Following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage throughout Florida’s gulf coast, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) met with the Florida Farm Bureau as well as local agricultural producers, farmers, and growers to discuss the storm’s impact. Photos are courtesy of...
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Photos: Rubio Visits Barrier Islands Post-Hurricane Helene
Following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage throughout Florida’s Gulf Coast, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) met with local officials and volunteers from the barrier islands to discuss the storm’s impact and current recovery efforts. Photos are courtesy of...
Rubio, Scott, Florida Colleagues to POTUS: Expedite Resources to Floridians
Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm, causing catastrophic damage along Florida’s Gulf Coast. It’s crucial for the federal government to expedite state-requested resources and authorize key policy flexibilities in order for Floridians to make a swift...
Rubio Staff Hosts Hurricane Helene Recovery Assistance
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host two in-person events to assist constituents affected by Hurricane Helene and help navigate applications for FEMA assistance. Food, water, and additional resources will be available at the events. Event...
Next Week: Rubio Staff Hosts Mobile Office Hours
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host in-person and virtual Mobile Office Hours next week to assist constituents with federal casework issues in their respective local communities. These office hours offer constituents who do not live close to one of...
Rubio, Scott Urge FEMA to Expedite Hurricane Reimbursements
Following the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Debby, some local governments in Florida face looming budget shortfalls that could disrupt disaster recovery efforts. If these local governments receive reimbursements for past hurricanes from the Federal Emergency...
ICYMI: Rubio: Why Is President Biden Still Paying People Not to Work?
Why are we still paying people not to work?
By U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
June 4, 2021
Tampa Bay Times
After a year of devastating human losses and debilitating lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus, small businesses in Tampa are staring down another challenge today: an inability to find new workers.
Why? Much of the reason has to do with the Biden administration’s unemployment benefits, which are so massive that they’re incentivizing would-be workers to stay home instead of looking for jobs.
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Thankfully, Florida is cutting them off this month. But look at the damage already done. For the last month, I’ve seen signs in coffee shops and convenience stores across the state noting they’re understaffed because of the “labor crisis,” many begging for applicants. This isn’t just some minor inconvenience; for small businesses, many of which have served their communities for generations, it’s a life-or-death scenario.
Contrast the central logic of the Biden administration’s strategy — paying people to stay home — with how we navigated the public health lockdowns after the pandemic’s initial outbreak.
As millions of small businesses across Florida were forced to close their doors, we could have just thrown caution to the wind and let the market sort it out. But we knew that keeping as many Americans as possible attached to their workplace had to be the highest priority of our response. That’s why I designed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): to protect American workers by providing fully refundable loans to small- and mid-sized businesses so long as they keep their employees working.
Since its implementation began last year, the PPP has helped save up to 55 million American jobs, including 3 million in our state. In fact, more than 430,000 businesses in Florida have now received forgivable PPP loans. And despite serving an average business size of only 20 employees, it’s the largest, most successful fiscal policy program enacted by Congress in recent memory. Doug Holtz-Eakin, former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, called the PPP “the single most effective fiscal policy ever undertaken by the United States government.”
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Of course, even if PPP kept unemployment rates far lower than economists initially forecasted during the pandemic, too many Americans still faced devastating job losses because of the coronavirus. But with widespread vaccine availability, now is the time when small businesses in Tampa, across Florida and throughout the rest of the United States should be reopening their doors and leading the economic recovery. Now, it’s time for President Biden to stop paying people to remain out of the labor force and for Americans to get back to work.
Read the rest here.