mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
COMMEMORATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RED ARROW DINER
Chris Pappas (Democrat, NH) \u2014 2022-9-21

. Madam , I rise today in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire. As one of the most popular diners on the East Coast, the Red Arrow Diner enjoys a special place in the folklore of our state and remains a popular destination for locals, celebrities, politicians, and tourists alike. prgtoken Dating back to the diner's opening in October of 1922, the Red Arrow cemented its legacy in downtown Manchester as a quaint, family-friendly locale with a knack for home-cooked meals guaranteed to please even the most skeptical palate. This tiny little diner on Lowell Street flourished into a major chain that today employs one hundred and seventy-five people and has expanded operations to Concord, Londonderry, and Nashua. Despite this massive growth, the Red Arrow remains committed to the values of its founders: serving customers with a smile and delivering consistent, quality home cooked meals. prgtoken The Red Arrow Diner's success can be attributed in large part to the efforts of Carol Lawrence, her father George Lawrence, and Amanda Wihby. Their vision for this diner has made the Red Arrow a must-visit destination for visitors from out of state, and their dedication to the state of New Hampshire will ensure that the Red Arrow remains a vital part of our state culture for another 100 years. On behalf of my constituents in New Hampshire's First Congressional District, I thank the Red Arrow Diner and its management for 100 years of outstanding contributions to our state.
DISCLOSE Act (Executive Calendar)
Chris Van Hollen (Democrat, MD) \u2014 2022-9-21

I too want to thank the Senator from Rhode Island, Senator Whitehouse, for his laser focus on the issue of disclosure and transparency. And I want to thank my colleagues here on the floor: Senator Wyden; Senator Stabenow; and Senator Merkley, who was here before; and others within our caucus. prgtoken In fact, every member of our ic Caucus supports the DISCLOSE Act. We support it because the stakes are so high for the future of our democracy. Billions of dollars that have crept in and now are gushing into our political system to influence our elections pose a grave threat to our Republic and to the future of our democracy. prgtoken Make no mistake, these are corporations and very wealthy people who are spending billions of dollars in secret money to influence people's votes so that they can get their way at the expense of the public interest. You have got a very few people with very deep bankrolls who are using their funds to try to shape our democracy and bend our democracy to suit their interests at the expense of everybody else. prgtoken And, as President said in his remarks on this earlier this week, even foreign entities--foreign entities that are not allowed to contribute to political campaigns are engaged in these political expenditures--under current law, use dark money, front groups, to try to influence our elections and steer the course of our democracy here in the United States from overseas. That, by itself, should scare the hell out of every Senator and every American. prgtoken , I want to talk a little bit about how we got here. How prgtoken did we get to a place where, in the United States of America, for elections, special interests can spend billions of dollars to influence people's votes without telling the voters who they are? And make no mistake, they are not telling voters who they are because they don't want voters to know who is behind these ads. prgtoken Well, the story begins with the infamous 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court case of Citizens United. That decision opened the spigots and then floodgates to corporate spending--corporate spending in Federal elections. That is when the Supreme Court said: For spending in elections, we are going to say corporations are people too. Corporations can't go into the ballot box and push the lever, but for purposes of influencing everybody else's vote, we are going to say corporations are people too. prgtoken And that unleashed a huge amount of money into politics. The only way to address that part of Citizens United is, of course, either to have a Supreme Court that will reverse the terrible Citizens United decision or through constitutional amendment. I support that, but that is not happening anytime soon. But there is something that we can do right now and which we are going to vote on tomorrow, and that is the issue of secret, dark money because we can change that through our votes tomorrow. prgtoken
HONORING THE LIFE AND SERVICE OF REVEREND MICHAEL RUSSO
Mark DeSaulnier (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2022-9-21

