mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT--Resumed
Ron Wyden (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2021-5-25

. and colleagues, Senator Crapo has brought forward an amendment to the competition bill. It deals with the administration's announcement that it prgtoken would participate in negotiations on intellectual property and the coronavirus vaccines. prgtoken Unfortunately, my friend's amendment also goes far beyond the current pandemic and adds roadblocks to any improvements to any other trade agreements into the future. So I must oppose Senator Crapo's amendment. prgtoken I am offering an alternative, which the Senate will also vote on shortly. The fact is that even though COVID is receding in many American communities, the virus will still be a danger to Americans as long as there are outbreaks and mutations around the world. prgtoken That is a big reason why the administration is working overtime to increase vaccine production and distribution as quickly as possible in our country and around the world. It is also why the administration announced its intention to participate in negotiations over the vaccine IP waivers. The U.S. Trade Representative will be in charge of our participation in those negotiations. prgtoken Again, unfortunately, the Crapo amendment would tie up our U.S. Trade Representative in bureaucratic redtape and reporting for many months before she could speak to any of our trading partners about the issue. prgtoken Ambassador Tai and the administration recognize that the TRIPS waiver is not going to end the pandemic overnight. However, the American people and countries around the world cannot afford the delay that the Crapo amendment would cause. prgtoken The Crapo amendment puts the U.S. Trade Representative into what amounts to a straitjacket, making it hard--if not impossible--to negotiate fixes or modifications to any trade agreement, for any reason. It would make the process for modifying an agreement more difficult than getting into that agreement in the first place. That is a big roadblock to improvements that could raise standards for workers and the environment. prgtoken I will close by mentioning that I have filed an alternative, amendment 1975. My amendment guarantees transparency and consultations throughout the negotiations. It makes clear that the United States must promote global access to vaccines, all while safeguarding our IP from hostile foreign powers and protecting American innovation. prgtoken So here is the bottom line: It is not only possible, it is absolutely essential for our system to include strong intellectual property protections, as well as exceptions to promote the common good at the same time. prgtoken My amendment strikes the right balance. The Crapo amendment just goes too far in the direction of blocking the administration from using all available tools to fight the pandemic and to make improvements to any other trade agreements. prgtoken For that reason, I urge Senators to support my amendment, 1975. I urge my colleagues to oppose my frie
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Chuck Grassley (Republican, IA) \u2014 2021-5-26

first of all, I compliment Senator Thune with his remarks and agree with everything that he said and particularly to emphasize his call for a hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee, something we have been trying to get done for a long period of time, and I hope that will soon happen. Remembering John Warner prgtoken , secondly, I would like to follow up on the comments that the two Senators for Virginia made about Senator Warner. prgtoken Senator Warner came to the Senate 2 years before I did, and I remember him almost constantly talking about the No. 1 responsibility of the Federal Government: our national security and protecting the American people. And he was always, whether he was Secretary of the Navy or whether he was a Senator from Virginia--he was always speaking strongly about keeping and making sure that our military was strong to meet its constitutional responsibilities. prgtoken I also remember that he was a person that quite frequently would speak up in caucuses when he had a disagreement with the leadership of the day or the position of the caucus for the day or maybe he would even be in the minority of the caucus speaking on something that he felt strongly about. prgtoken And I also remember his speaking in terms of--after Reagan Airport was shut down because of 9/11 and the consequences that brought to the economy of Northern Virginia, how we worked so hard to get that airport opened up again. Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes prgtoken , the third and last reason for coming to the U.S. Senate floor at this time to speak is to, like all of my colleagues would do, condemn the troubling increase in hate crimes, whether it is on any minority group, but today I come to the floor because of the recent attacks on Jewish Americans. prgtoken Anti-Semitism has been called the oldest hatred. Throughout the history of the Jewish people, they have been subjected to cruelty, discrimination, and violence. Even in modern times, even here in America, Jews are still not safe from this hatred, and that is a profoundly bad and sad situation. No Jewish American should ever experience bigotry based on their religion, nor should they be subjected to threats, harassment, or injury because there is a Jewish State of Israel. prgtoken We can express disagreements about foreign policy and about conflict in the Middle East, but we should never allow those disagreements to become dehumanizing and abusive. Yet, in response to the terrible conflict in Gaza recently, Jewish Americans have been attacked in recent weeks. prgtoken The Anti-Defamation League has said that the reporting of anti- Semitic incidents has gone up 63 percent since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. prgtoken In New York, two Jewish teenagers were surrounded by an angry mob just this last Saturday. The boys were told that they had to chant ``f
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2021-5-26

