mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
CELEBRATING THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF THE LATE HONORABLE LOUISE SLAUGHTER
Eliot L. Engel (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-4-17

I thank my friend and colleague for yielding to me. I think he really just said it all. prgtoken I had the pleasure of knowing Louise for almost 40 years. We served together in the New York State Assembly up in Albany, New York, and I was senior to her in the New York State Assembly. She ran for Congress a few years before I did, and she was senior to me here. I never stopped teasing her about that to remind her that she may be senior here, but if you put the length of our terms together, I am senior to her, and we always got a kick out of that and always laughed. prgtoken One thing about Louise is what you saw is what you got. Louise spoke her mind. She wasn't afraid to stand up to power. She was always thinking of the good for the country and for New York and her congressional district. And there was no other calculation in what she did. It was just feeling good trying to help the people. prgtoken She was outspoken, and she said what was on her mind, and she knew more things than many of us have forgotten. She knew them, and she remembered them, and she would always have a little quip or a little thing to say that would really make you laugh and would make you feel like you were with a friend. And she kind of gave you the inside scoop on a bunch of things. prgtoken You know, she was the Member of Congress who was the oldest Member of Congress, and you would never know it. When I first found out how old she was, I thought it was a misprint. She was always young. Until the day she died, she was young, young and having a passion and a belief of helping people and having a belief in government and government was there to do good for people and to be a good tool, not, as some people would say, that government is the enemy. prgtoken Louise always believed that government should be and could be and would be a friend: a friend to do things for people, for seniors, for poor people, for immigrants. If you needed someone to come and help you work for any cause that was a right cause, all you had to do was ask Louise, and she always said yes. prgtoken Now, our offices back in the Rayburn building are opposite each other. So you go down the hallway. If you turn left, you are in my office; if you turn right, you are in her office. So I often got to meet her when we were going to votes and got to say things to her about New York politics, and she really had the in, the scoop. She really knew what it was. prgtoken I am going to miss her. I already miss her. I know we have so many of our colleagues from New York who are here because all of us together have a heartfelt appreciation of what it was to be Louise and to be Louise's friend. prgtoken You know that twang she had from Kentucky? She always proudly told everyone she was from Kentucky, but her heart was really from New York, and I will miss her dearly. prgtoken Rest peacefully, my friend. We all love you.
Tax Reform (Executive Session)
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-4-17

I rise to speak in opposition to the nomination of Carlos Muniz to be the general counsel at the Department of Education. One of the most important responsibilities that the Department of Education has is to uphold title IX and fight back against gender discrimination in all its forms. This is an enormous responsibility, but it is also an urgent one. prgtoken Thousands of men and women have survived sexual assaults on college campuses, and they are demanding that the Education Department and their universities take these crimes seriously. But over the last year, we have heard over and over again that Secretary DeVos has let down these survivors. Instead of working to uphold and even strengthen title IX, she has used her position to weaken title IX. We should not be arming her with more staff who are determined to carry out that plan, but that is what Mr. Muniz will do if he is confirmed. prgtoken Mr. Muniz's nomination sends a cynical message to survivors of campus sexual assault all over our country--that the Education Department is not taking survivors seriously and that they are not interested in protecting a law that is supposed to keep our students safe. prgtoken If this nominee is confirmed, I have no doubt that he is going to accelerate Secretary DeVos's attack on title IX. This is an insult to the thousands of students who have suffered through sexual assaults on their college campuses. Mr. Muniz has spent his career on the wrong side of this issue, and he has made it clear through his actions that he does not respect the important role title IX actually plays in protecting our students and keeping our campuses safe. prgtoken The general counsel of the Education Department should work to uphold and strengthen our anti-discrimination laws, but I fear this nominee is going to do the exact opposite. I urge all of my colleagues to do what is best for our students and join me in opposing this nomination. prgtoken .
CELEBRATING THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF THE LATE HONORABLE LOUISE SLAUGHTER
Marcy Kaptur (Democrat, OH) \u2014 2018-4-17

