mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
TRIBUTE TO ROCKY AND LISA EADES
John Barrasso (Republican, WY) \u2014 2021-7-28

I rise today in celebration of Rocky and Lisa Eades, the 2021 honorees of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming. prgtoken Since 1978, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming has made a positive difference in the lives of children. Their mission is to inspire all youth, especially those who need them the most. They strive to help young people reach their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens. The programs, leagues, and activities serve the children in our community by cultivating academic success, healthy lifestyles, and good character and citizenship. prgtoken On September 8, 2021, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming will host their 23rd annual awards and recognition breakfast. At this breakfast, prgtoken the organization honors members of the community who have made a significant difference in the lives of others. It is an inspiring celebration. prgtoken This year's honorees are Rocky and Lisa Eades. They are an ideal choice because of their tremendous role in helping families. Their story of generosity and compassion is inspiring. prgtoken Rocky and Lisa cofounded the Jason's Friends Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Casper, WY. Jason's Friends provides financial and moral support to families with children fighting cancer. The couple took on this charge after experiencing firsthand the hardships associated with childhood cancer. Their 8-year-old son Jason was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor in January 1995. prgtoken Rocky and Lisa dedicated their all to Jason's recovery. They upended their lives, traveling to Denver and New York for care and treatment. Jason's brave fight ended in November 1995. To honor Jason's life and help Wyoming families in similar situations, they founded Jason's Friends Foundation in 1996. prgtoken Jason's Friends has crafted an inspiring legacy, providing over $5.8 million in financial assistance to families dealing with the added stress and financial burden of a child with cancer. Currently, 145 families are enrolled in the program. The foundation helps cover nonmedical expenses such as travel and household bills. Their work allows families to fully commit to their fight against cancer. prgtoken The Bowl for Jason's Friends fundraiser, in its 23rd year, is a highly anticipated event, drawing in the entire community. The foundation also hosts Camp Courage, a no-cost summer camp for childhood cancer patients and their families. prgtoken Family is the highest priority for the Eades. In addition to Jason and the countless families they have helped throughout Wyoming, they have two grown daughters, Brooke and Skylar. Lisa serves as the volunteer president/CEO of Jason's Friends, cochairs the Wyoming Cancer Coalition, serves on the Wyoming Department of Health's Institutional Review Board, and was appointed by then Governor Mead to the Wyoming Palliative Care Advisory Council. Rocky is the president of Eades Construction
The Economy (Executive Session)
John Thune (Republican, SD) \u2014 2021-7-28

not content with their $1.9 trillion so- called COVID relief bill--paid for entirely with money borrowed from younger generations of Americans and our children and grandchildren-- are readying another partisan spending spree. prgtoken are preparing to consider a $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package, this one at least partially paid for by massive tax hikes--tax hikes on small businesses, tax hikes on large businesses, tax hikes on investment, tax hikes on well-off Americans, and tax hikes on the middle class. That is right, tax hikes on the middle class. prgtoken Now, President is fond of repeating that he won't raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year, but the new death tax he is proposing will definitely hit some middle-class Americans. Let's talk about that new tax. prgtoken President and congressional are proposing to eliminate a part of the Tax Code known as ``step-up in basis'' or referred to often as ``stepped-up basis.'' Under our current Tax Code, when you inherit something from an estate, whether that is stocks or a house, the value of that item is stepped up from its original value to its current market value when you receive it. This prevents you from having to pay capital gains taxes on the amount that your parents' house increased in value when it was owned by your parents. prgtoken Let's say you inherit a house that your parents bought for $100,000, but it is now worth $500,000. Under current law, when you inherit that house, you are not liable for taxes on the increase in value from the time your parents bought it. The house is transferred to you at its current market value of $500,000. So if you sell the house right when you inherit it, you will receive the full value of the house instead of having to pay taxes on the amount that the house increased in value while your parents owned it. If you sell that house 2 years later for $650,000, you are only required to pay taxes on the $150,000 in value it gained while it was in your possession. prgtoken Under the ' proposal, however, capital gains taxes would automatically be triggered upon death if the increase in value of an individual's estate has exceeded a certain amount. So, if your parents' house or the family farm or other assets have increased in value more than deem desirable, you would now owe capital gains taxes on the amount of that increase immediately after your parents' death minus the amount choose to exempt. prgtoken There are plenty of middle-class Americans around this country who would be paying this tax. You wouldn't be protected just because you make under $400,000 a year. prgtoken Now, the President has tried to get around this by arguing that would be taxing dead individuals, not living ones. So if your parents die and pass on their estate, the argument suggests the tax that you have to send to the Federal Government isn't
January 6 Select Committee (Executive Session)
James M. Inhofe (Republican, OK) \u2014 2021-7-28

