mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
FIRE GRANTS AND SAFETY ACT
Lindsey Graham (Republican, SC) \u2014 2023-3-27

we will be voting about 5:30, about 30 minutes from now, to end debate and tomorrow have some amendments, then go to final passage on legislation to repeal the authorization to use military force for 2002 directed against Iraq and Saddam Hussein. prgtoken The problem I have with what we are doing is that we are repealing the authorization to use military force because Saddam is dead and that threat is gone, but we are not replacing it with an authorization that our troops desperately need, which is to create an AUMF to allow our military to go after Shiite militias that are attacking them routinely inside of Iraq. There have been over 78 attacks since 2021 directed at U.S. forces by different groups, mostly Shiite militias controlled by Iran, in Iraq and Syria. A couple days ago, there was an attack on an American base in Syria. An American contractor was killed. God bless him and his family. And we retaliated, and they retaliated back. The bottom line is that our response to aggression against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria is woefully inadequate. Seventy-something attacks since 2021. Clearly, nobody feels afraid to attack our troops over there, and we need to create some deterrence that we don't have today. prgtoken So I had an amendment that failed that would allow authorization to use military force to exist where the Congress blesses the use of military force against Shiite militias that are operating in Iraq because they are a threat to about 2,500 troops that we have stationed in Iraq. prgtoken The forces in Syria--about 900--are there to finish the counter-ISIS mission, and I hear people, particularly on my side, say that we shouldn't be in Syria. prgtoken You know, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is insanity. The last time we pulled all of our forces out of Iraq, it was President with the support of then-Vice President , the ISIS JV team became the varsity team. They took over great parts of Syria and Iraq. They destroyed the city of Mosul. They set up shop in Raqqa, Syria, and they launched attacks from Syria, ISIS directed, at United States and Europe throughout the world, killing thousands of people. prgtoken President authorized our military to take down the caliphate. And this idea that if you leave, they won't come back is stupid. You know nothing if you believe that. You may be tired of fighting radical Islam. They are not tired of fighting you. I would rather fight in their backyard than ours. They are going to destroy us if we don't destroy them. prgtoken Here is the good news. They are on the run. As long as we keep some of our forces in place, working with people in Syria and Iraq who do not want to live under ISIS rule, we will be relatively safe. If you pull all the troops out, you are going to get the same outcome. People who keep arguing this, you really are doing a great disservice to the country, and your argum
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
Joni Ernst (Republican, IA) \u2014 2023-3-27

as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, each week I recognize an outstanding Iowa small business that exemplifies the American entrepreneurial spirit. This week, it is my privilege to recognize Legacy Manufacturing of Marion, IA, as the Senate Small Business of the Week for the week of March 27, 2023. prgtoken When it came to everyday construction and household tools, the Weems family was unsatisfied with the current products on the market. In 1986, the family decided to take matters into their own hands and opened a small manufacturing company to develop products they considered to be lacking in the market. Through decades of dedication to crafting innovative products, the Weems family business has grown into Legacy Manufacturing, a company that makes high-quality, long- lasting tools and equipment for professional and consumer use. Legacy Manufacturing is a prime example of the two things that make America great: entrepreneurial spirit and family. prgtoken For almost 40 years, Legacy Manufacturing has kept smart engineering, quality materials, and top-notch production standards at the forefront of their company. Starting off as a small manufacturer in eastern Iowa, Legacy Manufacturing has received national recognition for their uniquely designed innovative hose, which they named the ``Flexzilla.'' The Flexzilla is a staple in their product line and can be found across global markets. The Flexzilla is lighter and has a more durable outer cover than the traditional water hose. Additionally, the entire hose is drinking water safe, so kids on a hot Iowa summer day can enjoy a refreshing drink, and parents can rest easy knowing that the Flexzilla is made with this in mind. prgtoken Legacy Manufacturing's commitment to quality products has paid off. The Flexzilla hose has consistently been ranked the best garden hose for years. Recently, it was ranked as one of the best garden hoses of 2023 by People Magazine and NBC News. Ultimately, it was ranked as the best garden hose overall for 2023 in an independent review by USA Today and was named one of the ``best of the best'' garden hoses by BestReviews LLC in 2022. prgtoken The Weems family's leadership has been integral to revolutionizing the consumer experience and has emerged as a unique market leader for a wide range of tools. When a customer buys a product from Legacy Manufacturing, they can be assured that they are getting the best product on the market in terms of quality, innovation, and product safety. Legacy Manufacturing offers a wide range of professional grade service and maintenance equipment for the automotive, industrial, contractor, agricultural, and marine markets throughout North America. The motto of the company is ``taking the work out of work.'' This means that they make sure each of their products are made from quality materials and ensure that they are built to last. Legacy Manufacturi
ORDER FOR ADJOURNMENT
Bill Cassidy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2023-3-27