. Madam , I rise today to recognize the life of Reverend Michael Russo. prgtoken Throughout his life, Michael demonstrated his dedication to his faith and his passion for education. He earned his bachelor's in communications and later his Master of Divinity from Seton Hall University. Michael became an ordained minister in 1971 and was known from that point on as Father Mike. Father Mike was especially interested in political communications and American journalism. He earned a Ph.D. in American Social and Political History from New York University (NYU). His doctoral dissertation, which focused on CBS News's impact on American politics, received the 1983 Bayrd Still Award in Historical Writing. prgtoken Father Mike was eager to share his knowledge and passion for U.S. history with future generations. He began his career as an educator teaching Religion and Communication Studies at Seton Hall. He later served as chair of Seton Hall's Religious Studies Department. He began teaching Political Communication at Saint Mary's College in the early 1980s and was later appointed as chair of the Academic Senate and chair of the Communication Department. Father Mike was adored among the Saint Mary's community and has touched countless students' lives. prgtoken Father Mike worked closely with CBS News for many years, offering his expert analysis on papal happenings. His partnership with CBS began when Mike was still in college, serving as Walter Cronkite's desk assistant. Father Mike was later asked by CBS to cover events surrounding the Pope where he provided his expertise to a global audience. Father Mike had the honor of travelling with Pope John Paul II on ``Shepard One'' when His Holiness visited Northern California in 1987. prgtoken Sadly, Mike passed away on August 10, 2022. He is survived by his brother Joseph and his wife Anita, his sister Marian, his nieces and nephews, Leah, AJ, Philip, Bettina, Tim, William, Josephine, and Julian, and many other loving family members, friends, colleagues, and parishioners. Father Mike will be remembered for his wisdom, compassion, and commitment to his faith. He will be deeply missed. Please join us in honoring Reverend Michael Russo for his many contributions to our community and to our Nation.
UNCERTAINTY IN WAKE OF HURRICANE FIONA
Adriano Espaillat (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2022-9-21

I rise today to continue to raise awareness to the destruction that Hurricane Fiona has brought about to the Caribbean--namely, to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. prgtoken Let me start, , by saying that yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a natural disaster that left 3.5 million Americans without power and killed over 3,000 lives. prgtoken While hurricanes in the islands are not new, Hurricane Maria exposed the vulnerability of Puerto Rico, and 5 years later, uncertainty remains in the wake of Hurricane Fiona, which occurred this past weekend. prgtoken There was a 100 percent blackout on the island when the hurricane landed. As of 10 a.m. yesterday, 73 percent of the island had no power and 60 percent of the island had no water. prgtoken I commend the administration for its swift actions to declare a state of emergency for the region, and I am hopeful that they will approve Governor Pierluisi's request for a major disaster declaration soon, which will follow additional lifesaving resources for Puerto Rico. prgtoken For this reason, I join Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Velazquez in speaking with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, urging the administration to reimburse 100 percent of the costs, allow document flexibility for accessing aid, and advance funding to Puerto Rico in this critical moment. prgtoken We must do all it takes to ensure relief assistance to help residents recover. We cannot turn our backs on our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico. prgtoken Yesterday, I held a strategy planning call with leaders from New York, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and emergency services organizations in response to Hurricane Fiona. prgtoken We have witnessed catastrophic devastation across Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and it will require a multilevel government approach to ensure vital resources to the region in a timely manner. prgtoken As of today, more than 1 million people in the Dominican Republic are without access to utilities and shelter. prgtoken At least 1 million people in the Dominican Republic have no access to running water. prgtoken More than 700,000 homes and businesses have been left in the dark as they suffered loss of power. prgtoken Additionally, at least 3,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and four bridges collapsed. prgtoken The situation is dire. We must do all we can to help the people of the Dominican Republic during this moment of crisis. prgtoken For this reason, I am urging the United States Agency For International Development to deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team and coordinate with other U.S. Government agencies and partners to advance relief efforts. prgtoken The Federal response must be swift, robust, and continue for as long as is needed. prgtoken The impact of this devastating natural disaster hits close to home, as a multitude of my district--we have many folks in Washington Heights, in the Bronx, in El Barrio, and Har
AMENDMENT TO MONTREAL PROTOCOL (``KIGALI AMENDMENT'')--Continued
Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, RI) \u2014 2022-9-21

I wanted to come to the floor and kick off the process that will culminate tomorrow with our vote on the DISCLOSE Act. prgtoken The DISCLOSE Act will get rid of dark money in our politics. President gave a good speech about it yesterday to help stir interests and progress in this area. prgtoken There are problems with dark money in and of itself. It contributes to what has been called the tsunami of slime in our politics, because when the slimy ad has a fake, phony front group's name on it and no actual real entity or company or association is accountable for that, well, then you can lie to your heart's content, you can smear to your heart's content, and there is no accountability. prgtoken So there are reasons for getting dark money out of our elections on their own: just giving disproportionate power to special interests, sliming up our elections, allowing a lot of bad actors powers that they don't deserve, and putting enormous power in the hands of people who are, A, politically active enough to be willing to spend that kind of money and have a motive in legislative outcomes to spend that kind of money that regular citizens can't begin to match. prgtoken But there is a lot more to it than that. There is a lot more to it than that, because, like corruption, dark money is used to achieve other goals. And those other goals have had very important policy effects in our country. prgtoken Climate change we are dealing with daily now in floods, in fires, in droughts, in species moving about--particularly in Rhode Island, our ocean fisheries are moving about. The oceans are acidifying. We are putting essential operating systems of our planet in danger and onto a course that mankind has never seen before in the entire history of humankind. prgtoken When I got here in 2007, this was addressed as a bipartisan problem. There were three different bipartisan Senate bills, all of which were very consequential. It would have made a huge difference. Senator McCain ran for President carrying the Party banner with a significant and serious climate platform, and it looked like democracy was responding to this problem in a responsible way. All of that activity came to an instant shuttering halt in January of 2010. prgtoken What happened in January of 2010? What happened in January of 2010 was that the U.S. Supreme Court let loose one of the worst decisions it has ever rendered--the Citizens United decision--and that decision allowed unlimited money to flow into politics. prgtoken Of course, if you can spend unlimited money in politics, you suddenly have an unprecedented motive to hide it. If the most you can give is $3,500 or $5,000 from your PAC, it is not worth putting a lot of effort into hiding that; plus, nobody really cares. But if you can give $35 million, plus, let's say you are a polluting fossil fuel company and you don't want people to know that, now it is worth putting quite a lot of m
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 8873, PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REFORM ACT
Mary Gay Scanlon (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2022-9-21

