mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
AUTHORITY FOR COMMITTEES TO MEET
Dan Sullivan (Republican, AK) \u2014 2017-5-4

I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. prgtoken Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate. Committee on Armed Services prgtoken The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 9:30 a.m. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs prgtoken The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 10 a.m. to hold a hearing entitled ``Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, Part II.'' Committee on Energy and Natural Resources prgtoken The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate in order to hold a hearing on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 10 a.m. in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. Committee on Foreign Relations prgtoken The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 10 a.m to hold a hearing entitled ``International Development: Value Added Through Private Sector Engagement.'' Committee on the Judiciary prgtoken The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 2 p.m in S-216 of the Capitol, to conduct an executive business meeting. Committee on Intelligence prgtoken The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the 115th Congress of the U.S. Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017 prgtoken at 2 p.m in room SH-219 of the Senate Hart Office Building. Committee on Intelligence prgtoken The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the 115th Congress of the U.S. Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017 from 2 p.m in room SH-219 of the Senate Hart Office Building to hold a closed hearing. Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security prgtoken The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to hold a meeting during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 4, 2017, at 10:30 a.m in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building. prgtoken The Committee will hold a Subcommittee Hearing on ``Question, Answer, and Perspectives on the Current State of Airline Travel.''
GOVERNMENT FUNDING LEGISLATION
Marco Rubio (Republican, FL) \u2014 2017-5-4

while not perfect, this bill includes important provisions that will benefit Florida, strengthen our national security, increase resources for our national defense and the fight against ISIS, and give our military men and women the largest pay raise in 6 years. prgtoken Given the threats our Nation faces from the likes of North Korea and radical Islamic terrorists, a government shutdown would send exactly the wrong message to the world at a time when it is counting on America to lead. prgtoken I am pleased to see this bill funds the Department of Defense to levels authorized by Congress and includes increases for ship building, operations and maintenance, and military readiness. It also incorporates the fiscal year 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act, IAA, that provides essential guidance and authorities for our intelligence community. This year's IAA requires the President to establish an interagency committee to counter Russia's active measures against the U.S maintains resources for our intelligence community's counterterrorism capabilities, and requires the Director of National Intelligence to complete declassification reviews of terrorist activities of each individual who has been transferred or released from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. prgtoken This bill will ensure Florida can continue combatting the Zika virus and the opioid epidemic that is devastating so many families in our communities. I am committed to continuing to fight against Zika and have begun working with the Senate Appropriations Committee to establish an emergency health fund to provide funds for infectious outbreaks, like Zika. prgtoken This appropriations bill will also support Everglades restoration and improvements to the Herbert Hoover Dike and our State's ports. Florida's citrus growers will get the help they need to counter the terrible greening that is hurting their crops. prgtoken The bill also includes my legislation to protect public housing residents and reform HUD's broken inspection process. I saw firsthand the appalling conditions at Eureka Gardens in Jacksonville, Windsor Cove Apartments in Orlando, and Stonybrook Apartments in Riviera Beach, so I am glad this bill will help ensure the people at these properties finally see real changes for the better. prgtoken These provisions make the bill worthy of my support, but as I have said before, we cannot continue to run our country in this way, with one temporary bill after another. s and in Congress must work together with the administration to restore fiscal sanity, set a long-term budget, and address our Nation's unsustainable and growing debt.
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT AMENDMENT
Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (Republican, GA) \u2014 2017-5-4

I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the American Health Care Act. prgtoken For the last 7 years, I have watched Care crush the healthcare system that I worked in for more than 30 years. Thanks to Care, we have an insurance exchange that has withered to where a third of the counties in our country have only one insurer. At home in Georgia, 96 counties have only one choice on the exchange. That is not a choice. prgtoken Care has failed, and the American Health Care Act is critical to resuscitate our healthcare system and move it in a direction where patients, families, and doctors are making decisions, not the Federal Government and bureaucrats sitting behind a desk in Washington. prgtoken The American people need and deserve better, and that is why we must pass the American Health Care Act. This legislation guts Care and rebuilds a system that would deliver the choice and control that patients need and deserve all while ensuring that health insurers will not be allowed to discriminate by gender or preexisting conditions, and no one will be denied coverage, period.
HIRE VETS ACT--Continued
Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK) \u2014 2017-5-4

