mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
HONORING HOMETOWN HEROES ACT
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2018-2-8

. Thank you, . prgtoken I want to start by commending the Senator from Alaska, Mr. Sullivan, for moving this legislation forward and for his work and the work of his staff over many, many months now. prgtoken I want to thank our staff, as well, and the staff of Senator Wicker and so many other offices that I will not have an opportunity to name. We are especially grateful for their bipartisan efforts, which every once in a while work around here. I am grateful that Senator Sullivan and his team have put in the amount of time that they have. prgtoken This legislation is part of broader Coast Guard legislation, the Commercial Vessel Incidental Discharge Act. The so-called C-VIDA Act is critically important to get done this year. As Senator Sullivan mentioned, there is bipartisan support, and we should pass it immediately. prgtoken When I introduced this legislation back in January of last year, working with Senators Wicker, Sullivan, and others, it was included in the larger Coast Guard Authorization Act. That was passed by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in May of 2017. Since that time, we have conducted extensive negotiations with our colleagues--and that prgtoken may be an understatement--to address important environmental as well as enforcement concerns. prgtoken This legislation fulfills at least two priorities for Pennsylvania. First, it allows us to be in a position to enact strong environmental protection standards for our waterways in Pennsylvania, and second, it supports our maritime industry. Currently, vessel owners and operators are forced to comply with a patchwork of overly burdensome and confusing Federal and State regulations for vessel ballast water and incidental discharges. This act, the C-VIDA Act, would establish uniform national standards and requirements governing ballast water discharges and other discharges that occur during normal operations of vessels. C-VIDA would provide the maritime industry with a consistent, uniform regulatory structure while ensuring that there are environmental protections in place to protect our Nation's ports and waterways. prgtoken The national standard in C-VIDA ensures that vessels with the best onboard environmental equipment are calling at our ports. That is critical for Pennsylvania, which has coastal, inland, and Great Lakes vessel traffic. prgtoken There have been concerns raised about the environmental protections, as I mentioned, in the act and the lack of involvement of the EPA and States in developing and enforcing these protections. Once again, I want to commend the work of the staff. Staff from several offices have worked very hard to address these concerns and to ensure that the EPA is involved, that C-VIDA has strong environmental standards, and that we update and revisit these environmental standards as science evolves. prgtoken Both ballast water and incidental discharge rules will be developed with the Co
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO HOUSE AMENDMENT TO SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 1892, HONORING HOMETOWN HEROES ACT
James P. McGovern (Democrat, MA) \u2014 2018-2-8

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question so we can have this debate. I am tired of all the excuses. I am tired of all the reasons that we are being given why we can't debate this issue. This is important. These are real people. These are members of our community. They are our neighbors. The time has come for us to act. prgtoken , I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question. Let's have this debate. Let's protect the DREAMers. Let's do the right thing. But enough of the excuses. Enough of the excuses. It is time to vote.
HONORING HOMETOWN HEROES ACT
Nita M. Lowey (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-2-8

such time as I may consume. prgtoken It is a basic constitutional responsibility of Congress to fund the Federal Government and majorities in the House and the Senate are just turning the process into an embarrassing spectacle, running from one crisis directly into the next. prgtoken It has been clear for 9 months that a bipartisan budget agreement would be needed to enact appropriations law, yet it has taken five continuing resolutions, two lapses in funding, countless hours of effort to take even this first step toward full-year funding bills, more than 4 months into the fiscal year. prgtoken I am pleased with many aspects of the budget agreement. Increasing statutory spending caps would allow the Appropriations Committee to write responsible, bipartisan spending bills that will invest in this Nation's families, communities, and national security. prgtoken I am also pleased the legislation would provide funding for families and communities in Texas, Florida, California, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to rebuild their lives following natural disasters. prgtoken Unfortunately, this legislation cannot be considered in a vacuum. The of the House's refusal to commit to considering bipartisan legislation to protect teenagers and young adults from deportation is unjustifiable and maddening. prgtoken DREAMers are sons, daughters, parents. They are students and teachers. They serve with distinction in our Armed Forces. They pay taxes and contribute to their communities. prgtoken President and the majority hold the lives and futures of these children and young adults in their hands, yet their only concern seems to be how much they can extract and exchange for doing what a decent human being should do simply because it is right. prgtoken I cannot vote in good conscience to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the very funding that could be used to deport the DREAMers. I cannot vote to continue the appropriations process while an unthinkably tragic fate hangs over the head of 1.6 million young people. prgtoken I do hope that in the weeks ahead a bipartisan bill for DREAMers can pass the Senate and enough pressure can be brought to bear on House s to act. History will condemn these majorities if they fail to do what is right. prgtoken , .
HONORING JIM JOHNSTON
Peter A. DeFazio (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2018-2-8