it is my understanding that prior to my remarks on the floor, we were going to recognize the Senator from Minnesota for 10 minutes or so. So if that is still desired by the Senator from Minnesota, I would be glad to yield. prgtoken And since the Senator from Minnesota is not present, I will go ahead and make my remarks. prgtoken I do ask unanimous consent that I be recognized as if in morning business for such time as I shall consume.
Debt Ceiling (Executive Calendar)
Mike Lee (Republican, UT) \u2014 2021-7-28

for far too long, the Federal Government has been borrowing and then spending money that it simply doesn't have. This is something we have long understood as a problem for the future, for future generations. But now it is not just a problem for the future any more. We are already feeling the consequences right now. Americans of this generation are paying the price today. prgtoken Why is this the case? Well, politicians in Washington vote for enormous, reckless spending packages, and they do so for short-term political gain and praise. Now, we all know that does happen, and we all know that, whether it is a spending bill that is soon to come before this body or another, if it spends a lot of money, it probably will bring people a lot of praise. prgtoken But it is the people--the hard-working families in Utah and in every other State across the Nation--who are forced to pay the price, the price for the praise and the political gain of the politician who votes for that sort of thing. They are the ones who bear the brunt of inflation's consequences. It is making day-to-day life more expensive. More than anyone, it is the poor and middle class of America who are hit the hardest. prgtoken Every single day, it is getting more expensive to fill cupboards, refrigerators, and bellies. Every day, it is getting more expensive to drive to work or drive to the doctor or drive your kids to the school. Every day, it is getting harder to buy a house or buy a car or pay for the heat and the air conditioning in your home. prgtoken To give a few specific examples, gas prices are up over 50 percent from last year. This hurts people not only at the pump but with everything they buy, because everything they buy is more costly to transport and, therefore, more costly to purchase. prgtoken Chicken prices are soaring. Boneless, skinless chicken breast is trading at $2 per pound, compared to the $1.30 per pound it has averaged over the last two decades. Some diapers that in recent years have cost around $25 per package now cost around $40, and there are fewer diapers in each package. prgtoken We, in Utah, are certainly feeling the crunch. According to a recent survey, 85 percent of Utahns are worried about inflation, as well they should be. prgtoken Now, what does the ' spending package amount to? A multitrillion-dollar inflation bomb. So far, we haven't seen text, and we haven't seen estimates about how much the bill will cost, exactly. We haven't even seen what in the White House would like in the bill. But recent estimates suggest that it will spend about $4 trillion, maybe more. The last thing we need for our already frightening inflation is to spend that amount of money. It is taking an already bad situation and making it far, far worse. prgtoken In fact, this is the first time we have seen a spending package of this kind--one that spends the amount that it does. I don't just mean the first time we
Debt Ceiling (Executive Calendar)
Roy Blunt (Republican, MO) \u2014 2021-7-28

when President was campaigning last year, he made the pledge over and over again that he wouldn't raise taxes on any American making less than $400,000 a year. prgtoken Frankly, I think that is a good pledge, and it is one that he keeps making. But right now, it seems that the facts would prove that he and, frankly, our colleagues here in the Congress are pushing for this reckless tax spree, this reckless spending spree in a way that makes it impossible for him to keep that pledge. prgtoken The Tax Foundation--and people can check this if they want to verify these numbers--looked at President 's 10-year plan, the plan he outlined in his 2022 budget. This is not a plan that the Tax Foundation or any other group came up with on their own. They found that his plan would mean a higher average tax burden nationwide, including for middle-class Americans. prgtoken In some States, the average taxpayer would see increases immediately; in others, tax hikes would grow over time as the various provisions change in the way that the President's plan says they would change. prgtoken You know, no matter what the President says, the tax burden is getting heavier under his plan for middle-class families in every State. prgtoken In Missouri, the tax burden on the average filer would be $618 higher in 2026 than it is today. In New Hampshire, it would be $1,072 higher than it is today. And maybe most importantly, in Nevada, it would be $1,293 higher than it is today for the average taxpayer. prgtoken And if that doesn't convince you, there was another analysis recently. This one was from the reliably liberal Tax Policy Center. It predicted that three out of every four taxpayers earning $75,000 to $100,000 a year would be worse off next year under the plan. prgtoken By 2031, that organization estimates that 95 percent of the people making between $75,000 and $100,000 would suffer losses on their tax bill prgtoken The tax-and-spending spree envisions monster tax hikes on business, but we all know when you raise taxes on business, they have to get the money from somewhere. prgtoken In fact, there are only a couple places to get the money, and one is from workers and one is from customers. And trying to figure out that balance where you don't lose customers and you don't lose workers is pretty hard to figure out. You really can't isolate middle-class workers from these tax impacts. You also can't isolate middle-class customers from these impacts. You can't keep those families from paying higher prices when a chunk of the business tax that the President and talk about have to get passed on to customers. prgtoken So President 's tax increases are likely to boost inflation even more than we have seen already, and we have seen a lot of it already. Go to the gas pump, go to the grocery store, go to buy clothes, go to have the basic necessities you have to have, and you are going to see th
Infrastructure (Executive Session)
Bill Cassidy (Republican, LA) \u2014 2021-7-28