. Madam , I would reiterate Mr. Raskin's point that certainly the voters in Pennsylvania that I have heard from care deeply about whether or not their votes are counted. prgtoken Madam , the Presidential Election Reform Act will reinforce one of the defining American characteristics of our American experiment in democracy: the peaceful transition of Presidential power. prgtoken It is critical to that experiment that Americans have faith that our leaders will honor the will of the people when they vote. The process of counting and transmitting votes is a question of procedure and should not be treated as an opportunity to manipulate the outcome of a free and fair election as it was in the wake of the 2020 election. prgtoken I am heartened that the legislation under consideration today is a bipartisan bill. I don't care if you are a , a , a conservative, a liberal, an Independent. If you love this country and believe in a government by the people, for the people, and of the people, we all have an obligation to confront the dangers posed by antidemocratic agents who try to undermine our elections, abandoning the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power for their own personal or political gain. prgtoken I regret that we must bring this bill to strengthen the guardrails of our democracy after the subversive actions of the disgraced former President and his supporters threatened to derail our government entirely. prgtoken But we must confront those continuing threats to our electoral system, in Pennsylvania and across the Nation, where bad actors continue to promote lies about election security. To be clear, there was never justification for the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But bad actors lied about the election results and willfully misinterpreted the law, and Members of the former President's party, whether explicitly or by their silence, continue to support these lies and baseless legal challenges. prgtoken These tactics demand the bipartisan set of reforms we are considering today to insulate our democracy from demagoguery. prgtoken I look forward to working with my colleagues of all political stripes to strengthen the guardrails of our democracy and to support and defend the Constitution.
INTRODUCTION OF THE FERRY SERVICE EXPANSION ACT
John Garamendi (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2022-9-21

. Madam , today I introduce the ``Ferry Service Expansion Act'' with U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). I want to thank my House colleagues for their support as original cosponsors of this bipartisan legislation. prgtoken Ferries are among the most climate-resilient modes of public transportation, capable of reaching areas where it is infeasible or imprudent to build new bridges or causeways. Historically, Congress has underfunded public ferry service compared to other transit and roadway projects. Our ``Ferry Service Expansion Act'' would correct this by increasing funding for both the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) formula and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) competitive grant programs to the levels requested by the Public Ferry Coalition, which represents public ferry operators across the country. prgtoken In the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) is working to expand ferry service for commuters and visitors alike. WETA is also retrofitting its existing diesel-powered ferries to reduce emissions of particulates and greenhouse gases, WETA is pursuing new, zero-emissions ferries to eventually replace its entire vessel fleet. The ``Ferry Service Expansion Act'' would provide federal support for this important work, while also holding federal grantees to the high standards for ``Buy American'' requirements and prevailing wages under the Davis-Bacon Act that already apply to other federal funding for ferries. prgtoken Under current law, States may use their federal Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) for public or private ferry projects. In December 2020, the Bay Area Council released a feasibility study for employing hovercraft to provide ferry service in the South Bay. Hovercrafts can provide ferry service in environmentally sensitive areas that cannot be dredged to sufficient depth for vessels. Section 4 of the ``Ferry Service Expansion Act'' would simply clarify that States could use their STBG for hovercraft ferries, provided the project is otherwise eligible under the program as providing ferry service to the public. On July 1, 2021, the House passed this same provision as my amendment to Chairman Peter A. DeFazio's (D-OR) ``Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation (INVEST) in America Act.'' prgtoken Lastly, our bicameral, bipartisan legislation would also support private operators of passenger ferries by allowing them to register Capital Construction Funds with the Maritime Administration (MARAD). Capital Construction Funds allow vessel operators to forgo paying federal business taxes on such vessels provided all that forgone tax payment is reinvested in constructing new U.S.-flagged vessels in American shipyards. Under current law, only cargo vessels and commercial fishing boats are eligible for this special tax exemption. However, some car ferry operators successfully registered Capital Constructi
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 8873, PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REFORM ACT
Adam B. Schiff (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2022-9-21

