Rooney, Florida delegation hit Trump’s betrayal of Kurds; Scott silent

Kurdish refugees flee Turkish bombing. (Photo: Rudaw)

Oct. 10, 2019 by David Silverberg

Updated 4:15 pm with comments by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) has joined other members of the Florida congressional delegation to criticize President Donald Trump’s precipitous withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria, which has already sparked a Turkish invasion.

“I urge the President to reverse his decision of removing our troops, and to send a strong message to Turkey—along with our other NATO partners in Europe—that we support the Kurds who have been fighting with us,” Rooney declared in a statement today.

“The administration’s decision to remove our remaining troops from Syria is strategically short-sighted, erodes our credibility amongst our regional partners and fortifies Russia’s position in the conflict. The Syrian Kurds have been a critical ally in the fight to eradicate ISIS, and they continue to be a crucial partner in the stabilization of the region—holding thousands of foreign ISIS prisoners that our European allies refuse to accept and administering refugee camps that ISIS holdouts hope to infiltrate and exploit. Abandoning the Kurds at this time and supporting by default Turkey’s offensive military action will divert Kurdish resources now being used to stabilize the region and will erode global confidence in the US.”

Rooney also warned of the consequences when Trump first wanted to withdraw US forces earlier this year.

“Regardless of the past decisions which drew the United States into the conflict in Syria, we should not abandon our role in the fight against the Islamic State,” Rooney argued. “A withdrawal would give back all that we have achieved and would be an abandonment of our Kurdish allies. The void we would leave will create space for other power players with interests adverse to ours, like Russia and Iran, to gain ground in the Middle East,” he stated in a Feb. 1, 2019 op-ed, “Stay in Syria to counter Iran.”

A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a former US ambassador to the Vatican, Rooney has long supported Kurdish aspirations.

“Given our own tradition and the recent history of Iraq and Kurdistan, we should at least consider the potential strategic advantages of Kurdish independence,” Rooney wrote almost exactly two years ago in an op-ed, “Kurdistan Deserves U.S. Support. Here Is Why.”

Rooney argued that the Kurds were more stable politically than Iraq, with which the US is formally allied, independence would strengthen the fight against the Islamic State (contrary to State Department arguments that an independent Kurdistan would weaken it), an independent Kurdistan could provide a secular-religious bridge in the region and hold back Shiite aggression, and that despite their enmity, a Turkish-Kurdish economic relationship was possible.

In another op-ed related to Kurdistan, in November 2017 Rooney drew a contrast between the Kurdish and Catalan drives for independence (“The Differences Between Catalonia and Kurdish Iraq”).

Trump’s withdrawal decision has led to blistering congressional criticism on both sides of the aisle, including from longtime allies.

At 3:38 pm today Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) tweeted that he was “concerned” about Trump’s decision:

“I strongly support much of the President’s foreign policy. However, I’m concerned about the ramifications of the decision to withdraw from #Syria,” he stated in the second part of a three-part thread. “The Kurds have been instrumental partners in the region, and loyal allies to the US for decades. I hope that this decision will not further destabilize the region, or embolden enemies such as Iran and ISIS.”

Florida’s House Democrats were more vocal:

“Of all of Trump’s foreign policy blunders, this one is particularly damaging and goes against our American values,” stated Rep. Lois Frankel (D-21-Fla). “It’s hard to see how anyone will agree to partner with us on the ground after this. Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds shows he’s willing to throw our allies under the bus.”

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-20-Fla.) also stated: “The president’s latest impulsive decision is outright dangerous and appalling. In sanctioning Turkish military action against the American-trained Kurdish forces who fought and died on the front lines against the Islamic State, the president has abandoned our allies in Syria and made an egregious strategic error. This will undoubtedly pave the way for massacre and humanitarian disaster. At every turn, this president undermines America’s legitimacy as a global leader and forsakes the values that our nation stands for.”

In the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted:

“At request of this administration the Kurds served as the primary ground fighters against ISIS in Syria so U.S. troops wouldn’t have to.

“Then cut deal with Erdogan allowing him to wipe them out.

“Damage to our reputation & national interest will be extraordinary & long lasting.”

In a second tweet he noted (punctuation his):

“We degraded ISIS using Kurd’s as the ground force. Now we have abandoned them & they face annihilation at the hands of the Turkish military

“ISIS could now be reinvigorated when 1000’s of jailed fighters break out when the Kurdish guards are forced to leave to go fight Turkey.”

As of this writing Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has not issued any statements or made any remarks regarding the president’s decision.

The president has been defending his actions in an ongoing series of tweets. (All Trump tweets can be accessed at Trumptwitterarchive.com, where the latest tweets are posted and can also be searched by topic.)

(To see ongoing coverage of Kurdish events from the Kurdish perspective, check the Kurdish news network, Rudaw.)

Liberty lives in light

Rep. Steube emerges as SWFL’s most ardent Trump defender

Rep. Greg Steube appears on Neil Cavuto’s “Your World” show.

Oct. 7, 2019, by David Silverberg

Of Southwest Florida’s members of Congress, Rep. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), has emerged as President Donald Trump’s most vocal local defender and apologist.

Following the standard arguments used by Trump’s supporters, Steube argued on Fox News that Trump committed no crimes and does not deserve impeachment.

“…the Democrats will stop at nothing to impeach this president. And I think that’s very clear at this point,” Steube told Fox News host Neil Cavuto in an Oct. 4 interview. Denouncing what he called “the Russian collusion hoax,” Steube said “There is nothing in that transcript that I—that I have said—and I have read the transcript—that would be a high crime or a misdemeanor, that would be an impeachable offense. And none of the Democrats have articulated to me or to any of the American people what that specific crime, high crime or misdemeanor, would be.”

Steube reiterated those arguments in a second Fox interview on Oct. 6 when it emerged that a second whistleblower had come forward to support the allegations of the first.

