mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
Nomination of Jeff Sessions (Executive Calendar)
Tom Udall (Democrat, NM) \u2014 2017-2-6

let me first of all begin by thanking Senator Murray for her leadership in terms of leading us to scrutinize this nominee, Betsy DeVos. It seems to me the more we dig into this, the more we look at it, the worse it gets. So I rise in strong opposition to the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. prgtoken Mrs. DeVos is nominated to lead our Nation's public education system. Yet she has worked for decades to privatize it and even to create profitmaking centers. She wants to siphon public funds to private schools. She has led a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to fund private, religious, and for-profit schools with public education dollars. prgtoken We can all agree that we want our Nation's schools to be the very best they can be. We want our children to have all the opportunities we can provide, but that really is the issue. That is why have held the floor all night long to do everything in our power to convince the Senate to reject this nomination. prgtoken I believe in the public school system. I want all of our children to have opportunities. That is the fundamental principle of our American school system. Everyone should be able to get a great education. prgtoken Mrs. DeVos wants to dismantle our public schools. She would drain resources from the children and teachers who need it the most. I can't say it strongly enough: A vote for Mrs. DeVos is a vote to destroy our public school system. My constituents agree. We have received over 63,000 emails and over 2,000 telephone calls in the last month alone opposing this nomination. These are recordbreaking numbers from my office for a Cabinet nominee. Many of those calls and letters are from public school parents and teachers, men and women who are dedicated to our students and our public education system. They understand that Betsy DeVos is not qualified to lead our Nation's public education system. prgtoken Betsy DeVos is the first nominee in history for Secretary of Education with no experience in education or public administration. She is not a teacher. She is not a school administrator. She didn't attend public schools. Her children didn't attend public schools. She has never held a government position, let alone one in education. In fact, she has open disdain for government. prgtoken Mrs. DeVos's complete lack of experience and profound lack of understanding of education policy were on full display during her confirmation hearing. Under questioning, it was clear that Mrs. DeVos was completely uninformed about the ongoing debate in education policy between proficiency and growth. This issue is critical. It is well documented that there is a correlation between test scores and students' socioeconomic status and race. So evaluating schools based on average test scores tends to penalize schools with large numbers of low-income and racial minority students. Even if those schools produce significant student growth
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued
Jeff Merkley (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2017-2-6

this morning and throughout the night, the Senate has been considering the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be the next Secretary of Education. My colleagues have come down here to the floor, and I appreciate my colleague, who just completed his comments, for his knowledge and his insights on public education and his passion for a system of education that provides opportunity to every child in America. prgtoken We are down here speaking through the night to raise the issue of why the nominee for Secretary of Education is so completely inappropriate. We see the passion that has arisen across America, ordinary citizens calling us up on the phone, inundating our phones, thousands of phone calls--I had more phone calls in a single day than I normally get in a couple of weeks--inundating us with thousands of emails and letters. prgtoken Why is there so much public passion about this nomination? The short answer is that public education is a cherished institution in the United States of America. Public schools are a vital pathway through which our children have the opportunity to gain the knowledge that allows them to thrive in our society. We don't want to see that system of public education, that gateway for a successful life, destroyed by Betsy DeVos. That is why the American people are sending us so many letters and emails and making so many phone calls--because Betsy DeVos has no education experience, no public school experience. prgtoken Our students, teachers, communities, and our Nation deserve leadership that does have public education experience, someone who does have a passion for the success of every child, not someone who is simply dedicated to trying to tear down public schools so she can run private profit institutions and put money in the bank. prgtoken What do we really care about in the United States of America? Do we care about the education of our children or about an entrepreneur hijacking the public education system for personal profit? That is why the citizens of this country are so outraged by this nomination and outraged that Senators on this floor are planning to vote for her later today. prgtoken I had the chance to go to school starting in first grade down in Roseburg, OR. Roseburg is a timber town. My mother showed me the path that was somewhere between a quarter of a mile and half a mile long. I walked that path over to the first grade school. It had classrooms that did not have hallways; they opened to the outside. The school ground was a magical place for me to go in the first grade. prgtoken I still remember vividly Mrs. Matthews. Mrs. Matthews was a very stern public school teacher. She had probably about 20 people in her classroom, 20 little kids. She was determined that by the end of the first grade, we would all read at the third grade level. That was her mission in life. And we would do math at the third grade level. Thus, every moment in that classroom we were workin
Nomination of Jeff Sessions (Executive Calendar)
Debbie Stabenow (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2017-2-6