last Tuesday, President formally nominated Julie Su to be the Secretary of the Department of Labor. Now, as ranking member of the committee that oversees her nomination, I felt it was important to express some concerns that have only grown since her previous nomination. prgtoken Deputy Secretary Su has a troubling record and is currently overseeing the Department of Labor's development of anti-worker regulations dismantling the gig economy. prgtoken This does not inspire confidence in her current position, let alone confidence that she should be promoted. Ms. Su's record now and in her previous position as secretary for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency deserves scrutiny. I look forward to a full review and hearing process for her nomination. prgtoken In California, Ms. Su was a top architect of AB5, a controversial law that removed the flexibility of individuals to work as independent contractors. prgtoken Now, independent contractors, you can call them freelancers. They make their own hours, and they choose the type of work they wish to do. I was recently taking a Lyft. The driver told me he was able to clear $500 a day. He has Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash on his phone. He flips between the apps, he chooses the job from whichever one is immediately available, and through it all, he clears 500 bucks a day. I said, wait a second, man, you gotta pay your gas, you gotta pay your insurance; are you still--Oh, yeah, I clear 500 a day. prgtoken Now, if he is working five days a week, he is doing $10,000 a month. Independent contractors are shielded from forced or coerced unionization that could strip that flexibility away. This, of course, has made eliminating this classification a top priority for large labor unions who benefit from more workers being forced to pay mandatory union dues. prgtoken Now, it is important to note, even in California, AB5 is extremely unpopular. And 59 percent of California voters supported a measure to exempt ride-share drivers from AB5. prgtoken The law is so flawed, the Governor and State legislature have had to pass multiple laws to exempt over 100 occupations. The statutory exemptions are longer than the text of AB5 itself. prgtoken But Ms. Su has taken her support for this anti-worker, pro-union policy to the U.S. Department of Labor. During her tenure as Deputy Secretary of Labor, essentially the Agency's chief operating officer, the administration pushed to eliminate independent contracting via Federal Executive rulemaking. prgtoken Now, there was never any hope of getting AB 5--an AB 5-like law through Congress, so they pursued their goals through regulation. prgtoken And, if finalized, the new regulation strips 21 million Americans of their ability to classify themselves as independent contractors and enjoy the flexibility this provides. prgtoken This regulation would undermine the business model of services like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash that
CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF DR. JESSICA MILLER MULLINIX
Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (Republican, GA) \u2014 2023-3-27

I rise today to celebrate the life of Dr. Jessica Miller Mullinix, a loving wife and doctor at Candler Hospital in Savannah. prgtoken Jessica had practiced as an obstetrician/gynecologist at Candler Hospital in Savannah for 4 years, building a loyal following of patients, colleagues, and coworkers. prgtoken Jessica graduated with magna cum laude honors from the University of Georgia in 2009 and the Mercer University School of Medicine in 2014. prgtoken During her time at the Mercer University School of Medicine's Savannah campus, Jessica met her husband, Dr. Patrick Mullinix. prgtoken Jessica completed her residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2018 before joining the staff at Candler where she was the first OB/GYN to serve the Pooler area at the St. Joseph's/ Candler-Pooler Campus. prgtoken During her residency and 4 years at Candler, Jessica delivered more than a thousand babies. prgtoken Despite her health struggles, Jessica continued to work full time at Candler, fully dedicated to the many patients that depended on her. prgtoken Jessica will be dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.
ORDER FOR ADJOURNMENT
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2023-3-27