Steube is a member of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, which have jurisdiction over the impeachment inquiries now going forward. His mainly rural district covers most of Lehigh Acres, Port Charlotte, Venice and eastward as far as the northwestern shore of Lake Okeechobee.

Southwest Florida’s other two representatives, Reps. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.), do not sit on committees of jurisdiction and have remained almost entirely silent about the affair. Rooney, a former US ambassador to the Vatican, sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

When it came to Trump’s Ukraine phone call, Rooney’s only comment to date was jurisdictional: He signed on to an October 2 letter issued by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-10-Texas), the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, complaining that the House Select Intelligence Committee was not allowing members of the Foreign Affairs Committee to be present when State Department officials were questioned about Trump’s Ukraine conversation.

(Commentary: Actually, because the House Select Intelligence Committee deals extensively in classified matters it usually does not allow members of other committees to attend its hearings, which are usually held in secret. In this instance, the Committee, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-28-Calif.), allowed one professional staff member from the Foreign Affairs Committee to attend).

Diaz-Balart has issued no statements and his office did not respond to inquiries about the issue.

This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.

Liberty lives in light

Water, wetlands and oil: The Rooney Roundup and Mario Monitor, enviro edition

Rep. Francis Rooney faces the media on May 10 at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida days after his closed-door meeting on harmful algal blooms. (Photo by the author)

524 days (1 year, 5 months and 9 days) since Rep. Francis Rooney has faced constituents in an open, public town hall forum.

July 31, 2019 by David Silverberg

In Southwest Florida the three biggest environmental issues are water, wetlands and oil. Address those and you’re basically covering your environmental bases.

Certainly Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.), whose district covers the coast from Cape Coral to Marco Island, was active on this front in the past three months as he aggressively positioned himself as a “green” Republican. He has managed to raise his lifetime score with the League of Conservation Voters, the best political barometer of environmental sensitivity, from zero percent at the start of 2018 to 10 percent today.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) has never made much of an effort on the environment even though his district covers much of the Everglades. He has an 11 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters and as long as he keeps his Cuban-American constituency happy in Hialeah, which he does with regular fulminations against the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes, he doesn’t need to make the effort.

But the 19th Congressional District is extremely environmentally sensitive, as Rooney learned to his pain last year.

Water

Water quality is Rooney’s number one issue, according to his website. But while he campaigned on promoting pure water in his first race in 2016, he was caught completely flatfooted last year when both red tide bloomed in the Gulf of Mexico and blue-green algae filled the canals of Cape Coral and the Caloosahatchee River.

For weeks over the summer, as the blooms gathered strength, nothing was heard from Rooney. It was a serious lapse that his Democratic opponent, David Holden, tried to exploit in the general election. (Full disclosure: this author helped.)

Rooney won his race in the 2018 midterm election, but he’d received a wake-up call. In 2019 he began working to make up this deficit.

On Jan. 10, he introduced the Protecting Local Communities from Harmful Algal Blooms Act (House Resolution (HR) 414). This consisted of a three-word amendment to the Stafford Act (The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act), which provides the legal framework for disaster response. The bill would add “or algal blooms” as major disasters subject to federal action. The bill was cosponsored by eight Republicans and six Democrats, some members signing on as late as June.

However, after being referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s emergency management subcommittee in February, the bill hasn’t made any further progress in the House.

Rooney had some success in 2018 bringing together federal officials to see local conditions and in May 2019 he tried again. This was to be a grand gathering of Southwest Florida officials like mayors and experts from relevant federal agencies to coordinate their responses to “harmful algal blooms,” as they are now known, or HABs. Rooney’s team over-hyped the gathering but then had to suddenly announce that it was closed to the press and public, causing outrage and charges that the meeting violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.

According to Rooney, officials of one federal agency refused to attend the meeting if it was public and that agency was widely believed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was a measure of the Trump administration’s descent into secrecy that this once most public of agencies, whose very mission depends on its relationship with the press and public, has now drawn a curtain over its activities.

If it was, indeed, the CDC that insisted on secrecy, it was an instance of the administration screwing Rooney—and royally. To ensure the meeting proceeded with CDC participation, he bore the brunt of the criticism for closing the meeting, which he did not in fact have the authority to do and which, argued the lawyer for WINK-TV, violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.

But adhering to the spirit and letter of the Florida Sunshine Law has become a lower and lower priority in the great state of Florida. Indeed, the meeting was blessed by the presence of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Rooney tried to make up for the public and media outrage with a subsequent meeting on May 10 that served as a public airing of grievances for conservation groups and environmental activists. They were able to vent and it brought him some favorable press but he was the only elected official present and the auditorium at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida was not exactly “the room where it happened,” as it’s put in the musical Hamilton. There were no elected executives or government experts present and no decisions were made. Still, Rooney had thrown a sop to the press and public.

But whatever good the meeting had done now faced a new threat—the possibility of another government shutdown because of conflict over reaching a budget agreement or raising the federal debt ceiling. In the January 2019 government shutdown essential government operations had been affected; in particular, national weather forecasting, so essential to Southwest Florida, was cut back.

This particularly affected the response to HABs; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a key player in monitoring their development. A NOAA expert was at the May 7 closed-door meeting and NOAA weather predictions are essential to warning of HABs or red tide so that local officials can prepare. If the government shuts down and NOAA stops working, Southwest Florida will, literally, be at the mercy of the tides.

Accordingly, on June 14 Rooney introduced the Harmful Algal Bloom Essential Forecasting Act (HR 3297), which would exempt NOAA forecasting from any government shutdown. The bill has, as of July 9, nine cosponsors, six Democrats and three Republicans. Ironically, one of the first cosponsors was Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-13-Mich.), a progressive member of the “The Squad” and the target of President Donald Trump’s twitter rage.

The legislation is even more ironic in that Rooney voted repeatedly against bills in January to end the government shutdown and then voted again against a two-year budget deal negotiated between President Trump and House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.), which will bring stability to the budget and debt ceiling processes. In effect, he was saying it was OK to shut down the government and keep it shut down, just not the agency essential to his district’s health and well-being that he cared about.

