mesut/congress_speeches huggingface dataset:
150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREATER SCRANTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Democrat, PA) \u2014 2018-6-19

I rise today to recognize the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce on their 150th anniversary. I am proud to highlight their many accomplishments and significant contributions to my hometown of Scranton and northeastern Pennsylvania. prgtoken Eleven years after the city of Scranton was incorporated, 13 visionary and ambitious men met in the upstairs of a grocery store and formed the Merchants Association to encourage the economic growth of the city. Scranton was an industrial center of mining and railroads, and the association's first order of business was to establish equitable freight rates. Later, the association was renamed the Scranton Board of Trade and in 1923 was officially chartered as the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. prgtoken For a century and a half, the chamber has actively served the region, always with the mission of cultivating a healthy business ecosystem that could attract, preserve, and create jobs in the area. In fact, the chamber has always been a national leader and trendsetter within the business community. In 1945, as many Scrantonians were serving in World War II, the chamber spearheaded a community effort to save jobs at the Murray Bomber Wing Plant, which resulted in the launching of the Scranton Lackawanna Industrial Building Company. This innovative effort created what is considered the American standard model for economic development. Today, as the largest business network in northeastern Pennsylvania with more than 1,500 member companies representing a variety of employers, the chamber helps to foster economic development, provides small businesses access to affordable capital, facilitates leadership development programs, and leads workforce development initiatives. prgtoken From Scranton's early days as a hub for American entrepreneurship and industry, the chamber has played a critical role and continues to be one of the region's strongest and most effective business and community advocates. It has worked in partnership with numerous stakeholders to address the challenges brought on by an ever-changing regional economy. prgtoken Although the mining and freight-dependent industries that represented the growth of the greater Scranton region's early days represent a bygone era, today, new industries now call northeastern Pennsylvania home. These new fields of business have helped the area become a regional leader in education, medicine, and manufacturing. Today, the region builds upon its rich history of industrial ingenuity, economic prosperity, and most notably, new Americans and immigrants seeking opportunity. In light of the region's diverse heritage and progress towards true equality, the chamber hosted its inaugural NEPA Women's Leadership Conference in 2015. I am proud of the chamber's continued efforts as it strives to promote the region as an ideal location for businesses of all genders, ethnicities, races, socioeconomic groups, sizes, and fields
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
Barbara Lee (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-6-19

if I were present, I would have voted NO on roll call number 234, ordering the previous question on H. RES. 918. prgtoken If I were present, I would have voted NO on roll call number 235 the rule for H. Res. 918. prgtoken If I were present, I would have voted no on roll call number 236. prgtoken If I were present, I would have voted yes on roll call number 237 the motion to recommit on H.R. 8. prgtoken If I were present, I would have voted yes on roll call number 238 to H.R. 8. prgtoken If I were present, I would have voted yes on roll call number 239 to H.R. 3249
ENERGY AND WATER, LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AND MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019
Patrick J. Leahy (Democrat, VT) \u2014 2018-6-19

I appreciate the comments from my friend, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. As many know, Chairman Shelby and I have been friends for decades. We have traveled to different parts of the world and tried to promote the U.S. agenda. We have worked very closely together. That is why we are opening debate on the first set of appropriations bills for fiscal year 2019. The minibus before us contains the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, and the Legislative Branch appropriations bill. These bills have strong bipartisan support. prgtoken On each subcommittee, I compliment the chairs and ranking members, who worked very closely together and set aside partisan labels to get these bills before the full committee so that Senator Shelby and I could then bring them up for votes in the full committee. So far, we have reported from the committee 7 of the 12 annual appropriations bills, each with overwhelming bipartisan support--I almost want to reemphasize that: each with overwhelming bipartisan support--at a time when it is as though nothing can be done in a bipartisan way. I think we have set the example of the way the Senate was, should be and can be. prgtoken As one who has been in this body for almost 44 years, I like to see the Senate work the way it should. In fact, we are going to mark up three of the five remaining bills this week. The chairman and I are committed to making the appropriations process work again. So far, in committee, it has. In that respect, I thank, again, my good friend Senator Shelby for his leadership and bipartisan cooperation, which has helped us achieve these results so far. prgtoken Our best chance for restoring regular order and avoiding the need to do an omnibus spending bill at the end of the year is to abide by the bipartisan-bicameral budget agreement and avoid poison pill riders from the left or the right. The bill before us does just that. prgtoken The chairman and I--and we are the ones who have to spend the time on the floor--want a real debate of the spending measure. Members should come to the floor, offer amendments, and debate them. Yet, if we are going to succeed in moving this bill through the Senate, Members on both sides of the aisle need to show restraint as we did when we marked up these bills in committee and refrain from offering controversial legislative matters or other poison pills as amendments. Offer those on authorizing bills, where they should be, and debate them there. prgtoken The appropriations bills that make up the minibus before us contain funding for important programs and make a real difference in people's lives, certainly in the lives of those in every Senator's State--in Vermont and across the Nation. We should not derail this process because of unrelated policy riders. If we do this--if both sides of the aisle can show restraint--we will take
ENERGY AND WATER, LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AND MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019
Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, CA) \u2014 2018-6-19

