mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
Recognition of the Minority Leader (Executive Session)
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-10-5

from start to finish, President 's nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court will go down as one of the saddest, most sordid in the long history of the Federal judiciary. prgtoken The well was poisoned from the outset when President selected Judge Kavanaugh from a list of names preapproved by hard-right special interest groups for whom the national interest is a trifling concern compared to repealing Roe v. Wade, cutting people's healthcare, and achieving a partisan majority on the Supreme Court. The rot worsened when the majority on the Judiciary Committee shielded the bulk of Judge Kavanaugh's records from the public, discarding decades of bipartisan precedent and thwarting norms of transparency and fairness. Finally, the dam broke under the weight of credible allegations that Judge Kavanaugh committed a sexual assault in high school. prgtoken In 2018, the majority conducted a hearing that made the Anita Hill hearings in 1991 look fair by comparison. At this hearing, there were no corroborating witnesses on either side and no independent investigation of the facts to inform the questioning. They even hired an outside counsel to put a witness, Dr. Ford, on trial. Only at the eleventh-hour urging of breakaway Members of their caucus, s submitted, reluctantly, to a 1-week investigation of the allegations-- an investigation which was then severely circumscribed by the White House. prgtoken Our friends blame us for this process. They are always finding a straw man. But nothing could be further from the truth. First, they blame us for delay, knowing full well that Majority Leader McConnell has complete control of when nominees are brought to the floor. Leader McConnell could have moved this nominee 2 weeks ago or 1 week ago. had no say--and don't--when it comes to what is scheduled for floor debate. But in each case, Leader McConnell couldn't move the nominee forward because he was blocked by fellow s-- not --from moving forward. When it comes to complaining about delay, two words never come from our friends' lips: ``Merrick Garland.'' prgtoken s are also saying that we engaged in ``a smear campaign'' or the ``politics of personal destruction'' with this nomination. In reality, again, they are using as a straw man, because what they are really talking about is what Dr. Ford said. did not induce her to come forward; her conscience did. Are our friends accusing Dr. Ford and her deeply held memories of what happened to her of a smear campaign? Are they accusing Dr. Ford of a smear campaign, of engaging in the politics of personal destruction? Because that is who they are actually blaming. They are decrying her testimony and then trying to blame . I don't blame them--they have a flawed nominee. They don't want the focus on the nominee. <
CONGRATULATING ODLE MIDDLE SCHOOL ON WINNING THE NATIONAL SCIENCE BOWL
Adam Smith (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2018-10-5

I rise to congratulate Odle Middle School students: Ishan Bansal, Eric He, Neil Chowdhury, Eric Liu, and Clarance Zheng for their win at the National Science Bowl (NSB), held this past April 26 to April 30 in Washington, D.C. prgtoken The Department of Energy (DOE) created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science, and to pursue careers in these fields. More than 290,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl throughout its 28-year history, and more than 14,000 students compete in the NSB every year. prgtoken Coached by Rina Chowdhury with guidance from Interlake High School teacher Michael O'Bryne, the Odle Middle School team was among 48 middle schools from around the United States that competed for the national title. Winning this title is not an easy feat, and their perseverance is truly remarkable. In addition to being named the 2018 National Champions, the team's diligence and dedication earned Olde's Science Department $1000, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy. prgtoken , it is with great honor that I recognize the enormous achievement of Odle Middle School and its students Ishan Bansal, Eric He, Neil Chowdhury, Eric Liu, and Clarance Zheng. Their impressive potential to thrive in a range of scientific and mathematical fields is demonstrated by their victory at the 2018 National Science Bowl, and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.
Cloture Motion (Executive Session)
Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-10-5