I have come to the floor this afternoon prgtoken to speak on the Omnibus appropriations bill that is now before the Senate. We will have an opportunity to vote on that very shortly here. prgtoken I would like to take a few moments to explain why I intend to support this legislative measure. I support this bill because I think it is good for the country, and I believe it is good for my State of Alaska. prgtoken I think what we have seen through this appropriations process is a negotiated bill going back and forth between both sides, between both bodies, and it is a bill that funds the Federal Government through the end of this fiscal year. It is far from perfect. I think we recognize that, but it is tough to find legislation anyplace where we are all going to be in agreement that it has everything each of us wants. I do believe it is a solid bill. It is a solid, bipartisan effort, and I would urge my colleagues to support this bill. prgtoken The first thing it does is it prevents the government from shutting down. Simply put, there are very few things in my mind that would warrant a government shutdown. The people of this country expect us to govern. They don't expect us to come to work and say we are going to shut it down. They expect us to figure out how we are going to fund it, to keep it open, and to do so in a responsible way that allows for the priorities to be reflected. I think we have done that. prgtoken I feel very strongly that those who would suggest that the way to deal with things is to shut it down is not the proper approach. That is why I have supported Senator Portman's legislation to put an end to government shutdowns. We just don't need disruptions that ultimately hurt our economy and hurt our families. prgtoken I certainly would have preferred a process that would allow for funding the government by passing appropriations measures on an individual basis, one by one. My colleague from Vermont, who is on the floor, has been around for a few Congresses, and he knows that used to be the way we handled appropriations. We had an approps bill come to the floor. We debated it. We amended it. We moved it through. We worked through that process. It was somewhat tediously slow at times, but it was a very open and collaborative process that I think reflected, again, the priorities around the country. prgtoken What we have in front of us is a measure that did in fact go through the full appropriations process, all 12 appropriations bills. It made it through the committee. Sometimes not all of them do, but for fiscal year 2017, these appropriations bills did. prgtoken As we saw at the end of last year, there was an agreement that we would not move forward with the appropriations bills at that time-- actually, it was probably less than an agreement, but a decision was made--and we are here, as of May 4, still working on fiscal year 17. prgtoken This is clearly not the best option, in my view, in
National Day of Prayer (Executive Session)
James Lankford (Republican, OK) \u2014 2017-5-4

it is a busy day. There is a lot going on in Washington, DC. Quite frankly, at home there is a lot going on in homes, families, and lives. Today is also a unique day for America as well. It is the one day that we as a nation have something called the National Day of Prayer. It started in 1988. It was an official day on this day, the first Thursday of May. But in the 1950s, Harry Truman started this process of a national day of prayer. So it far precedes that. prgtoken Our Nation has a rich and beautiful history in prayer. Members of the House and Senate, as the Presiding Officer knows, open the day every day with a prayer. It has been that way from the very beginning. Even the first Continental Congress on September 7, 1774, opened in prayer. prgtoken Tonight, Americans will gather in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol to celebrate the National Day of Prayer. Statuary Hall was once the House of Representatives, where the House gathered. It was also the largest gathering place in Washington, DC, and many churches for years met in Statuary Hall to be able to pray. It was the common meeting place. In fact, for a period of time in the early 1800s, four churches a Sunday used at that time the House of Representatives Chamber--what is now known as Statuary Hall--as their place for worship. prgtoken Thomas Jefferson worshipped there. In fact, every President from Thomas Jefferson all the way to Abraham Lincoln attended church on Sundays in Statuary Hall, what was at that time the House of Representatives Chamber. prgtoken That is an interesting fact. I have had folks talk about Thomas Jefferson's statement about the wall of separation between church and state. That was actually in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association, saying they would not allow the State to take over churches--that there would be this wall of separation between church and state. Two days after President Jefferson wrote that statement, he attended church in the House of Representatives Chamber on a Sunday. prgtoken Even earlier, at our Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin stated: ``In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection.'' prgtoken Many U.S. Presidents have signed proclamations for national prayer since 1799, from George Washington all the way to the present. prgtoken The National Day of Prayer is a good day for us to be able to reflect as a Nation and to be able to remember well that there are many people of faith in our country that do believe there is a Creator God and that he has made a difference in our own personal lives and he has made a difference in our Nation. prgtoken We go back to President Truman's statement. He said in 1952: ``The President shall set aside and proclaim a suitable day each year, other than a Sunday, as a National Day of Prayer, on which the people of the United Sta
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT AMENDMENT
Pete Olson (Republican, TX) \u2014 2017-5-4