I rise in support of the appropriations package currently under consideration, particularly the section dealing with Energy and Water Development appropriations. prgtoken I know my good friend Senator Alexander, the chairman of our Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, spoke last evening. I have served as chairman or ranking member of that committee for the past 5 years--we have alternated--and it has been a real pleasure and a great privilege for me to work with him. prgtoken I also want to thank Senator Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy. Perhaps people don't know this, but they have taken truly meaningful steps to return us to regular order. It has been a long time coming, and I truly hope it can be maintained. I have been on the Appropriations Committee for more than two decades, and I have been saddened to watch as we have descended into partisanship year after year and lessened our influence as a committee. prgtoken Believe it or not, it has been 21 years since Congress passed all 12 appropriations bills by October 1. Since then, we have just staggered through a series of continuing resolutions and omnibuses. So s on the Appropriations Committee for supporting this bill during markup, where we saw a vote of 30 to 1. I hope we will be able to maintain that spirit of bipartisanship on the floor, and I urge my colleagues to refrain from offering poison pill amendments, which would derail our progress. prgtoken I believe this is a fair bill. It contains tradeoffs and hard choices. I certainly don't agree with everything in it--particularly the nuclear weapons portion--but I support passage of the bill by the Senate. prgtoken Overall, the bill provides $43.8 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Energy, and other agencies. This is an increase of $566 million over fiscal year 2018 levels. prgtoken I want to highlight the fact that we received an increase in our nondefense allocation of $474 million above 2018. This is a very generous allocation, and it has allowed us to do the following: to increase funding for reclamation programs that prevent and mitigate the effect of drought throughout 19 western States; to increase funding for critical Army Corps infrastructure; and to increase funding for the Office of Science, the largest single supporter of basic scientific research in the United States. prgtoken We were also able to continue strong support for applied energy programs, particularly those that fund the development of carbon-free renewable technologies. prgtoken Even with a more modest defense allocation, we fund efforts to address the environmental legacy of the Cold War in Tennessee, South Carolina, New Mexico, Washington, and other States. prgtoken The bill also funds key priorities in nuclear nonproliferation, including securing radiological materials in hospitals and industrial facilities in this country and helping
CHIP MENTAL HEALTH PARITY ACT
Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat, TX) \u2014 2018-6-19

I rise in strong support of H.R. 3192, the ``CHIP Mental Health Parity Act.'' prgtoken H.R. 3192 would ensure access to mental health and substance use disorder prevention and treatment services for children under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). prgtoken Beginning in infancy and continuing through adolescence, children need access to mental health screening and assessment and a complete array of evidence-based therapeutic services. prgtoken Around 1 in 5 children in the U.S. suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder, but only 20 to 25 percent of affected children will receive treatment. prgtoken Untreated mental health and substance use disorders are associated with family dysfunction, school expulsion, poor school performance, juvenile incarceration, unemployment, and suicide. prgtoken CHIP has been an essential source of children's health coverage, ensuring that families have access to high quality, affordable, pediatric health care for children in working families whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to purchase private health insurance on their own. prgtoken Given the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders in children and the nationwide opioid epidemic, it is essential now more than ever that all children and adolescents enrolled in CHIP have access to mental health and substance use disorder screening and treatment. prgtoken There are currently over 400,000 CHIP recipients in Texas. prgtoken This figure is significantly less than in 2014, when nearly half of all children in Texas were enrolled in CHIP or Medicaid. prgtoken , I strongly support H.R. 3192 and the estimated 8.9 million children across the United States who rely on CHIP for their necessary health services.
OPIOID ADDICTION ACTION PLAN ACT
Yvette D. Clarke (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-6-19