All that said, the bill was referred to the House Science, Space, and Technology; Natural Resources Committee’s water subcommittee, where it remains.

Wetlands

The Everglades are the wetlands that dominate Southwest Florida’s existence and restoring and preserving them is part of a half-century continuum of environmentalist activism. However, politically, the nuts and bolts of Everglades restoration come to a matter of dollars and cents—in particular federal versus state dollars and cents.

The US federal government is pledged to provide $200 million per year for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) whose centerpiece is the creation of reservoirs that will clean water from Lake Okeechobee before it’s allowed to flow out the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. This is intended to equally match state funds for CERP.

Rooney has been an advocate for the Everglades since his 2016 run and has consistently pursued measures to complete or advance their restoration.

This year in his Fiscal Year 2020 budget, President Trump allocated only $63 million for CERP, setting off howls of protest among Florida lawmakers. Florida’s two senators, along with Rooney and Rep. Brian Mast (R-18-Fla.), sent a letter to Trump protesting the underfunding. Diaz-Balart, notably, did not sign on although his district covers more of the Everglades than Rooney’s.

Trump agreed to come to Florida to see and be seen on the site and on April 29 he toured Lake Okeechobee and the Hoover Dike where he was met by DeSantis and virtually the whole Republican Florida delegation including Diaz-Balart and Rooney. The latter buttonholed him and—as Rooney would put it— “carpet-bombed” him about Lake O and CERP. Trump subsequently reversed course and asked that the full $200 million be included in the budget request.

Rooney worked hard along with other Florida members to get the money approved by Congress and succeeded. It was included as part of a two-year compromise budget deal reached by Trump and Pelosi. Trump tweeted that it should be passed: “House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets. I am totally with you!”

And then, when the budget deal was placed before the House of Representatives for approval, Rooney voted against it (!), denouncing it as irresponsible.

If ever there was a disconnect between the ideal and the practical, between the ideological and the pragmatic, between sight and blindness, between success and failure, this was it.

Fortunately, the House passed the budget deal. As this is written it is before the Senate and if passed there, it is expected—expected—to be signed by the President.

If it becomes law, that budget will include funding for Everglades restoration, which Rooney worked so hard to obtain and then voted against.

Oil

In a break with conservative anti-taxation orthodoxy, on January 24, Rooney signed on as a co-sponsor of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019, (HR 763), introduced by fellow Floridian Rep. Ted Deutch (D-22-Fla.). Of the original six co-sponsors, Rooney was the only Republican.

Today the bill has 58 co-sponsors—and Rooney remains the only Republican.

The original Deutch bill imposes a fee on the carbon content of fuels, including crude oil, natural gas, coal, or any other fossil fuel product that emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“Francis Rooney Endorses Large Tax Increase,” raged the website of Americans for Tax Reform, a fiercely anti-tax group led by lobbyist Grover Norquist. “Rooney claims the bill is ‘revenue neutral’ but this is not a truthful assertion. The bill is a tax increase, a very large tax increase.” The group urged readers to call Rooney and push him to take his name off the bill.

Rooney didn’t and on July 25 he both doubled down on it—and tried to make his support more palatable to conservatives.

Rooney introduced the Stemming Warming and Augmenting Pay Act (SWAP Act) (HR 4058) and he signed on as the only other co-sponsor of HR 3966, sponsored by Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3-Ill.), who also co-sponsored Rooney’s bill. Both bills would use taxes taken from fossil fuel polluters and use them to reduce Social Security taxes, increase payouts to Social Security beneficiaries and establish a trust fund that would help low-income people offset energy costs.

Rooney’s bill, however, has a big tradeoff: It would prohibit the federal government from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act for 12 years.

It’s a classic business approach to a problem, using money instead of regulation to get a desired result: if you pollute you pay—but you’re also unregulated. As its acronym implies, it’s a swap.

It joins another Rooney bill introduced on June 21, the Eliminating the RFS and Its Destructive Outcomes Act (HR 3427).

And what is RFS? RFS is the Renewable Fuel Standard, a program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. It requires that transportation fuel sold in the United States have at least a component of renewable fuel. It was put in place in 2005 to reduce pollution and fight climate change.

Science versus Trumpism

The irony of Rooney’s situation is that he’s making more progress on environmental issues in a Democratic House than he did in the Republican-dominated 115th Congress.

This also applies to issues of oil exploration and exploitation. He teamed with Rep. Kathy Castor (D-14-Fla.) to oppose oil drilling in Gulf coastal waters. This was a far cry from the previous Congress when his efforts to protect the shore were repeatedly blocked by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-1-La.), the House Majority Whip, who defended the oil and gas industry and its interests.

When Rooney introduced a bill to protect coral reefs from the harmful effects of chemicals in sunscreen (HR 1834), he was joined by three Democratic co-sponsors and only a single Republican.

His position on carbon taxation and his increasing number of breaks with the Trump line are getting him fire on the right and it is possible that he will face a primary challenge—for being a RINO (Republican in Name Only) of all things.

It’s now more difficult to simply label Rooney as a blindly loyal Trumpist as he was when he first took office. Then, he shared the stage and defended his master and railed against socialism, gun control and refused to admit the reality of climate change. He readily sought the media spotlight, held wildly contentious town hall meetings and called for a political purge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation so that Trump could fill it with willing hacks and sycophants.

While Rooney’s positions on budgets, social issues, labor and immigration still mark him as a hard right-winger, it’s clear that he’s learning that if he’s going to be effective on the environment, Southwest Florida’s primary, existential issue, he has to both compromise and make common cause with the Democrats, liberals and even—gasp!—progressives he once disparaged so readily.

He also seems to have awakened to the contradictions and absurdities of Trumpism, as shown in his increasing number of votes in 2019 against the President’s line. This is a president who is indifferent toward environmental protection—when he isn’t actively hostile to it. If Southwest Florida is going to remain livable, this president has to be resisted.

