mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY RELATING TO ``RETURNS BY EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS AND...
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2018-12-11

this week, Nations of the world are gathering in Katowice, Poland, to review--and we hope amplify--their commitments to reduce carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement and to discuss how they will report and verify reductions in carbon pollution. prgtoken The United States of America is technically present in Poland in the form of a small delegation, but American leadership in Poland is decidedly absent. Why? It is pretty simple. The Government of the United States of America has fallen under the political control of the industry most responsible for this mess. prgtoken American leadership was essential to forging the global consensus on carbon emissions in the original Paris Agreement. I know because I was there in Paris in 2015 as Secretary Kerry and the U.S. negotiating team worked to seal the landmark pact. prgtoken What a pathetic difference a few years make. In 2017, President announced that the United States would become the only country in the world to turn its back on this global agreement. The United States abdicates its leadership, just as the scientific warnings of the dangers of climate change grow clearer and prgtoken grimmer. In October, came a new report from the world's scientists working through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Just last month, our own Federal Government released its own sobering news about the worsening risks climate change poses to our Nation and our economy. prgtoken Our National Climate Assessment warned of hundreds of billions of dollars in losses we can anticipate due to climate change if we don't act to curtail carbon emissions. responded first by describing his own--and I will quote him on this--``very high levels of intelligence.'' Then he went on to simply deny all the science. He said: I don't see it. prgtoken Well, guess what. Pope Paul V didn't see it when Galileo demonstrated the Earth revolved around the Sun, but that didn't change the astrophysics. prgtoken The climate science--laid out in black and white by 's own government agencies--is that our planet is heating up due to our use of fossil fuels. prgtoken The science is even more incontrovertible than when said that climate science was incontrovertible back in 2009. Saying that he now doesn't see it is the very definition of climate denial. prgtoken So many people who are engaged in climate denial actually know better but, for a variety of motives, will not act, will not admit it. As to the President's not seeing it, ``willful blindness'' would be another term. prgtoken This takeover of our government by fossil fuel forces is having very real consequences in U.S. emissions numbers. After years of decline, U.S. carbon emissions rose in 2018, increasing by 2.5 percent. prgtoken This, of course, coincides with the administration's efforts on behalf of its industry benefactors to delay, repeal, and weaken rules limiting carbon emissions from powe
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY RELATING TO ``RETURNS BY EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS AND...
Tina Smith (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2018-12-11

I rise today to talk about some very good prgtoken news. After months of bipartisan negotiations, the Senate has finally passed the new farm bill. This bill will probably not get as much attention as some other news going on right now in politics. That is too bad, because the farm bill is a significant piece of legislation that touches the lives of every person every day in Minnesota and throughout the country. This bill is crucial to our Nation's farmers, and our farmers are producing the food and the fuel that feed our Nation and the world. prgtoken It is also good news because Congress has come together to get this done. At a time when so many Americans are frustrated with divisive politics, it is worth pausing over the way Members of both parties have come together to produce such an important bill through hard work and compromise. prgtoken In the Senate, we came together with a wide range of priorities from every region of the country. Senators representing crops like cotton and peanuts worked together with Senators from States like mine, with soybeans and corn, to reach this final compromise. We were able to find agreement because of the leadership that was provided by Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow on the Senate committee and Chairman Conaway and Ranking Member Collin Peterson, from Minnesota, on the House committee. prgtoken When I became a Senator just under 1 year ago, I fought for a seat on the Agriculture Committee, and I immediately formed a farm bill working group in Minnesota so that I could hear from farmers and ranchers, foresters and researchers, rural community leaders and Tribes, as well as experts in nutrition, energy, and conservation, to make sure that Minnesota's priorities were included in this farm bill. From corn growers in Goodhue County in the southeastern part of Minnesota to sugar beet farmers in the northeastern part of the State, I heard the same message: We must pass a farm bill this year prgtoken The farm bill is so vitally important to Minnesotans because agriculture is the foundation of Minnesota's economy. In Minnesota, agriculture generates $121 billion in economic activity and supports 400,000 jobs. Minnesota is No. 1 in sugar beets, No. 2 in corn processing, and No. 3 in soybeans. We raise the second most hogs, and we raise the most turkeys. prgtoken So working on the farm bill, one of my first stops was with Collin Peterson in Ada, MN, where we met with farmers and rural development leaders, and everyone in that community told me how the farm bill directly affects them. So I directed my staff to continue these listening sessions, and I am proud to say that we had almost 50 of them around the State. Meeting with the working group and touring farms and rural development projects around Minnesota have made the issues facing rural America and our farmers one of my top priorities here in the Senate. Minnesotans have given me some great ideas ab
IN RECOGNITION OF PRADEEP GUPTA
Jackie Speier (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-12-11

