mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
UIGHUR INTERVENTION AND GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN UNIFIED RESPONSE ACT OF 2019
Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2020-10-21

I come to the floor today to urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together to resume negotiations on a comprehensive relief package for Granite Staters and Americans across this country. prgtoken Six million Americans have missed their rent or mortgage payments since September. The lines at food pantries in my State of New Hampshire and across the country are growing longer and longer. Yet the partisan Supreme Court nomination seems to be the only priority of the leadership here in the Senate. prgtoken The American public are tired of partisan posturing. They need relief, and they need it now. That is why Congress should pass a bipartisan, comprehensive package that addresses the challenges we are facing in the short and long term. prgtoken Congress needs to provide assistance for our hospitals and healthcare providers, especially nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which account for 81 percent of COVID-19 deaths in New Hampshire. That is the highest percentage in the country. prgtoken We should also provide additional support for childcare centers and schools that are working to safely reopen and operate during the fall term, and we shouldn't condition those education dollars on whether a school is physically open, as s have repeatedly proposed. That decision should be made by State and local officials, and it should be based on safety. prgtoken We also need to support our local communities so they can continue to pay our first responders, firefighters, police, and teachers. Under no circumstances should our communities have to cut essential services and frontline workers. prgtoken After months of inaction, Leader McConnell has forced the Senate to vote twice on a partisan package that was written in his office without any bipartisan input. Not surprisingly, that package doesn't even come close to addressing the public health and economic issues that our country is facing. We need to provide more financial support to hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare providers that are struggling on the frontlines of our fight against this pandemic. prgtoken Senator McConnell's skinny bill does not provide any money for grants to healthcare providers. That is zero dollars for our Nation's hospitals, even though hospitals like the Lakes Region General Hospital in New Hampshire just filed bankruptcy this week and hospitals across New Hampshire are projecting hundreds of millions of dollars in losses this year due to the cancelation of elective procedures and nonemergency visits to deal with the pandemic. prgtoken It also provides zero dollars for nursing homes and long-term care facilities at a time when nursing facility residents account for 81 percent of our COVID-19 deaths, and nursing homes, while they have seen 40 percent of the fatalities from this pandemic nationwide, have gotten only 4 percent of the funding. prgtoken The bill provides
TRIBUTE TO DEIRDRE WALLACE
Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-10-21

I rise today to pay tribute to my dear friend and colleague, Deirdre ``Dee'' Wallace, who retired this year after 36 years of Federal service. A true civil servant, Dee served our country and its citizens with humility and empathy for decades. prgtoken Since taking the vow to serve and protect our Nation as a soldier in the U.S. Army, Dee has never stopped fighting for the American people. After 5 years of military service, Dee dedicated her life to making government work for the people during decades of service with the Army National Guard and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. prgtoken Never discouraged, Dee embodies the type of caring spirit and can-do attitude that we should all strive to emulate. As my chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Dee worked tirelessly to bring awareness to servicemembers battling posttraumatic stress disorder and veterans facing homelessness. prgtoken In our time together, I learned that no stone will go unturned with Dee around. She will always find a way to care for America's heroes. Her service to her community is remarkable and her story inspiring. I stand here today to applaud my dear friend and to honor her extraordinary work. prgtoken Dee, I wish you the best of luck in retirement and thank you for your service.
Coronavirus (Executive Calendar)
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2020-10-21