. Madam , I rise in support of the Presidential Election Reform Act, but first, let me respond to my colleague from Pennsylvania, who partially quoted me in the first impeachment trial. prgtoken I did, in fact, predict that if the former President was not held accountable for trying to extort Ukraine by withholding military aid to get Ukraine's help to cheat in the election that he would go on to try to cheat in prgtoken even new and worse ways in the upcoming election. In fact, I believe I said that the odds were not 5 percent, not 10 percent, not even 50 percent, but 100 percent that he would go on to try to cheat again. In that, sadly, I was all too correct. prgtoken Over the last year, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has conducted a thorough investigation into the multiple lines of effort by President and his allies to overturn the election, efforts that included a pressure campaign against the Vice President to violate the Constitution and assume powers he does not hold to unilaterally reject valid electoral count votes. prgtoken Our democracy held, but barely. These events have revealed underlying vulnerabilities to our democracy, vulnerabilities that could be exploited in a future Presidential election. prgtoken This bill will help ensure that the will of the American people, as expressed through their votes, cannot be overturned by any official of any political party at any time or for any purpose. prgtoken Consistent with the Constitution, it raises the threshold for challenging a slate of electors during a joint session of Congress. It reaffirms the role of the presiding officer, that it is a ministerial one. Perhaps most important, it affirms that State officials cannot change the rules of an election after the fact in an effort to overturn the will of the people, as expressed through their popular vote. prgtoken This bill will help ensure that the cornerstone of our democracy, free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, remains in place for future generations of Americans. This is not a partisan task but a patriotic one. prgtoken Over the past several months, we have told the story of what happened on January 6, documenting the events for the American people.
DISCLOSE Act (Executive Calendar)
Debbie Stabenow (Democrat, MI) \u2014 2022-9-21

first of all, I want to thank Senator Van Hollen for his incredible work over the years and his leadership both in the House and in the Senate. And thank you for taking on this fight and working so hard to expose the bright light of truth and transparency about what is happening around secret money. prgtoken And I want to thank Senator Whitehouse for his dogged focus on the issue of secret money influencing elections. Thank you for all of your wonderful work, and to all of our colleagues who have joined us on the floor and to all of my ic colleagues, all of whom are supporting the DISCLOSE Act. prgtoken The Members of this Chamber have a choice to make, and it is really pretty simple: You can be on the side of the American people or you can be on the side of the rich and powerful. prgtoken We can pass the DISCLOSE Act, let the public know what is happening, put limits around it, stop all of this; or you can vote against it and vote with the powerful and the wealthy. prgtoken The DISCLOSE Act is going to keep our elections in the hands of voters, not the highest bidders. That is really the bottom line. And you don't have to look very far for examples of why we need to pass this legislation. prgtoken Colleagues have all been talking today about, stunningly, how a conservative group has received a $1.6 billion donation from a single donor--one man, $1.6 billion; and one mission--one mission--to put his finger on the scale of our democracy. prgtoken If you don't think that guy isn't going to have an undue influence on our elections in the coming years, then I have a bridge across the Straits of Mackinac I would like to sell you. prgtoken And this very rich man isn't alone, unfortunately. As my colleagues have said, in 2006, there was less than $5 million in dark money spent on our elections--5 million. Then, in 2010, the Supreme Court handed down its Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates, and it didn't take long for the water to rise. In 2012, more than $300 million was spent in secret money--dark money--in elections, and in 2020, more than $1 billion was spent in dark money in elections. And now we know, in 2022, that we have one person who has already given $1.6 billion to try to influence this election. prgtoken If you laid those billion-dollar bills end to end, they would extend around the Earth nearly four times--extend around the Earth four times. That is how much we are talking about here, and we don't even know where all this anonymous spending is coming from. prgtoken But we do know this, and Senator Wyden--Chairman Wyden--spoke earlier. When we took on Big Pharma to lower prescription drug prices, not one voted yes. When we took on Big Oil to lower energy costs and attack the climate crisis, not one voted yes. When we took on corporations that pay zero in taxes, not one voted yes. prgtoken The American people deserve to know why. How muc