before I give my remarks, I want to echo what has been said on the floor here by our two colleagues, the two Senators from the Commonwealth of Virginia, about Senator John Warner. prgtoken I would just say, too, that when I first got to the Senate, my first 6 years in the Senate, I was a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. When I got here, Senator Warner was the chairman of that committee. And I had known him a little bit from a distance because I had worked as a staffer out here back in the 1980s, but I got the chance to know him in a very personal way as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. prgtoken And I have to just, again, associate myself with many of the comments that have already been made about him. He truly was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word--somebody who represents everything, I think, that is good about public life in politics and legislating and making public policy and cared profoundly and deeply for our men and women in uniform. prgtoken As the chairman of the committee, that was his No. 1 priority. Of course, as has been mentioned, he was a marine and Secretary of the Navy and had just a deep, deep passion to make sure that the men and women who defend this country on a daily basis were respected and had the resources, the equipment, the training, and everything they needed to succeed in their jobs. prgtoken So he truly was a--he couldn't have been a kinder person to me. As a rookie out here, I remember I was standing over there offering an amendment to the Defense authorization bill. I think it was my first, probably, amendment prgtoken on the floor, and it was something that he, as the chairman, opposed. And he, I think, probably could have eviscerated me if he had wanted to, but he had that, as has been mentioned--he had that demeanor and disposition, somebody described it as a twinkle in his eye. He truly had that. And he really was out of central casting. If anybody wanted to cast somebody, he certainly could have had a career in Hollywood because he looked the part. But it was more than just looking the part. He lived it. He was truly not only a gentleman but a great Senator for the Commonwealth of Virginia and a great patriot to this country, who got up every day and thought of ways that he could make our country stronger and better. prgtoken So my thoughts and prayers are with his wife Jeanne and all of his family today Agriculture prgtoken , the last several years have been difficult ones for cattle producers in my home State of South Dakota and around the country. A 2019 fire, and later COVID, caused reductions in meatpacking capacity, which left cattle producers with cattle to sell and no place to sell them. prgtoken And even now, with our country well on its way to full reopening, meatpackers are still not back at full capacity--at least in part, it seems, because of the enhanced unemp
TRIBUTE TO DEPUTY DAVID ``OZ'' OSBORNE
Rand Paul (Republican, KY) \u2014 2021-5-26

when a popular sheriff's deputy from Daviess County, KY began what seemed to be a routine call in 1989, he had no reason to anticipate that his life would soon be hanging by a thread. He served a restraining order without incident and returned to his vehicle. But then, in the blink of an eye, he was shot multiple times, beaten severely, and was nearly run over by the assailant as he fled the scene. prgtoken Deputy David ``Oz'' Osborne was left to die on a driveway along a country road, but Clarence and Mary Hulsey had made an unplanned--and for them, unusual--decision to go to town to get ice cream on that May evening. First spotting Osborne's hat, they quickly found him, summoned help, and remained with him until first responders could take over. prgtoken This assault nearly ended Osborne's life 30 years ago, but although he was badly wounded and temporarily paralyzed, he recovered completely, returned to duty, raised his family, and was later elected Daviess County clerk. prgtoken More impressive than this narrative is the fact that the convicted assailant later contacted Osborne from prison, seeking his forgiveness, and Osborne agreed. Citing his Christian faith as his motivation, he said that forgiveness ``did not happen overnight, but it did happen.'' prgtoken It is clear why the citizens of Daviess County have so much respect for Oz Osborne to this very day. His story reminds us of the risks that our law enforcement officers and first responders face in the line of duty, but it teaches all of us an indelible and rare lesson about forgiveness and mercy.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
John Barrasso (Republican, WY) \u2014 2021-5-26

I come to the floor today to talk about the ongoing crisis at our southern border. prgtoken Over the past few weeks, the border crisis has been overshadowed by several other crises facing our country under this administration. Inflation has surged. The price of gasoline across Wyoming and likely in the home State of the Presiding Officer as well is now over $3 a gallon. have been on another spending spree. It is a trillion-dollar spending spree. Hiring has plummeted across the country. Terrorists have attacked our closest ally. The response from the administration actually on that attack has been to treat both our closest ally Israel and the attackers of Hamas as equals. I could go on and on. prgtoken The most serious challenges facing our Nation have escalated ever since President has taken office, but you can't forget the border crisis that we have now under President . Over the last several months, basically since President took office on January 20 and he changed our border policies, the crisis has only gotten worse. prgtoken President flipped on a big green light and said: Come to America. That is the message that people heard all across the world. He sent a clear message that the border is open. prgtoken On his first day in office, President shut down construction of the southern border wall. He stopped all deportations for 100 days. He brought back a program basically known as catch-and-release. Now those policy changes have led to a dramatic increase in illegal immigration. prgtoken In March, our border agents caught 170,000 immigrants crossing our southern border illegally. In April, they caught even more: 178,000 illegal immigrants in just 30 days. The numbers have gone up and up. I heard a report yesterday that we are now at half a million people coming in illegally ever since President has taken office. Half a million--that is the population of the entire State of Wyoming coming into the country illegally since January 20. This year we are on a pace for illegal immigration to hit a 20-year high. prgtoken Our border agents are overwhelmed. Two-thirds of the Border Patrol are too busy to actually be out there enforcing the law. They are too busy either taking care of kids, unaccompanied minors, or adults who have come across with families and have done so illegally. So only about one-third are out there trying to stop the bad guys who are coming into this country--human traffickers, drug traffickers--some even, we know, on the terrorist watch list. prgtoken In fact, they are so overwhelmed that they are doing something now they have never done before: They are releasing illegal immigrants directly into the country without even giving them court dates. Instead, they are telling them to report to ICE facilities, oh, sometime in the next couple of months. This is unprecedented. This is worse than catch-and-release. This is an absolute
ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT--Continued
James M. Inhofe (Republican, OK) \u2014 2021-5-26