I rise to honor Pradeep Gupta as he departs the South San Francisco city council. Councilman Gupta served four years during a time of enormous change in South San Francisco, and previously served for three years as a planning commissioner. prgtoken South San Francisco is a city of 67,000 with a long and colorful history. Immigrants settled in the early 1900's and were the backbone of a thriving industrial hub. The city was once home to steel mills, meat packing plants, and paint manufacturers, among many industrial enterprises. Today, South San Francisco is universally recognized as the biotechnology capital of the world, and the founding location of the biotechnology industry with Genentech's establishment in 1976 in the city's Oyster Point area. prgtoken Pradeep Gupta fits well with his city's history. In 1964, he arrived in the United States from India with a superb education and ambition, but little money. He attended Purdue and obtained his MSEE in 1966 and his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1969. He had a successful engineering career around the globe working with Southern California Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and as a consultant to USAID and the World Bank on international energy projects. Ultimately, Pradeep and his wife, Kumkum, settled in South San Francisco. prgtoken Councilman Gupta is a scientist at heart, and a leader in growing the connections between industry and local schools. He initiated the Steering Committee on Biotechnology, Workforce and Education. He worked hard with the Genentech Foundation so that a new $7.9 million biotechnology laboratory at South San Francisco High School could be approved and constructed. Today's students in South San Francisco schools come from around the globe. Councilman Gupta is living proof that America thrives when its immigrants have opportunity. Extending this lesson to others, and using his position on the council for educational advocacy, is a passion of Councilman Gupta. prgtoken Population growth is rarely without conflict. Historically, South San Francisco has extended the hand of welcome to new arrivals and allowed for the construction of ample housing at affordable prices. In recent years, global capital flowing into the biotechnology sector has brought explosive employment growth to the east side of the city. Councilman Gupta was far-sighted enough to welcome new, high density housing in the city's core and around the train station so that employees could find homes near their jobs. On numerous occasions over the years, Councilman Gupta remarked to me or to my staff about how troubled he was by the hardships created by skyrocketing rental and homeownership costs. He can be proud that developments near the core and near the BART station around Chestnut and the El Camino Real will allow many families to settle and work in the community. prgtoken San Mateo County is one of a few communities to have created its own el
TRIBUTE TO HEIDI HEITKAMP
Tom Udall (Democrat, NM) \u2014 2018-12-11

I think all of us here watching Senator Heitkamp today give her farewell address were tremendously moved. I come away, first of all, with, this is a person of character, a person we have served with who cares about doing the right thing, a person who cares deeply about the issues that are before this august body and someone we will miss very much. prgtoken By the evidence of the s who turned out to listen here on the floor--and I am sure many others were listening in their offices--I think they may miss her more than because she worked with them so much. She cared about reaching across the aisle. She wasn't worried that it was going to hurt her back home because she was going to be solving problems. prgtoken One of the things I think of when I think of Heidi Heitkamp is that I have known Heidi--she is my friend. She reminds me: Don't call me your oldest friend in the Senate. But she is my longest standing friend. I go back to the early 1990s with Heidi, when we were attorneys general together from two small States--New Mexico and North Dakota--and we have been very, very good friends since then. prgtoken Heidi is a leader of principle. She wants to do the right thing, no matter what. That is pretty special in this institution we are in. She wants to do what is right by North Dakota and do what is right by our country. She always follows her conscience, and she gives the citizens of her State and this great country her very best judgment. That is really the spirit of a true public servant--to do what is right and let the chips fall where they may. A couple issues we have had recently are good examples, and I will talk about one back when we were attorneys general together. prgtoken The Kavanaugh vote was a big vote for the Senate. I think it was probably a tough vote for Heidi, but I think she came to it with the idea that she was going to do the right thing. She had the courage to stand up for victims--victims of sexual assault, victims of sexual harassment, all of the permutations of that. I know that for the better part of her career--whether she was an attorney general, whether she was a U.S. Senator, or whether she was working in other capacities both in and out of government--she was always working for victims. I think one of the things that helped Heidi understand that so well was that her mother was sexually assaulted as a teenager. Knowing that--Heidi learned from that. She learned about the prevalence of it, that it was out there and it was deep and it was hidden in a lot of ways. So I saw early on, as a State attorney general, that she was a champion--a real champion--for victims. prgtoken Shifting from the example I just gave with the vote on the Supreme Court, another example of her persistence to do what is right--nobody had ever taken on the tobacco industry, this huge industry. People talked a little bit and would say: It is so bad that people are addicted t
RECOGNIZING THE UNITED STATES-REPUBLIC OF KOREA ALLIANCE
Brad Sherman (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-12-11

