In the span of a week, Marco Rubio voted against hurricane relief, asked for additional hurricane relief, and praised the Biden administration's hurricane relief
Taiyler Simone Mitchell
Sun, October 2, 2022
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is running for reelection in Florida.
"It had been loaded up with a bunch of things that had nothing to do with disaster relief," Rubio replied. "I would never put out there that we should go use a disaster relief package for Florida as a way to pay for all kinds of other things people want around the country."
The New York Times disproved the idea that relief went down non-Sandy-related avenues in 2017 after Republican lawmakers defended their votes against the bill.
Rubio explained his position on the Hurricane Ian relief to Bash: "I will fight against it having pork in it. That's the key," he said.
Still, Rubio and Scott sent a joint letter to the appropriations committee asking for Hurricane relief support on Friday.
"A robust and timely federal response, including through supplemental programs and funding, will be required to ensure that sufficient resources are provided to rebuild critical infrastructure and public services capacity, and to assist our fellow Floridians in rebuilding their lives," the duo wrote.
On September 24, Biden approved federal emergency aid for Florida. The federal government then "coordinated and prepositioned supplies, and more than 1,300 responders ahead of Ian's landfall to ensure resources could get where they need to be as quickly as possible," according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency press release.
In a Sunday episode of ABC "This Week," Anchor Jonathan Karl asked Rubio: "How's FEMA doing? Is Florida getting everything it needs right now from the Biden Administration?"
Taiyler Simone Mitchell
Sun, October 2, 2022
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is running for reelection in Florida.
Hurricane Ian devastated Florida this past week as Republican Senators voted against relief.
Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott also penned a letter asking for federal relief for the hurricane damage.
Florida locals say they are running out of resources as they attempt to recover from the storm.
Sen. Marco Rubio demonstrated this week a now-familiar Republican routine around taking federal money for hurricane relief.
Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, leaving more than 2.5 million people without power, more than 1,100 people in need of rescue, and nearly 80 people dead, according to The New York Times.
But Florida's senators, Rubio and Rick Scott, didn't vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill on Thursday that included an additional $18.8 billion allocated to FEMA spending for Hurricane Ian and other natural disasters, HuffPost reported. The bill passed, without the help of 25 Republican 'No' votes.
CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday brought up how Rubio voted against Hurricane Sandy relief: "Why should other senators vote for relief for your state when you didn't vote for a package for theirs?"
Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott also penned a letter asking for federal relief for the hurricane damage.
Florida locals say they are running out of resources as they attempt to recover from the storm.
Sen. Marco Rubio demonstrated this week a now-familiar Republican routine around taking federal money for hurricane relief.
Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, leaving more than 2.5 million people without power, more than 1,100 people in need of rescue, and nearly 80 people dead, according to The New York Times.
But Florida's senators, Rubio and Rick Scott, didn't vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill on Thursday that included an additional $18.8 billion allocated to FEMA spending for Hurricane Ian and other natural disasters, HuffPost reported. The bill passed, without the help of 25 Republican 'No' votes.
CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday brought up how Rubio voted against Hurricane Sandy relief: "Why should other senators vote for relief for your state when you didn't vote for a package for theirs?"
"It had been loaded up with a bunch of things that had nothing to do with disaster relief," Rubio replied. "I would never put out there that we should go use a disaster relief package for Florida as a way to pay for all kinds of other things people want around the country."
The New York Times disproved the idea that relief went down non-Sandy-related avenues in 2017 after Republican lawmakers defended their votes against the bill.
Rubio explained his position on the Hurricane Ian relief to Bash: "I will fight against it having pork in it. That's the key," he said.
Still, Rubio and Scott sent a joint letter to the appropriations committee asking for Hurricane relief support on Friday.
"A robust and timely federal response, including through supplemental programs and funding, will be required to ensure that sufficient resources are provided to rebuild critical infrastructure and public services capacity, and to assist our fellow Floridians in rebuilding their lives," the duo wrote.
On September 24, Biden approved federal emergency aid for Florida. The federal government then "coordinated and prepositioned supplies, and more than 1,300 responders ahead of Ian's landfall to ensure resources could get where they need to be as quickly as possible," according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency press release.