over the weekend, the State Department-- that is, our State Department--imposed visa restrictions on several Ethiopian and Eritrean Government officials. They claim these officials have not done enough to end the hostilities in the Tigray area. prgtoken Now, the Tigray area is in the northern part of Ethiopia, and it is an area that is one of the very old parts of that continent. prgtoken First, we need to be clear. Everyone, especially the Ethiopian Government, wants nothing more than a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Tigray, but this action puts the terrorist organization TPLF--that is a terrorist organization--on equal status with the Ethiopian Government. Now, that is unacceptable, and it is wrong. It is outrageous that we have them in the same issue as if they are somehow equals. prgtoken Let me say something to be 100 percent clear, to make sure no one can misunderstand this, and that is that humanitarian atrocities are wrong and have no place in our world. I am proud that Prime Minister Abiy of Ethiopia has clearly stated that any atrocities are not condoned by the government and those responsible will be held accountable. That is going to happen. prgtoken To truly understand this issue and why putting the Ethiopian Government on equal footing with the TPLF is so offensive and downright wrong, you need to understand how we got here. Indulge with me in just a little bit of history. prgtoken Now, I know the changes Ethiopia has seen over the last decade. Since 2005, I have visited Ethiopia 19 different times, engaging and developing relationships with Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, legislators, businesspeople, aid workers, and everyone else in between. I say this to show that I know Ethiopia probably better than anyone else in this Chamber. But more than that, I know its history. prgtoken Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in all of Africa but one that is newly democratic. That comes with problems, and we understand that. prgtoken The current controversy and why we are here today started back in the 1970s with a man named Mengistu. From 1974 to 1991, Mengistu was the leader of the Communist Derg. That is the Communist Party in Ethiopia. This was the prgtoken controlling party at the time. It is a Communist Party. They ran Ethiopia. It was a terrible time for Ethiopia. That was during one of the worst famines they ever had on that continent or actually anywhere. It killed over a million people. That might be the most significant famine in history in terms of deaths. prgtoken Then, in 1991, the Communists were booted out. At the time that this took place, one person who was responsible for the getting rid of the Derg Communists and the Communist threat in Ethiopia was a guy named Meles. He was a member of the Tigrayan political party. prgtoken Now, we got to know him quite well. He is the one who got communism out of that part of the world. He ended up as Prime Minister. This
ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT--Continued
Ben Sasse (Republican, NE) \u2014 2021-5-26

my amendment about doubling DARPA funding is really simple: It doubles DARPA funding. This amendment would provide an additional $3.5 billion a year to the base, $3.5 billion that DARPA currently receives over the next 5 years. prgtoken To members of the Armed Services Committee, I would tell you, this amendment doesn't do anything to mess with your base authorization. Your work is not displaced. This is simply additive. Modern war isn't just about enemy landings; it is also about enemy hackings. And the Chinese Communist Party is currently pouring money into machine learning, AI, and quantum because they think if they achieve first- mover advantage in cyber, they will ultimately become the world's preeminent superpower. DARPA's job is to make sure that doesn't happen. prgtoken We to need to make sure that Chairman Xi lies awake at night worrying about his critical infrastructure, his networks, and his vulnerabilities. And DARPA is currently doing that work, but DARPA is not funded for us to win the technology race. prgtoken Money that goes to NSF, which is the core of the bill that is before us----
COVID-19 ORIGIN ACT OF 2021
Josh Hawley (Republican, MO) \u2014 2021-5-26

we are here tonight for a very simple reason with a very simple proposition--that the American people deserve to know about the origins of COVID-19. They deserve to know how this terrible pandemic that has ravaged the globe and our country, how it got started and what China's role was in starting it. prgtoken Now, we have seen a parade of government officials speculate about the origins in one place or another. And there is increasing speculation and, indeed, increasing numbers of statements from government officials saying that perhaps this virus originated in a Chinese lab, in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. prgtoken Well, I think it is time that the American people got to decide for themselves. It is time that they actually got to see the evidence that the U.S. Government has collected on this issue, and that is exactly what the measure that we are introducing here tonight would do. It would make available to the American people the evidence that the U.S. Government has about the origins of this terrible virus and this terrible pandemic. prgtoken I am proud to be joined in this effort by Senator Braun, and I know that he would like to make a few remarks.
ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT--Continued
John Kennedy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2021-5-26

