Over the
past several weeks (and especially this most recent week), Senator Nelson has
been fulfilling half of his duties as a United States Congressman. He has been tackling issues that affect this
country as a whole. Senator Nelson, with
his positions of influence on the Senate Committee for Armed Services and the
Senate Committee for the Budget, has been advising the president and others on
the problems arising from Syria and coordinating efforts with Russia. However, this week all of that emphasis has
changed.
Throughout
this entire week, he has made strides to get back in touch with issues from his
home constituents, tackling a multitude and variety of issues, ranging from
cyber-bullying to taking nominations for federal judgeships in Florida. While focusing more on local issues in his
hometown state of Florida, Senator Nelson focused on one topic particularly
extensively. In the city of Lakeland, a
12-year old girl was being cyber-bullied until she took her own life by jumping
off of an abandoned tower. Following this
tragic accident, Senator Nelson has been taking charge of federalizing
anti-bullying legislation that has previously been held up in Congress. With the issue striking so close to his home
constituency and the rising issues associated with bullying, Bill Nelson has
pledged to do everything he could to expedite the process of getting this bill
approved and has written letters to the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (Tom Harkin, D-Iowa) and the leading
Republican on the committee, Lamar Alexander from Tennessee. Senator Nelson feels particularly strongly
about issues such as these, as do most Congressmen and Congresswomen, because
they often feel an ability to relate with having children and grandchildren of
their own.
In
addition to the issue concerning bullying, Senator Nelson is catching flak from
local constituents for his apparent two-facedness when faced with the
Affordable Care Act. Senator Nelson is
being brought to task for apparently only supporting President Obama in this
action, but not the people for whom he was elected. When constituents were against the act
originally, he claimed that he knew what was best for the people whom he
served, and now when Florida Governor Rick Scott is trying to get rid of any
influence of that bill in Florida, there appears to be a clash between Senator
Nelson and himself. This could be
interpreted as a move to gain power or favor among the party’s biggest-hitters
for Senator Nelson, while Governor Scott is only trying to protect his people’s
best interests. In any case, it is an
interesting thing to keep an eye on, to see where the legislation will go with
such large entities battling on opposite sides of the platform.
With
all of the local issues being addressed this week, Senator Nelson still managed
to work on some more national issues, specifically the issue of an aging AIDS
population. As chairman of the Senate
Committee on Aging, he has been tasked and wants to have this issue front and
center. According to reports, older
people can have further issues directly related to contracting AIDS and Senator
Nelson wants to make sure that any efforts taken to aid those with the disease
will be available for the now older AIDS population. This issue is being lauded as “one of the
next big health challenges we will face as a nation” if left unattended to by
the public and by representatives.
Senator
Nelson has had a busy week and has been doing his best to address issues both
at home and nationally. While not all
reviews of his performance so far have been positive, he has been making an
effort to be involved in all facets of his job.
It will be very interesting next week to see what kinds of strides and
further efforts have been made to address the issues he worked on this past
week.
Sources:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/new-challenges-with-aging-aids-population/story-fni0xqll-1226722694659
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/bill_nelson/300078
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/article/328745/6/Sen-Bill-Nelson-pushes-for-cyberbullying-legislation-
http://www.pnj.com/article/20130922/OPINION/309220007/Sen-Bill-Nelson-Gov-Scott-putting-Floridians-risk
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