mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
Coronavirus (Executive Session)
Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2020-6-22

States across this country, including New Hampshire, are beginning to reopen after this pandemic, although, the pandemic isn't really over. The ongoing economic and public health fallout from COVID-19 continues to affect families and businesses in my State of New Hampshire and across this country. prgtoken Every day, community leaders, public health professionals, and frontline workers tell me about what they are facing. They have raised concerns prgtoken about the massive reduction in local tax revenue and the very difficult decisions that will soon need to be made if Federal assistance doesn't arrive soon. prgtoken I have heard from teachers and school administrators about the challenges they have encountered trying to educate their students during the pandemic and the difficulties they are anticipating as they begin to plan for the school year coming in September. prgtoken The shift to remote learning has exposed the disparities in broadband access across New Hampshire and across this country that leaves behind many students and makes it extremely difficult for teachers to deliver a quality education, especially for students with disabilities. prgtoken So many small businesses, while they are very grateful for the Paycheck Protection Program and the loans and grants that have been made available through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, are telling me it is not enough; that revenues for many of these small businesses are still at unsustainable lows, particularly for those in tourism, entertainment, and hospitality--in New Hampshire, tourism is our second largest industry--and that they need help if they are going to weather this storm. prgtoken So I can't understand why this body and why Majority Leader McConnell doesn't feel a sense of urgency to pass legislation that will continue to help Americans during this time of crisis. prgtoken It has been more than 1 month since the House of Representatives sent to us the Heroes Act to continue to provide assistance to Americans who are in need. In the time since, we have not taken up any proposal that would provide comprehensive relief for the sectors of our economy that are still hurting. prgtoken We just can't wait until the end of July, when we know that there will be so many families, workers, and businesses across the country who will be in an even more dire position than they are now. prgtoken Americans are urging Congress to act, and we should work together in a bipartisan way, just as we did with the first three--really, four, if you count the second count of the small business assistance. Those four bills all passed with strong bipartisan votes. Now it is time for us to do that again, to provide Americans with the relief they so desperately need. prgtoken Congress has taken some very important bipartisan steps to provide assistance to the Nation, but the conversations I have had with Granite Staters on the frontlines are a very powerful
Justice in Policing Act (Executive Session)
Cory A. Booker (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2020-6-23

I thank you for the recognition, and I thank the ic leader for his words. prgtoken The ic leader talked about what is happening in our country. I have never seen something like this before in all my years, where hundreds of thousands of Americans have been out in protest--and not just certain sectors. In all 50 States, in large cities and small towns, Americans from every background, race, religion, and political party have joined together following the gruesome capture of the torture and murder of a fellow American. prgtoken This is a profound moment. It is a moral moment. We know this is not a partisan moment because the good will of all Americans is evident, from national polling that shows that real reform is widely supported by people of both parties to just the voices of people who are saying that we are a nation formed around a fundamental idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to have it so fundamentally violated. The call is for us to act, to come together as good men and women and do something to protect human lives. prgtoken We have done that before on the Federal level in a bipartisan way, coming together to protect people against indiscriminate violence--from the Violence Against Women Act to even the historic, bipartisan work that went on to get 99 Members of this body behind an anti-lynching bill. prgtoken I am grateful for that aspect of our history, that this is a body that has acted multiple times to try and protect human life. prgtoken Well, no one need watch a video of 8 minutes and 46 seconds again to understand that this body now holds a true moral choice of how will we act. What will we do in this moral moment in our country? Will we come together and protect life and liberty or will we do nothing and allow the violence to happen, the cycle in our Nation, the name after name after name after name that we know and the thousands of other names that we do not know--Black lives being abused, civil rights being violated, lives being lost because we have failed the moment in our Nation? prgtoken A little over 2 weeks ago, Leader Schumer, Senator , and I, along with colleagues in the House, introduced an act that was narrowly focused on accountability. It zeroed in on what we could do to create accountability, to ensure oversight, to implement transparency, and to ban actions that people in this country, in both parties, widely believe should and must be banned. prgtoken The bill that is being put forth by Leader McConnell is wholly unacceptable to bring accountability, transparency, and consequences when our common values as a country are violated. This is not about partisanship--a bill and a ic bill. It is about taking meaningful action that will create change. prgtoken The bill Leader McConnell wants to put on the floor is called the JUSTICE Act. It belies its name because it does not--in any way--even serve as a starting
Justice in Policing Act (Executive Calendar)
Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, CT) \u2014 2020-6-23

