mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
CORONAVIRUS
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2020-9-10

. Today, the Senate will vote on moving forward with relief for Americans. That relief is necessary because of COVID-19. prgtoken The bill contains new funds for testing and contact tracing, aid for schools and colleges to keep our kids safe, and it also includes childcare assistance. It has more money for developing the coronavirus vaccine and treatments, funding for the Postal Service, and help for farmers. It allows for small businesses to access more Paycheck Protection Program funds with more flexibility and provides for enhanced unemployment benefits. prgtoken Now, surely these are items we can all agree on and ought to agree on right now. We know how to work together to produce results for Americans. We saw that in March when we successfully passed the CARES Act. That is a good model to follow now. prgtoken Back in March, s in the Senate proposed a framework, then worked across party lines through the relevant committees to produce a consensus product that received overwhelming support in the Senate. I was glad to lead the bipartisan negotiations on the part of the Senate Finance Committee for that CARES package and have been standing ready to repeat the process if ic leaders would just agree to agree. Why can't we repeat the same process now? prgtoken seem to think that they can hold out until s either agree to their partisan wishes or s take the blame for the lack of relief. If the are right, it would be a partisan win for their party, but at the same time, it would be a tremendous loss for the American people. prgtoken Let's agree to move forward like we did last March. prgtoken .
TRIBUTE TO VIRGIL GUST
Steve Daines (Republican, MT) \u2014 2020-9-10

this week I have the honor of recognizing Virgil Gust of Sweet Grass County for his commitment to keeping entrepreneurial spirits high during these challenging times. prgtoken The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of all Montanans and has proven to be a significant challenge for small business owners. Over the past several months, local business owners have faced tremendous financial hardships as a result of the pandemic, making it difficult to hold on to hope. prgtoken Virgil Gust, the founder of Gusts of Big Timber, opened the store in 1947 and has worked there for over 70 years. Virgil still approaches his work with the same enthusiasm and dedication as he did at the beginning of his career. prgtoken It is my honor to recognize Virgil for fostering the values of positivity and hard work in his community during these difficult times. As both a WWII veteran and a small business owner, Virgil brings a unique entrepreneurial perspective to his community and is a truly exceptional role model to Montanans from all walks of life.
BUDGET SCOREKEEPING REPORT
Michael B. Enzi (Republican, WY) \u2014 2020-9-10

I rise to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for September 2020. This is my third scorekeeping report since I filed the deemed budget resolution for fiscal year 2021 on May 4, 2020, as required by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, BBA19. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts agreed to in BBA19. In the Senate, this information is used to determine whether budgetary points of order lie against pending legislation. The staff of the Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office prepared this report pursuant to section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act. The information included in this report is current through September 4, 2020. prgtoken Since I filed the last scorekeeping report on July 23, 2020, two measures with significant enforceable budgetary effects have been enacted. The first measure, the Great American Outdoors Act, P.L. 116- 152, established a National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to address deferred maintenance on Federal lands and provided $900 million per year in permanent, mandatory funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. CBO estimated this legislation, which passed the Senate by a vote of 73-25, would increase the deficit by $17.3 billion over the fiscal year 2021-2030 period. The second measure, the Ryan Kules and Paul Benne Specially Adaptive Housing Improvement Act of 2019, P.L. 116-154, modified certain veteran housing and education benefits. CBO estimated that this legislation would increase direct spending in the near term but would ultimately be offset over the fiscal year 2020-2030 window. prgtoken Budget Committee staff prepared Tables A-G. prgtoken Table A provides the amount by which each Senate authorizing committee exceeds or falls below its allocations for budget authority and outlays under the fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021 deemed budget resolutions. This information is used for enforcing committee allocations pursuant to section 302 of the CBA. Compliance remains substantively unchanged since my last report, with the exception of the Energy and Natural Resources and Veterans' Affairs Committees. The enactment of the Great American Outdoors Act has caused significant violations of ENR's allocations provided in the fiscal year 2021 deemed budget. Enactment of P.L. 116-154 caused violations in the fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021 windows for the Veterans' Affairs Committee, which were then mitigated by deficit reduction in the out-years. prgtoken Tables B-G, which track spending related to the appropriations process, remain unchanged from my last report. prgtoken In addition to the tables provided by Budget Committee staff, I am submitting CBO tables which I will use to enforce budget totals approved by Congress. prgtoken Because legislation can still be enacted that would have an effect on fiscal year 2020, CBO provided spending
S. 178
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2020-9-10

