mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018
Jon Tester (Democrat, MT) \u2014 2017-9-13

thank you for the opportunity to speak on the floor. prgtoken The images and stories we have witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are devastating. I want to thank every American and every Montanan who has pitched in, prgtoken who has volunteered, who has donated to help the recovery efforts in Texas and Florida. prgtoken I rise today to remind the country there is another devastating and ongoing natural disaster that is impacting thousands of families, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and draining local economies. As the eyes of the Nation were on Florida this weekend--and rightfully so--Montana wildfires consumed another 150,000 acres. prgtoken To date, we have seen over 1.1 million acres burned in Montana this summer. This is more than three times the 10-year average and nearly the size of the State of Delaware. The impact is widespread. prgtoken The wildfires have burned farming and grazing land that is used to help feed this country and valuable timber that sustains good jobs in mills across the State. The 1.1 million acres we lost includes world- class hunting, fishing, and hiking land, where families can escape and grandparents can take their grandkids to their favorite fishing hole. The fires have consumed favorite hiking trails and public access sites that help drive our outdoor economy in our State, which sustains over 70,000 jobs a year in Montana alone. The smoke from these fires has put our health at risk--the health of our kids and our neighbors exposed to the smoke that covers the State of Montana. prgtoken In addition to burning nearly 2,000 square miles, these fires are burning a hole in our budget. As of this morning, taxpayers have paid nearly $350 million to fight the wildfires of Montana alone. Across the West, that number is well over $2 billion. To make matters worse, the Forest Service is borrowing $300 million from other accounts to help fight wildfires. The Forest Service is forced to rob Peter to pay Paul--money that should be used to prevent fire seasons, maintain and improve forest trails and roads, research and development for better forest management policies, and to fund the work that must get done to make our forests more resilient--I am talking about thinning, cutting, removing debris. The Forest Service is also spending money that should be used to mitigate wildfire risk to fight fire. prgtoken Yes, you heard me correctly. We have again entered into a vicious cycle, where we take money from wildfire mitigation and the preparedness accounts in order to pay for the fighting of wildfires that exist today. Each year, we spend more money to fight wildfires, which leaves less money to prevent wildfires. Now, this is nothing new. Fire borrowing is a trend we have seen for the last 20 years. With each passing year, as fire seasons get longer and more intense, our fire borrowing practice leaves an entire agency with almost no budget certainty or f
SPECIAL TRIBUTE CELEBRATING THE UNVEILING OF PONSIE B. HILLMAN WAY
Jerrold Nadler (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-9-13

the newly-christened Ponsie B. Hillman Way in Manhattan's Upper West Side celebrates a woman who dedicated her life to social justice. This well-deserving recognition will honor the indelible impact Mrs. Hillman left on New York and underserved communities around the country. prgtoken Having faced personal discrimination as a young African-American teacher in Maryland, Mrs. Hillman's earliest activism in the 1940s and 1950s focused on education equity. After Prince Edward County, Virginia closed its schools in an attempt to evade desegregation orders following the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, Mrs. Hillman traveled to Virginia with the American Federation of Teachers to teach students without pay. prgtoken After moving to New York City in 1965, Mrs. Hillman immediately stepped into multiple community organizing roles. She was elected to the Executive Board of the NAACP in Manhattan, and worked on affordable housing, education, and health projects. Mrs. Hillman also served as a leader of the local labor movement. As a member of the New York City Central Labor Council's Black Trade Unionist Leader Committee, Mrs. Hillman dedicated many years of hard work to increasing leadership opportunities for African-Americans in their union branches. Over the course of her life, Mrs. Hillman was recognized for her activism by the U.S. Secretary of Labor, American Federation of Teachers, and the New York City Central Labor Council, among others. prgtoken I am incredibly proud to represent so many institutions and community groups that were the recipients of Mrs. Hillman's service. The renaming of West 71st Street and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side, Mrs. Hillman's long-time neighborhood, will stand as a testament to her important work as an educator, civil rights activist, and New York communal leader. I wish her family heartfelt congratulations on this special occasion.
RENEW VITAL HEALTHCARE PROGRAMS
Doug LaMalfa (Republican, CA) \u2014 2017-9-13

healthcare in rural America faces many challenges and many difficulties. prgtoken This month, there are a couple of issues we will be facing. On September 30, we have the expiration of a program for community health centers and teaching health centers, which both aid greatly in rural healthcare, where it is difficult to get doctors and others to locate to those areas. prgtoken On September 30, if Congress doesn't act, we will have to at least get an extension in place to keep those programs alive. Community health centers are often a lifeline to rural residents in areas lacking major hospitals. Teaching health centers, in particular, help train physicians in underserved areas and have been a great tool to address doctor shortages in rural America. prgtoken , we have much to do. We need to reauthorize these programs before the end of the month or, at the very least, have an extension so that we don't put an even greater burden on rural America and its health challenges.
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018
John Barrasso (Republican, WY) \u2014 2017-9-13