. Thank you very much. Before asking my question, I want to thank the senior Senator from Washington State for her leadership and passion on behalf of my children and on behalf of myself. As a product of a small rural school in Northern Michigan, my two children went to public school, and my two grandchildren are now going to public schools. prgtoken I want to thank you for your leadership, and I am so grateful to all of our colleagues and our two colleagues who are joining us today. prgtoken Would you agree that when we look at this--and I certainly have a bird's-eye view. We in Michigan have lived what has happened in cutting public schools and moving dollars to private, for-profit, nonprofit charters without virtually any accountability. Would you agree that essentially we have a nominee who is looking through a lens of a private sector for-profit model, where in the private sector we have winners and losers, so you can have a business open and close. That is based on our private marketplace. It works well, but in education it is different. We can't afford for any of our children to be losers in education, and it just doesn't work to have this competitive marketplace; that what we need is a quality public school along with public choices. I support public charters with accountability and other choices, but what we have is a view of a nominee, someone who has not been involved in public schools herself, or her children, and so on, who comes at it from this perspective of winners and losers in the private market, and we cannot afford any child to be a loser as it relates to their education.
Nomination of Neil Gorsuch (Executive Session)
Martin Heinrich (Democrat, NM) \u2014 2017-2-6

I am deeply disappointed by the qualifications of President 's nominee to be the leader of our Department of Education. Betsy DeVos has clearly shown a disregard-- even a hostility--for the public school system. So I stand with the thousands of parents, teachers, and students of New Mexico in fighting to stop her confirmation. prgtoken Simply put, education is too important to New Mexico children and our State's economy to have a Secretary of Education not fully invested in the success of our public schools. prgtoken As someone who grew up going to public school, who is sending my own kids to public schools, I am deeply troubled by Betsy DeVos's record on privatization, which goes well beyond simply voicing support for vouchers and private school. Mrs. DeVos has been a key player in the well-moneyed effort to privatize and siphon funds away from public education, and she has time and again undermined the teachers we all rely upon. prgtoken It appears as though Betsy DeVos's most notable experience in education is spending her career and her fortune advocating for policies that divert public tax dollars away from public schools and into private schools. I cannot support a nominee who wants to weaken the kinds of public schools that so many New Mexicans rely on. prgtoken The privatization policies pushed by Mrs. DeVos would be especially damaging to rural New Mexico, where there are few options to begin with. It is not uncommon for students to travel more than an hour to get to and from school in those parts of the State. School administrators often wear multiple hats, sometimes running the after- school program or driving the local schoolbus. In rural areas in my home State, the public school is often the only choice, and there simply aren't enough students to support the kinds of for-profit private schools that Mrs. DeVos wants to replace them with. prgtoken Having a Secretary of Education who has spent her entire career pushing a privatization agenda is not reassuring to New Mexicans and is at odds with the needs of the students and families across my State. prgtoken Further, I do not believe that Mrs. DeVos understands the Federal Government's trust responsibility in serving Native American students. Given Mrs. DeVos's rushed nomination hearing in the HELP Committee, Senators were given very little opportunity to question her about her understanding of tribal issues and impact aid. So I am concerned that she will push her privatization agenda in these areas as well. prgtoken For example, the Zuni Public School District is a small rural district in Western New Mexico. Earlier this week, their school board sent me a letter asking that I oppose Mrs. DeVos's nomination. I want to take a moment and read a few passage from this letter: The beauty of the United States public school system, unlike many in the rest of the world, is that we take everyone who walks through our doors an
Repealing and Replacing Obamacare (Executive Session)
Gary C. Peters (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2017-2-6

