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...
News
Latest News
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...
Rubio Discusses Human Trafficking During Subcommittee Hearing
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, today stressed the importance of stigmatizing the international sex tourism industry as a key part of combatting human trafficking abroad. Rubio made his comments during a subcommittee hearing entitled, “Combating Forced Labor and Modern-Day Slavery in East Asia and The Pacific.”
Rubio also questioned the U.S. Department of State witnesses regarding allegations that its Trafficking in Persons Report has been unduly politicized in designating problem countries, in addition to the problem of trafficking in child soldiers.
A video of the full exchange is available here.
An excerpt from the exchange is available below:
…
Senator Rubio: “Just here, domestically, I think one of the most important things we need to continue to do – and this is more of an editorial statement – is we need to make it very clear there is nothing culturally acceptable about going to these other countries, as Americans, and participating in these sorts of things.
“I mean, there’s this attitude, that I’ve run into now and then, where things we would never do in this country is ok if we do it somewhere else because in those countries it’s culturally acceptable in some way.
“I think you’ve seen this reflected, sometimes, in popular culture, but even anecdotally among people. And I think one of the things — we have to be very clear in that there is nothing acceptable about us, or Americans, going abroad to one of these countries and going into brothels at all, not to mention those that have people underage working there.
“And I think that’s important to point out because we do find the presence of Westerners and Americans frequenting some of these places that we’ve talked about in the sex trafficking industry, and we should truly try to stigmatize that in our society.”
…