we are debating, last week and this week, the authorization for the use of military force authority that was granted in 2002, which is a really important debate that we are seeing right here on the Senate floor. prgtoken By the way, it is a good-faith argument. There are Members on both sides of the aisle making different arguments. prgtoken There is not a topic, in my view, more important than the issues at stake here--how to use military force; when to use military force; is it authorized by the President to use military force?--because, as to the issue of the U.S. Government sending young men and women into harm's way to defend our country's interests, there is nothing more important, in my view--nothing more important. prgtoken I appreciate the time and the debate here on the floor. It is also important because it wraps into--when you talk about young men and women going into harm's way overseas, one of the biggest harms to American service men and women over the past 20 years has actually been from Shia militia groups supported by Iranian terrorist organizations. Now, it doesn't always seem to make sense in that Americans who were killed in Iraq and wounded in Iraq were often--and I will give some of the numbers here--killed and wounded because those who did the killing and wounding were supplied by Iranian terrorist groups. In particular, the Quds Force, which was led by Qasem Soleimani, during the course of the Iraq war, killed over 600 American servicemembers and wounded over 2,000 with very sophisticated IEDs that were supplied by the Iranians to their proxies in Iraq. prgtoken So what does any of this have to do with the 2002 AUMF for Iraq that we were debating last week and will debate this week? Well, the answer is everything, everything. prgtoken We eventually figured out--we, the United States--that these very sophisticated IEDs, which are called explosively formed projectiles or penetrators, EFPs, were actually, as I mentioned, caused by the Iranians. It took some time to figure this out because, like so many things, the Iranian terrorists in Tehran and the ayatollahs lie--they lie--and they denied it. ``Oh, we didn't have anything to do with that.'' Well, they actually had everything to do with that. Again, the best and brightest in America, in my view, for many years, during the Iraq war, were being killed by Iranian terrorists and being led by Qasem Soleimani, who was the head of the Quds Force, that was doing this. prgtoken During that time of 2005 to the middle of 2006, I was serving as a Marine Corps staff officer to the commanding general to the U.S. Central Command, General Abizaid. I was deployed to many parts of the CENTCOM AOR with the CENTCOM Commander. Probably the biggest concern, no doubt, was of these incredibly effective, brutally efficient EFPs that were killing and wounding so many of our best and brightest. To this day, it is just remarkable to me that so fe
FIRE GRANTS AND SAFETY ACT
John Cornyn (Republican, TX) \u2014 2023-3-27

this week, the Senate is expected to vote on legislation that would repeal the authorization for use of military force in Iraq. prgtoken The bill before the Senate would repeal two separate authorizations-- one from 1991, which authorized U.S. intervention in Iraq, better known as the Gulf war, to stop the dictator, Saddam Hussein, from invading and terrorizing Kuwait. The second one passed in 2002 in response to Saddam's persistent violations of the peace agreement that came out of the Gulf war, including intelligence that he was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. prgtoken In the decades since these authorizations passed, America's relationship with Iraq has changed dramatically. Iraq has gone from a hostile and unpredictable authoritarian government to become a strategic partner with the United States. In recent years, our countries have worked together to end the occupation of ISIS in Iraq. prgtoken In December of 2017, Iraq declared victory, though we have seen a resurgence of some of those terrorists recently. Two years ago, President welcomed the Iraqi Prime Minister to the White House, a friendship that would have been unimaginable 20 or 30 years ago. prgtoken Put simply, Iraq is a key partner in the Middle East. Our governments and militaries cooperate to promote security and prosperity for the Iraqi people. More broadly, we work together to counter Iran's malign influence and continue to root out terrorism in the Middle East. prgtoken While there is still an American military presence in Iraq, it looks dramatically different today than it did 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Today, our soldiers serve solely in an advise and assist role. They are there at the invitation of the Iraqi Government to support Iraqi troops and military leaders as they defend their own security interests. prgtoken In short, American forces are no longer there to counter threats from Iraq. We are now there to counter threats to Iraq. That includes threats from Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of international terrorism, with its hired henchmen, terrorist groups, or other adversaries that could disrupt peace and stability in Iraq. prgtoken Those who support repealing the Iraqi military authorizations point to this evolution in our relationship as evidence that the AUMFs are no longer needed. It has been 20 years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and they say the prgtoken authorizations are outdated. Our relationship is shifting, they argue, so it is time for those AUMFs to go. prgtoken Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Despite the fact that Iraq is now our partner, that doesn't mean it is time to abandon our security interests in the region. America still has very real adversaries in the Middle East who would do us and our allies harm if they got the chance. Today, Iran-backed militias operate in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and other countries throughout the Middle East. They are proxies of the Iranian military, with the
ORDER FOR ADJOURNMENT
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2023-3-27