late last night the news flash was: Senator prgtoken McConnell, leader of the U.S. Senate, opposes COVID-19 relief bill and informs the White House. prgtoken Supposedly, it was a statement made by Senator McConnell at his lunch yesterday, and it was later confirmed by four Senators who attended that that is what occurred. prgtoken Finally, it becomes public one of the things that has been suspected for a long time on this side of the aisle. You see, most of us have been paying close attention to the speeches by Senator McConnell to try to gauge his interest in really coming back to help the American people. prgtoken We remember on March 26, when 96 to 0--96 to 0--the Senate voted for COVID relief in what was known as the CARES Act. It was a bipartisan measure responding to a national pandemic that was just starting to surface and an economy that was just starting to collapse. prgtoken Many people thought at the time that that would be the end of our journey, that we would do what is necessary, and put it behind us. And so the unemployment assistance, for example, ended on July 31 of this year. The PPP--the Paycheck Protect Program--ended in the middle of August. We were wrong. prgtoken The pandemic got dramatically worse, and the economy slumped even further. Millions more were out of work. Thousands were dying. More were infected. And we still are in a terrible battle now against this deadly virus. prgtoken So the obvious solution was for Congress to come back and help again. The first measure was good and I think helpful, but it wasn't enough. We needed more. prgtoken So Nancy Pelosi, the ic of the House, 5 months ago--5 months ago--in May passed a COVID relief bill to follow on from the original bill. She sent it over to Senator McConnell 5 months ago, and he did nothing. prgtoken What he said was: I want to see if I feel a sense of urgency about the need for this bill--a sense of urgency. prgtoken Well, today 220,000 Americans have died. Americans are dying at a pace from this coronavirus that is unimaginable. Do you understand that the death rate from COVID in America is 2\1/2\ times the death rate in Canada? Do we realize the infection rate in the United States is five times what it is than Canada or Germany? Do we understand that with 4.5 percent of the world's population, we lead in COVID deaths than anywhere in the world? prgtoken The efforts to deal with COVID-19 have failed, and the American people know it. They are tired of this way of living, with these masks, but they know if they don't, they risk their health and the safety of others. They want this economy to come back to life. They want the kids to go back to school. But we can't move forward unless we have leadership, No. 1, and that is what an election is all about; a plan, No. 2; and the resources to implement it. prgtoken What are the resources that Senator McConnell believes are necessary
UIGHUR INTERVENTION AND GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN UNIFIED RESPONSE ACT OF 2019
Brian Schatz (Democrat, HI) \u2014 2020-10-21

reserving the right to object, I want to be clear about what is going on. I have worked very hard on tech issues and introduced bipartisan legislation actually to reform section 230. We have had hearings in this area. Senator Thune and I have been working in good faith in this space. prgtoken So I want to separate out the kind of legitimate questions regarding the tech industry's influence on American society, as it relates to privacy, which I have legislation for, as it relates to its impact on journalism, and as it relates to whether or not there can be an appropriate balance struck in terms of preventing the platforms from being hijacked for the purpose of carrying foreign misinformation for the purpose of influencing an election and their legitimate rights under statutory law and their free speech rights. prgtoken These are complicated issues. Senator Hawley and I briefly had a conversation about these issues. I listened to him talk on these issues, and I basically said: Look, I divide what you are talking about into two categories. I think some of your critique around Big Tech is smart and I agree with, and some of it I consider to be not in good faith and an effort to influence the platforms in order to carry the water for people like Rudy Giuliani. prgtoken So if there is a sincere effort to work on a bipartisan basis on something so foundational as section 230 or whether or not to establish a privacy right in statutory law, which has never happened at the Federal level, then, I am all in for that. But it is quite unusual for us to take on something so fundamental. prgtoken The Senator is a Member of the majority. If the Senator could not get a hearing, that is absolutely his problem. I could get a hearing for my bill because I have bipartisan cosponsors. So, on all of the legislation that he is talking about, he has failed to reach across the aisle and to work with a or two or three and to try to reform some of these institutions through the levers of power that we are in possession of. prgtoken And fast forward to next Wednesday, I think it is, and the Senate Commerce Committee, through its Twitter feed, is running a campaign ad--literally, a campaign ad--that says: Hunter 's emails. This is the Commerce Committee of the U.S. Senate, and they are tweeting out things concerning Hunter 's emails. What a sad moment for the institution of the U.S. Senate and the cumulative bipartisan history of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce. prgtoken It is terribly sad. If there is an effort to work on these issues in good faith, I will be the first in line. I have been the first in line. But if we are going to try to do a unanimous consent--which means, for the public watching, that we are going to pass this bill unanimously without any debate; we are going to pass this bill without it going to a hearing; we are going to pass this bill without any ic input--that is non
UIGHUR INTERVENTION AND GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN UNIFIED RESPONSE ACT OF 2019
Ron Wyden (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2020-10-21