the Senate never quits. When Care was passed in 2010, the Senate refused to use Care for their personal insurance. Most Americans know that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. My staff, my family, prgtoken and I have been on Care since day one. prgtoken Incredibly, the Senate is at it again. They don't want the American Health Care Act to apply to them because it is not right. They are special, and so they put a clause to exempt Congress from the American Health Care Act so they could filibuster the healthcare bill. That dog didn't hunt in 2010; it ain't hunting in 2017. If it is good for the American people, our bosses, it is good for their servants, Congress, us. prgtoken I urge my colleagues to be true public servants. Vote for H.R. 2192.
Northeast Colorado Fires (Executive Session)
Cory Gardner (Republican, CO) \u2014 2017-5-4

I come to the floor today to talk about the recent impact of prairie fires in northeastern Colorado. A lot of times when you turn on the national news in the spring, summer, or fall, you might see fires in Colorado, but most of the time those fires are located in western Colorado in the mountains. prgtoken We have had some horrible fires in recent years. The past decade has been littered with far too many fires of great consequence to our environment, to families, and to homes--and the damage they have caused. Oftentimes we don't see as much in the news about fires in other parts of the State, including the Eastern Plains of Colorado, the Great Plains and prairies. prgtoken At the end of March, Logan and Phillips Counties saw a blaze that burned 32,000 acres, destroying homes, harming cattle and farm operations, and shutting down a key interstate corridor. To put 32,000 acres into perspective, in 2016, the largest fire in Colorado was the Beaver Creek fire near prgtoken Walden, burning tens of thousands of acres over the course of 3 months. The fire burned about 38,000 acres. The fire burning 32,000 acres in northeastern Colorado took only about 24 hours of time. So we had 38,000 acres burn in 3 months, and 32,000 acres in northeastern Colorado burned in 24 hours. In both cases, these were incredibly dangerous situations to land, people, and those around them. prgtoken These images from the Denver Post paint a frightening picture of the devastation the area faced. We can look at these pictures here. You can see what happened with the dirt, debris, smoke, and weather that was created by the fire, and you can see the damage and what happened. You can see the damage to property here. prgtoken I want to go back to the earlier picture and talk about some of the other impacts we saw. You can see the firemen from eastern Colorado working to protect property, trying to stop the fire before it reached the homestead. prgtoken You can see someone with a tractor, and they are trying to disc up the ground, trying to create a firebreak. People from around eastern Colorado, northeastern Colorado were getting into their tractors, getting their tillage equipment, their chisels, discs, and sweeps to try to break up the ground to create a firebreak so that maybe they could stop the fire. I commend the first responders for containing this fire and preventing any loss of life while also preventing other fire hotspots from breaking out into larger, devastating blazes because of the work they did. prgtoken In the middle of these fires, I remember talking to a county commissioner from Logan County, and he described the situation where they had tried to create a firebreak with their road graders and the farmers in the field trying to disc up the ground to stop the fire from moving. prgtoken I remember vividly when the county commissioner told me that at a certain time of the day he had to make a phone call that he would n
TURKEY
Roger F. Wicker (Republican, MS) \u2014 2017-5-4

