mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY
Bradley Byrne (Republican, AL) \u2014 2020-6-30

this weekend America will celebrate its 244th prgtoken birthday. Unfortunately, we do so in a time of pandemic, a struggling economy, and violent protests. But it is still our birthday, and we should both commemorate and celebrate it. prgtoken We usually do a good job in our celebration, although this year will be different since social distancing means we will be in smaller groups, and public fireworks displays have been canceled. I suspect most of us will find a way to gather with family and close friends to cook out and show the red, white, and blue. prgtoken But a commemoration is more than that. Merriam-Webster defines ``commemorate'' as ``to call to remembrance'' or ``to serve as a memorial of.'' How many of us will stop and remember what it meant for the Second Continental Congress to not only declare our independence from Britain, but also to state our reasons for doing so in majestic language positing the highest ideals? prgtoken Let me make a suggestion: This Fourth, get a copy of the Declaration and read it. My extended family and friends usually get together and have several of us read the various portions of the Declaration out loud and then we talk about its meaning. It doesn't take much time, and we always experience a renewed appreciation for the gift that is our country. This year we will do it virtually, in smaller groups. prgtoken The Declaration was meant to be read out loud. Indeed, on July 4, Congress not only voted to accept it but also provided for its distribution to the States and to the Continental Army. prgtoken On July 6, John Hancock as president of Congress, sent letters to the States and to General Washington enclosing broadsides of the Declaration requesting that they have it ``proclaimed.'' It was read out loud to celebrations in dozens of cities and towns in July and August and to the Continental Army on July 9 as it prepared for the British invasion of New York. prgtoken To some extent these events were meant to inform and inspire the people of a newly independent Nation. But then, and now, the Declaration is a defining document. It not only said we were an independent Nation, but also who we aspire to be. Freedom and equality were to be at the heart of the Nation's character. And the rights stated in the Declaration, life, liberty, and the pursuit of the happiness, are clearly labeled gifts from God himself to all of us. prgtoken The story of our country is really the unfolding of the efforts to live up to these aspirations. President Lincoln used it as a primary basis for arguing against slavery, as in the Gettysburg Address where he famously said: ``Four score and 7 years ago our Fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new Nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.'' As a result of the Civil War these ideals were enshrined in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. prgtoken Martin Luther King used it i
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021--Continued
Ron Johnson (Republican, WI) \u2014 2020-6-30

. . prgtoken , the fact is, the Senate has acted. We acted very generously. In the CARES Act, we passed $100 billion. In the CARES Act 3.5--phase 3.5--we passed $75 billion for a total of $175 billion for the Provider Relief Fund. That fund allowed reimbursement and financial assistance to skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes. prgtoken To date, about $76.9 billion--44 percent of that $175 billion--has actually been expended, and $4.9 billion has been expended on skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes, which means we have $98.1 billion left. prgtoken Fifty-six percent of that $175 billion has not been spent, and HHS has a great deal of latitude in terms of how to direct that. If more needs to go to skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes, HHS has $98.1 billion to spend. prgtoken Before we authorize another $20 billion and try to pass that by unanimous consent, I say we need to take a very close look at what we have already spent--close to $77 billion--and then either redirect, repurpose, or just utilize it as was intended, the $98.1 billion that remains to be spent. prgtoken I object.
HONORING THE LIFE OF PATRICK KENNEDY
Susan W. Brooks (Republican, IN) \u2014 2020-6-30