Yesterday, July 30, Rooney was named a member of the House Science Committee. Science is supposed to be factual, objective and realistic. That’s tough to pursue with a president who is delusional and even deranged and who dismisses any fact he doesn’t like as “fake.”

When Congress reconvenes in September it will be interesting to see if Rooney can navigate between science and Trumpism and where his true commitment lies—and how that will play at election time.

Liberty lives in light

The Paradise Progressive will be on hiatus in August and September.

The Rooney Roundup and Mario Monitor: Mum on Mueller — and Rooney and Bernie agree (?!)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who introduced the Raise the Wage Act in the Senate and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.), one of only three Republicans who voted for it in the House.

520 days (1 year, 5 months, 5 days) since Rep. Francis Rooney has met constituents in an open, public town hall forum.

July 27, 2019 by David Silverberg

Congress has now adjourned for its August recess, so it’s time to look back at the activities of Southwest Florida’s two representatives since our last Rooney Roundup and Mario Monitor in April.

This period provided a very mixed bag. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) proved to be something of an odd and unpredictable maverick. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) continued his record of unimaginative, party-line votes.

When it came to the testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the highlight of this period, neither of Southwest Florida’s representatives expressed an opinion—probably a wise course. While other members of the Florida delegation, some of them members of the Judiciary or Intelligence committees, were quite vocal, neither Rooney or Diaz-Balart, sat on the relevant committees, so they weren’t in the room.

There was a lot of action on the issue of Southwest Florida’s environment, so much so that it will be the subject of a subsequent Rooney Roundup and Mario Monitor.

But here, some highlights from the past two months of congressional activity.

Rooney stands with Bernie Sanders (What?!)

In a surprising vote at odds with President Donald Trump’s position, the Republican Party and his own conservative record, on July 18 Rooney voted in favor of raising the national minimum wage to $15 per hour.

The bill, the Raise the Wage Act (House Resolution (HR) 582), passed by a vote of 231 to 199. Rooney was one of only three Republicans to vote in favor of the measure. (The others were Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1-Pa.) and Chris Smith (R-4-NJ)). Diaz-Balart opposed it.

The bill increases the minimum wage over a six-year period by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. After the first and second years the wage’s economic impact will be assessed by the General Accounting Office.

In a statement, Rooney explained his position: “This 6-year gradual increase brings the minimum wage in line with inflation. The 6-year increases avoid disruptive changes to the workplace. Earlier this week I offered an amendment, which was rejected, to establish a ‘purchasing power parity option’ which would allow states and cities to adjust the wages for local conditions. What $26 buys in Ft. Myers may cost $50 in New York City. While this would have been a better option, the bill that passed will provide the gradual increases necessary to improve worker pay, keep up with inflation and mitigate the wage inequality which has increased over the last 20 years.”

In January, the bill was introduced in the Senate as Senate 150 by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-described democratic socialist and Democratic candidate for president. It has not yet been reported out of committee.

Two-year budget deal

In another dissent from the Trump line, on July 25, Rooney voted against the two-year budget deal worked out by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) in a rare, bipartisan bit of cooperation.

The bill, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (House Resolution (HR) 3877), stabilizes the budget process and wards off possible government shutdowns over raising the national debt ceiling. It sets the budget at $1.37 trillion and suspends the debt ceiling until July 31, 2021.

Trump endorsed it in a tweet: “House Republicans should support the TWO YEAR BUDGET AGREEMENT which greatly helps our Military and our Vets. I am totally with you!” The House duly passed it by a vote of 284 to 149. As of this writing it has gone to the Senate where it was expected to be passed and the President was expected to sign it—although with this president, one never knows until the ink dries.

Diaz-Balart voted for it along with 64 other Republicans. But it was more than Rooney could stomach.

“This budget act fails the American people, especially our children and grandchildren,” he raged in a statement. “Saddling future generations with insurmountable debt instead of making the hard decisions on spending is irresponsible legislating. Just a campaign cycle ago, Republicans across the country ran on a platform of balancing our budget and eliminating our debt. I intend to continue my opposition to out of control Washington spending.”

Humanitarian standards for detainees

Both Rooney and Diaz-Balart voted against the Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in Customs and Border Protection Custody Act (HR 3239) on July 24.

Among a variety of standards of care for detainees, it requires US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to conduct a health examination for every person it takes into custody and provide health care for those who need it. It also requires that detainees have access to drinking water, toilets, sanitation and hygiene products.

The bill passed by a vote of 233 to 195 along party lines. It is likely to die in the Senate.

Rooney skipped an earlier vote on June 25 to provide emergency funding to relieve conditions on the US southern border (HR 3401), which passed the House 230 to 195 and ultimately became law. Diaz-Balart voted against it.

Fallout from disaster relief vote

On June 3, Rooney voted against the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act, 2019 (HR 2157), a $19.1 billion spending bill that provided emergency funds for disasters around the country. In Florida it was particularly critical for the panhandle, which had been devastated by Hurricane Michael. Diaz-Balart voted for it.

Rooney voted against it because he said it was fiscally irresponsible. In this he was joined by Rep. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.)

Rooney’s vote created a political storm of its own in Florida where the relief bill was not only popular but deemed essential. The rest of the Florida delegation, both Republican and Democrat, voted for the bill (with the exception of two members who were absent, Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-20-Fla.) and Frederica Wilson (D-24-Fla.)).

“If I was in their district, I’d vote ‘em out,” Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s Republican chief financial officer told reporters in Tallahassee immediately after the vote. “Those individuals that do not realize the harm and suffering that’s happening in Northwest Florida and the recovery that we’re trying to endure right now, for them to put themselves over the better good of the recovery of other citizens in the United States is shameful. Unfortunately, it’s a round world and they’ll probably get what’s coming to them somewhere, somehow.”