I think it is clear to people all across America that the U.S. healthcare system needs reform. Premiums for health insurance are going up by double digits across the country. People living in almost half of the country only have one company selling Care plans. Millions of people are struggling. They are struggling to get coverage they can afford so they can get the care they need. I will state that it is all because of the healthcare law that the wrote and passed in Congress and inflicted upon the American people, prgtoken which raised the costs for people all across the country and limited their choices. prgtoken Today the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Sanders, and other said they want to take this failing healthcare system even further. They call their plan ``Medicare for all.'' Don't be fooled. They want to take a plan that has government much more involved in the healthcare of the American people and go much further. I don't believe it is actually a serious plan to help fix the challenges we are facing in this country, but it is now the new litmus test for the liberal left. If this idea were ever to become law, it would mean worse care and it would be outrageously expensive. prgtoken The plan the are talking about would amount to complete Washington control over the healthcare of every man, woman, and child in America, and taxpayers would have to pick up the tab. prgtoken Supporters of putting the Federal Government in Washington, DC, in charge of personal healthcare decisions like to claim that this is the way that other countries do it as well. They like to cite as an example the United Kingdom. Well, a lot of people in the United Kingdom see their system of nationalized healthcare entering a death spiral, and it looks a lot like what has happened to Care. prgtoken The waiting lines in England have recently gotten a lot longer for people waiting to get care. They are actually setting new records for how long you have to wait in line to get care in England. For emergency care, they have more people waiting in line in the emergency room for 12 hours or longer. Those numbers have gone up--12 hours or longer--and it has gotten worse. prgtoken Let's say you have a chronic condition, a long-term medical condition. To start treatment for long-term medical conditions, the number of people having to wait 18 weeks or longer has gone up. If get their way, the American people will have the same kinds of delays. It is inevitable. The problem isn't just the delays. If Washington pays all of the bills, Washington will want much tighter control over care. prgtoken The ' new scheme will come with a much more powerful rationing board. You can see it coming. In England, the rationing of healthcare means that certain medications are not allowed. There are limits on things like knee and hip operations. The same thing is true in Canada. Medical boards in s
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2018
Andy Barr (Republican, KY) \u2014 2017-9-13

I rise in strong support of the amendment of my friend from Illinois. The gentleman has shown great leadership on this issue prohibiting the Office of Foreign Assets Control from using funds to issue a license allowing U.S.-made aircraft to be sold to Iran, and also prohibiting OFAC from using funds to authorize U.S. financial institutions to finance the purchase of military fungible aircraft to Iran. prgtoken As the chairman of the subcommittee with oversight over treasury implementation of sanctions, it is just unacceptable and unnecessary to expose the prgtoken U.S. financial system to the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism in a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern. prgtoken At a hearing in April, the Committee on Financial Services heard testimony that Iran Air's role in the Syrian conflict continues. That same day, the public received reports of a chemical weapons attack killing dozens of Syrian civilians. prgtoken What we know is that there is significant evidence suggesting that Iran Air flights are now being used to transport personnel and material supporting the IRGC and its efforts to assist the Assad regime and Hezbollah. prgtoken , I applaud the gentleman's amendment and I support it. We should not be assisting the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism with commercial aircraft.
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2017-9-13

due to ongoing and urgent recovery efforts from Hurricane Irma, which devastated many parts of Florida, I am staying in my State to assess the damage and help marshal the full capacity of recovery resources available to us. Congress prgtoken has passed authorizations for use of military force, AUMFs, that the President is using to fight the war on terror and conduct counterterrorism operations against our enemies. This includes the Islamic State, which the State Department recently reaffirmed is guilty of genocide, and other terrorist groups that continue to pose grave and persistent threats to the United States and our allies. prgtoken Paul amendment No. 871 would repeal these critical congressionally passed AUMFs, so I therefore oppose this amendment. (At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)
REMEMBERING WAYZATA OFFICER WILLIAM MATHEWS
Erik Paulsen (Republican, MN) \u2014 2017-9-13