I thank Chairman Royce for introducing H. Res. 1149, which recognizes the importance of our alliance with South Korea. prgtoken As ranking member of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee and a member of the Congressional Caucus on Korea, I am pleased to cosponsor this resolution with several other Members of Congress. prgtoken The U.S. and South Korea share common values--democracy, commitment to justice--but we also share a unique bond of history. The United States military and South Korean troops fought side by side to defend the Korean Peninsula before the Armistice Agreement of 1953. Today, we continue to cooperate in order to defend the Korean Peninsula. In fact, South Korea currently hosts 28,500 American Active Duty military personnel. prgtoken Only 35 miles separate Seoul from North Korea, and when I was there with the chairman, we noticed that property values are considerably lower on the north side of Seoul than on the south side of Seoul. While we have substantial conventional forces there, no number of soldiers can deal with the biggest threat from North Korea; namely, its nuclear arsenal. prgtoken Now, I know it has been tweeted that we no longer face a nuclear threat from North Korea, would that that be so. Secretary of State Pompeo has recently stated that North Korea continues to make more fissile material, no doubt using that to make more nuclear bombs, even several every year. And satellite imagery shows that North Korea is continuing to build and expand bases for intercontinental ballistic missiles. prgtoken So we are standing shoulder to shoulder with South Korea, but we face a real threat from North Korea, and we will not be able to deal with that threat without the assistance of both South Korea and Japan. prgtoken This resolution reaffirms the need for the United States and South Korea to stand shoulder to shoulder in continuing to apply necessary economic pressure on North Korea. Toward that end, I would say that we have scaled back in substance, if not in legal form, our sanctions against North Korea, perhaps falsely believing that a few words exchanged in Singapore are a reason to do so. prgtoken Recently, we have sent a letter to the administration, a bipartisan letter urging them to sanction major Chinese banks, not just small ones, that have done business with North Korea in violation of U.S. law and U.N. sanctions. prgtoken Now, it is important also to look at the Korean American community, and I am pleased that the resolution recognizes the importance of the bridges created by the American Korean community between the United States and the Republic of Korea. prgtoken I recently led a letter urging President and President Moon to make a major priority among North Korea, the United States, and South Korea allowing American citizens, some 100,000 of them, who have relatives in North Korea to at least be allowed to visit their relatives and, even before that, at least be allowe
SICKLE CELL DISEASE AND OTHER HERITABLE BLOOD DISORDERS RESEARCH, SURVEILLANCE, PREVENTION, AND TREATMENT ACT OF 2018
G. K. Butterfield (Democrat, NC) \u2014 2018-12-11

I rise today to express my support for H.R. 2410, the Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act of 2017, that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on February 26, 2018. Today, the House of Representatives passed S. 2465, which is the Senate-amended version of H.R. 2410. As a co-sponsor of H.R. 2410 and the immediate past Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, I rise to clarify the Congressional intent of this important legislation. prgtoken I commend my friends, Representative Danny Davis from Illinois and Representative Michael Burgess from Texas, for introducing H.R. 2410. I have been a longtime advocate for those with sickle cell disease and I am a proud co-sponsor of the bill in this Congress and in previous Congresses. prgtoken There are approximately forty-four hundred people with sickle cell disease in my home state of North Carolina. My hope is that someday there will be none. Sixty-five percent of individuals with sickle cell disease in North Carolina have at least one emergency room visit per year--that is no way to live. We should do all we can to help improve patients' lives, advance treatment, and find a cure. prgtoken That is why we must reauthorize the Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program to enable the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to support research that will increase our understanding of sickle cell disease, and create a grant program to study the prevalence of sickle cell and identify ways to prevent and treat sickle cell disease effectively. prgtoken S. 2465 makes changes to the House-approved language that warrant clarification Notably, Sec. 2 of S. 2465 enables the awarding of grants related to heritable blood disorders, including sickle cell disease, for the purposes of research, surveillance, prevention, and treatment. It is imperative to stress that the intent of this language is to require that those grants be awarded for sickle cell disease research, surveillance, prevention, and treatment, at minimum. It is not the intent of the language for grants to be awarded related to other heritable blood disorders (e.g. hemophilia) instead of or in lieu of sickle cell disease. prgtoken Finally, Sec. 3 of S. 2465, reauthorizing the Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Demonstration Program, is intended to provide awards related only to sickle cell disease. It is not the intent of the legislation to allocate awards made under Sec. 3 for other heritable diseases. prgtoken , this legislation is intended to provide critical funding to assist those with sickle cell disease, and any awards made under Sec. 2 or Sec. 3 of this bill must be used for sickle cell disease response.
FAREWELL TO THE SENATE
Heidi Heitkamp (Democrat, ND) \u2014 2018-12-11