When the House leadership was struggling to move the bill, Rep. Neal Dunn (R-2-Fla.), who represents hard-hit Panama City, took to the floor to denounce members who blocked it.

“For those upset at the cost, OK, spending in Washington is a problem, but are you actually willing to make an empty gesture about balancing the federal budget on the backs of Americans who have lost everything?” he said.

Other votes

Predictably, Rooney voted:

Against holding Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress;
Against condemning President Donald Trump’s racist comments attacking four members of Congress;
Against the National Defense Authorization Act;
Against protecting Dreamers.

In the next Rooney Roundup and Mario Monitor: Southwest Florida’s swamp meets Washington DC’s swamp.

Liberty lives in light

Rooney, Diaz Balart vote against resolution condemning racist Trump tweets

01-13-19 us capitol cropped

July 16, 2019 by David Silverberg

Tonight both of Southwest Florida’s representatives in Congress voted against a congressional resolution “Condemning President Trump’s racist comments directed at Members of Congress.”

The bill, House Resolution 489, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 240 to 187, largely along party lines.

Both Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) voted against the resolution. As of this writing, neither had issued a formal statement explaining their votes.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7-NJ) after President Trump tweeted on July 14 that four members of Congress, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-5-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-13-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-7-Mass.), all American citizens and three out of four born in the United States, should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

The resolution, which is non-binding and does not have the force of law or compel any action, nonetheless expresses the sense of Congress and is an unusually strong condemnation of a sitting president.

The resolution cites the contributions of immigrants to the United States and the support and praise past presidents have expressed for immigrants and open immigration.

Noting that “President Donald Trump’s racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color,” the resolution stated that the House of Representatives:

“(1) believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger, and that those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations;

“(2) is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith, or country of origin; and

“(3) strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should “go back” to other countries, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as “invaders,” and by saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.”

Liberty lives in light

Five years to the day after Naples raid, new actions loom over migrant workers

ICE agents arrest suspects in a 2017 raid. (Photo: DHS)

July 16, 2019 By David Silverberg

Today, July 16, marks the anniversary of one of the biggest law enforcement raids on migrant workers in Southwest Florida history.

It was on this date five years ago that Florida Division of Insurance Fraud investigators raided Incredible Fruit Dynamics in Naples and arrested 105 workers for fraudulent documentation, use of personal identification, identity theft and workers’ compensation fraud.

The anniversary comes as the threat of deportation raids continue to hang over Southwest Florida along with the rest of the country.

The 2014 raid demonstrated the role and extent of undocumented or fraudulently documented workers in the economy of Southwest Florida. It’s a role that continues today.

The company was owned by Alfie Oakes, owner of Oakes farms, Food & Thought organic farm market and Seed to Table.

At the time, authorities made clear that Oakes was not being charged; they were trying to find the source of the false documents. Oakes denied knowing anything about the undocumented workers in his employ. “We definitely knowingly never hired any illegals,” Oakes told The Naples Daily News. “The company hires only people that provide Social Security cards.” He and his brother Eric had purchased the company and kept the workers on, some of whom had been working there for over 10 years.

Though he checked Social Security cards, “If everything looks legit, we’re not allowed by law to challenge them,” he said, referring to discrimination laws. “It’s kind of a fine line when you’re hiring people.”

Southwest Florida has always been a center of cheap migrant labor, given its extensive agricultural sector. In 1960 the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and CBS News exposed the harsh conditions under which migrant workers labored in the fields in Immokalee in its landmark documentary, “Harvest of Shame.”

This past weekend, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel made their presence known in Immokalee they succeeded in instilling fear—but from a law enforcement perspective, they also gave possible deportees time to flee. Unlike the 2014 raid, which was intended to actually catch wrongdoers, the point of this activity just seemed intended to terrorize.

Commentary: Terrorism vs. enforcement

In his campaign kickoff speech in Orlando on June 18, President Trump accused Democrats of being driven by “hatred, prejudice and rage” but that seems a perfect description of what is driving him and his approach to governing.

In the past, immigration enforcement was guided by an effort to effectively apprehend wrongdoers or suspects, while minimizing disruption but still sending a strong signal.

President Barack Obama’s administration was active in pursuing undocumented migrants who had committed crimes or had deportation orders against them. Between 2009 and 2011, federal authorities deported 385,000 people per year, according to Department of Homeland Security data. In 2012, that hit a high point of 409,000. However, the Obama effort was directed at migrants with criminal records who posed a danger to the community or those with court-ordered removal orders against them. They featured careful intelligence, stealth and discretion.

Despite broad allegations of migrant criminality by Trump, his enforcement efforts seem intended to just showboat, stoke fear and vent his bile against foreigners, particularly those from south of the US border.

This comes at the same time as the president’s latest eruptions on Twitter against Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-5-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-13-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-7-Mass.). No other word will serve to describe his insults— it’s racism, pure and simple. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. From the day Trump announced his candidacy his racism, xenophobia and cruelty have been on full display. The only difference now is that he has no restraints and no filters, there’s just pure hatred, prejudice and rage.

In Southwest Florida, the member of Congress whose district encompasses Immokalee is Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.). When asked about the possibility of raids, arrests and deportations, all he would say was, “Until we have a real fix of a system that is totally broken and has gotten worse, these things are going to continue to happen,” according to the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s not an issue of what I support or not. ICE is going to follow the law and I expect them to follow the law and to do so in a way that’s honorable.”

Meanwhile, Diaz-Balart’s neighbor to the west, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) has introduced legislation to cut legal immigration by half and make asylum-seeking more difficult both by shortening deadlines and restricting applications to ports of entry. Rooney’s legislation (House Resolution 481) doesn’t go as far as the administration, which is proposing a rule to prevent asylum applications at the border at all and only in the countries refugees are fleeing.

