Government Reopening Amid Other Issues for Florida Senator

Government Reopening Amid Other Issues for Florida Senator

           

Senator Nelson has had an interesting mixed with issues at home and abroad, some of which intertwined throughout the course of the week or possibly will intersect shortly hereafter.  Unfortunately for the Senator, not all (or maybe even not most) of the issues faced this week were positive or progressive matters that he will be able to rely on in the future.

On the home front, Bill Nelson is still pushing for legislation that remains close to the hearts of those people living in Lakeland, Florida.  Almost a month ago, a girl committed suicide thanks to cyber bullies emotionally and psychologically abusing her.  Nelson is at the forefront of making protections against cyber bullying part of federal legislation under the proposed Safe Schools Improvement Act of 2013, which “would mandate that local school districts establish policies that prohibit misconduct including bullying and harassment. The bill would also require local schools to collect and publish ‘annual data on the incidence and frequency of that conduct,’” according to jdnews.com and a quote by Senator Nelson.  With this being a large issue both locally and nationally, Nelson has been continuing the fight for this sort of federal legislation, in order to help appease his home constituents.

In addition, the Senator responded to the death of Florida’s longest-serving member of Congress, Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young.  Even though he was a republican representative, Senator Nelson had positive things to say in his memory, and was quoted as saying he (Young) was a proponent of bipartisan approaches to problems and someone that he will miss working with. Additionally at home, Senator Nelson has been attacked and been “twitterbomb[ed]” by people who were angry at his lack of signature on a bill “prohibit[ing] workplace discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation or gender.”

Bill Nelson, along with other lawmakers, has been advocating the Department of Labor, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and the State Department to speed up the issuing and processing of agricultural visas for the seasonal workers who come to the United States from foreign countries for work.  As a state that uses workers of this nature, Florida would benefit from this potential action, another way for Senator Nelson to be viewed in a positive light by his local constituents.  He says that without this undertaking, crops could be left to rot, creating a potential food shortage and serious lack of income for the farmers and landowners who require their crops to be ready for the seasons ahead.

The biggest news of the week however, was the reopening of the federal government with a new agreement by both parties and houses of Congress.  Senator Nelson was an instrumental player with the negotiations as part of a 28-member joint committee to get the government back on track.  With being so involved in the process of reopening the government, it came as no surprise that he voted in favor for the new bill that was passed, however the republican senator from Florida, Marco Rubio voted against it.  Senator Nelson when asked about his decision to support this legislation said: “ “I’m relieved about this shutdown being over and certainly relieved that we have avoided a default of the financial integrity of this country, but this never should have happened in the first place. A couple of senators and a handful of House extremists have managed to embarrass America in front of the world."  With this statement, he managed to support both his rationale for supporting the spending bills all along and throw rhetoric into his statements about the blasphemous opposition who halted government activity.

Sources:

http://www.theledger.com/article/20131018/NEWS/131019113/1374?Title=Shutdown-Affects-Visas-for-Farmworkers&tc=ar

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/state/republican-rep-cw-bill-young-has-passed-away

http://www.wmfe.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=15137&news_iv_ctrl=1041

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/bill-nelson-paul-ryan-and-joint-budget-committee-take-center-stage-after-debt-ceiling-deal

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/10/bill-nelson-tapped-for-doomed-to-fail-bipartisan-budget-compromise-committee.html

http://www.tbnweekly.com/content_articles/101613_fpg-01.txt

http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2013/10/16/morning-report-twitterbombing-sen-bill-nelson#.UmRAeSTkCms

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/10/sen-marco-rubio-sen-bill-nelson-split-on-wednesdays-final-senate-vote-on-debt-ceiling-.html

 http://www.jdnews.com/opinion/our-opinion/fight-cyberbullies-at-local-state-levels-1.221015