I rise today to honor the memory of Mr. Jim Johnston, president and CEO of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). Jim passed away on January 8, 2018. prgtoken Jim was born in 1939 in Summerfield, MA, but was raised in the Midwest after his family moved to Iowa when he was a child. In 1956, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and after completing his military service he entered the trucking industry as an owner-operator in 1960. prgtoken In 1969, Jim moved to Grain Valley, MO, during a turbulent time in the trucking industry. At that time--as it is now--trucking was dominated by small businesses. Recognizing the prgtoken need to form an association that could effectively communicate the concerns of small-business truckers to lawmakers, OOIDA was established in 1973. prgtoken Most of the founding members had returned to trucking full-time shortly after OOIDA was established. Jim was elected president and CEO of OOIDA in 1975, the Association's third president since its founding two years earlier. As Jim put it, he was the ``only one left and too dumb or stubborn to know when to quit.'' prgtoken From its humble beginning in an office trailer chained to a light pole in Grain Valley, he grew OOIDA into the largest national organization fighting for the rights of all professional truckers. Under his leadership, OOIDA has grown to more than 160,000 members nationwide, increased its relentless advocacy efforts in Washington, DC, and offers a robust collection of unique services and programs for drivers. prgtoken Jim was OOIDA's leader for more than 42 years. OOIDA was his life's work and fighting for the rights of all truckers was his life's mission. Up until only days before his passing, he remained dedicated to both. prgtoken Jim leaves behind family, friends, and colleagues, but his contributions to the trucking industry will live forever.
KARI'S LAW ACT OF 2017
Michael F. Doyle (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2018-2-8

. I will close for our side now, . prgtoken , I want to first congratulate Representative Gohmert and Senator Klobuchar for this piece of legislation. prgtoken I hope that our friends on the side will work with us to improve the location accuracy for these multiline systems. I think that is an important piece of unfinished business that we need to do to make this bill even better. We support the bill. prgtoken , .
CHILD PROTECTION IMPROVEMENTS ACT OF 2017
Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2018-2-8

first, I want to thank Senator Markey and concur in his comments in regard to the Dreamers. Yes, we are pleased that we have a bipartisan agreement today. I am still in the process of reading all the details before making a final judgment, but it is certainly good news that the and s-- prgtoken the leadership--have come together in an agreement. prgtoken I join Senator Markey and am pleased that the majority leader is going to bring before the floor of the Senate in a fair manner next week the immigration issue to protect Dreamers. I would also add that those in temporary protective status, TPS, should also be considered. prgtoken We have a process, and I hope that the spirit that we have seen on the budget agreement will continue next week as the Senate works, as it should, in a bipartisan manner to protect the Dreamers and do what is right. I also want to acknowledge that there is no such commitment from the leadership in the House. I join with Leader Pelosi in urging Ryan to set up a similar process in the House so that we can get a bill to the President and signed into law to protect the Dreamers. The President created this problem by putting a date on their backs, and it is our responsibility to respond in a timely way. I am glad to see that the Senate is prepared to take action. Prudent Layperson Standard prgtoken , I took this time because I want to talk about one specific provision in healthcare that was passed by Congress in the nineties, but let me just preface that by saying that in this budget agreement, I am pleased to see there are bipartisan agreements on advancing healthcare in America. A bill that I have worked on since we imposed the therapy caps way back in the nineties, which made no sense at all, will finally correct that mistake permanently and allow those who are in need of the most severe therapy services--those who are stroke victims or in similar situations--to be able to get that care without a cap as to the amount of services they need. prgtoken I am also pleased to see that we are going to be dealing with telemedicine--an issue I have worked on and many Members have worked on--improving dialysis treatment. Some of the issues we have all worked on include community health centers, the 10-year extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program, and rural healthcare. There are a lot of good things in this bipartisan agreement to advance healthcare, and I am pleased about them. prgtoken I just want to remind my colleagues that if we are successful in getting that enacted into law, we still have to make sure it is implemented in the manner in which we intended. I give as an example the prudent layperson standard on emergency medical treatment. I was involved in that process in the 1990s. The reason this came to our attention is that insurance practices in the 1990s were such that it was not unusual f
SMALL BANK HOLDING COMPANY RELIEF ACT OF 2018
Daniel T. Kildee (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2018-2-8