Minnesota and the entire Wayzata community are grieving after the death of Police Officer William Mathews this past Friday. He was responding to a 911 call to collect hazardous debris along the highway when he was tragically struck by a car and killed. prgtoken Officer Mathews was well-known for his service in the Wayzata and the Long Lake community where children often would come out to greet him as he drove through their neighborhood to say hello while he was on patrol. He served on police forces throughout the State of Minnesota for two decades in various capacities and was a 9-year veteran of the Wayzata police force. He had been a firearms instructor, a field training officer, and a reserve coordinator, and was in every way a true public servant. prgtoken But as dedicated a police officer as Officer Mathews was, he was an even more devoted husband and father. We mourn with his wife, Shawn, and 7-year-old son, Wyatt. prgtoken , our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every single day in more ways than we can imagine to keep us safe. Officer Mathews lost his life in service to his community, and he will not be forgotten.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2018
Lee M. Zeldin (Republican, NY) \u2014 2017-9-13

I rise in support of this amendment which I am proud to cosponsor with my colleagues, Mr. Roskam and Mr. Lamborn. prgtoken When the U.S. entered into the JCPOA, we empowered Iran to advance its bad activities. Iran Air was sanctioned in 2011, for using commercial flights to transport missile and rocket components to Syria. The Syrian war is far from over. We cannot allow Iran to establish a permanent presence in Syria. prgtoken This amendment would block taxpayer funds from supporting a regime that has killed too many people. I strongly support the passage of this amendment. I am concerned, as I hear opposition to this amendment where we are talking about the need to protect American jobs, where the connection is being made to those American jobs being used to support terrorism abroad. That is a stretch. prgtoken I would encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, if they are concerned about protecting American jobs, that we are pursuing American jobs to help our great country, not supporting the bad activities of a regime that is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions; calling Israel the ``Little Satan'' and America the ``Great Satan;'' overthrowing foreign governments; financially awarding terror; the largest state sponsor of terrorism. I say that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should be sharing our concern and supporting this amendment. prgtoken , I thank Mr. Roskam for his leadership.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2018
Bill Huizenga (Republican, MI) \u2014 2017-9-13

this misguided provision in Dodd-Frank requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to mandate that public companies disclose whether so-called ``conflict minerals'' they use in their products benefit armed groups in the ic Republic of the Congo and its nine adjoining countries. prgtoken Despite its best intentions, section 1502 has been ineffective and, in some cases, has been shown to have increased violence is central Africa. That is why this suspension that I am proposing passed the House last year as an amendment to the FSGG appropriations bill, and a full repeal of section 1502 passed the House this Congress as part of the Financial CHOICE Act. prgtoken Conflict minerals refer to tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold, which have been used in a variety of products, from cell phones, cosmetics, jewelry, footwear, apparel, and even auto suppliers located in west Michigan. prgtoken , the breadth of voices opposing section 1502 is remarkable, and I would like to start with those that matter most. For too long, the people of central Africa have been overlooked in this debate, even though they are the ones who suffer from Dodd-Frank's unintended consequences. prgtoken I include in the Record an open letter from 70 Congolese leaders and other regional experts. An Open Letter Dear governments, companies, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders implicated in efforts of various kinds related to the issue of `conflict minerals', In early 2014, two international industry giants--Intel and Apple--issued refined corporate social responsibility policies for minerals sourced in the eastern ic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The announcements followed an unprecedented wave of guidelines, law-making, and initiatives over the past few years to `clean up' the eastern DRC's mining sector, and were met with widespread praise. Perhaps the most widely publicised of these efforts is US legislation known as Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which asks all companies registered on the US stock market to reveal their supply chains to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when sourcing minerals from the eastern DRC or neighbouring countries. Canada is in the advanced stages of developing similar legislation, and many other countries are looking closely at the issue. The European Union has introduced a voluntary conflict minerals regulation scheme for all member states, and the United Nations (UN) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have developed guidelines on sourcing natural resources in high-risk areas such as the eastern DRC. These efforts primarily target artisanal (or `informal') mining in the eastern DRC, due to widespread international recognition that so-called
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018
Bob Corker (Republican, TN) \u2014 2017-9-13