as I begin speaking tonight, we are less than 24 hours away from handing a seat on the Supreme Court to a man credibly accused of sexual assault--a lifetime appointment that would give him immense power to determine the right of every American to access healthcare, to start or grow a family, or even have access to what the Founders called the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. prgtoken From the beginning, this nomination process has been a sham. The confirmation hearing was rushed. - and -era s worked shoulder to shoulder to ensure that thousands of documents never saw the light of day. Questions about Kavanaugh's seeming habit of perjuring himself only grew by the day. That was all before Dr. Christine Blasey Ford stood up and spoke out, before she took a deep breath and began to relive the worst moment of her life over and over again on the national stage, credibly accusing Brett Kavanaugh of pinning her down, covering her mouth, and changing her life forever. prgtoken Now, even after she has testified about the night she was nearly raped, even after she talked of the memories indelibly etched into her mind and her 100 percent certainty that it was Brett Kavanaugh that night, some on the other side of the aisle have prioritized partisan tribalism over justice, over truth--two of the pillars that supposedly define our Supreme Court. prgtoken How can the FBI investigation be considered anything but a GOP-led sham when Dr. Ford was not even interviewed, when Mr. Kavanaugh himself wasn't even questioned or the dozen-plus people Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez have said could help collaborate their stories? prgtoken Why the rush? What are the s afraid of? If they are so convinced that their nominee is not a serial sexual assaulter, why have they done everything in their power to curb and hinder investigations into the incidents in question? prgtoken The s who angrily claimed on TV yesterday that this nomination is taking too long, that the are obstructing for the sake of obstructing, are literally the same people who delayed the consideration of Merrick Garland's nomination for 293 days simply because he was nominated by President . prgtoken For the chairman to claim that this nomination has gone on longer than the ``average'' Supreme Court nomination ignores the reality that their nominee, who has been credibly accused of multiple sexual assaults, is being jammed through at lightning speed compared to the only other nomination he has ever overseen as chairman--Merrick Garland. prgtoken To Leader McConnell, Chairman Grassley, and my colleagues, I warn you, history has its eyes on you. I beg you to slow down and consider the stakes of this debate. prgtoken Like Neil Gorsuch just a year ago, there are countless other conservatives scattered throughout the Federal judiciary who could be confirmed instead of Jud
LEW GAITER
Jared Polis (Democrat, CO) \u2014 2018-10-5

today I would like to honor the memory of Lew Gaiter III and offer my most sincere condolences to his family and to all who had the pleasure of knowing him. prgtoken Lew served the people of Larimer County as County Commissioner for nearly a decade, during which he brought innovative ideas that delivered lasting change. While Lew achieved many things as commissioner, two of his most notable accomplishments were his work in advancing rural broadband development, and his help in establishing the Larimer County Office of Emergency Management. prgtoken In addition to his work as commissioner, Lew added tremendous value to his community through his volunteer work. Lew was a member of the Loveland Volunteer Ski Patrol for 25 years and dedicated his time to local churches and charitable organizations. prgtoken I am truly grateful to have been able to call Lew a friend and to have observed the dedication and enthusiasm he served his community with. Lew was a remarkable individual with a terrific work ethic and a servant's heart. His passing will be felt throughout his community and beyond
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR (Executive Session)
Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-10-5

. Thank you very much. prgtoken , this has been my ninth Supreme Court nomination hearing, and I must say, I have never experienced anything like this. prgtoken Never before have we had a Supreme Court nominee where over 90 percent of his record has been hidden from the public and the Senate. Never before have we had a nominee display such flagrant partisanship and open hostility at a hearing, and never before have we had a nominee facing allegations of sexual assault. prgtoken The nominee before us being considered for a pivotal swing seat, if confirmed, would be the deciding vote on some of the most important and divisive issues of our day. prgtoken I would like to start by speaking about some of the issues in relation to Judge Kavanaugh. prgtoken President promised to nominate to the Supreme Court only individuals who would be pro-life and pro-gun nominees and who would automatically overturn Roe v. Wade. In my judgment, Judge Kavanaugh clearly meets the test. prgtoken In a speech in 2017, Judge Kavanaugh focused on praising Justice Rehnquist and his dissent in Roe v. Wade, where he challenged the right to women's privacy as protected in the Constitution. prgtoken Also, last year, Judge Kavanaugh argued in a dissent in a Texas case that a Jane Doe should not be able to exercise her right to choose because she did not have family and friends help her make the decision. If adopted, this argument could rewrite Supreme Court precedent and require courts to determine whether a young woman has a sufficient support network when making her decision, even in cases--as is in this one--where she had gone before a court. prgtoken His reasoning demonstrates that Judge Kavanaugh not only is willing to disregard precedent, but his opinions fail to appreciate the challenging realities women face when making these most difficult decisions. prgtoken When I asked him about whether Roe and Casey were settled law and whether they were correctly decided, he refused to answer. He would say only that these cases are ``entitled to respect.'' prgtoken As we all know, Roe v. Wade is one of a series of cases that upheld an individual's right to decide who to marry, where to send your children to school, what kind of medical care you can receive at the end of life, as well as whether and when to have a family. According to these cases, the government cannot interfere with these decisions. prgtoken Another issue that gives me great pause is Judge Kavanaugh's extreme view on guns. In reviewing his record and judicial opinions, it is clear his views go well beyond simply being pro-gun. prgtoken During a lecture at Notre Dame Law School, Judge Kavanaugh himself said he would be ``the first to acknowledge that most lower-court judges have disagreed'' with his views on the Second Amendment. prgtoken Specifically, in District of Columbia v. Heller, Judge Kavanaugh wrote in a dissenting opinion that ``unless guns were regulated either
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued
Jeff Merkley (Democrat, OR) \u2014 2018-10-5