what a privilege it is to be with our colleagues tonight to join together to pay tribute to our friend, Louise McIntosh Slaughter, born in Harlan County, Kentucky, who wrote fresh pages in American history. prgtoken There ought to be a statue at Seneca Falls that honors her service to America. It was astounding. prgtoken She became one of only 288 women in American history to be elected to this House of Representatives, and she, as with all women Members who have served as House Members, was vividly aware she was an American pioneer, as only 3 percent of individuals who have ever served here to date have been women. prgtoken What a marvelous person she was to be with. We had the privilege of serving together for over three decades. Her acuity, her passion, her perseverance, and her sparkling humor and keen mind brought new life and direction to our republic and to every Member here. prgtoken She was a treasured friend and, yes, dean of the New York delegation. She also became the first woman to ever chair the exclusive Rules Committee, a committee whose unusually round-the-clock schedule required members to work through the night and into the wee hours of the morning, often past midnight, or convening at the crack of dawn. It wasn't an easy job. That committee is a place of grueling endurance, and yet she traversed that brutal track day in and day out without a whimper. prgtoken How she could remain crisp on subsequent floor debates on hundreds and hundreds of bills and amendments managing thousands of details is a vivid testimony to her mental and physical strength which she devoted to our Nation. prgtoken She was gracious to a fault. I recall her inviting Members to her Rules Committee office always helping Members to feel at home here. prgtoken As the eldest woman in the House with 88 years of experience, Louise Slaughter brought wisdom that served America superbly. She was dedicated to the working people of our country and to the rights of women. She never stopped giving. prgtoken The daughter of a blacksmith who worked in a Kentucky coal mine, she was a tireless advocate for workers in Rochester in places like Kodak or Xerox, and she stood shoulder to shoulder with her community and fought with full soul against bad trade deals that she correctly feared would hollow out her community's jobs and in turn the American middle class. She was right, and she never gave up fighting for them. prgtoken She coauthored the Violence Against Women Act and fought full bore for equal pay for equal work and stood tall her whole career in our effort to make our Nation more just and equal. prgtoken Last night, I attended an event at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and one of the women docents took me around. I told her what happened to Louise, and she said: Oh, my goodness. I am from upstate New York. I was her constituent. She gave me a prgtoken ticket when I was a Girl Scout to come to Washington, and look what I
Congressional Review Act Resolution (Executive Session)
Elizabeth Warren (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2018-4-17

just weeks after making it harder to stop discrimination in mortgage lending, the Senate is now on the verge of voting to make it harder to stop discrimination in auto lending. prgtoken About 40 years ago, Congress passed the important civil rights law called the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. That law said companies couldn't discriminate when offering a loan. It was a simple idea: Loan terms should be based on creditworthiness, not on the color of someone's skin. prgtoken The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the Federal agencies responsible for enforcing that 40-year-old law. The CFPB found out that when auto dealers were helping customers get financing for a car loan, minority customers were often given worse loans than their White counterparts. The underlying reason was something called a dealer reserve, where the lenders providing the financing for a car loan gave the dealer discretion to mark up the interest rate on the loan and the dealer could keep some of the additional profit from the markup. The problem was the growing evidence that dealers marked up loans higher for minorities than for Whites with similar credit profiles. prgtoken In 2013, the CFPB issued guidance to these lenders about how they could make sure they were complying with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. They could institute more rigorous oversight of their auto financing process to get rid of these discriminatory practices or they could stop using the dealer reserves that facilitated these discriminatory practices and just pay dealers a flat fee per loan instead. prgtoken After issuing the guidance, the CFPB found that a few auto lenders were not following the guidance. It entered into settlements with Fifth Third and the financing arms of both Honda and Toyota. These settlements returned millions of dollars to people who had been charged more for car loans simply based on the color of their skin. prgtoken A lot of auto dealers and auto lenders don't like the CFPB's guidance, which brings us to today, when the Senate is about to vote on reversing this guidance and prohibiting the CFPB from ever issuing similar guidance again. prgtoken This is part of the broader attack on the efforts to fight economic discrimination. House s have passed multiple bills that would make it harder to enforce fair lending laws. Since assuming control of the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney has taken steps to undermine the agency's Office of Fair Lending. prgtoken The vote today is also a troubling followup to the recent bank deregulation bill that just passed the Senate. That bill reduced data reporting requirements for 85 percent of the banks in this country, making it harder for Federal agencies to monitor mortgage lending, uncover discrimination, and enforce the law. Now the Senate is considering rolling back guidance that explains how lenders can avoid discrimination when providing auto loans. prgtoken Let's be clea
IN MEMORIAM RODNEY LEWIS
Kyrsten Sinema (Democrat, AZ) \u2014 2018-4-17