back in 2019, I believe April of 2019, if not the first, I must have been one of the first people to call for the company TikTok to be banned in the United States. So it has been a while now; it is not something I just came up with the other day. prgtoken But I do think that is a pretty extraordinary thing, to ban a company, and so before I think we--for someone like me, who has argued for a national ban on a company like this, to take away something from over 100-and-something million Americans, many of whom I have heard from, many of whom I know personally--before we do something like that, I think people deserve an explanation as to why is it that we would want to do that. I don't think the answer can just be ``Trust us. It is bad for America.'' I think they do deserve an answer, and I think they do deserve a clear argument as to why it is in our national interest to do this and why it is the only option we have. prgtoken First, I think it is important to understand how TikTok works. It is an ingenious app--no one argues about it--these short-form videos, and it always seems to show you what you want to see. The more you use it, the more it shows you the things you want to see. prgtoken How does it do that? Well, it does it two ways. First of all, it scoops up an extraordinary amount of data--not just data on what you are watching, all kinds of data. CNBC actually talked about it. TikTok, you know, collects your content that you viewed, content you created, shared. Beyond that, it includes your contact list. It collects your name, your age, your user name, your emails, your messages, your photos, your videos, and other personal information. In fact, in 2021, TikTok changed its privacy policies. It can now even collect biometric data, like your faceprint--you know that thing you use when the phone unlocks?--and the voiceprint of its users. It is an extraordinary amount of data. prgtoken But that is not the only thing it does--because I hear some people criticizing us and all they talk about is, well, everybody collects data. It is not just the data. What really makes TikTok so effective is that it has an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to combine all of this data and your usage, and what that does is it basically-- that algorithm, it knows you better than you know yourself. It knows the videos you are going to like before you even know you are going to like them, and it is an extraordinary power behind this. It is what they call a recommender engine. We are going to call it an algorithm. It is a predictor. prgtoken Now, people would say: Well, what is the big deal? All social media app companies do that, not just them. I mean, Netflix does it to recommend movies you might want to watch, and Spotify does it to recommend music. Clearly, Instagram and Facebook and Snap and Twitter-- all of them have an algorithm, and all of them collect data. So what is the big deal? What they are doi
LOWER ENERGY COSTS ACT
James C. Moylan (Republican, GU) \u2014 2023-3-28

I rise today in support of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, a historic and consequential piece of legislation to bring down our skyrocketing energy costs and secure America's energy independence. prgtoken On my home island of Guam, energy costs have reached historical highs. Less than a year ago, gas prices reached an all-time high of $6.49 a gallon. On average, gas prices are still 40 percent higher than they were before took office. prgtoken The people of Guam can't continue to face these inflated costs. We must deliver solutions here in Washington to help ease their pain. prgtoken This administration's misguided energy policies have shackled our economy and penalized hardworking Americans. There is a misguided war on American energy, and that war needs to end now. prgtoken Let's set the record straight. Critics on the bill claim it is simply a handout to oil and gas companies. This couldn't be further from the truth. prgtoken The Lower Energy Costs Act is an all-of-the-above energy solution. This legislation streamlines regulatory burdens holding back our infrastructure projects, whether it is a natural gas pipeline or transmission lines from a solar facility--both are held back by the same. prgtoken It also contains important reforms for not only traditional types of energy but also the energy of tomorrow. prgtoken With the Lower Energy Costs Act, s are delivering on one of our fundamental campaign promises--to bring gas prices down and to ease the burden on hardworking Americans. We are quite literally keeping the lights on. prgtoken Many Guam residents constantly live under the growing threat of China and North Korea. We are some, if not the only, Americans who receive warnings during Korean missile tests and whose waters are routinely invaded by Chinese vessels. prgtoken Standing up to our adversaries is what keeps America strong. Energy security is national security. prgtoken For too long, we have allowed countries like China and Russia to control energy production and dominate the critical mineral supply chain. prgtoken Securing our energy independence and critical mineral supply chain ensures that foreign adversaries can't use these resources to threaten or pressure us in the future. prgtoken This legislation will make sure that the minerals we need for the technologies of tomorrow are sourced clearly, safely, and responsibly right here at home. prgtoken America has the highest standards for workplace safety and environmental concerns, and we know the conditions in Chinese-operated mines in countries like the Congo are truly horrific. prgtoken The Acting CHAIR . The time of the gentleman has expired.