on an entirely different matter, Congress has spent months talking--talking--about whether to give the American people more relief as they continue grappling with this pandemic. prgtoken Today we are going to vote. prgtoken Today we are going to vote. Every Senator will be counted. Should we move forward with the floor process to deliver hundreds of billions of dollars more for kids, jobs, and healthcare? Should we at least vote to move forward and have this debate out in the open? Or do our ic colleagues prefer to hide behind closed doors and refuse to help families before the election? prgtoken Well, we will find out in a couple of hours. prgtoken s have tried repeatedly to build on the CARES Act and get more help out the door to American families. have blocked us at every turn. They have invented different excuses each time. prgtoken A few months ago, Pelosi wrote a massive multitrillion-dollar liberal wish list that even her own House ic Members said would never become law. ``The HEROES Act went too far.'' A ``political wish list.'' These are quotes from House . prgtoken But in July, when the Senate s put forward a serious offer, Pelosi and the ic leader said they would not even talk--not even talk--unless we started with that unserious bill. No help for families unless they got to pass the absurd bill their own ic Members have ridiculed. prgtoken So, in August, s tried something else. We proposed breaking off some of the most urgent, most bipartisan policies and agreeing wherever we could: unemployment insurance, the Paycheck Protection Program. But Pelosi and the ic leader blocked that too. They said they didn't want to do anything ``piecemeal.'' ``Piecemeal,'' they said. prgtoken Then, just a few weeks later, Pelosi completely contradicted herself and rushed back to Washington to pass a total piecemeal bill that only helped the Postal Service and did nothing for working families--contradiction after contradiction, excuse after excuse, while working families have suffered and waited and wondered whether Washington really care more about hurting President than helping them through this crisis. prgtoken My ic colleagues should stand up and tell the American people which elements of our multihundred-billion-dollar proposal they actually oppose. prgtoken Let me say that again. They should stand up and tell the American people which parts of the proposal we will vote on later today that they are actually against. prgtoken Today, we are going to vote to extend the Federal unemployment insurance. Will vote against that? prgtoken Thanks to Senator Collins and Chairman Rubio, we are going to vote on a whole second round of the PPP for hard-hit businesses. Are the against that? prgtoken Thanks to colleagues such as Senators Ernst, Daines, Gardner, and Sullivan, we w
Coronavirus (Executive Session)
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2020-9-10

once again this week, s are bringing forward a proposal to provide additional coronavirus relief to help protect jobs, to get kids and teachers back in the classroom safely, and to provide funding for the treatments and vaccines we need to defeat this virus, and once again, are objecting. It is the same old song: s' bill doesn't spend enough. Well, let's talk about that for a minute. prgtoken First of all, s are not claiming that the bill we put on the floor this week contains the last dollars we will need to spend in response to the coronavirus. We may need to spend more. This bill is simply an attempt to direct relief funds to some of the biggest priorities right now, like helping the hardest hit small businesses weather this crisis and providing more resources for testing, treatment, and vaccines. These are areas we should all agree on. prgtoken Second of all, ' coronavirus proposal--the $3 trillion bill they proposed--is both unrealistic and irresponsible. prgtoken Our Nation is deeply, deeply in debt right now. Next year, our country will owe more than we produce for the first time since the end of World War II. That is a very bad place to be. That is getting toward the kind of debt-to-GDP ratio that helped bring about financial disaster in Greece. While the United States is not Greece, if we grow our debt enough, what happened to the Greek economy could happen here. prgtoken Being the United States of America does not exempt us from financial realities. In times of crisis, sometimes you have to borrow money, and that is what we had to do earlier this year with the CARES Act and other coronavirus relief legislation. But we have an absolute responsibility to every American, to every hard-working individual in this country to ensure that we are only borrowing what is absolutely necessary. prgtoken ' proposal doesn't even come close to meeting the definition of ``necessary spending.'' To give just one example, have proposed appropriating a staggering $1 trillion for States even though the States still--still--haven't spent the money we provided for them in the original CARES Act. Now, it is certainly possible that at some point, we will have to provide some kind of additional assistance to States, but to create a trillion-dollar slush fund for States before they have even spent the money they have already been given would be an incredibly irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars. At least some of that money could be used for coronavirus relief. prgtoken Other money in the ' bill would go to measures that have nothing--absolutely nothing--to do with the virus, things like diversity studies in the cannabis industry, a soil health study, federalizing elections, and tax cuts for millionaires in States like New York and California. prgtoken One of the biggest priorities in the wake of the coronavirus is helping Americans kee
Coronavirus (Executive Session)
Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK) \u2014 2020-9-10