I have good news for the people of Louisiana and good news for the American people: We have an agreement on an infrastructure package. prgtoken Now, OK, an ``infrastructure package''; what does that mean? Let's just talk. prgtoken There will be $110 billion for roads and bridges nationwide--$40 billion for bridges. By the way, Louisiana has the third most bridges in poor condition. So, if you are stuck right now in traffic trying to get over the Sabine River or the Calcasieu River or the Mississippi River or any of our other rivers which have bridges in poor condition, there is relief for you. There is $47 billion for resiliency. prgtoken Now, my State is flooded more than other States, but every State, it seems, has had an issue with flooding. There is $47 billion; a significant portion of it is for flooding issues, for coastal restoration, and other things regarding resiliency. prgtoken There is permitting reform. Right now, we know it can take 6 to 10 years for a bridge project--an Army Corps of Engineers project--to be permitted. Sometimes it takes so long to permit that the facts on the ground have actually changed, and the permit almost is inaccurate. In building upon pilot projects which have shown that permitting can be shortened from 6 years to 2 years, this infrastructure package has that permitting reform. There will be less money for bureaucrats and attorneys, and there will be more money for construction--what a major advance. prgtoken By the way, some people have confused this bill with the $3.5 trillion ic tax-and-spend extravaganza. They are two different bills. This bill is for roads and bridges and broadband and resiliency and flood control and coastal restoration. The other is for who knows what. prgtoken This bill, the infrastructure bill, has been judged by economists as to not contribute to inflation. The $3.5 trillion bill, obviously, is going to make the inflation we have now worse. The bill we have does not raise taxes. The $3.5 trillion bill is estimated to raise hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes. prgtoken One bill I love; the other bill I hate. The infrastructure bill that is going to shorten someone's commute time across a bridge, to make their home less likely to flood, to extend broadband to areas of our country which are not served at all or are poorly served is the bill I love, and I think that it is the bill that the American people desperately need. prgtoken Let me conclude by saying, again, if you are stuck in bridge traffic in my State or in any other State right now, wondering why this bridge in poor condition can't get fixed, help is on its way. If you are in a place in our country, but particularly in my State, which has either flooded or is at risk of flooding or if you live near a coastline, and that beachfront, which 30 years ago when you bought that home was hundreds of feet out and now waves are lapping up on the road in front of your hou
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4346, LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2022; PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4373, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS...
Jodey C. Arrington (Republican, TX) \u2014 2021-7-28

aside from the insulting disregard for our national debt for our children and grandchildren, this is the greatest threat. It is not the existential threats. It is our insatiable appetite to expand the government, government's power, and the costs associated. prgtoken If these bills, these supposed funding bills are enacted, here are the policies that will follow: prgtoken Abortion providers will be funded and abortion, and the abortion manufacturers that abort, terminate unborn children at a rate of almost 1,000 a day. prgtoken Allow illegal immigrants to receive our tax dollar financial aid and Federal employment. What a disrespect to the law-abiding American citizens. prgtoken Choke out our ag and energy producers with extreme environmental policies, disrupt the supply chain, undermine our ag and energy independence. prgtoken The list is too long, . prgtoken Give contraceptives to students without parental knowledge. prgtoken Fund sex changes at the VA. prgtoken These are the priorities, these are the values reflected in the budget of my colleagues? prgtoken , this is a radical reimagination of government's role in the life of its citizens and a drastic departure from America's values and interests, and I oppose it. I pray to God I can get a to oppose it. I doubt it.
VOTING RIGHTS
Mitch McConnell (Republican, KY) \u2014 2021-7-28