I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Rodney Lewis who passed away on April 10, 2018 at the age of 77. Mr. Lewis was an Arizona native and a member of the Gila River Indian Community. He became a trailblazer in water policy, tribal sovereignty, and Indian law. Our state will miss him dearly. prgtoken In 1980, Mr. Lewis was the first Native American attorney to appear before the Supreme Court. As the lead attorney for the Gila River community, Mr. Lewis won part of the largest tribal water settlement in U.S. history. He also was the founding chair of Arizona Bar's Indian Law section. In 2017, he was appointed to the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board. The board helps to manage the Central Arizona Project, where Mr. Lewis was able to represent tribal interests. prgtoken Mr. Lewis served in the United States Army from 1962 to 1965 where he served as a Ranger and achieved the rank of First Lieutenant. He received his bachelor's of science from Trinity University in 1962, a master's in history from Arizona State University in 1969, and a law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972. prgtoken Mr. Lewis is survived by his wife, Wiilardene, daughter Katherine Elizabeth, sons Stephen Roe and John Blaine, and a host of grandchildren. His son, Stephen, currently serves as Governor of the Gila River Indian Community. Please join me in honoring his memory.
PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL OF A RULE SUBMITTED BY BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION--Continued
Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2018-4-17

this is a very focused topic and I will just be a few minutes. prgtoken I rise today to discuss S. Res. 463, which is a resolution that Senator Blunt and I just discharged from the Rules Committee that will help new parents--specifically, Senator parents--to bring their infant children onto the Senate floor. It hasn't been brought to the Senate floor yet, but I thought I would give an update and explain the importance and really the historic nature of this resolution. prgtoken As my colleagues know, this month Senator Duckworth made history when she gave birth to her beautiful daughter Maile Pearl. Senator Duckworth has made history in many ways but, among other things, she is the first sitting U.S. Senator to give birth while in office. prgtoken Some have pointed out that it is remarkable that it took so long to have a Senator who gave birth while in office, and I think it does speak to the fact that while we are a growing number of women in Congress, there are still not that many, and it is changing. prgtoken We currently now have 23 women Senators, which is an all-time record--more than at any time in history. We are seeing record levels of women run for office. It is inevitable that in the future more women will have kids during their time in the Senate. So in this way, we are simply anticipating what we see as the future, and it is on us to make this a better workplace before they get here. I think workplaces across America are making, and have made, those same kinds of adjustments and decisions. prgtoken As the ranking member of the Rules Committee, I recognize that this means that some of our outdated rules--and Senator Blunt as the chair realizes this as well--that were developed without considering the changing needs in the workplace must be changed. Senator Duckworth has taken the lead, and her resolution is an important part of that change. prgtoken As she prepared to give birth, Senator Duckworth did what many moms do. She started to come up with a plan for how to juggle her family and her work. Like too many other moms in the United States, she came to realize that there were problems in her workplace for accommodating new moms. prgtoken Senators have important constitutional obligations related to their service, the most fundamental among them being voting on legislation. The Senate rules require Senators to vote in person. We have no intention of changing that. They must vote on the Senate floor, and no one can do it for them. prgtoken Right now, unlike in the House, children are not allowed on the Senate floor. That means that in order to fulfill her Senate obligation, Senator Duckworth would have to leave her baby for extended periods in order to come in and vote. Sometimes that would be just fine. She would have childcare. Her husband would be there. But as we all know, there are times when we vote late into the night, when we vote at unpredictable times, and it doesn't work for a
REPUBLICAN TAX BILL
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-4-17

finally, today is tax day. That is probably America's least favorite holiday. It is appropriate today to look back at what has happened since the s passed their tax bill last year. Since the beginning of the tax debate, s have insisted their bill is about cutting taxes for working Americans. Even though the crux of their bill was a massive corporate tax cut, they said that workers would benefit the most. Even though it would direct 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent, they said that the bill would be a ``middle-class miracle.'' prgtoken How many middle-class people today think that tax bill is a miracle? Not many. The only way that could have been true was if corporations had decided to invest a substantial amount of their newfound profits in workers. That is what s, after all, argued would happen. prgtoken We warned that if you gave the big corporations the lion's share of the tax cuts, corporations would do what they always do when they have higher profits and extra cash--distribute it amongst themselves, have a nice little party. Unfortunately, the evidence is mounting that our predictions, as much as we wish they hadn't come true, were prescient. prgtoken Since the passage of the tax bill--listen to this--corporations have spent over $250 billion on share buybacks. That is putting corporations on track to spend between $800 billion and $1 trillion on share buybacks this year alone, outstripping the previous pace. prgtoken People may ask: What is a share buyback? Here is what it is. A corporation has a lot of money. Some things they can do are pay workers more, give family leave, treat their employees better. Another thing they could do is invest in new plants and equipment, new training to make that corporation more efficient and to sell more of its goods. Those are good things. prgtoken What is a bad thing? Buying back the stock. What is buying back the stock? The corporation says: We have a million shares outstanding. If we buy back 100,000 of them, the price of the remaining ones will go up. prgtoken Who benefits? Above all, those who have a lot of the stock shares-- the CEOs of the corporations and the wealthiest heads of those companies. Who else benefits? Shareholders. Eighty percent of all shares in America, despite pensions and despite 401(k)s, are held by the 10 percent--the richest people in America. And one-third of all shares, totally, go to people overseas. That is who benefits from stock buybacks: corporate CEOs, wealthy shareholders, people overseas--more than the average American worker. That is what has happened. prgtoken Listen to this. According to a recent analysis by JUST Capital, only 6 percent of the capital allocated by companies from the tax bill's savings has gone to employees, while nearly 60 percent has gone to shareholders. That statistic gets to the very core of the debate. Who benefited from the tax bill? It was
CELEBRATING THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF THE LATE HONORABLE LOUISE SLAUGHTER
Nydia M. Velázquez (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-4-17