I love Senator Durbin. I hate his amendment. Here is why. These SDRs are not free money. They are not free money. They are like a cryptocoin. The IMF issues the cryptocoin to all the countries that are members of the IMF, and these countries take that cryptocoin, and guess what they do. They come to the United States of America and say: We want to exchange our cryptocoin for dollars. And guess what. We don't have the dollars because we are dead broke. So we have to borrow the dollars to give to the Chinas and the Venezuelas and all the countries that hate us in exchange for their cryptocoins. prgtoken Now, that is just a natural fact, and if you check the record, you will find that as to the countries that really need the money to vaccinate their people, about 10 percent of this money is prgtoken going to them. The rest is going to all the larger countries, like China, like Venezuela, like the countries in Europe. Virtually no money gets sent to the people who need it. This is an incredibly inefficient way to do it.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2021-5-26

with all due respect to my colleague from Washington, when the universities say they can't do this because it is too burdensome, again, to me that actually demonstrates the very problem my simple amendment is trying to resolve. prgtoken All it is saying is in exchange for the tens of billions of dollars that America's universities will be getting as part of the Endless Frontier Act, they have to do one simple thing: once a year, send a letter to the National Science Foundation saying--and this is in the amendment right here--they have committed to protecting free speech, viewpoint diversity, the free exchange of ideas, academic freedom, and the protection of religious liberty, and prohibiting against discrimination. prgtoken That is it, . It is very simple. This is what universities should be doing. It is a letter, once a year, that is very simple in exchange for billions and billions of Federal research dollars. I certainly hope all of my colleagues will support this amendment--simple, needed. prgtoken Again, this is how we outcompete communist China, which is all about what the Endless Frontier Act is focused on. prgtoken I encourage my colleagues to vote yes. Vote on Amendment No. 1911
BUSINESS BEFORE THE SENATE
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2021-5-26

. On a completely different matter, today two Senate committees will consider and vote on two very different pieces of legislation. prgtoken Over in the Russell Building, the Environment and Public Works Committee just approved a bipartisan bill, led by Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito, to invest in better roads and bridges for the American people. prgtoken This would be the first major action on surface transportation since the FAST Act 6 years ago. It would raise the baseline funding for roads and bridges to an alltime high. And, as expected, our colleagues just reported this bill out unanimously, 20 to 0. That is legislating done right. Our colleagues are modeling the approach that would let Congress build a successful, big-picture infrastructure bill later this year. prgtoken Meanwhile, in the Hart Building, the Finance Committee will spend its afternoon marking up a leftwing, partisan bill written fully within the spirit of the Green New Deal: maximum pain for working American families in exchange for minimal--minimal--environmental gain. prgtoken Under the guise of Clean Energy for America, Chairman Wyden is leading the charge against the most reliable and affordable ways to power our country. prgtoken The legislation he has drafted is full of the sort of policies that would increase the price of gas at the pump, hike the tax burden on independent American producers, of course, killing jobs, discourage the industry-led innovations that have already been reducing emissions without hurting workers, and dragging the United States away from energy independence back toward reliance on imports from places like Russia, Venezuela, and the Middle East. prgtoken In exchange, the bill would have ordinary Americans subsidize the lifestyle preferences of wealthy people in places like New York and San Francisco. prgtoken So one committee unanimously approved a smart, targeted, bipartisan approach to key infrastructure projects that America needs, and another will consider a partisan descendent of the Green New Deal that would raise taxes, probably raise gas prices, and leave us with a less and less reliable electricity grid. prgtoken Really, this contrast is a fork in the road that the administration is facing writ large. Which route to take; a lonely road leading to the far left versus a mainstream, bipartisan road leading straight ahead toward practical policies that make American lives actually better? prgtoken The Senate knows how to walk that road. This last highway bill passed the Senate with 83 votes. Just last month, we passed a water infrastructure bill with 89 votes. prgtoken If President wants to secure lasting solutions, build a lasting legacy, and improve the lives of Americans in practical ways, he has the map in hand. For the sake of the country, let's hope he and his party decide to follow it.