I have listened to the minority whip here. I would say that I agree with him. This bill that we will have an opportunity to vote on later this afternoon does not have everything in it. I think almost--I think every one of us would agree, it doesn't have everything that we would like. It certainly doesn't have everything that I would like. In fact, it has a few things in there that I would have just as soon be jettisoned. prgtoken What we will have an opportunity to vote on today is a targeted relief measure. It is targeted toward our small business men and women who have been feeling the kick to the gut on a daily basis in my State and certainly in a State like Florida that relies on tourism. It is targeted relief that is designed to help our kids get back into school and teachers to be able to be in a safe environment. It is targeted relief that is designed to help provide additional childcare resources. It is targeted relief to help us advance to a vaccine that is readable and traceable and affordable to all Americans. It is targeted relief that will help us with additional testing. prgtoken I think we recognize that more testing is going to be better than less testing. There is assistance for the U.S. Postal Service. It is not enough, in my view. I would like to see it increased significantly, but that is not in there. But there is some targeted relief for our Postal Service as well. prgtoken The minority whip mentions the liability protection that is included within this measure. It has been no secret that that has been a priority not only of the majority leader but of a majority of so many of us who have looked at and heard from those in our communities, our school districts that are concerned about their liability, our small businesses that are concerned about reopening with no liability. This is not a ``get out of jail free'' card. This is designed that if you have followed the protocols, if you have followed the requirements that have been set out there, that you are not going to lose that business. Your school district is not going to be, really in terms of their funding, eroded because of litigation. Again, it does not absolve if you have been negligent in any way here. prgtoken What I want to reinforce is, we will have an opportunity here to vote on a measure today that is not everything prgtoken to everybody. We couldn't get there. Negotiations--I think it is fair to say we all wish that there had been greater success with broader bipartisan negotiation. We haven't gotten to this place. prgtoken We are at a place where we do have an opportunity to put a measure out there that is more directed in its targeted relief; that does leave out certain areas; that, in my view, does include some things that should not be in here, but it is where we are today. prgtoken We either have an opportunity to do some incremental steps to build on what we put in place with the CARES Act several months ago
Coronavirus (Executive Session)
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2020-9-10

today the Senate will take a rather pointless vote on the latest highly partisan, , emaciated COVID relief bill. prgtoken Now, the leader keeps claiming that his bill is an attempt at a bipartisan solution, but of course the bill was drafted solely by s--no input from --and rushed to the floor. prgtoken Mr. Leader, go look up in the dictionary what bipartisanship is. It is both parties working together, not your party doing a bill and then saying it is bipartisan. prgtoken What the leader has done is no one's idea of bipartisanship, not even his own Members'. prgtoken Let's go over history. He has done this trick before: COVID 2, COVID 3, COVID 3.5. In each case, s came out--the leader came out saying he did his own bill, saying: This is the only bill that will pass. are blocking it. prgtoken held strong, and what happened? We got much better bills with many of the things we wanted. We got truly bipartisan bills once the leader determined that he had to negotiate with to pass something. That will happen again. There is a decent chance that will happen again. But this bill is not going to happen because it is so emaciated, so filled with poison pills, so partisanly designed--it was designed to fail. prgtoken Now, the leader claims the vote this week will expose ic obstruction and delay--another one of these ``Alice in Wonderland"-type statements--but, of course, weren't the ones who said: Let's put the Senate on pause. Who said that? didn't say: Let's wait and see. Who said that? didn't delay for 4 months while the Nation suffered. In fact, the House passed a bill with the broad support of Senate . prgtoken So while the President was lying to the American people about the coronavirus, Senate s were following suit in spirit. The leader himself talked about the lack of urgency in his caucus to address the problem. So the idea that , who passed a comprehensive relief package through the House nearly 4 months ago, are the cause of delay and obstruction is ridiculous. It has been the s all along. The record shows it. prgtoken From the beginning, from way back in March after the CARES Act passed, have insisted on continuing a program of assistance to the American people. We proposed legislation to give hazard pay to essential workers, rental assistance, housing assistance, nutrition assistance, legislation to extend the enhanced unemployment benefits that kept nearly 12 million Americans out of poverty, money for rural broadband, money to help our restaurants and our hotels. We have proposed many different things, none of which are in the bill. prgtoken House passed the Heroes Act through their Chamber. So far, it is the only major COVID relief bill since the CARES Act to pass either Cha
Climate Change (Executive Session)
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2020-9-10