I thank Ranking Member Waters for yielding. I know she understands the danger in yielding to me as much time as I may consume. I will just take a couple of minute on this. prgtoken I rise in opposition to H.R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company Relief Act. There are unaddressed concerns as to the effect this bill will have on community banks that serve so many of our constituents, whether it be through more bank consolidation or whether it will encourage small banks to take on more unsustainable debt. prgtoken The Federal Reserve has a small bank holding company policy statement that outlines ownership transfer of small community banks and savings associations ``by allowing their holding companies to operate with higher levels of debt than would normally be permitted.'' prgtoken The holding companies that qualify for the policy statement can have up to $1 billion in assets, a limit that was reached, in a bipartisan effort, in the 113th Congress. Yet, even though this new threshold was enacted just at the end of 2014, we have seen multiple efforts to raise the limit even higher. prgtoken According to data from the Federal Reserve, under the current $1 billion prgtoken threshold, 87 percent of all bank holding companies and 72 percent of savings and loan holding companies are holding nearly $1 trillion in assets under that billion-dollar threshold. prgtoken It is too soon to know the effects of increasing the threshold to $1 billion. Why are we pushing to raise it even further without sufficient information as to the effect on the market of the last increase? prgtoken And we may disagree on the conclusion we come to, but a concern I would like to address is that while we are raising this question, while we are debating whether to raise this threshold without, I believe, sufficient knowledge as to the full impact of the last increase, we are taking time on the floor when we have so many other unaddressed concerns that get no time on this floor. prgtoken You know, as members of the committee, and certainly other Members of the House understand, I spent a good deal of my time working on issues related to the conditions of America's cities and towns. A whole subset of American towns, even in a period of economic growth, which we all acknowledge has been sustained now over the period of the last 8 years, many communities are continuing to be left behind. prgtoken Why is that? I am sure there are a lot of reasons. I am sure some of my friends would argue that some of the issues addressed in this legislation might touch on them. But one thing I know for sure, the crumbling roads and bridges and water and sewer systems in those communities are so serious, the problem is so great. The unaddressed issues of violent crime in many of those same cities, which this House continues to leave unaddressed, essentially ensures that any change in the regulatory structure in the marketplace is not sufficient to deal with the underly
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO HOUSE AMENDMENT TO SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 1892, HONORING HOMETOWN HEROES ACT
Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-2-8

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. prgtoken I thank the members of the Rules Committee, all of them, for the great service they provide to the House of Representatives, this great House of the people. prgtoken I wish that the would treat the House of the people with the dignity that it deserves by giving us an opportunity, just an opportunity, for him to say that he would bring legislation to the floor, the Hurd-Aguilar bill for one, and then the other pieces of legislation regarding DACA so that the House could work its will under the queen-of-the-hill rule. prgtoken Last night, Mr. Clyburn, the assistant leader; Mr. Hoyer, the ic whip; and I sent a letter to the . It said: ``Dear : In the spirit of bipartisanship, we write again to reiterate our sincere desire to ensure that the government remains open and that the priorities of the American people are properly addressed. As you know, have been clear that we support a budget agreement that ensures our men and women in uniform have the resources they need to protect our country and that America's middle class and working families have the tools they need to succeed. As part of this agreement, we have always expected that the House and the Senate would address the issue of DACA and the DREAMers. ``Most of our Members believe that this budget agreement is a reasonable compromise to address America's military strength and critical domestic priorities, like fighting the opioid crisis, boosting the National Institutes of Health, moving forward to resolve the pension crisis, caring for our veterans, making college more affordable, and investing in childcare for working families.'' prgtoken The agenda that I read was what we fought for and obtained in the budget agreement. We did not object to the large amount of money that was in the bill for defense, although some had asked: What is the purpose? What is the mission? prgtoken We said: Let's go forward with that. But to keep faith with the budget agreement, we insisted that the increases in defense would be met by increases on the domestic side. prgtoken So we have fought this fight. This is a success for us to get, as I said, the opioid crisis, boosting the NIH, the pension crisis, caring for our veterans, making college more affordable, and investing in childcare for our working families. This was the fight we had prgtoken with the s because they have a reluctancy to support domestic spending. prgtoken So the fact that this came to agreement after months of going back and forth on the caps, I think, is very important to recognize. prgtoken But, again, writing to the : ``We are writing to again reiterate our request that you make a public statement regarding the scheduling of a vote on a DACA bill. Our request is that you publicly state that you will schedule a vote to consider the bipartisan Hurd- Aguilar bill and any other DACA bills that you wish to consider under a Que
SMALL BANK HOLDING COMPANY RELIEF ACT OF 2018
Maxine Waters (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-2-8