In a Sunday episode of ABC "This Week," Anchor Jonathan Karl asked Rubio: "How's FEMA doing? Is Florida getting everything it needs right now from the Biden Administration?"
"Yeah. FEMA, they've all been great. As I've said, the federal response from day one has been very positive — as it has always been in the past and we're grateful for that," Rubio replied.
Floridians, meanwhile, have expressed their frustration with the hurricane and the government's response as they say resources are dwindling.
Rubio did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Business Insider
Floridians, meanwhile, have expressed their frustration with the hurricane and the government's response as they say resources are dwindling.
Rubio did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Business Insider
Sanjana Karanth
Sun, October 2, 2022
Florida’s Republican senators have asked for federal funding to help with relief after Hurricane Ian ripped through the state ― despite neither lawmaker voting on Thursday for billions in disaster relief, some of which would go toward hurricane recovery efforts.
On Friday, Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott sent a joint letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee chairs asking for funding to “provide much needed assistance to Florida.” The letter was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat.
“Hurricane Ian will be remembered and studied as one of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the United States. Communities across Florida have been completely destroyed, and lives have been forever changed,” the senators wrote.
“A robust and timely federal response, including through supplemental programs and funding, will be required to ensure that sufficient resources are provided to rebuild critical infrastructure and public services capacity, and to assist our fellow Floridians in rebuilding their lives.”
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But just one day earlier, Scott and Rubio refused to vote for such additional funding. The stopgap spending bill that the Senate passed on Thursday includes about $18.8 billion in additional funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to Hurricane Ian and future disasters.
All 25 senators who refused to vote for the bill were Republicans. Scott voted against it, and Rubio didn’t vote at all. The House also passed the bill, with Republicans overwhelmingly voting against it.
“The same week that #HurricaneIan brought so much chaos and destruction to Florida, not a single Florida Republican cared enough to vote in favor of Hurricane relief for the people in their own state hit hardest by the storm,” Florida Democratic Party Chairman Manny Diaz tweeted on Saturday.
“That is a level of callous indifference and political opportunism that boggles the mind. Thankfully, [President Joe Biden] and Florida Democrats are doing the right thing when it counts, and we appreciate their efforts to help Florida rebuild once again.”
In 2013, Rubio voted against the $50 billion relief bill meant to help states impacted by Hurricane Sandy, which left a trail of damage on the East Coast and hundreds dead. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who was a congressman at the time, also voted against multiple bills that would have provided aid to victims of Sandy.
“That is a level of callous indifference and political opportunism that boggles the mind. Thankfully, [President Joe Biden] and Florida Democrats are doing the right thing when it counts, and we appreciate their efforts to help Florida rebuild once again.”
In 2013, Rubio voted against the $50 billion relief bill meant to help states impacted by Hurricane Sandy, which left a trail of damage on the East Coast and hundreds dead. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who was a congressman at the time, also voted against multiple bills that would have provided aid to victims of Sandy.
When asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday why other senators should support disaster relief for his state when he voted against Sandy relief, Rubio justified his decision by saying the bill “had been loaded up with a bunch of things that had nothing to do with disaster relief.”
“What I didn’t vote for in Sandy is because they had included things like a roof for a museum in Washington, D.C., for fisheries in Alaska,” the senator said. Bash reminded Rubio that based on the congressional research report for the bill, the roof requested for the museum was damaged by the hurricane, and the Alaskan fisheries were impacted by a separate disaster.
Rubio added that he would not support an emergency relief bill for Hurricane Ian if it contained something not concerning the directly impacted areas.
Ian was one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S., hitting Florida the hardest last week before climbing up to the Carolinas. The Category 4 hurricane has resulted in a rising death toll ― escalating to at least 47 as of Sunday morning. Hundreds of thousands are without homes and power, and the destroyed infrastructure has left many people isolated.
Rubio added that he would not support an emergency relief bill for Hurricane Ian if it contained something not concerning the directly impacted areas.
Ian was one of the strongest hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S., hitting Florida the hardest last week before climbing up to the Carolinas. The Category 4 hurricane has resulted in a rising death toll ― escalating to at least 47 as of Sunday morning. Hundreds of thousands are without homes and power, and the destroyed infrastructure has left many people isolated.
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