I rise today to speak in opposition to the nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. My reason is very simple: Mrs. DeVos lacks the experience required to oversee the Department of Education, an agency that serves over 50 million public school children across America. prgtoken Despite spending many years giving hundreds of millions of dollars to back political candidates and ballot initiatives that support unproven education policies, she remains shockingly unfamiliar with Federal law and even some very basic education concepts. Educating our children is an incredibly important job, and we need someone who is experienced, prepared, and well qualified to lead the Department of Education. prgtoken As I have said before, Mrs. DeVos has no experience in public education at any level, not as a teacher, not as an administrator, not as a student, not as a parent, not as a school board member, and not even as a borrower of public loans for college. prgtoken Ask any parent; our children are what we hold most dear. It only makes sense that the individual whom we entrust with our children's education should have at least some--some--experience in public education. Mrs. DeVos has absolutely no experience--I repeat, no tangible experience--with neighborhood public schools. In fact, her only experience in education is her work lobbying for the transfer of taxpayer money to private schools. prgtoken She has also pushed for the rapid expansion of charter schools without sufficient accountability to parents and to students, which brings me to her track record in my home State of Michigan. Mrs. DeVos has pushed for school vouchers to send our public tax dollars to private schools. Her staunch advocacy for the use of taxpayer funding for private and charter school systems earned her the nickname as the ``four-star general of the pro-voucher movement.'' prgtoken The vast majority of children in Michigan and in the United States attend neighborhood public schools. Voucher programs rob these children of the resources they need to receive high-quality education near where they live. Michigan voters soundly rejected her plan, and we cannot--I repeat, we cannot--put her in a position to push for voucher programs on a national scale that will weaken our neighborhood schools and will weaken, in particular, our rural schools. prgtoken Let me be clear: I support innovative models for improving our education system but only when those models are proven to work. For example, I worked hard to ensure that all children have access to the skills and education that are vital to joining the modern workforce and competing in today's global economy. I introduced legislation that will reduce the price tag for higher learning by allowing students to complete college-level courses while they are still in public high school. prgtoken The Making Education Affordable and Accessible Act will help students save time and money as t
Nomination of Jeff Sessions (Executive Calendar)
Patty Murray (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2017-2-6

. from Hawaii, and I think that is the question all of us should be posing to ourselves as we get down to the final few minutes. Is this the best of the best? prgtoken Is this a knowledgeable candidate who understands the Federal law? prgtoken Is this a candidate who comes to us without conflicts of interest? prgtoken Is this a candidate who is willing to stand up and be the defender of all young children in schools? prgtoken To me and to many of my colleagues who have been out here speaking, she is not. prgtoken I want to thank all of my great colleagues who have been out here speaking from their heart about a passion that they have in this country for a candidate to lead the Department of Education who is qualified, who is prepared, who is ready to stand up and fight for every child no matter where they live or where they come from. prgtoken With that, , I believe we are down to the last 15 minutes before the vote, with the time equally divided.
RECOGNIZING THE PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF MR. VAL McWHORTER
Gerald E. Connolly (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2017-2-6

I rise to recognize my constituent, Val McWhorter, for his inclusion in the 23rd edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the practice areas of Arbitration, Construction Law, and Mediation, and for his designation as the 2017 Lawyer of the Year in the practice area of Construction Law in Washington, D.C. A testament to his standing in the field of Construction Law, these well-deserved honors were awarded to Mr. McWhorter on the basis of high praise and feedback from both his peers and clients alike. Such acclamations of Mr. McWhorter's work should come as no surprise, given the more than $500,000,000 he has recovered on behalf of his clients in state and federal court, mediations, and private negotiations. prgtoken Additionally, I want to congratulate Mr. McWhorter on the 25th anniversary of his induction into The Moles Organization, a national organization of individuals involved in the completion of heavy construction projects, including tunnels, bridges, highways, and dams. Founded in 1936, The Moles Organization is a respected institution whose members represent the best of American industry. First elected to membership in 1991, Mr. McWhorter's commitment to The Moles Organization led to his appointments last year to both the Publicity Committee and the Award Committee. Mr. McWhorter's longtime membership, and his recent leadership, in this esteemed organization deserve much recognition. prgtoken , I ask my colleagues to join me in commending Val McWhorter on his remarkable achievements, and in thanking him for his years of contribution to the practice of Construction Law in the Washington, D.C. region.
Introductory Statement on S. 331
Tim Kaine (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2017-2-6