I have been doing a lot of listening over these past months. Like Americans across this country, I have been doing a lot of listening to the dedicated and passionate people, our fellow Americans, who have marched in the streets and our communities with passion, but peacefully, in their cries for justice. In fact, I have marched with them in 15 or more demonstrations in Connecticut--big cities, Hartford, Stamford, New Haven; smaller cities, Lyme, Marlborough, Trumbull, Windsor, Glastonbury; and then places like Torrington, East Hartford, Danbury--all across the State, proud to be with people from Connecticut, led by our young people, as are many great social movements and revolutions of our time led by young people who have the audacity and hope to cast aside the normal and say: There is no going back. There is no rolling back to the old normal. What we need is action prgtoken That has been the common theme in these cries for justice--the demands for accountability, the pleas for an end to racism, generations of racial justice, and racism with historic roots in so many of our institutions, including some of our law enforcement. But they are demanding more than just our listening and more than just our speaking. They are demanding action--real action, real reform, real change with real teeth and new laws. prgtoken The time has come for us in this Congress to heed those calls. We need legislation that honors the memories and the lives of those who have lost their futures: Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, and countless others added to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks. Some are in the headlines. Some of their deaths have been caught on video--but so many thousands never on video, never publicized, and never known to the public. prgtoken In their memory, but also for the sake of our future, we should move forward with action. We are here today because, simply and starkly, the JUSTICE Act fails to meet this moment. It fails that test. prgtoken I have been listening not only to the folks in the streets and our communities but also to my great colleagues Cory Booker and . Clearly, from what we have heard from them and the work they have done, along with many of us, to fashion the Justice in Policing Act, the proposal is a shadow of what it should be-- unacceptably weak, nibbling around the edges of this problem, without any guarantee that Black Americans will not again ask us whether their lives are worth $20. prgtoken The JUSTICE Act fails completely to address the harmful policing practices that we know have cost lives. The deaths of Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner are not anomalies. Choke holds and no-knock warrants are known to be costly. They have cost Black lives. The JUSTICE Act ignores this truth. prgtoken Americans are not marching in the streets so we might ``study'' these phenomena. They are not begging us to desig
The JUSTICE Act (Executive Calendar)
Robert Menendez (Democrat, NJ) \u2014 2020-6-23

I rise today to address the nationwide call for reasonable, sensible police reforms. Last month, the American people watched in horror as a police officer kneeled down on the neck of George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, killing him. ``I can't breathe.'' It was a slow execution caught on video, a metaphor for the systematic racism and injustices Black and Brown communities endure every day. But unlike other horrific videos of police killings that have sparked protests, this feels different. This is a moment when people of all races and walks of life have taken to prgtoken the streets in cities and communities across the country. They are crying out: Enough is enough. prgtoken It is time for us to address the institutional racism, economic, societal, and environmental inequities and injustice that have plagued this Nation since its founding. The American people are demanding real, meaningful change--bold, comprehensive action that starts by reforming our police system that has historically dealt a heavier hand toward communities of color. prgtoken What did the majority do to answer the public's plea? They have offered the American people the JUSTICE Act. They call it justice, but justice for whom? This bill fails to meet this moment in history before us. It offers only lip service to the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice and Eric Garner and all of those tragically lost at the hands of the police. prgtoken The JUSTICE Act is nothing more than a glorified suggestion box filled with half measures and placations that sound good on paper but simply will not deliver the real change the American people are demanding from this body. There is no justice in the JUSTICE Act; rather, it is a wholly inadequate response to the injustices faced by Black and Brown communities at the hands of the police. It merely asks, suggests, recommends, and encourages. It says to law enforcement: Hey, would you mind? Could you kindly? Do you think you might be able? prgtoken Nowhere in this bill does it compel, require, mandate, or insist upon the commonsense structural reforms the American people are demanding. The JUSTICE Act calls for reports and a commission, but we have had 400 years to study the stain of slavery and institutional racism in this country. We don't need a study to tell us that too many young Black men are dying at the hands of the police or that you are more likely to be shot and killed by the police if you are Black than White. A commission will not save the life of the next George Floyd. prgtoken My colleagues may think that the American people will praise them for passing an empty bill named ``JUSTICE'' that does no justice to the deep-seated, systemic failures in our policing system. They are mistaken. prgtoken Indeed, I would encourage my colleagues to consider the Justice in Policing Act, led by Senators Booker and , whic
Justice in Policing Act (Executive Calendar)
Michael F. Bennet (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2020-6-23

