Diversity Rules the Day

Diversity Rules the Day

           

            Democratic Senator Bill Nelson had quite the mixed bag of legislative and otherwise political activity in this past week.  He kept himself exceptionally busy, attempting to push through several pieces of legislation important to both his constituents and his party, while also talking with a foreign head of state, and addressing rumors as to his potential job switch in an upcoming election. 

            Recently, Nelson had pushed for a proposal to stop steep increases in flood insurance rates affecting Florida (among other states).  Because it was not big enough to push through on a bill of its own, Senator Nelson, along with other members (on both sides of the aisle), is attempting to attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill deemed by the Florida Senator to be a “must-pass” act of legislation.  This bill has large implications for his home constituents as Florida had extraordinarily high rates of flood insurance, which is especially troublesome for a state that resides at sea level and has had many flooding issues in the past.  In addition, Nelson, who has long been an advocate for ridding the U.S. of workplace discrimination against gay and transgender employees voted in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.  This bill passed the Senate easily and should have the same reaction and result in the House shortly hereafter. 

            Also legislatively, Senator Bill Nelson voted with his party in favor of making a simple majority vote on judicial and executive branch nominees, essentially ridding the Senate on filibusters for this sort of activity.  Interestingly, yet not surprisingly, his fellow senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, voted against this measure.  These results are not surprising, as both parties (and leaders therein) have issued statements supporting the way both senators voted.  The last bit of legislative news from Nelson’s camp stems from his hope to extend a ban on firearms that cannot be detected by metal detectors (which expires in a few weeks).  The main thrust behind this issue is with the growing market for guns printed with 3-d printing, a modern development which has caught on increasingly more over the last while.

            Outside of the legislative world, Senator Nelson met with Haiti’s president, Michel Martelly about the overdue parliamentary and local elections in Haiti, showing off Nelson’s ability and influence which he used to meet with him.  In addition, and unrelated, Senators Nelson and Rubio recited the Gettysburg Address for a video this week, bringing in issues from the past in an interesting way.   Lastly, the rumors surrounding Nelson’s attempts at running for governor of Florida have been quelled by his comments this week to the contrary.  However, and very interestingly, he did not rule it out completely if he were to change his mind in the near future.

Sources:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/bill-nelson-florida-governor-election-100066.html

http://news.wfsu.org/post/us-senator-files-bill-help-feds-crack-down-growing-problem-plastic-guns

http://news.wjct.org/post/video-us-sens-nelson-and-rubio-recite-gettysburg-address

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/senators-will-try-to-amend-flood-insurance-rate-fix-to-defense-bill/2153164

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/senate-changes-filibuster-rules-nelson-in-favor-rubio-against/2153566

http://www.theledger.com/article/20131122/EDIT01/131129730?tc=ar

http://www.sentinel.ht/politics/articles/international/5207-bill-nelson-calls-martelly-about-overdue-elections