such time as I may consume. prgtoken , I rise in opposition to H.R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company Relief Act of 2018. This bill is another -led measure to roll back appropriately tailored policies to regulate the financial services sector that ignores the hard-learned lessons of the catastrophic 2008 financial crisis. prgtoken We have seen this same flawed approach in H.R. 10, which I called the ``Wrong Choice Act,'' last year, and we are seeing it again in the Senate as it considers advancing Senator Crapo's Wall Street giveaway, which includes a provision identical to the bill that we are considering today, along with several other harmful provisions. prgtoken The Federal Reserve's Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement was first issued in 1980 to enable the transfer of ownership of small community banks by allowing small, noncomplex bank holding companies to operate with higher levels of debt than would normally be permitted. prgtoken The original policy statement established a threshold of bank holding companies with less than $150 million in assets, but this level was increased to $500 million in 2006. prgtoken The policy statement allows certain small bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies to hold more debt at the holding company level than would otherwise be allowed by capital requirements if the debt is used to finance up to 75 percent of an acquisition of another bank. Put another way, the policy statement is important because it allows small institutions like community banks and minority- owned insured depository institutions to access additional debt so they can continue serving their communities without compromising bank safety and soundness. prgtoken Thus, it is important that the threshold level be carefully calibrated so it cannot be abused by speculative investors. If the threshold is raised too high, it will encourage more mergers and acquisitions, riskier banking activities, and reduced banking services and credit availability to rural, low-income, minority, and underserved communities. prgtoken In 2014, worked with s to examine this threshold and reached a reasonable compromise to raise the threshold to $1 billion. This change was implemented only after closely consulting with regulators to determine the appropriate threshold level to help community banks grow without making them targets for mergers and acquisitions. prgtoken The $1 billion threshold is sensible and reasonable in light of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's exhaustive study several years ago on the definition of ``community bank.'' While the FDIC factors in other considerations, their definition of a community bank includes a dollar threshold of banks with less than $1 billion in assets. prgtoken According to 2016 data from the Federal Reserve, 87 percent of all bank holding companies are covered by the current $1 billion threshold. This
HONORING HOMETOWN HEROES ACT
Richard J. Durbin (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-2-8

I come to the floor, as I have over the past few months, urging the U.S. Senate to come together in a bipartisan fashion to address important issues facing our Nation. The American people expect it. They understand how closely divided we are-- 49 , 51 s in the Senate--and for the most controversial issues, 60 votes are required. Unless we work in a bipartisan fashion, we achieve little or nothing. prgtoken After many months of difficult negotiation, I stand here today in support of a bipartisan, 2-year budget agreement announced by Leaders McConnell and Schumer that will finally produce results for the American people. For too long, this gridlocked Congress has lurched from one continuing resolution--that is a temporary spending bill--to another. That has prevented us from working together to craft appropriations bills that save taxpayers money and that invest in things that are important at every level for our future. prgtoken While this budget deal doesn't include everything I would like to see, it certainly includes some highlights of things that I think are critically important for the State of Illinois and our Nation. prgtoken I am particularly disappointed that it does not include a solution to the DACA--or Dreamer--crisis that was created by President on September 5 when he announced that he would eliminate the program that provides protection from deportation for almost 800,000 people in the United States. That was over 5 months ago. President challenged this Congress--challenged this Senate--to come up with a legislative solution. As I stand here today, we have not produced it. prgtoken I will certainly acknowledge that Senator McConnell, the leader, together with Senator Schumer, the ic leader, has charted a course for us next week. We are going to do something in the Senate we haven't seen in a long time. We are going to come to the floor of the Senate and act like Senators. For some of my colleagues, it will be their first-time experience of a bill on the floor, open to amendment and actual debate. Yes, it is going to happen right here. Stay tuned on C-SPAN. Next week could be historic. prgtoken It has been over a year and a half since we have had a meaningful debate on the floor, but next week we will. The topic: immigration and DACA. We know we have to. The March 5 deadline is looming, when this program will end by President 's prohibition of the program and, at that point, 1,000 young people each day, on average, will lose their protection from deportation and their legal right to work in America. They will walk off the job because we failed to act, unless we get it together. prgtoken I am sorry this bill that includes so many good things doesn't include that solution, but we are poised to do it anyway, and I look forward to that debate next week. I hope this agreement will provide a spirit of bipartisanship that will be felt n