. Madam , I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Patrick William Kennedy, a friend to many in the Indianapolis community, including me. Pat passed away on April 12, 2020, after a courageous battle with Covid-19. He will be forever missed by his friends, family and colleagues. prgtoken Pat Kennedy was born June 27, 1956, in Indianapolis, Indiana. After graduating from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, Pat went on to Notre Dame University where he graduated in 1978. Upon his graduation from Notre Dame, Pat joined the Kennedy family business and ultimately became the 4th-generation president of the three Kennedy family companies: Kennedy Tank & Manufacturing in Indianapolis; Southern Tank in Owensboro, Kentucky; and STAFCO in Columbia City, Indiana. Pat worked along side family including his three sons to gain national recognition in quality fabrication of steel tanks, pressure vessels, and heat exchangers. prgtoken In addition to Pat's success in the business world, he was heavily involved in bettering the Indianapolis community. He had a deep passion for auto racing that led to him attending fifty-seven consecutive Indianapolis 500 races, but spectating was not all that he did. Pat served on the board of the 500 Mile Oldtimers Organization, sponsored race car drivers, and wrote two books on race trivia, collaborating with Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) historian and friend Donald Davidson as a technical advisor. Pat was a former director of the 500 Festival Board and was a director of the 500 Festival Foundation Board at the time of his death. Pat was very involved in bettering the experience for Hoosiers and fans all around the world when it came to his beloved Indy 500. prgtoken The 500 was not the only way Pat served our community. He supported numerous organizations including Wheeler Mission, CYO, United Way, Friends of Holliday Park, Little Sisters of the Poor, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation, and many schools and parishes in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Pat was a passionate sports fan, rarely missing a game played by those in his family, but his interest extended to any great competitive event. Pat was a devoted supporter and longtime season ticket holder of the Indiana Pacers and the Indianapolis Colts. prgtoken Pat was preceded in death by his beloved parents, William and Frances Kennedy. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Cheryl Kennedy; children Maura (Chris Page), Bill (Ellen), Jimmy (Anna Grace Sterry), Patrick, and Joey Gaines; grandchildren Kate, Grace, Luke, and Bo; sisters Peggy Shorter (Mark), Kathy Fairchild (Thom), and Ann Bolin (Paul); and nieces and nephews Kelly Schneider (Matt), Mickey Shorter (Ashley); Kimmie Rumer (Justin) and Kyle Fairchild; and Courtney, Kevin, and Brian Bolin. prgtoken On behalf of the Fifth District of Indiana I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Pat Kennedy. The Hoosier community will greatly miss him and his ex
STOPPING IMPROPER PAYMENTS TO DECEASED PEOPLE ACT
John Kennedy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2020-6-30

I want to associate myself with the eloquent remarks of Senator Carper. prgtoken I don't need to remind everyone that we have $25 trillion worth of taxpayer debt--not our debt, taxpayer debt. It is more than $25 trillion. If we add in the mandatory spending--the Medicare, the Medicaid, Social Security--it is over $100 trillion, which is the entire net worth of the American people. For the most prosperous country in all of human history, it is just barely over $100 trillion. prgtoken As Senator Carper said, my constituents ask all the time: Why don't you do something about it? Why don't you just set priorities? prgtoken Now, we have had a lot of wasteful spending--all of us in the U.S. Congress--going back years. I don't need to remind everyone of some of the wasteful spending, but this is why people are so cynical. prgtoken In the past, this Congress, not this particular Congress, spent $370,000 to study whether mothers love dogs as much as their kids. In the past, the U.S. Congress spent $700,000 to restore a Buddhist temple in Vietnam. In the past, not this Congress but a past Congress spent $400,000, which it gave to a major university--I kid you not--to study the oddity of the duck penis. Yet we just set a record. We just sent $1.4 billion to 1.1 million people in America who are deceased when we owe $25 trillion, and we know they are deceased. prgtoken Senator Carper's bill, which he has been working on for 7 years, and my bill, which I have been working on with him for the last 3\1/2\ years, will stop this. It is not a heavy lift. prgtoken I am not criticizing the Treasury Department. It did a great job of sending out about $270 billion to 161 million people through the CARES Act, and I thank it for that, but do you know the problem? The problem is it sent $1.4 billion to 1.1 million dead people. Why did that happen? prgtoken Here is why: We have what is called the Death Master File. If you die in America, your State or others in your State send to the Social Security Administration the fact that you are dead. The Social Security Administration makes a list that is called the Death Master File. It is not a perfect list, but it is fairly accurate and can be better. The problem is, the Social Security Administration has taken the position for years that it can only share the Death Master File with a few other agencies. prgtoken It has said: We don't have the authority to share it with other agencies, only with a couple of agencies. prgtoken Guess which one agency it couldn't share the death file with--the Department of the Treasury. That is why we wasted $1.4 billion. prgtoken It is a very simple fix, and Senator Carper has worked on it for 7 years. Here is what our bill will do. It is really quite simple. prgtoken First of all, it tells the Social Security Administration to share the death records with everybody in the Federal Government who writes checks so we don't send dead people money. Duh. <
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Marsha Blackburn (Republican, TN) \u2014 2020-6-30