Diaz-Balart is right: The immigration system is broken and needs fixing. But anti-immigration hardliners have consistently sunk past efforts at bipartisan solutions and this president and his administration haven’t put forward any sane solutions other than a brick-and-mortar wall and the president’s “hatred, prejudice and rage” as expressed in cruelty and callousness toward refugees and asylum-seekers.

Democratic members of Congress and immigration advocacy groups are suing to prevent the administration’s proposed new rule and are demonstrating against the administration’s anti-immigrant actions.

This is the battle will be decided in the 2020 election.

As a side note, it’s worth following up on the Alfie Oakes story. On Aug. 13, 2018 the Naples Daily News reported that Oakes Farms Food & Distribution Services had been awarded a $46.8 million contract by the US Defense Logistics Agency to supply food to the military.

Six days later, Oakes posted a screed on Facebook against “the Democratic party recently morphing into all out socialism” and complaining that “current events are censored from the MSM [mainstream media] to support their one world order narrative.”

“The puppeteers that orchestrate the MSM, most of our universities, the [Democratic National Committee] along with the Obama administration have been pushing for a one world order that would ultimately destroy the opportunity for the individual,” he wrote. “We must with all our might reject socialism and adhere to the genius of the christian [sic] principles that our founding father so masterfully created (through the hand of GOD in my opinion) so that we may continue to be the beacon of the world for individual prosperity and freedom.”

It will be interesting to see if there are any raids this time at Oakes Farms.

Liberty lives in light

Gerrymandering comes home to Southwest Florida

The Republigator, a Florida salute to Elkanah Tisdale and his original Gerrymander, showing the attempted devouring of Democratic congressional districts. (Illustration by the author © 2019.)

July 1, 2019 by David Silverberg

Back in 1812, when Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry signed into law a contorted legislative map that favored his Democratic-Republican party, artist Elkanah Tisdale drew a cartoonish map that showed the new districts creating a lizard-like shape.

Unveiled at a dinner party, one guest compared it to a salamander. No, said another guest, “a Gerry-mander.” Published in the Boston Gazette on March 26, 1812, the cartoon gave rise to the term “gerrymander,” which today survives to describe politically-motivated boundary drawing designed to produce a desired electoral result.

The_Gerry-Mander_Edit — The original cartoon giving rise to the term “Gerrymander.”

Gerrymandering has been practiced in America since before creation of the country—colonial political boundaries were similarly inspired. It will clearly be with us for a lot longer because on June 27 the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the practice by ruling 5 to 4 in the case of Rucho vs. Common Cause, that the federal courts do not have a role in preventing extreme partisan gerrymandering.

For Democrats and everyone who fears that Republican-dominated legislatures will impose their will into perpetuity, it was a deep blow.

“The partisan gerrymanders in these cases [North Carolina and Maryland] deprived citizens of the most fundamental of their constitutional rights: the rights to participate equally in the political process, to join with others to advance political beliefs, and to choose their political representatives,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan for the minority in an impassioned dissent. “In so doing, the partisan gerrymanders here debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people. These gerrymanders enabled politicians to entrench themselves in office as against voters’ preferences. They promoted partisanship above respect for the popular will. They encouraged a politics of polarization and dysfunction. If left unchecked, gerrymanders like the ones here may irreparably damage our system of government.”

Ironically, Kagan cited Florida as a state whose courts intervened in an extreme gerrymander and ordered it changed. The Florida Constitution has a provision called the Fair Districts Amendment stating that no districting plan “shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party.”

In 2012 the state’s districting map was challenged because Republican legislature had packed African-American voters into a 5th Congressional District that looked like a Burmese python slithering up the peninsula’s spine. It took six years of litigation to change that district’s boundaries but the Florida Supreme Court finally forced adoption of a new map.

Despite Florida’s constitutional commitment to fair districts, the state is nonetheless politically gerrymandered and nothing proves it like Southwest Florida’s two congressional districts encompassing most of Lee and Collier counties.

Southwest Florida: The 19th Congressional District

Florida_US_Congressional_District_19_(since_2013)

The 19th Congressional District runs along the Gulf coast from Cape Coral to Marco Island. Goodland is its southernmost community. It includes Pine Island and Sanibel.

Ordinarily, including coastal and island communities would make sense; after all, it’s where much of the population lives. But what’s peculiar is the 19th’s eastern boundary: In Lee County it includes a sliver of Lehigh Acres then follows Rt. 75 southward for a while before suddenly cutting inland and making Livingston Rd. in Collier County its boundary.

Why these jigs and jags? Because whoever drew this line did it to limit the inclusion of potentially Democratic and Hispanic communities like Lehigh Acres, Golden Gate Estates and Immokalee.

The result is a District that is 83.5 percent white and older (27.7 percent over 65), according to Democratic Party statistics—and reliably and overwhelmingly Republican.

Southwest and South Florida: The 25th District

Florida 25 CD 6-30-19 The 25th Congressional District is an enormous, ungainly area that stretches from the western Miami suburbs, chiefly Hialeah, and encompasses large swaths of the Everglades and sparsely populated wilderness until it reaches Collier and Lee counties—where it absorbs Golden Gate and Immokalee. (Lehigh Acres is mainly in the 17th Congressional District, another Republican district.)

The population of the 25th is 44 percent Cuban-American, the most of any congressional district in the United States and the district lines are drawn to absorb any non-Cuban Hispanic voters into the Republican Party. Clearly, the Republican hope is that all Hispanic voters will reflexively vote for a Hispanic name. Accordingly, the District’s representative is Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who has been in Congress since 2003, outliving three redistrictings.

The Collier and Lee portions of the 25th are merely the tail on the 25th’s dog but they do ensure that potential Democrats there don’t vote in District 19 elections.

Surgical gerrymandering and the future

The district lines of the 19th and 25th and, to the north 17th, have been surgically gerrymandered to divide or dilute the votes of any potential Democratic communities (chiefly Lehigh Acres in Lee County and Golden Gate in Collier County). In the 19th District there is even a point at Potomac Place where the district line is so exact that it slices through a cul-de-sac in what appears to be an effort to avoid or include individual homes.