the world today is in the clutches of a pandemic disease that touches directly or indirectly pretty much every human being on the face of the planet. It is costing us in lives, in money, and in immeasurable human pain. prgtoken It didn't have to be this way. We could have been better prepared. President was left a detailed playbook from his predecessor, but he ignored it. did away with key safety systems like the National Security Council's pandemic response unit. Once the pandemic struck, and his team assured us it would all go away in time--no urgency. prgtoken It is a cautionary tale, it is a lesson, and it brings me today for the 270th time to call this Chamber to action on the issue of climate change. We cannot wait flat-footed for the next foreseeable crisis to engulf us. Climate change is a foreseeable crisis. It was indeed a foreseen crisis--indeed, even foreseen by Big Oil--and it is an actual crisis right now. It is a crisis we maybe can manage if we act swiftly and decisively, but if we fail to heed the warnings our natural world is screaming at us, we will be lost. prgtoken The fossil fuel industry runs a massive dark-money influence campaign to foment fake uncertainty about climate change, but the evidence--the evidence--is overwhelming. We see climate effects in harsher wildfires, more frequent and intense storms, and more extreme heat waves. Mother Nature's warnings grow clearer and louder every day. It is the ocean-- the ocean--that signals some of the strongest warnings. prgtoken The changes in our marine world are clear. Oceans are acidifying, oceans are warming, and oceans are rising against our shores. These changes are measured; they are not hypotheticals. They are measured with thermometers, with tide gauges, with simple pH tests. prgtoken The tide gauges in Rhode Island don't lie about sea level rise. Sea levels are up nearly a foot over the last century. In other areas of the globe, sea levels have risen even higher, and the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. prgtoken We just learned more about Greenland, whose melting ice sheet is an enormous contributor to global sea level rise. Over a fifth of global sea level rise since 2005 is Greenland ice melt. Last month, Greenland broke its previous record for ice loss. Again, the pace of the melting is accelerating. prgtoken A team at Ohio State University just released a new study of the Greenland ice sheet based on 4 years of satellite data. The data showed that Greenland poured an average of 300 billion tons of melted glacier into our oceans every year across that period. But over the last two decades, that rate of melting--that glacial collapse, as the scientists put it--is up sevenfold from the earliest years they studied. The rate is accelerating. That means that Greenland's ice is now melting so quickly that winter snows that typically replenish these glaciers won't keep up. We are now on course for th
REMEMBERING JIM THOMPSON
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-9-10

in 1978, I was the ic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, running with Michael Bakalis, the ic nominee for governor. We squared off against a ticket headed by six-foot-six Governor Big Jim Thompson. Big Jim was 40 years old and a relatively new Governor, only elected 2 years earlier. Bakalis and I were underdogs, but we were hopeful. We shouldn't have been. prgtoken Our fate was sealed when Jim and Jayne were joined by their beautiful daughter Samantha right after Labor Day. Election day came, and we were clobbered. We found out what many would learn over the years. Big Jim was hard as hell to beat. Why? He may have campaigned as a partisan, but he governed in bipartisanship. His talent for working to get things done helped make him the longest serving Governor in Illinois history. prgtoken Last month, Jim passed away. I was honored to call him a friend and, today, I would like to pay tribute to his life. prgtoken James Robert Thompson, Jr. was born on the West Side of Chicago in 1936. Jim was known to be shy but ambitious. He listed his ambition as ``President-Politician'' in his yearbook. In one classmate's yearbook, he wrote ``Jim Thompson, Pres. of U.S. 1984-1992.'' prgtoken Jim attended the University of Illinois at its campus on Navy Pier in Chicago. He transferred to Washington University in St. Louis in his junior year and attended law school at Northwestern in 1959. prgtoken In 1961, Jim worked for the Cook County State's attorney and argued two cases before the United States Supreme Court. He also joined Northwestern University Law School as an assistant professor. prgtoken For 5 years, Jim taught at Northwestern, inspiring many students to pursue criminal law. In 1969, he became the head of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's office. As fate would have it, he was the lecturer on criminal procedure in my bar review course. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed him to be the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. prgtoken At the age of 35, Jim was a crusader against corruption in both parties, leading investigations against Chicago aldermen and Vice President Spiro Agnew. His efforts made him look like a political outsider--just what Illinois prgtoken was looking for in a Governor. Jim decided to run for Governor in the 1976 election. During that campaign, he married his wife Jayne. prgtoken He won the gubernatorial race as the first candidate in the State ever to garner 3 million votes. Though he would have a close election in 1982, Big Jim never lost a race. prgtoken As Governor, he accomplished a lot of good for the State of Illinois. He spurred the construction of more highways than any other Governor. His ``Build Illinois'' plan launched a $2.3 billion infrastructure effort that helped turn the State into a national leader in economic development, historic preservation, and environmental protection. prgtoken There are too many p