just to respond to the Senator from South Dakota, it has always been a bedrock argument from Senate s that somehow unemployment insurance is a disincentive for people to work. If that were the case--unemployment benefits expired in July, July 31. If somehow those unemployment benefits were shackling the economy, creating disincentives to work, why wasn't there a mega boom in the workforce in August? The reason is pretty obvious: Those unemployment benefits were not a disincentive. That has been the case as well into September and October. prgtoken The one thing I do want to take exception to with respect to my colleague's remarks is--he said s never sought to gut the $600. That is just not accurate. On the floor, the s wanted to take out that amount, which everybody was going to get, and replace it with something that was completely unworkable and wouldn't have gotten benefits to unemployed workers quickly. prgtoken You don't have to take my word for it. Eugene Scalia, the Secretary of Labor, during days and days of negotiations, as we talked about the concept the Senator from South Dakota has raised, the whole notion of wage replacement, the Secretary of Labor said, can't be done. The States don't have the technology to do it. prgtoken Those discussions went on for days because s were insistent on going with this wage-replacement idea, which has now been characterized by a labor official in Georgia as one of the dumbest ideas he had heard of because it was so unworkable. prgtoken Finally, I said that we are not going to stiff these workers, so we will take an average. Some people will get more than they normally would; some people would get less than they normally would from their wage and benefits. We will take an average, but, by God, the checks will get out quickly to people who had been sent home through no fault of their own. They were quarantined, as we all know, because we were desperate to beat the virus. People would have that money for groceries and rent. prgtoken That is why we went with $600, because the idea that my colleague from South Dakota has spoken about today and that s always talk about was declared by the Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, as being unworkable, and if we were going to get a check to people in a timely way, we had to go with the $600. prgtoken My staff and I put it together. We used this smartphone to make the calculations. We showed it to Secretary Mnuchin because it stayed within the budget limits. And that was how we got to $600. It was the only way to get an unemployment check out to people quickly. prgtoken Thank goodness the motion to strip it was defeated because had the s won, there would have been a lot of people during those 4 months--essentially ending July 31--who couldn't have made rent, couldn't have paid for groceries. That is just plain old wrong. <|p
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION
Mazie K. Hirono (Democrat, HI) \u2014 2020-10-21

recently Hawaii public schools resumed classes for the start of the 2020-2021 school year. prgtoken Faced with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, our schools had planned to combine in-person, distance, and blended learning this year. Unfortunately, a sudden increase in coronavirus cases required a shift to fully distance learning through the first quarter. Now schools are navigating distance learning as they determine how they will return to the classroom. prgtoken The pandemic has made it difficult to plan, and our principals, teachers, parents, and students are doing the best they can. Many are still recovering from earlier this year, when the coronavirus closed campuses for two months--resulting in 46 fewer days in the classroom for students, who almost certainly experienced learning or instructional loss. prgtoken I have heard from parents and students, and they have been effusive in their praise for educators who are making this school year work. I have also heard from educators, who have been clear in their need for more training and resources--especially when it comes to learning new strategies for providing effective distance learning and addressing instructional loss in students. Many educators are concerned about how the pandemic will disproportionately impact at-risk and marginalized students. In Hawaii, educators are concerned about how it will impact Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students, who before the pandemic already experienced achievement gaps in reading, math, and science, and graduated from high school and attended college at lower rates than their peers. These are not new challenges that we need to address, but they could certainly be made worse by the pandemic unless we provide the appropriate resources. prgtoken Until a vaccine is widely available, we must make decisions based on the best science and public health information we can get in order to keep families, teachers, and school support staff safe. For many school districts around the nation, distance learning will be a key component of our education system, and we owe it to our students to do it right. For these reasons I am introducing the Learning Opportunity and Achievement Act, or ``LOAA'', which would provide professional development and training resources for educators, tutoring and academic services for students, and resources for innovation grants, learning hubs, and research and best practices related to instructional loss in at-risk and marginalized students. prgtoken No one anticipated how the coronavirus would change our schools, as the abrupt shift to distance learning this past spring showed. Our educators need additional professional development and training resources so that they can provide the most effective educational experience to students of all ages and backgrounds. prgtoken LOAA provides these resources through new and existing programs. Specifically, the bill provides $2.25 billion fo
Coronavirus (Executive Calendar)
Patrick J. Leahy (Democrat, VT) \u2014 2020-10-21