now on a different matter, the massive, massive taxing-and-spending spree that want to ram through this summer has problems that go even beyond inflation, rising costs, and massive tax hikes. prgtoken The problem is not just ' jaw-dropping $3.5 trillion pricetag. It is also the long list of bad liberal policies that this reckless taxing-and-spending spree is supposed to purchase. prgtoken I spoke yesterday about just a few of those bad ideas. They are talking about amnesty for illegal immigrants, socialist price-fixing that would leave us with fewer new prescription drugs, fewer new treatments, and fewer new cures. prgtoken They want to permanently change the child tax credit into welfare with no--no--work requirements; smuggle in big chunks of the Green New Deal. prgtoken And in case all of this were not enough, some Senate want to use this taxing-and-spending spree to grab control over all 50 States' election laws. I thought we just had that debate a couple of weeks ago. prgtoken Remember, for several years now, our ic friends have claimed that every successive election proved they needed to grab partisan control over our democracy. In 2016, 2018, and 2020, win or lose--win or lose--when foreign prgtoken interference occurred and when it did not occur, every possible result has been claimed as proof that Washington should rip up our democracy's rule book and write a new one that benefits them. prgtoken The latest phony justification has been the false notion that a few States' mainstream voting laws equal some kind of assault on democracy as we know it. Of course, that is absolutely utter nonsense. Americans want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat. Voter ID protections are hugely popular. Basic voter roll maintenance is common sense. prgtoken The new law in Georgia, for example, provides for more flexible early voting and absentee voting than many blue States, including New York. But the facts weren't about to stop the ' big lie. The absurd comparison to Jim Crow segregation and all kinds of other horrors have continued apace. prgtoken To provide a little more context about this fake hysteria, we can also look internationally. As one columnist recently observed in the Washington Post, the balance struck by the State of Georgia amounts to ``one of the most expansive voting access laws in the world. Most other countries do not allow no-excuse absentee voting, and dropboxes are also virtually unknown elsewhere,'' other democracies around the world. ``If Georgia's elections are undemocratic, then almost all of our democratic allies are also undemocratic.'' prgtoken If liberal activists and woke corporations believed their own rhetoric, they wouldn't stop at boycotting and threatening the State of Georgia. They couldn't possibly. They would be busy trying to divest from most of our NATO allies and essentially the rest of the entire developed w
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2022
Christopher H. Smith (Republican, NJ) \u2014 2021-7-28

Peng Peiyun told me over and over again, there is no coercion in the Chinese program, even though everyone who has followed it knows that there is, because she said the UNFPA was there, on the ground whitewashing and falsifying the truth. prgtoken We are missing maybe 60 million females, women of all ages now, because it has been a systematic extermination of the girl child in China. It is one of the reasons why human sex trafficking has exploded in China, because the girl child has been killed, exterminated, and the UNFPA has been at best silent on that issue, again, giving the Chinese Communist Party a clean bill of health. prgtoken Doubling the amount of money that was in previous bills from $35 million to $70 million while simultaneously weakening Kemp-Kasten trivializes these crimes against women and these crimes against children.
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4346, LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2022; PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4373, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS...
Guy Reschenthaler (Republican, PA) \u2014 2021-7-28

I thank the distinguished gentleman and my friend from New York for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and such time as I may consume. prgtoken , the rule before us today provides for consideration of three appropriations measures for fiscal year 2022. I first would like to start off by thanking Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger and their committee staff for their tireless work on these measures. It is truly an honor to be part of the appropriations process on the committee, and I am very grateful for their efforts. prgtoken Unfortunately, though, , like the package of seven funding measures considered yesterday, the majority marked these three bills to unworkable 302(b) allocations, and the package before us today stands absolutely no chance of becoming law. prgtoken Collectively, these three bills provide for $147 billion in spending, which is a 13 percent increase from fiscal year 2021. prgtoken Overall, the majority's proposed spending levels increase nondefense discretionary spending by 17 percent while only increasing defense spending by 1 percent. That is not even enough to keep up with inflation. prgtoken This is at a time when our Nation and when our military faces threats from China, Russia, and Iran. Because of these threats, we should be investing in the U.S. and our partner nations, not underfunding our military and national security programs and obligations abroad. prgtoken While H.R. 4373, which funds the Department of State and Foreign Operations, does include support for our allies, Israel, Jordan, and Taiwan, it also places conditions on our strategic partner Egypt. These conditions will undercut national security efforts which is another hit to our defense operations. prgtoken Further, H.R. 4373 removes longstanding bipartisan policies including the Helms amendment which prohibits foreign aid from being used for abortions. It also doubles funding to the United Nations Population Fund. This organization has historically supported coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization. prgtoken Finally, this bill provides for more than $3 billion for climate change programs, including $1.6 billion for the Green Climate Fund. Even Secretary Yellen acknowledged the Green Climate Fund has oversight issues and has been mismanaged. prgtoken The rule before us today also provides for consideration of H.R. 4505, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. Like H.R. 4373, this bill removes longstanding bipartisan language restricting the Justice Department from spending taxpayer dollars on abortion. prgtoken The measure also fails to include four bipartisan Second Amendment protections including two provisions that have been in the CJS bill since fiscal year 2006. prgtoken Finally, H.R. 4505 imposes new, unauthorized conditions on many State and local law enforcement programs, including Byrne JAG and COPS. Many of these conditions require legislation to be