I have a lot of concerns about the possibility of Brett Kavanaugh serving on the Supreme Court. They are concerns that come from many different directions, but let's start with the precedent that this body has not reviewed his full record. We haven't taken any look at all at the 3 years he was Staff Secretary to President because the President's team intervened and asked us not to. And a couple Members of this body collaborated with the White House to deny everybody else here the possibility of looking at his record. prgtoken The thing is that each and every one of us has a responsibility to review the record. This exceptional situation in which a few Members have made it impossible for anyone in the body to fulfill their constitutional responsibility is an extraordinary abuse of power in this body. prgtoken Then we have the President of the United States reaching out in other ways--in ways we have never seen before--and putting the stamp of Presidential privilege on some 100,000 documents. These were documents from the time that Brett Kavanaugh served as a White House Counsel. We received a few documents, and there were a lot of troubling things in those documents, but 100,000 documents were censored by the President of the United States. prgtoken I will just remind my colleagues that the President is not supposed to interfere with the work of the Senate in the confirmation process. It is called the separation of powers. Maybe some of you would like to pull out your Constitution and study it for a moment and realize that the President nominates but doesn't get to decide what this body reviews. Yet that stamp of Presidential power, untested, has done so for, as far as we can tell, the first time in U.S. history. prgtoken Then we have the fact that he asked the same individual whom he had given the stamp of Presidential power to proceed to make some 140,000 documents confidential so the public couldn't see them. Well, that, too, was untested. That, too, was an original strategy. That, too, was a situation of minimizing the conversation that experts could have of what was in those records. prgtoken Of those three phases, I think the one that bothers me the most is the second one--the use of the stamp of Presidential privilege on 100,000 documents. When Presidential privilege--otherwise known as Executive privilege--was used in the past, a document was looked at and it was determined, what constitutional test does this meet for special treatment? One would think that since these were documents from the administration, the administration couldn't make any of the arguments that normally are made about compromising conversations in the White House, but no explanation was given. This was just straight- out censorship across the board. prgtoken I challenged that censorship, and the hearing that was supposed to take prgtoken place unfortunately won't take place because of this rush to compl
Cloture Motion (Executive Session)
Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, MN) \u2014 2018-10-5

I come to the floor today to speak on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I said on the first day that Judge Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate that this proceeding was not normal. On its face, it looked like a normal confirmation hearing. The family was there. He was sitting in the chair with the table in front of him, ready to address the committee. The cameras were on. The Senators were all seated, prepared to ask questions. All of it looked normal, but nothing about this confirmation process has been normal. prgtoken These hearings began at a time when we had access to only a tiny fraction of the documents from Judge Kavanaugh's record. In fact, the night before the proceedings started, we got a document dump of 42,000 pages. Even less of the information--the 3 years of his time as a Staff Secretary in the White House--has been available to the American people or to us. That is still true today. prgtoken These hearings were about a nominee, in the end, who was handpicked by a President--a nominee who had good credentials. There is absolutely no doubt about that. There are many nominees--potential nominees--who have good credentials. In this case, this particular person was picked at a time in our history with perhaps the most expansive view of Presidential power possible--a nominee who has actually written in an opinion that a President should be able to declare laws unconstitutional. prgtoken These views go beyond the mainstream, and this confirmation process has only gone farther astray. With what happened during the last 2 weeks and in light of Dr. Ford's compelling testimony, it was deeply troubling. I will talk about this at length. prgtoken I want to begin where I first started--what we know about Judge Kavanaugh's record and what it suggests about the kind of Justice he would be. In the last decades, the Supreme Court of the United States has decided whom you can marry, where you can go to school, who can vote, and for people like my grandpa, who worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines in Ely, MN, his entire life, the Supreme Court has decided how safe your workplace is. prgtoken The next Supreme Court Justice will make decisions that affect people across the country--their lives--forever. The next Supreme Court Justice will rule on cases that could determine whether health insurers can deny coverage to people who are sick or who have preexisting conditions and whether women's rights are protected. The next Supreme Court Justice will be in a position to serve as a check and balance on the other branches of government. That person must be someone who is fair and impartial and who demonstrates a commitment to the truth without consideration of politics or partisanship. prgtoken It has been our responsibility--every Senator in this Chamber--to determine if Judge Kavanaugh
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued
Maria Cantwell (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2018-10-5