. In 2003, I was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. After treatment, my oncologist told me I had a 28-percent chance of living more than 10 years. Think about that. prgtoken I knew right away that I had a chance to use whatever time God gave me for good and noble purposes--to try and do the things I have always thought needed to be done in this country. prgtoken It is an important lesson for all of you. The greatest gift you have is not your bank account. The greatest gift you have is the amount of time you have left on this Earth and what you do with that time. I chose, for good or bad, to come to the Senate. prgtoken I think when we have a world of options and we make this choice, it is so important that we come here with purpose--not just to be named a Senator, not just for the trappings of office, but with purpose. prgtoken The truth is, I am not supposed to be here. I am from Mantador, ND. It is a town of 90 people. When I was growing up, my family was one- tenth of the population. I just had to say that. prgtoken My dad was a World War II veteran who loved education. He read the paper every day. He believed in this country. But he was never given a chance to go to high school. My family struggled to get by, and when you look at it, you think about this; you think about a country where somebody from my background could actually become a U.S. Senator. prgtoken I am a from a very conservative State, but against all odds--in fact, the prediction was it was only 8 percent--I got elected to the Senate. The fact that I got to serve in the Senate for 6 years is an incredible American story. People always ask me: At what point did you think, wow, you came to the Senate? prgtoken I have said that I was so busy after I got elected because no one thought I would ever get elected, so people who never wanted to see me during my campaign wanted to see me. I was busy taking meetings and busy putting together the office. prgtoken I remember the day I came to that Chair and the pastor came and he gaveled in, and then I turned around to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I thought: Here I am from Mantador, ND, a girl, middle-aged, a pudgy from North Dakota, and I am standing in the well of the Senate where not even 2,000 people have come before. prgtoken This is a great and good and noble country with great purpose, with great opportunity. I want every child out there to understand it doesn't matter. We represent a cross section of this great country, but we also aren't that special. We are not. prgtoken Sometimes I think the American public think if you took 100 random people and put them in the chairs, they could do better than we could do. But the truth is, you all came here with that same noble purpose. You all came here to change America, to do the right thing. I don't care if you sit across there; I don't care if you sit here. You all came here for the right purpose. prgtoken The fact that I got to serve in the
TRIBUTE TO HEIDI HEITKAMP
Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2018-12-11

I also rise to honor my Senator next door and my great colleague Senator Heitkamp. prgtoken As you could see from her beautiful remarks, she is a person of true courage and strength and a friend to so many. We saw this strength when she was running for Governor while battling breast cancer. We saw it when she stood up for the people of North Dakota as their attorney general, and we see that courage every single day in the U.S. Senate, as she fights for the people of her State and the values that have defined her as a public servant. prgtoken She is simply one of the best and one of a kind. Going forward, I hope that people will listen to the speech that she just gave about those seven generations, because that is service. prgtoken Heidi has always been true to herself and as mavericky as her red hair. When I walk into a room filled with dark suits and I see that red hair in the middle of it, I know where to go and exactly what I will find. There is her joy and her optimism, so much of it coming from growing up in a family of seven kids. There is her sense of humor, which I love, even when it is mixed with some serious trash talk, even when it is directed at my State next door. There is that friendship, which I treasure above all else. There is the example she sets of what one person can accomplish when you combine so much heart and fierce determination. prgtoken We saw it with the human trafficking legislation that she talked about today. We saw it with her work on energy. We saw it with her work for her farmers. Thanks to leaders like Heidi, we are making progress on so many issues. prgtoken I will never forget the trip that I got to take to Mexico with Senator Heitkamp and Cindy McCain on human trafficking. One of the most memorable moments was when we visited a shelter of girls who had seen unspeakable tragedy. We met a little girl named Paloma. That means ``dove'' in Spanish. That girl, unlike the other prgtoken ones, didn't say a word. All she did was cry. That is all she did. It made me think of what a refugee once said. She said that what she had seen in her life would make ``stones cry.'' prgtoken I saw the tears going down Heidi's face as that girl was just sitting there crying. Heidi just doesn't watch that happen. She comes back, and she takes those tears and puts them into action. That girl had no voice. Heidi was her voice. She has done that time and again. prgtoken As she mentioned, everywhere you go in North Dakota, you practically meet a member of her family, and somehow they all look the same. prgtoken There is also her wonderful husband Darwin, whom I adore. One of my favorite Darwin stories was the time when we took the first all-women Senators trip to Africa, and Heidi and I were sitting next to each other with some people out in the countryside, with the elders. On one side were all the women, with the women Senators, and on the other side were all the men. I turned to Heidi--bec