this bill has a complex backstory, but it serves a simple purpose--to allow a small daycare facility in Virginia to undertake routine repairs and maintenance. prgtoken For more than 20 years, the Plains Area Day Care Center in Broadway, VA, has served children from moderate-income families in Rockingham County. This facility sits on a 3-acre parcel that was once Federal land before the National Park Service conveyed it to Rockingham County in 1989 prgtoken under the Federal Lands to Parks Program. The county in turn leases this land to the center for $1 per year, with a contract that runs through the year 2027. prgtoken The center is in need of repairs and maintenance, including a new roof; however, it has had difficulty in securing private financing for these activities because of the complex land ownership structure-- Federal land conveyed conditionally to a county and leased to a private company. Due to Virginia's status as a Dillon Rule State, Rockingham County cannot execute a loan either. prgtoken This bill would specify that the 1989 land conveyance is transferred in fee simple, with no further use restrictions. I appreciate the goal of the Federal Lands to Parks Program to preserve land as open space, particularly after having overseen the preservation of 400,000 acres of open space in Virginia during my time as Governor of the Commonwealth. There are no plans to develop the open space on this site, only to fix the daycare center building--a former Forest Service garage that has been on the site since before its transfer from Federal ownership. prgtoken My Virginia colleague, Congressman Bob Goodlatte, has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. During the 114th Congress, this bill was passed unanimously through the full House as a standalone; reported favorably without opposition by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and adopted by unanimous consent to be included in the Senate's bipartisan Energy bill. Unfortunately, it fell just short of final passage. prgtoken This is a small modification that simply removes unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and allows the daycare center to continue doing what it has been doing for 25 years. I am pleased to partner with Congressman Goodlatte in this commonsense, bipartisan effort.
FAIR RATEPAYER ACCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY, AND EFFICIENCY STANDARDS ACT
Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat, TX) \u2014 2017-2-6

I rise in support of H.R. 587, the Fair Ratepayer Accountability, Transparency, and Efficiency Standards Act (Fair RATES Act), which amends the Federal Power Act to permit administrative and judicial review of any rate change filed by a public utility that takes effect without the approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). prgtoken The need for this change became evident in the wake of a New England Forward Capacity Market Auction in 2014, which occurred at a time when FERC only had 4 Commissioners. prgtoken When the New England Forward Capacity Market Auction issue was addressed by FERC, the Commissioners split evenly over the question of whether the auction results were just and reasonable. prgtoken Since FERC did not disapprove the auction results, wholesale electricity prices in New England increased dramatically. prgtoken So, while rates went up, none of the affected parties could challenge the decision or resulting rate increase, and, therefore, no rehearing or judicial review was possible. prgtoken H.R. 587 provides those who want to challenge a similar rulings or non-decisions by FERC the ability to challenge the decision administratively or in the courts. prgtoken The bill ensures that stakeholders have recourse when a non-decision by FERC has very real consequences for consumers, producers and others. prgtoken This bill would also improve the process by which FERC votes are reconsidered. prgtoken I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 587.
HONORING THE CAREER OF MR. GEORGE MESKUS
Jim Costa (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2017-2-6

I rise today to honor the career and achievements of Mr. George Meskus, outgoing Claims Representative at the Merced Social Security branch, and lifelong resident of the San Joaquin Valley. In over 35 years of service to the Social Security Administration, Mr. Meskus has consistently shown his colleagues an exemplary degree of dedication and passion for his work, earning praise from his coworkers and the community he's served over the course of his tenure. prgtoken Mr. Meskus's long life of service to the United States began in 1975 with his enlistment in the U.S. Air Force, where he would remain until he began his career with the Modesto Social Security branch in 1981. Mr. Meskus was initially hired as a Service Representative, but was quickly promoted to become a Claims Representative, and eventually moved to the Merced Social Security branch to continue his services. prgtoken Throughout his time at the Modesto and Merced Social Security offices, Mr. Meskus has gone above and beyond the expectations of his peers. He has displayed a keen awareness of the sensitive nature which prefaces many of the cases he processes, and always does so with the well-being of his clientele in mind. He has proven to be a fast and efficient employee, and frequently offers his peers direction and historical perspectives on complicated technical issues that so often face members of the Social Security Administration. His willingness to take on more than his fair share of cases has been invaluable to the productivity of the branches that he has served. Such selflessness will be deeply missed by those who have been lucky enough to call Mr. Meskus their coworker. prgtoken Mr. Meskus's decision to retire has been bitter-sweet news to process for many of his peers. The Social Security Administration is losing an integral colleague with a wealth of knowledge that has been essential to the efficiency of the branches he has served. The hard work and determination that he has demonstrated throughout his career has earned his well-deserved retirement to become a world traveler and to renew his devotion as a father and grandfather. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing the career and achievements of Mr. George Meskus. His stalwart commitment to the greater cause of the Social Security Administration has bettered the lives of countless people in Modesto and Merced. As he prepares to travel the world with his wife, Gloria, we wish him the best of luck, and hope his journeys bring him a fruitful life in the years to come.