Rubio, Demings Battle Over Budget Bill With Billions for Disaster Relief

In the two days after Hurricane Ian ripped into Florida on Sept. 28, killing at least 119 people and leaving more than $50 billion in insured losses in its wake, none of the state’s 16 Republican congressional representatives and neither of its two U.S. senators voted for a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Dec. 16 despite it including nearly $21 billion for disaster relief.

Democrats, most notably Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) who is challenging two-term incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, are making a campaign issue of those votes, which saw the stopgap measure adopted on Sept. 30 by the Democrat-majority House in a 230-201 near-total party-line tally.

Rubio was not present when the Senate approved the resolution on Sept. 29 in a less-partisan 72-25 vote but said if he was not dealing with Ian’s aftermath in Florida, he would have voted against it because it contains too much pork and doesn’t directly earmark money for hurricane recovery in the state.

“We are capable in this country, in the Congress, of voting for disaster relief after key events like this without using it as a vehicle or a mechanism for people to load it up with stuff that’s unrelated to the storm,” he said on CNN Oct. 2. “It had been loaded up with a bunch of things that had nothing to do with disaster relief.” 

Florida Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rep, Val Demings (D-Fla.), a former Orlando Police chief, speaks at a September campaign stop in Tampa alongside Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, right, who is a former Tampa Police chief. (Courtesy Val Demings for U.S. Senate)

The continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded through mid-December—Congress has only adopted “proper” annual budgets before the beginning of the fiscal year six

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