Senator Nelson's Shutdown

Senator Nelson’s Shutdown

           

Amid the shutdown this week, Senator Nelson has been trying to take care of normal business this week, regardless of the situation at hand.  He has been trying to keep his part of the governmental equation running smoothly, even though there were issues within his offices and those of fellow Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Republican).  Both senators have had to furlough workers and close their state offices with the lengthening government shutdown.  This has created an issue for their respective constituents who normally call their offices for help with Social Security checks, passport applications and veterans’ benefits. 

With a large drop off of help within his office, it can be tough to get legislative work done.  However, Senator Nelson has been doing his best, regardless.  He has managed to continue to fight for the postponement of the flood insurance bill and has now received help from Senator Rubio and other republicans nationwide.  According to the article on wtsp.com, this bill is being blocked by the debate over the arguments concerning government spending and the Obamacare bill. 

As evidenced by the previous issue, much of the work in Congress recently has been surrounding the bill to fund the government and end the shutdown.  With that in mind, Senator Nelson has been very disappointed by the news that NASA’s shuttle designed to “explore how Mars' loss of atmosphere affected its water,” according to wmfe.org, has been threatened to be shutdown as well.  As the chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing NASA, Senator Nelson was pushing hard for this and believes strongly in our space and flight programs, stemming from his own trip into space with NASA in 1986. 

Lastly, Senator Bill Nelson has been standing his ground concerning piecemeal funding of government programs, which he is firmly against it.  “Why should we say that this person should be paid and not this person?” he says.  Nelson believes that it would be inappropriate and unfair to fund certain people, thereby proclaiming what they’re doing to be more important, a stance taken by many of the nation’s leading democrats.  Nelson has cited the intelligence community as one example of how this shutdown has been affecting the nation internationally.  He stated that it is ridiculous that terrorists can be planning our demise while “72% of our people are not in doing all the intelligence work.”

Sources:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/337936/250/Senator-Flood-insurance-bill-blocked-by-politics

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20131002/NEWS01/310020023/Nelson-Rubio-shutter-offices-furlough-workers

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/bill-nelson-goes-after-reckless-right-wing-house-members/2145398

http://www.wmfe.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=15071&news_iv_ctrl=1041

http://www.wokv.com/news/news/local/nelson-no-piecemeal-federal-funding-during-shutdow/nbGLw/