I want to thank my friends, from California and Cory Booker from New Jersey, for leading us in this fight for so many years. prgtoken I remember well when I first went to work for the city and county of Denver. One of the first tragedies that we had in the city at that time was the shooting of a young man named Paul Childs in Park Hill by police under circumstances that should never have happened. That was almost 20 years ago, but these headlines haven't stopped. If anything, matters have gotten worse. prgtoken As the country has grappled with the pandemic over the last few months, I heard a lot of people talk about how it has revealed a profound sense of inequality in our country, how it has exposed all this injustice in the United States of America. prgtoken We should not have needed a pandemic to expose the injustice that exists in the United Stated of America. It should not have taken a pandemic to alert people to the injustice in our country. If you have been paying any attention, if you have listened at all to the Black voices in the United States of America, then you know these injustices have been with us for generations. prgtoken In the case of our law enforcement system, they have literally had life-and-death consequences for Black Americans, and it just keeps happening. One reason it keeps happening--the one reason it happened to Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, or George Floyd--is that what happened to them would never happen to my three daughters; what happened to them would never happen to me. It has never occurred to me once, when I am walking around my neighborhood in Denver, that what happened to them could happen to me or my children. That is what is meant, in part, by White privilege--a privilege that almost everybody in this Chamber enjoys. prgtoken I think we can never accept that we live in a country where one group of people is less safe than another for no reason other than the color of their skin. We have to refuse to accept it, but that is the country in which we live. prgtoken We have to acknowledge, finally, what and Cory Booker and others have been telling us, which is that our criminal justice system in this country is broken. prgtoken Our long history of unequal treatment of poor and minority criminal offenders--especially Black Americans--has evolved into a system of mass incarceration unlike that of any other developed democracy. A network of dystopian, privatized prison spreads across the land to house people who, in many cases, shouldn't even be behind bars, who were convicted for infractions relating to things that are legal in the State of Colorado today. prgtoken According to Ta-Nehisi Coates' definitive article on the subject of the U.S. mass incarceration, our country accounts for less than 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of those who are incarcerated. Our closest competitor--and it is hard to find one--is Russia
Justice in Policing Act (Executive Calendar)
Debbie Stabenow (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2020-6-23

I want to thank the Senator from Minnesota for her ongoing leadership on so many issues and, certainly, this is one of them. We greatly appreciate and need your voice. prgtoken , for over the past month, Americans in all parts of our country and from all walks of life have once again been marching for the cause of justice. They are raising their voices and raising the names of those killed by police violence: Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks. prgtoken Americans aren't marching because of politics. They are not marching because they want the Senate to pretend to address this issue and hope it goes away. Americans aren't marching because they want more studies and reports. No. Americans from all walks of life--young and old, people of all backgrounds, religions, and nationalities--are marching because they are sick and tired of learning about more names. They want the people who represent them here in this Chamber to finally confront this deadly serious issue with the seriousness it deserves. prgtoken It is time we meet their expectations in this historic moment. This really is a historic moment. It is a historic opportunity for all of us to come together. It is past time to do something to stop the violence. It is time to come together and to do something big and consequential, and it is going to take all of us to be able to do that. prgtoken Just think about the big things we have been able to get done in the past decade or so. I am not trying to equate this current moment and this seriousness, but I know we know how to do other big things. The Presiding Officer knows that too. We do things across the aisle. We work across the aisle when we want to get things done. prgtoken I think about passing a farm bill, a 5-year farm bill. A lot of people said we couldn't get it done because of all the different interests--the interests of families and food assistance, the interests of farmers and ranchers and so on. prgtoken I had my doubts during those times, but we kept on working in a bipartisan way, and in the end we got a bipartisan bill that was good for farmers and our families, good for our environment, good for our economy. In fact, we passed it with an 87-to-13 vote, which is the most votes we have ever had in the Senate for a farm bill. prgtoken Police violence and the systemic racism that is behind it deserves at least the same bipartisan effort that we gave the farm bill. In much the same way, the Senate came together across the aisle and got comprehensive immigration reform done. That only happened because people sat down together with different views--s and --and worked through the complicated issues that were standing in our way, and we got it done in the Senate. prgtoken Police violence and the systemic racism behind it deserve at least that same bipartisan effort. prgtoken More recently, there was the CAR
Justice in Policing Act (Executive Session)
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2020-6-23