I concur with everything that our distinguished assistant leader has said. prgtoken We are in the middle of the most devastating health crisis in modern history, and the American people are paying a terrible price. Nearly 220,000 Americans have died in just 10 months. To put that in perspective, that is significantly more than the number of Americans who died in the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined-- all of them. prgtoken Remember President calling himself a ``war President''? President said he was a ``war President.'' Well, has he acted like one? No. He called the virus a hoax. He has been AWOL ever since. prgtoken Millions have lost their jobs. They are struggling to make ends meet. People are being evicted from their homes. They are living in their cars and in shelters or on the street. They are relying on the generosity of others, and the virus is still not remotely under control. The need for another comprehensive emergency funding bill to address the COVID crisis is obvious. It is urgent and has been for 5 months. And what is the Senate doing? Staging show votes on COVID relief bills that the majority leader knows will go nowhere. And then they go back on their word--both the majority leader and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee--on what they said a year ago, and they try to rush through the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice less than 2 weeks before the election, after millions of Americans have already voted. prgtoken So where are their priorities? prgtoken I know where mine are. They are with the families of the 220,000 Americans who have lost their lives to this virus. They are with the thousands of Vermonters and millions more across the Nation who lost their jobs during this pandemic. They are with the small business owners trying to stay afloat during this crisis. They are with the fathers and mothers wondering if they will be able to pay next month's rent or put food on the table, and they are with the children struggling to learn through Zoom calls and online classes. It is a national disaster, and it requires real solutions. prgtoken We need a comprehensive bill to address this problem. We can't do it with fig leaves or do it piecemeal, like Senator McConnell wants to do. We can't pass an inadequate bill today on the chance that maybe we will come back later and do what we should have done to begin with. That is not how it works. Everyone knows that. prgtoken We have one chance for the remainder of this year to get it right, and we owe it to the American people, everybody--I don't care if they are s, , Independents--everybody--to try. prgtoken The majority leader staged a show yesterday. He didn't bring up a comprehensive proposal for COVID relief and open it for debate. He called for a process vote and only one part of it, the Paycheck Protection Program. Well, I support that program. We all do. It is critical in keeping
UIGHUR INTERVENTION AND GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN UNIFIED RESPONSE ACT OF 2019
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2020-10-21

by now, the American people know the rank hypocrisy of the majority, who, so many, when Merrick Garland was proposed as a nominee, said we must wait, even though it was 8 months before an election. When Merrick Garland was nominated 8 months before an election, we have to wait for an election. Now that an election is ongoing, we are rushing through this nomination. It is one of the worst moments the Senate has ever seen. prgtoken Leader McConnell and the majority have defiled the Senate, and one can wonder if it will ever recover from this kind of rank hypocrisy. And so, because this has been the most rushed, most partisan, and least legitimate process in the history of Supreme Court nominations, Judiciary members will boycott the markup tomorrow and not provide the quorum that is required because it is a bipartisan quorum. prgtoken The bottom line is very simple. We should not be moving forward on this nomination. She is so out of character with American views. Her views are way, way, way to the right. She has stated she wants to repeal the ACA and take away healthcare. She has said she would oppose Roe v. Wade and remove American women's right to control their own bodies. She has opposed labor rights. She is to the right of Justice Scalia on gun safety. prgtoken On issue after issue, this nominee is so far out of the mainstream that her views, if she had to get them to pass in a legislature, would never pass even with all s. But, of course, now they are rushing through the process. prgtoken has said he wants someone who repeals ACA. has said he wants someone who would repeal Roe. has said he wants someone who would be on his side if there is an election dispute. prgtoken These are all such violations of American norms, values, decency, and honor. And that is why the Judiciary Committee will not provide the quorum tomorrow when the markup goes forward. prgtoken We should also adjourn. We should not do this nomination. We can come back after the election and do just what s have said they wanted to do when Merrick Garland was on the floor: wait for the election to decide. prgtoken And this sophistry that now because it is a President and a majority, that makes a difference? No. Everyone sees through that. That was never mentioned when Merrick Garland came up. It only came now with a coverup--to cover up the hypocrisy, and it just doesn't work. We can see through it. prgtoken The bottom line, we have never moved a nominee so close to an election. Abraham Lincoln, when he had the opportunity to fill a Supreme Court seat, said it would be unfair to do it so close to an election. But this Party has forgotten the principles and the honor and the decency of Abraham Lincoln as they move forward in their rush--in their rush--to push a nominee through, whose views are decidedly at odds with the vast majority of Ameri