I want to begin by saying thank you to my colleague from Florida who is doing so much good work on the Armed Services Committee, and I also thank Chairman Inhofe and other members of the committee who have made it a priority to be certain that our men and women in uniform are well cared for and their families are protected and that we are thinking toward the future as we look at this year's NDAA. prgtoken As we have gone through this year's NDAA drafting process with a unique frame of reference, the effects of the COVID pandemic have made our national security, our supply chain, our reach and development vulnerabilities national news. prgtoken I think they have shifted somewhat the focus that the American people have had, and I can't remember a time when I have had so many Tennesseans contacting my office asking questions about our critical infrastructure supply chain: How are we protecting ourselves and how do we look at what is transpiring in our Nation and globally to consider how we best protect ourselves and defend this Nation? The fallout from the pandemic has highlighted the need for our Armed Forces to reassert themselves globally. prgtoken The proposed 2021 NDAA that we are gathered on the floor this morning to discuss and to show our support for this legislation and for its funding will do some critical things. prgtoken The newly created Pacific Deterrence Initiative will enhance U.S. global leadership and devote needed attention and resources to multinational fusion centers in the Indo-Pacific, where we can work with our allies and partners to reduce the threat of Chinese aggression. And that is something that through COVID, through the way China has stolen our intellectual property--this has come to the forefront. prgtoken Just having the presence will not be enough. If we don't focus on innovation as an essential element of our national security, we will fall behind. It is imperative that we continue to lead in technology, in research and development, in making certain that the 21st century is going to be a century of freedom. prgtoken In this year's NDAA, we prioritized education. The proposed package includes funding for JROTC educational opportunities in STEM fields. I will tell you, in Tennessee, we have the Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, TN. They are continuing great work in these JROTC programs. prgtoken We are also going to invest in collaborative research between academia and military. Programs like Pathfinder Air Assault will strengthen our Armed Forces against dangerous adversaries like China, Iran, and Russia--all part of the new ``axis of evil.'' prgtoken I am thrilled to see what researchers at the University of Tennessee, University of Memphis, and Vanderbilt University will do with this opportunity. prgtoken We are also going to take all of the progress we have made in cybersecurity and bring it on home to our State and local governments. National Guard cyb
INVESTING IN A NEW VISION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SURFACE TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA ACT
Gary J. Palmer (Republican, AL) \u2014 2020-6-30

I thank the ranking member for yielding. prgtoken Because the committee has long been known for bipartisan cooperation, when I first came on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I was actually optimistic that we could work together to get a good bill to the full House. How naive of me to think that my colleagues would put aside their radical agenda to work with Members to pass a sensible and affordable surface transportation bill. prgtoken I can hardly overstate my disappointment that, from the very beginning, we were completely shut out of the process. I had hoped that the partisan nature of this surface transportation reauthorization would end after the bill was marked up in committee. Clearly, that was wishful thinking. prgtoken While the entire transportation reauthorization process has been abused, it has served at least one good purpose in that it has put on full display the extreme ideas of my colleagues and just how destructive to the committee process they have become. prgtoken Apparently, it wasn't enough to ram through a bill drafted without any input from Members, which increased spending by 62 percent while our Nation is drowning in debt by adding a trillion dollars in miscellaneous spending to the proposal that already wasn't serious to begin with. prgtoken My guess is that this is another bill that would have to be passed to find out exactly what is in it and what it will really cost American households. prgtoken The real tragedy in all of this is that it represents a missed opportunity to work in a bipartisan fashion to solve the problems that we all recognize exist. Instead of spending time working to minimize delays, streamline the environmental permitting process, and fund projects with a clear Federal nexus, my colleagues have brought to the floor a wish list of Green New Deal proposals. prgtoken Some of my colleagues who have been on this committee much longer than me tell me that they have never opposed a highway bill. It is a shame that they will no longer be able to say that solely because of the majority's failure to cooperate on this bill in a bipartisan fashion. prgtoken We were eager to engage in a legitimate committee process to consider a responsible proposal to reauthorize our surface transportation programs. Unfortunately, as I said before, this has been a fraud from the start. prgtoken I guess I could say at least they didn't promise: If you like your car, you can keep driving it.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Joni Ernst (Republican, IA) \u2014 2020-6-30