let me take this time to express my appreciation to Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone, for their leadership in addressing the opioid epidemic in the U.S. House of Representatives. prgtoken On April 24th of this year, I had the opportunity to work across the aisle in introducing bipartisan legislation with my Energy and Commerce colleague, Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. prgtoken We were joined by two additional colleagues as original co-sponsors, who sit on the House Ways and Means Committee--Rep. Darrin LaHood, my colleague from Illinois and Rep. Danny K. Davis, my CBC Colleague who hails from Illinois as well. prgtoken Our bill, The Opioid Addiction Action Plan of 2018, is a roadmap to not only abating the opioid epidemic, but to engaging industry to be innovative in the development of new pain management therapies. prgtoken There are many players and much is at stake. prgtoken According to the National Institutes of Drug Abuse, there are more than 115 opioid related deaths per day. prgtoken The CDC estimates that the economic burden of prescription opioid misuse is roughly $78.5 billion a year--and that's in the U.S. alone. prgtoken Since we know the enormity of this issue plaguing our country, passing H.R. 5590 would require that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) seeks stakeholder feedback as well as public comment, before producing an Opioid Addiction Act Plan report to Congress. prgtoken It is going to take all of us to tackle this national opioid epidemic. prgtoken And , with the opioid crisis at epic levels, government cannot do this alone. prgtoken That is why we are calling on all of our partners to aide in the fight against opioid addiction in our communities--for both addiction to prescription painkillers and addiction to synthetics, including heroin and fentanyl. prgtoken Overdose deaths that were once perceived as largely a rural white problem have now become widespread among black Americans in urban communities who are dying from horrific rates of fentanyl overdoses. prgtoken While white Americans die at greater rates of overdose deaths, overdose death rates have been steadily increasing among black Americans since 2011--at the time that fentanyl and heroin, as well as other synthetics began to climb. prgtoken One of the solutions to the ever-growing problem to the opioid crisis in the black community is access to addiction care treatment. prgtoken Traditionally, African Americans have had unequal access to quality health care in comparison to our white counterparts. prgtoken This legislation would also mandate improved data collection to better understand the opioid crisis. prgtoken H.R. 5590 directs the CMS to develop an Opioid Addiction Action Plan to address challenges for treatment of substance abuse disorders. prgtoken Additionally, this bill also identifies non-opioid pain management options and make considerations for Medicare and Medicaid coverage and r
ENERGY AND WATER, LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AND MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019--Continued
Tim Kaine (Democrat, VA) \u2014 2018-6-19