The 19th District’s lines in particular appear drawn to deliberately create a racially, ethnically and politically homogeneous white Republican district.

In fact, the 19th District may be in violation of both Supreme Court rulings against racially-based districting and Florida’s constitutional prohibitions against extreme partisan gerrymandering. A lawsuit brought against the lines of this district would have an excellent chance of succeeding— although at this late date, on the eve of a new census and new maps, such a lawsuit is unlikely.

Are there alternatives? Of course there are! It was the advent of computing that allowed gerrymanderers to precisely draw their lines based on racial and partisan data. But computing also provides potential computer-drawn maps that are neutral and equitable. Sadly, no legislature drawing the lines wants to give up its power to choose its voters, so these computer-generated maps remain conceptions only.

Florida is certainly no different from anywhere else and may be worse in some respects. But the only way to change the maps after the next census (which will presumably occur as scheduled despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to delay it) is to win the legislature and ensure that the maps are fair and equitable. If they’re not, they need to be challenged both in state court on the basis of the Fair Districts Amendment and in federal court on the basis of racial bias.

“As voters, we’re told that our elections are safe from meddling and that we have free and fair elections, yet today, the Supreme Court turned its back on good government with its non-decision on gerrymandering,” said Annisa Karim, chair of the Collier County Democratic Party following the Supreme Court’s decision. “Now it’s up to us, the voters, to fix this problem. It starts with working hard to elect responsible, fair-minded legislators willing to put the public good over partisan politics.”

She continued: “This is another reason why the 2020 election is so important–we will not only be electing a president, but a state Legislature that will control how Florida votes for the decade to come.”

In her Supreme Court dissent, Justice Kagan asked: Can voters break out of the partisan boxes that gerrymandering creates?

“Sure,” she answered. “But everything possible has been done to make that hard. To create a world in which power does not flow from the people because they do not choose their governors. Of all times to abandon the Court’s duty to declare the law, this was not the one. The practices challenged in these cases imperil our system of government. Part of the Court’s role in that system is to defend its foundations. None is more important than free and fair elections.”

For further reading:

There’s a lot of material out there regarding gerrymandering.

The single greatest resource on the current state of gerrymandering is FiveThirtyEight.com’s Gerrymandering Project and its Atlas of Redistricting. An interactive map that provides an array of alternatives to current lines, the reader can redistrict according to a variety of criteria. You can go straight to Florida’s map and check out the state’s possible districts. Imagine a 19th Congressional District that includes Key West—or Clewiston! It’s in there.

Former President Barack Obama recorded a short video about redistricting that’s posted on YouTube.com. It’s refreshing to hear a president speak in complete sentences again.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee is attempting to prepare for the 2021 redistricting process and is encouraging activism and participation.

Bushmanders and Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate Electronic Maps and Census Data to Win Elections, is a book published in 2001 that exposed racial and partisan gerrymandering and some of the absurd results. It’s a bit dated now but still informative. There have been many other books on the process since then. For example, Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind The Secret Plan To Steal America’s Democracy tells the story of the Republican post-2008 effort to use gerrymandering to ensure Republican rule.

For some detailed history of gerrymandering, an excellent article is the Smithsonian’s Where Did the Term “Gerrymander” Come From?

Liberty lives in light

“Hatred, prejudice and rage:” What Democrats will face in the race to 2020

June 25, 2019 by David Silverberg

On Wednesday evening, June 26, Democrats will begin two nights of debate in order to begin distilling down their massive field of candidates into something manageable.

It’s no coincidence that the event kicking off the Democratic campaign will be held in Miami. It’s a bid for attention in the most crucial state of the 2020 election.

Donald Trump knows this. Last week, on June 18, he kicked off his own campaign with a rally in Orlando.

That speech, although discursive, disconnected and somewhat demented, bears special attention because it revealed much about the themes and the angles of attack that the eventual Democratic nominee and, indeed, all Democrats, liberals and progressives, can expect from this Orange Animal—and should be preparing to counter during the long march to the election. (An excellent transcript of the speech, broken into five-minute text, audio and video segments, is available at the website Factbase.)

While Trump has been on a media blitz since the speech, giving interviews that are calmer but no less alarming, the Orlando speech is the kind of red meat emotionalism at the heart of his campaign.

Trump obviously enjoys his rally speeches. He can vent and act out without any contradictions and he doesn’t have to think carefully but can just spew. Whatever is in his head is validated by the roar of the crowd.

The true test of oratory is whether the speaker can bring the listener, not just to his point of view, but into his mind and even personality—to make the audience both think and feel his thoughts and emotions. Adolf Hitler excelled at this. So does Trump. It is the very essence of demagoguery.

So what can the world of thinking people expect from the Trump campaign in the days ahead?

“Hatred, prejudice and rage”

At his speech, Trump declared that: “Our Radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage.”

Trump has a glaring tendency to project his own emotions, intentions and thoughts on others.

“…What he does is, he projects,” House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) pointed out in a June 13 interview. “Like when he says, ‘Nancy’s a mess,’ that means he’s a mess. When he says, ‘Nancy’s nervous,’ that means he’s nervous. He’s always projecting. …He’s always talking about himself, no matter who the subject of the sentence is.”

There is no clearer declaration of the underlying dynamic driving the 2020 Trump campaign than those three words that say it all. Democrats can expect Trump’s “hatred, prejudice and rage” to take the lowest, vilest and pettiest forms imaginable—and unimaginable. Their campaign must be able to counter those powerful emotions and offer an alternative that is more compelling and inspiring.

As Michelle Obama said, “When they go low, we go high”—but the “high” must impel people to act in their own interests and the nation’s.

Trump is still running against Hillary Clinton—and will continue to do so

Trump mentioned Hillary seven times during the course of his speech, before mentioning any other candidate. He has such a deep hatred of her, he so enjoyed defeating her and he gets such powerful emotional satisfaction from denigrating her that he could not stop attacking her during the speech. This will likely continue on the campaign trail regardless of who becomes the Democratic nominee.