for yielding time to me and thank my friends for organizing this tribute. prgtoken Louise was a remarkable woman, an astute legislator, a skilled negotiator, and a gifted debater. She will be remembered for all those traits. But she will also be remembered for her compassion, her humor, and the many kindnesses she extended to all of us. prgtoken I will always recall the many times coming down to this very floor to speak and hearing Louise arguing for fairness and opposing policies bad for our Nation. She was a fierce orator with a sharp wit. When she disagreed with how this House was doing business, she let it be known. prgtoken She was a passionate voice for progressive values. Like a New Yorker, she never backed down from a fight. If she wanted to get something done, she dug in her heels and fought like hell for it. prgtoken But, as a daughter of the South, she will equally be remembered for her amazing wit, her gentle touch, her disarming smile, and her genuine friendships on both sides of the aisle. prgtoken What is remarkable is that, at the end of the day, when the debate concluded and the votes were taken, Louise was known for sharing a laugh with her colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle. prgtoken Someone once described her as ``a combination of Southern charm and backroom politics, a Southern belle with a cigar in her mouth.'' She truly was larger than life. prgtoken When Louise came to Congress, there were far fewer women in this body. She helped lead the way for so many of us who came after, breaking down barriers. So many of us owe her a debt of gratitude for the trails she blazed. prgtoken As a fellow New Yorker, as a fellow female Member of Congress, but most of all, as her friend, I know I will miss her. prgtoken This body is better served for her service, and the U.S. House will certainly be a less colorful place without seeing her on the floor, leading debates on the rules with her Kentucky accent and her commitment to progressive values. prgtoken , I thank my friend for the opportunity to speak.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WEAKENS CLEAN AIR PROTECTIONS
A. Donald McEachin (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2018-4-17

I am deeply concerned by the administration's continued assault on essential regulations that protect our health and our environment. prgtoken All Americans need, deserve, and have a right to breathe clean air. Historically, we have upheld that right to reasonable, science-based limits on pollution, but that tradition is under assault. prgtoken Last week, the administration directed the EPA to weaken the standards for ambient air pollution. prgtoken By allowing for emissions trading, this directive will magnify existing environmental injustices, enabling increased pollution in communities that already live with dangerously high concentrations. prgtoken The order also softens public health mandates under the Clean Air Act. It restricts what kind of scientific data regulators can use, and it increases their workloads without providing new resources. prgtoken , if we ignore the best available science or if we starve agencies of the resources they need to actually uphold commonsense limits, then we are not protecting the American people. prgtoken Last week's directive was dangerous and a needless mistake. Like the rest of this administration's dirty energy agenda, it needs to be reversed.
HONORING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NAPA VALLEY AGRICULTURAL PRESERVE
Mike Thompson (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-4-17

I rise today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve. prgtoken In 1968, the Napa Board of Supervisors passed a zoning ordinance to preserve open space and prevent future over-development by creating the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve, the first agricultural preserve in the United States. The ordinance established agriculture and open space as the best use of the land in the valley and foothill areas of Napa County. prgtoken Originally the ordinance protected 26,000 acres of land and today the preserve includes prgtoken 31,609 acres. The Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve has been a vital component to the health of Californian agriculture and has lead the way in agricultural protection and preservation in California for the past half century. As we continue our efforts to preserve the Napa Valley, property owners have voluntarily placed their land into conservation easements to ensure the acreage remains rural through the preserve. prgtoken The ordinance was written to monitor development and ensure that the natural landscape would be protected and that the environment would be utilized in a mutually beneficial way for residents, farmers and developers. The protection from rapid urbanization has enabled agriculture to flourish in the 21st century and has allowed Napa to remain the premier county for California wine growers. prgtoken The preserve has ensured the long-term conservation of Napa County's agricultural legacy and its future as an essential agricultural region in the United States. Because of the preserve the region will continue to be the ideal location for producing wine grapes and other types of agriculture. prgtoken , Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve is crucial to the preservation of the agricultural output of Napa County and all of Northern California. It is therefore fitting and proper that we honor its 50th anniversary.