I agree with so much of what the Senator from Arizona just said. prgtoken We are getting ready to go through a procedural motion that I just want to briefly explain. Senator Paul has offered an amendment. I would prefer that we have an up-or-down vote on this, personally. I do not support the amendment for many of the reasons that Senator McCain just laid out. But in order for Senator Paul--I am doing this out of respect for his desire to have a recorded vote. I am going to move to table his amendment, which allows him, per Senate rules, to actually get a vote. If it were just a straight up-or-down vote, he would have to have unanimous consent for this to occur. He cannot get that. So this is not a hostile act. He is sitting right beside me, and he understands what I am doing. prgtoken I am going to move to table this shortly. I do not support the substance of this amendment. I agree that we need to take action on an AUMF, even though the administration believes--and I agree with them-- that they have a legal basis to do what they are doing now against ISIS, per the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs. I agree with that. prgtoken I am all for updating the AUMFs. Our committee intends to do so. There has been a bipartisan amendment offered by committee members wherein we hope to take up an AUMF. But doing away with the legal basis by which we are going against ISIS today, before we have implemented and put in place another one, to me, is not prudent. It would mean we would immediately need to begin winding down our operations, and it is not in our national security interests to do so. prgtoken So out of a courtesy to the Senator from Kentucky, who serves on our committee, I move to table the Paul amendment No. 871, and . prgtoken This will allow him to have a recorded vote. prgtoken With that, .
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018
Jerry Moran (Republican, KS) \u2014 2017-9-13

thank you. prgtoken Prior to arriving in the U.S. Senate after the election of 2010, I was a Member of the House of Representatives, and I am one of the 30 percent of us in Congress today who were here in 2001 and approved the use of military force in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. prgtoken I hate to say this at this moment because the vote is so closely pending, but I don't know what the right answer to this question is-- the one we face today. I firmly believe that it is the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress's authority and constitutional responsibility to declare war. I worry that the resolution that is before us only eliminates the current resolutions, only eliminates the current authority. What is missing is the followup. prgtoken I just heard my colleague from Connecticut indicate that he will work vigorously to see that we have the opportunity to vote for a resolution authorizing force, but in some ways we have the cart ahead of the horse. prgtoken I will be the one who will always argue that it is our responsibility, it is Congress's responsibility to make these decisions as determined by the U.S. Constitution. It gives us that authority and that responsibility. The question in my mind is, Is it prudent to eliminate the authorization today before we have a new authorization in place? And I don't know the answer to that question. prgtoken While I have heard my colleagues say we will work to accomplish that, having experienced the U.S. Senate now for the last 7 years, I worry that a 6-month opportunity will be forgone, those authorizations may not occur, and, at best, once again the U.S. Senate may be presented with a fait accompli, which is, here is a resolution authorizing force. We are out of time. The 6 months is gone. Take it or leave it. prgtoken We will have a gun to our heads to approve, in an expeditious way, something that is not really what I would be supportive of. Once again, I will have prgtoken the dilemma: Do I vote for some authorization of force even though it is not the one that is well thought out? prgtoken If I thought we were going to do an authorization of force, I would have expected it to have occurred already. I commend Senator Corker, the chairman of the committee, and many of my colleagues who have worked to put an authorization--a resolution in place and voted it out of committee, but no vote has occurred on the U.S. Senate floor, and no vote has occurred in the U.S. House of Representatives. I don't know whether we are setting the stage for us to be once again in a position of ``Here it is; take it or leave it,'' or worse than that, I suppose, is leaving those who serve our country in a position of not knowing whether their Congress supports their efforts. prgtoken It is not as if this is prospective; we already have troops on the ground in Afghanistan. I just returned from Afghanistan. That was my fourth visit there. I was there over the Labor Day weekend.
ACKNOWLEDGING RENIE PETERSON
Mike Coffman (Republican, CO) \u2014 2017-9-13

. . I rise today to express my gratitude to Renie Peterson, the Aurora City Councilwoman for Ward II, for her extraordinary work and dedication to the City of Aurora. Her leadership has contributed to many of Aurora's most successful programs and initiatives. prgtoken I first met Renie Peterson when we both attended high school almost 50 years ago. In 1969, the City of Aurora was not the incredibly diverse community it is today. Yet, years later as a City Council Member, Renie not only recognized how Aurora has changed since we were growing up here, she fully embraced the ``new'' Aurora and founded the City of Aurora Global Fest which celebrates the vast array of different cultures and ethnicities that now make up our great city. Renie was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Chairman's Award for her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community. She has shown throughout her decade of dedicated service as a City of Aurora Council Member her enthusiasm and commitment to better our community. prgtoken In addition, as Councilwoman Peterson sought to advance this city to its greatest potential, she served the City of Aurora and Adams County for over twenty years as a Board Member for several intergovernmental groups such as, Adams County Economic Development, Urban Drainage and Flood Control, Sand Creek Regional Greenway, and is the founder of the Aurora Public Schools' Wish List Project. prgtoken , Councilwoman Renie Peterson has enhanced the quality of life for every resident in the City of Aurora. Her leadership helped make the City of Aurora the great place it is today. I believe that Renie Peterson is among the very best, and I am very grateful for her unyielding dedication to our community.