today I wish to express my concerns about the outcome of the April 16 constitutional referendum in Turkey, when more than 50 million Turkish citizens voted on constitutional amendments to convert Turkey's parliamentary government into a Presidential system. prgtoken Turkey is a longstanding friend of the United States and a NATO ally. prgtoken Our bilateral partnership dates back to the Cold War when Turkey served as an important bulwark against the creeping influence of the Soviet Union. Time has not diminished Turkey's geostrategic importance. Today Ankara finds itself at the intersection of several critical challenges: the instability in Syria and Iraq, the threat of ISIS and other extremist groups, and the refugee crisis spawned by this regional upheaval. prgtoken The United States relies on Turkey and other regional partners to help coordinate and strengthen our collective response. I was deeply troubled when renegade military units attempted to overthrow Turkey's democratically elected government last July. Turkey's strength is rooted in the democratic legitimacy of its government--a pillar of stability targeted by the reckless and criminal coup attempt. prgtoken As chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or U.S. Helsinki Commission, I take very seriously the political commitments made by the 57 participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE. These commitments, held by both the United States and Turkey, represent the foundation of security and cooperation in the OSCE region. They include an indispensable focus on human rights, rule of law, and democratic institutions. prgtoken In the OSCE's founding document, the Helsinki Final Act, participating states affirm ``the universal significance of human rights and fundamental freedoms'' and consider respect for these to be an ``essential factor'' for international peace and security. This vision is consistent with long-established U.S. foreign policy promoting human rights and democracy as cornerstones of a safer, more stable international order. prgtoken With these principles in mind, the United States must pay urgent attention to the current situation in Turkey and the danger it poses to Turkish and regional stability. Eroding respect for fundamental freedoms, rule of law, and democratic institutions in Turkey has proceeded at an alarming pace. The government's planned ``executive presidency'' will further decrease government accountability. prgtoken Since the attempted coup more than 9 months ago, Turkey has operated under a state of emergency that gives the government sweeping authority to curtail rights and silence opponents. Certain extraordinary measures may have been justified in the immediate aftermath to restore order, investigate events, and bring perpetrators to justice, but the government's actions have stretched far beyond these legitimate aims. The ongoing purge has t
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT AMENDMENT
Tim Walberg (Republican, MI) \u2014 2017-5-4

regardless of the myths being spun by the other side of the aisle that refused to read 129 pages of a bill, the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable. prgtoken My constituents have been asking for relief from this collapsing law for years. They can no longer afford to pay more for less; and refusing to act is not an option. prgtoken Under Care, out-of-pocket expenses have skyrocketed not just for people on exchanges, but for all patients. Premium increases are nearly four times larger than previously projected. prgtoken Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Mr seem content with the current flawed system which puts the government in charge of people's health and promises coverage that is going away. prgtoken Let's vote to increase choice, lower costs, enhance protections, truly cover preexisting conditions, and get Washington out of the way so that patients and their doctors are once again at the center of healthcare decisions.
HIRE VETS ACT--Continued
Tom Cotton (Republican, AR) \u2014 2017-5-4

I am going to be voting no on this 1,700- page bill. prgtoken I am not blind to some of the good parts of the bill. It includes last year's Intelligence Authorization Act, and it includes some parts of the bill that I worked on that would counteract Russian activities in the United States and Europe--provisions that were blocked by the administration since they refused to ever get tough on Russia. prgtoken It increases defense spending, although not to an adequate degree in relation to the threats we face. prgtoken For the first time in years, it recognizes that every dollar we spend on defense doesn't have to be matched by another dollar elsewhere in our budget. prgtoken Now, there are parts of this bill that got dropped that I would like to have seen, for instance, blocking Federal funding for sanctuary cities. We might as well call them ``outlaw cities'' because they refuse to comply with Federal immigration law and turn over illegal immigrants facing deportation to Federal authorities. prgtoken But I want to hone in on one particular provision that shows just how bad this process is. In a 1,700-page bill, they don't hide the good things in the bill. They only hide the bad things. So look to page 735, section 543, where you will find an increase in H-2B visas of almost 79,000--a 120-percent increase over the normal annual cap of a so- called seasonal visa program for temporary workers that can take up to 9 or 10 months. prgtoken It is not necessary. It has nothing to do with funding the government--nothing. It hasn't been vetted. It hasn't gone through the normal legislative process, which would be the Judiciary Committee, where the chairman and the senior both have written that they oppose this measure. I don't even know how it got in there. I don't know if it was the chairman or the ranking member. They may not know. It is 1,700 pages, after all. It takes hours to even figure out what it means because it is so complicated in language. prgtoken But this is what it does: It takes jobs away from American workers and abuses the immigrants that come into this country. prgtoken In the past 10 years, the Department of Labor has found 800 employers--800--that have abused 23,000 guest workers--everything from stealing their wages, demanding bribes for their visas, and even sexual abuse--and those are only the ones that have been caught. That is because unlike American workers, these immigrant workers cannot leave their job. If they are fired, they go back to their home country, where they often have huge families who are depending on them for their remittances. Their employers know that, and they take advantage of them. It is a newfangled form of indentured servitude. prgtoken Some people in this institution complain about the way Arab countries treat guest workers from South Asia and Southeast Asia. The conditions under which some of these H-2B workers operate are hardly much better. They