the past few months have been amongst the most wrenching and tumultuous in recent memory. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, as well as from the COVID- 19 pandemic, have forced our country to reckon with not only the decades of long failure to reform our police departments and prevent unwarranted brutality against Black Americans but also the centuries- long struggle against racial injustice. prgtoken Here in Congress, the have sought to turn the anger and frustration in our country--and, yes, sometimes despair--into real and meaningful action. The wish to seize the moment. Three weeks ago, the announced a bill that would finally bring strong, comprehensive, and lasting change to police departments across America--the Justice in Policing Act, led by Senators Booker and . The House of Representatives will pass that bill this week, but here in the Senate, we have a much different story. prgtoken Senate s have responded to our comprehensive legislation by proposing a bill that is so much weaker on nearly every single count and, worse still, is completely silent on so many issues that scream out for action. Should police officers be held to greater account if they violate Americans' constitutional rights? The bill is silent. Should police departments continue to have easy access to military-grade equipment? The bill is silent. Should police departments be forced to change their behavior when it comes to racial profiling? Should they develop a better use of force standard? Should the Justice Department be empowered and encouraged to investigate police departments that have bad patterns and practices? Silent. Silent. Silent. prgtoken In the place of real change and accountability for police officers and departments, the bill proposes a slew of studies and commissions. We don't need to study the problem of police misconduct and violence--we need to solve it. No doubt, these issues are complex, multifaceted, and difficult, but the legislation pretends as if the cancer of police brutality is, in reality, little more than a runny nose. prgtoken The national conversation about policing reform, which has been ongoing for several years, was renewed by the terrible killing of George Floyd--his windpipe crushed by an officer who kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes. The bill my friends have drafted would not even completely ban the type of brutal tactics that led to George Floyd's death. The bill does not even fully prevent the kind of tactics that sparked this whole debate in the first place. prgtoken Breonna Taylor, a first responder, was asleep in her bed in Louisville, KY, when she was killed by police who were executing a no- knock warrant. The bill does not ban no-knock warrants. It does not limit no-knock warrants or require police departments
Justice in Policing Act (Executive Session)
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-6-23

. First, I want to thank my colleagues, Senators Booker and . Thanks for your leadership and courage and the fact that have dedicated yourself to this moment. prgtoken Some would say we are fortunate; others would say we are blessed to be at this moment in this place in the roles that we currently have. Can you imagine across the United States of America how many people would like to be standing where we are standing today? Despite the frustration, we have a voice. We have an opportunity. We, as U.S. Senators, have the power, if we use it, to do something about what threatens America. prgtoken Imagine how 8 minutes 46 seconds could have such profound impact on this Nation of over 300 million people and the world, but then to realize that 8 minutes 46 seconds merely reminded us of all of the other issues, all of the other cases, all of the other George Floyds who came before. prgtoken I have just been stunned in my own home State of Illinois--which I dearly love and know fairly well--by what I have seen in the streets of towns large and small. In the city of Chicago, just this last Juneteenth weekend, there was an amazing display of unity on Black Lives Matter. The African-American ministers led it, but all the rest of us were happy to be part of it because it meant so much. prgtoken Then you go downstate Illinois to towns like our capital city, Springfield, or Jerseyville, IL, and attend Black Lives Matter rallies there that were organized by two young women, African-American high school juniors. They organized 1,500 people in Springfield for a Black Lives Matter rally. prgtoken Nykeyla Henderson and her twin sister Nykia Henderson said: Let's call together students and friends about Black Lives Matter. Fifteen hundred people showed up. No windows were broken, no looting, no screaming, no shouting, no cursing. It was a textbook display of constitutional authority that each of us as a citizen has, and they used it so well. I salute them even to this day. prgtoken Then, to go down to Jerseyville, a small rural community that I have represented over the years--which may or may not have a minority population at all--and to have, from 20 miles away, a high school junior, a young African-American woman whose name is Lay'lahny Davis, who did exactly the same thing: She called together hundreds of people--in this case, some 350 on the courthouse lawn in Jerseyville-- to celebrate Black Lives Matter. prgtoken I have never seen anything like this. I have never seen it reach this level of commitment. Trust me, these young women were doing this, knowing that some of the people standing on the perimeter were not their friends, but they had the courage to be there because they believed in what they were doing. prgtoken Do we have the courage at this moment to speak up for real change? How many times in the history of this country can Senators come to the floor and say that it is within our grasp? We can make America better