I rise to talk about the accomplishments the Senate was able to achieve yesterday with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. In doing that, I want to highlight a couple of items as a member of the Armed Services Committee that I worked on that I am very proud of but that I think also demonstrate the our ability to work in a bipartisan fashion because the three items I will mention were heavily bipartisan. They also give some illustration of the breadth of the defense authorization act--this act which we pass every year that is hundreds of billions of dollars to support the American military and contains so many different kinds of provisions to try to help defend the Nation and protect those who serve it. prgtoken What I would love to do, after I say a word about our chair, Senator McCain, is talk about military families, talk about shipbuilding, and talk about smart power. prgtoken Let me first just give a shout-out to Senator McCain. He was sorely missed as our chairman during the month of May when we were in crunch time in the committee around this bill. It was bittersweet to see its passage yesterday without having him in the Chamber to lead the discussion and be here at passage. Yet I give great credit to Senator Inhofe, who stepped into the chair's shoes for purposes of the markup and the floor action; to Senator Reed, the ranking member on the committee; and to Senator McCain's staff, who peppered us with advice from the boss when calling in from Arizona during the whole process. We missed him, but he was definitely there, and we were encouraged to do our best work as we thought about him during the process. prgtoken With regard to military families, when I was elected to the Senate in 2013, we had a scandal in the country. I viewed it as a scandal. The unemployment rate for veterans was dramatically higher than the national average, especially for Iraq- and Afghan-era war veterans who were enlisted. They would serve the country and be deployed, often repeatedly. They would come back home and not be able to find jobs. prgtoken I worked together with colleagues on the Armed Services Committee and with many great employers in the private and public sectors and am proud to tell you that from 2013 to today, the veterans' unemployment rate has gone down dramatically. It is now less than the national average. When we focused on it, we tackled the problem, and we made progress. prgtoken Yet, in recent years, as I have been traveling around Virginia, a new problem has emerged, and that is the unemployment rate for military spouses. It is even hard to know the number. Do you know why? It is that when we do the monthly studies, the Department of Labor asks a person: Are you a veteran? Yet it doesn't ask if one is a military spouse. So, to get at the number, when you hear story after story after story, you have to take some fairly broad surveys. Blue Star families will take these
ENERGY AND WATER, LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AND MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019
Charles E. Schumer (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2018-6-19

Members of both parties--and I believe the vast majority of Americans--remain concerned about the administration's zero tolerance policy, which has resulted in thousands of families being separated at the border. Anyone who has seen the photos, heard the audio of small children, alone and afraid, crying out for their parents, cannot help but feel horror and disgust about what is going on. That is not America. That is not the America we know and love and the generations before us have known and loved. prgtoken Clearly, no one should be allowed into this country who doesn't meet the legal requirements, but we have an adjudication process that in the past did not require the separation of parents from their children. The administration has decided, of its own will and volition, to take a crueler, more callous, and indeed more expensive and time-consuming approach. prgtoken A bipartisan group of former U.S. attorneys wrote yesterday that ``the Zero Tolerance policy is a radical departure from previous Justice Department policy, and that it is dangerous, expensive, and inconsistent with the values of the institution in which we served.'' prgtoken Yet President acts as if his hands are tied, as if it is not up to him, as if somehow Congress and are to blame for a policy his administration instituted, defended, and many members of the administration continue to defend--most recently the Homeland Security Secretary. prgtoken The truth is that the administration announced this new zero tolerance policy at the border in April. Even they hadn't done it before that, so they weren't required. The administration decided to criminally prosecute every single illegal border case, instead of simply deporting them. That is what changed--, of his own volition, changing the policy into a much crueler one. He was supported by his whole administration--by much of his administration. prgtoken Chief of Staff Kelly called the policy ``a tough deterrent.'' Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielson has defended the policy, as have Attorney General Sessions, White House Advisor Stephen Miller, and several other members of the administration. prgtoken Last night on FOX News, Attorney General Sessions characterized the family separation policy as a deterrent. When President tweets ``CHANGE THE LAWS'' and that his policy is the result of a law that `` forced . . . upon our nation,'' he is ignoring reality; he is contradicting his own administration. As commentator after commentator--, , liberal, conservative--has said: President is simply not telling the truth, and in a cowardly way. prgtoken No law--no law--requires the separation of families at the border. That is just not true. prgtoken At the convention, President said about the problems of the Nation that ``I alone can fix it.'' In the case of family separation
FAMILY SEPARATION
Raja Krishnamoorthi (Democrat, IL) \u2014 2018-6-19

this past weekend, my family and I spent a wonderful Sunday celebrating Father's Day, just like millions of other families across our country. prgtoken During our time together, I couldn't help thinking about the thousands of children who are unable to do the same because they have been separated from their own fathers and mothers by agents of our government. They are scared, they are lonely, and they are confused. prgtoken I am horrified by these actions, and I am determined to fight with my colleagues to end this cruel policy. It is our moral obligation to reunite these families, and it is imperative that we make sure this never happens again. prgtoken Fifty years from now, how will history judge those more committed to justifying this policy than ending it? We as a nation are better than this, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what is right and end this policy of separating children from their parents.