In calmer, scripted moments Trump will attack individual Democrats and the party as a whole, as he is already doing. But when he gets wound up at his rallies, when he’s speaking emotionally, he will be turning his ire against Hillary Clinton.

The question is: Will his supporters—and more importantly, independent, undecided and traditional Republican voters—go along with this or become tired of this worn out trope?

Democrats may be tempted to defend Clinton on the campaign trail. It’s a natural inclination against such obvious unfairness and blind hatred. But what’s past is past. Better to let the Orange Animal exhaust his rage against someone who isn’t running and isn’t relevant to next year’s contest.

Trump casts his campaign as a movement

“We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God,” Trump told his followers in Orlando. This expression, which has eerie echoes of Hitler’s, “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (One People, One Nation, One Leader), casts Trump’s campaign as a movement rather than a mere political campaign. Being part of a movement gives followers a sense of being part of something greater and more compelling than just getting an individual elected. They’re trying to change the universe—or so Trump would have them believe.

Democrats—with both a big and small “d”—need to forge more of a sense of themselves as their own movement. Theirs is a movement to preserve democracy in America against the threat of dictatorship and—yes—Fascism.

Right now all the Democratic candidates are offering what they may think are big, positive ideas. But what they need to forge is a movement that is more powerful and more attractive than Trumpism that can preserve the Constitution and democracy in America.

Trumpism versus Socialism

“America will never be a socialist country, ever,” Trump brayed. “A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream.”

Trump and his followers will be casting the choice for Americans as one between socialism versus freedom—or, really, Trumpism. They will use “socialism” as an insult, a threat, a bogeyman, taking the place that “Communism” used to occupy.

The real choice for Americans, however, is between democracy and dictatorship. A second Trump administration could mean the end of constitutional government. If he stays in power, 2020 could end up being the last American election.

Any Democratic nominee has to make clear that this is what’s at stake in the next election. It’s not just about particular policy choices. This election is about fundamentals. It’s about the nature of the United States into the foreseeable future. While those may be clichés spouted about any election, this time really is different. Never have the stakes been so high and never has the threat been so real.

All this is worth keeping in mind as we watch the Democrats mix it up in Miami.

Liberty lives in light

SWFL state legislators get failing grades for putting people last

06-21-19 Report-card-F

June 21, 2019 by David Silverberg

All of Southwest Florida’s state legislators received failing grades in the People First Report Card issued yesterday, June 20, by Progress Florida, a non-profit organization founded in 2008 to promote progressive values.

Seventeen votes during the past legislative session were used to grade the lawmakers.

“We’ve graded each legislator based on their votes on issues that matter to Floridians: our economy, our public schools, our environment, our civil rights, reproductive freedom, gun safety, and more,” states the People First Report Card website.

“Florida politicians like to talk a good game when it comes to supporting Florida families, but this scorecard shows which ones are actually walking the walk with their votes,” Mark Ferrulo, the organization’s executive director, stated. “Now, more than ever, it’s important Floridians know which lawmakers are doing right by everyday Floridians, and which ones are really in the hip pocket of corporate lobbyists or ideological extremists.”

Thirty-nine lawmakers received “A” grades from the organization, up from 17 last year.

The grades of Southwest Florida legislators are listed below:

Sen. Kathleen Passidomo

Republican – Naples, District 28 – Grade: F (35%)

Rep. Bob Rommel

Republican – Naples, District 106 – Grade: F (29%)

Rep. Byron Donalds

Republican – Naples, District 80 – Grade: F (29%)

Rep. Dane Eagle

Republican – Cape Coral, District 77 – Grade: F (29%)

Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen

Republican – Fort Myers, District 78 – Grade: F (33%)

The full list is available here.

Liberty lives in light

Rooney votes against bill preventing oil drilling in the Everglades

Seismic trucks explore for oil deposits in Big Cypress National Preserve. (Photo: Conservancy of Southwest Florida)

483 days (1 year, 3 months, 29 days) since Rep. Francis Rooney has met constituents in an open, public town hall forum.

June 20, 2019 by David Silverberg

Yesterday, June 19, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) voted against House Resolution 2740, a spending bill that includes prohibitions against oil drilling in the Everglades.

Also opposing the bill was Rep. Mario Diaz Balart (R-25-19).

The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 226 to 203. It will now be considered by the Senate.

The massive, nearly $1 trillion spending bill, which primarily funds the federal departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, has an amendment that puts a one-year moratorium on the issuance of wetland permits by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The moratorium covers the 2020 fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2019 to Sept. 30, 2020.

“We must do all we possibly can to protect our sensitive River of Grass,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-23-Fla.), declared in a statement following the vote. “Drilling within the Everglades Protection Area is reckless, rapacious and symbolizes just how much those who advocate for the senseless pursuit of fossil fuels will risk, even if it destroys our most treasured ecosystems. It’s absurd it even has to be said, but we must fight any drilling in the Everglades.” A company has applied to do exploratory drilling in western Broward County, part of Wasserman Schultz’s district.

“This appropriations package contains nearly $1 trillion in discretionary spending and is $176 billion above current spending caps,” complained Rooney in a statement. “Even with all this excessive spending, Democrats inserted language to explicitly prohibit any funding for securing our southern border – which seems to be the only area where they have found a passion for spending constraints. Congress has a responsibility to address its spending addiction in a serious manner, not by playing politics with border security. Equally as bad, the legislation is openly hostile to those of us that believe in the sanctity of life.”

Rooney also opposed provisions in the bill that support a woman’s right to choose. Those included providing grants to Planned Parenthood and the bill’s opposition to what is known as the “Mexico City policy,” a Trump administration policy that prohibits federal funding for humanitarian organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals. He also objected to funding in the bill for Affordable Care Act “navigators,” people who help others apply for health insurance.