I come and join my colleague from Oregon on the floor this evening and thank him very much for his comments and hard-fought efforts to try to illuminate the issues that are before the American people in this nomination that we are going to be voting on. As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight . . . and it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air--however slight--lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. prgtoken Those aren't my words; those are the words of the late Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Yes, that is right, I quoted William O. Douglas--not because he was from Yakima, WA, via Maine, originally, but because I wanted to bring up the rights of Americans that could be undermined by the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. That is because for generations the U.S. Supreme Court has been an institution that affirmed rights of Americans and moved our country forward, especially when we needed it most. prgtoken In 1954, it made a landmark decision to end segregation of our schools and to rightly give access to equal education. In 1964, it recognized the right to privacy and the ability to access contraception. It is hard to imagine today, in this era, that we needed that fundamental right and that it had been previously blocked. Yet it was. In 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the fundamental rights of marriage for same-sex couples, holding that they had equal protection under the law. prgtoken Yes, these are rights that have been decided by our Court and have moved our country forward. So I became very concerned when President nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court because he was on a list of an organization that wanted to see the literal text of the statute over upholding the hard-won rights of all Americans. prgtoken When it comes to the rights of consumers--healthcare rights, environmental laws, privacy rights, labor rights--I want to know where a Supreme Court Justice is going to be in upholding those hard-won rights that Americans and our society have pushed forward for decades. In this case, he will be replacing a Justice who has been a key vote on many fundamental rights in America. prgtoken So I definitely express my opinion that I do not believe that Judge Kavanaugh will protect those hard-won rights. And my concern is that he does not have a judicial philosophy that is in the mainstream views of America. He has the most dissents of any judge on the DC Circuit. That is to say that he is dissenting from even the most conservative judges on that Court. He is still dissenting. So I don't find those views in the mainstream views of Americans. prgtoken Let's just take one example: healthcare. More than 3 million Washingtonians in my State have preexisting conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma, and Americ
IN MEMORY OF LYNN FALLOWS
Rick Larsen (Democrat, WA) \u2014 2018-10-5

I rise to honor the life of Lynn Fallows. Lynn was a passionate mother, wife, teacher and ovarian cancer research advocate. On August 16, 2018, Lynn lost her battle with ovarian cancer. prgtoken Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic cancer and the fifth- leading cause of cancer deaths for women in the U.S. Despite advancement in medicine, no effective screening test exists for ovarian cancer. To complicate factors, symptoms are hard to catch in early stages, if not altogether absent. prgtoken In February 2015, Lynn was diagnosed with Stage III ovarian cancer. Lynn did not have a family history of ovarian cancer and, like many women diagnosed, was completely blindsided by her diagnosis. Like the fighter she was, Lynn wasted no time educating herself and getting involved in the ovarian cancer community. prgtoken The month she was diagnosed, Lynn started a blog to share her experiences and connect with other ovarian cancer patients and survivors. Within a year of her diagnosis, she began volunteering at the Rivkin Cancer Center in Seattle to help educate women and raise awareness about ovarian cancer. She later joined the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance's Advocate Leader program to advocate for ovarian cancer research and expanded access to care. prgtoken , Lynn dedicated the last years of her life making a difference in the lives of others through her advocacy work. Her family and friends will greatly miss and always remember Lynn's dedication, resilience and tenacity.