this week we debate, as the Senate should, the annual Defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. prgtoken I served 23 years in military uniform, as both a company commander in Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Iraqi Freedom and as a logistics battalion commander with the Iowa National Guard. It is because of that experience that I understand that the work we do here on this bipartisan Defense bill matters immensely to our troops. prgtoken When the COVID-19 pandemic hit us, 50,000 National Guard and Active- Duty troops answered the call without hesitation and are out there today running test sites, delivering medical supplies by ground and by air, and even running prgtoken food banks to ensure no one goes without during this trying time. prgtoken During a recent confirmation hearing for Lieutenant General Hokanson to be the head of the National Guard Bureau, I asked what the Governors would do without the National Guard. He said he shuddered to think what they would do because they are America's first response in communities across the Nation. prgtoken Just a few weeks ago, on June 7, we had over 120,000 National Guard deployed, and that includes not only those within the United States but those that are deployed overseas. prgtoken As a former National Guardsman, I can tell you these are some of our best and brightest. They are ready to go at a moment's notice, to respond to anything, whether it is civil unrest, pandemics, or natural disasters. prgtoken That is why I am extremely pleased that this Defense bill includes my provision to provide hazardous duty pay for our National Guard and other troops who are deployed to fight COVID-19. prgtoken Now, being a woman in the military has many challenges, and some of these obstacles are preventable and ones we here in the Senate can take action on--for example, ensuring our female servicemembers are properly equipped for the battlefield. Through my efforts and that of my fellow Army veteran, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, this Defense bill ensures female troops will have body armor that fits them properly, and DOD will be forced to report to us on their progress in finally getting this done. prgtoken It is not just the body armor. We are protecting troops in other areas as well. One issue I have worked on for quite some time is treating and preventing traumatic brain injury--or TBI. This year's NDAA funds effective treatments for TBI, such as noninvasive neurostimulation therapy that has been proven to work in clinical trials. prgtoken Through my provisions in the bill, we are also improving safety for military vehicles and ensuring our troops have the best weapons and ammunition. Our soldiers have been carrying the same weapons and ammo for decades, and they are about to jump to the next generation of weapons with a new and better ammunition package. prgtoken By bolstering funding for our Army's small arms rifles and automatic weapons, our
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Roger F. Wicker (Republican, MS) \u2014 2020-6-30

. The Senator from West Virginia is absolutely correct. This is a must-pass bill, and I am delighted to join her and the Senator from Tennessee, who spoke before her, in pointing out some of the very positive aspects of this bipartisan bill. prgtoken Isn't it refreshing that this last piece of legislation that this body will consider before the Independence Day break this weekend is a truly bipartisan tradition that we have had in the Senate and something we can be proud of and should try to replicate on other legislation. prgtoken I want to take my hat off to Chairman Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the ranking , Jack Reed, for their patriotism, for their cooperation in putting together a product that garnered almost unanimous support in the Armed Services Committee and will undoubtedly pass overwhelmingly, I would say, with 90-plus votes on floor of the U.S. Senate. prgtoken The NDAA is a critical part of keeping this Nation safe. It is a critical part of giving our service men and women the training, the equipment, and the resources they need. And it is a critical part of building on what has become a 3-year process of restoring some of the confidence and restoring the building from some of the cuts that we have had over time in our military spending. prgtoken We need to continue expanding our military and making sure that we can meet the threats, and particularly, as a former chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee, we need to keep expanding and building on the progress we have made in our Navy to meet the threat from China and to meet the threat from other adversaries we have. prgtoken Also, I would point out that the NDAA, which is before us for a vote and which we will undoubtedly pass before July 4, will go a long way to steadying the funding we need to respond to the COVID-19 virus. It has affected our economy, but it has also affected our ability to maintain our supply chain and to defend the Nation. prgtoken I want to thank the Senator from Tennessee for pointing out the plus- ups that we have been able to do in this year's bill and previous bills for Junior ROTC. Junior ROTC is a fantastic way to build character and build ability and education in our high school students. If you take a school that is fortunate enough to have one of these programs, the statistics are absolutely astounding. Students in a school that participates in Junior ROTC consistently statistically have better grades, fewer dropouts, and there is a better graduation rate and there is higher postsecondary participation among the small set of people within a school who participate in Junior ROTC. So I want to thank the bipartisan leadership of our committee for continuing to build and expand this program. prgtoken I would echo what the Senator from Tennessee said about high schools within her State that have the Junior ROTC Program. I have visited these programs in the State of Mississippi. Th