prevent discrimination. How can someone devoted to fighting against antidiscriminatory laws now be charged with leading an agency that enforces antidiscrimination laws? It is almost as if the administration is ``trolling'' the agency itself with Mr. Dreiband's nomination. prgtoken Unfortunately, under Attorney General Sessions, the Department of Justice has already rolled back -era guidance that terminated the Federal Government's use of private prisons, helped protect vulnerable transgender students, and the Cole memo which allowed prosecutorial discretion in sentencing for drug cases. Mr. Dreiband's record suggests he will continue these attacks on civil rights. prgtoken The Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights Division should be someone that will vigorously protect minority rights and aggressively expand civil rights for all Americans. Mr. Dreiband has shown that he is not that person. prgtoken THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time has expired. prgtoken The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Eric S. Dreiband, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Attorney General?
PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD NOMINEES
Ron Wyden (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2018-10-11

I rise today to comment on the confirmation of three nominees to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, often called the PCLOB. The PCLOB is a vital oversight mechanism, empowered by Congress to investigate and write public reports on some of the government's most secretive and controversial programs. prgtoken Today, three board member nominees were confirmed to the PCLOB: Edward Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton; Jane Nitze, a former lawyer prgtoken at the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel; and Adam Klein, nominated to be chair, who is a fellow at the Center for New American Security. prgtoken I have concerns about some of the policy perspectives the nominees hold. In this case, however, a functioning PCLOB with board members who listen to dissenting views is better than the status quo, where the five-member board has only one member. The PCLOB has been dormant for most of the current administration and regrettably--and in contrary to its statutory mission--has not made all of its previously investigated and written reports public. I look forward to working with the new board members to returning the PCLOB to its core mission of public oversight of classified programs. prgtoken Additionally, I am particularly grateful for Professor Felten's confirmation. The presence of a true public servant technologist on the PCLOB will hopefully raise awareness and understanding surrounding controversial surveillance programs that use advanced technology. prgtoken In the coming weeks and months, I will be working with the new board members on the critical issues of privacy, security, and secret interpretations of public law. It is my sincere hope that the new members share my deeply held belief that the government should not have classified interpretations of public laws that cause the programs to operate differently than the public understands.