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...
ICYMI: Rubio: Inaction on China’s Aggression is Not Acceptable
ICYMI: China wants to completely supplant the US – We can’t allow it to hold the world hostage
By U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
October 15, 2019
Fox News
Over the past several days, Americans have seen exactly how China uses access to its vast domestic market as leverage to coerce American companies thanks to a now-deleted tweet by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of Hong Kong.
…
As shocking as CCTV’s statement is to most Americans, NBA star LeBron James took a different approach on Monday, saying, “We do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negatives that come with that too.” He assailed Morey’s pro-Hong Kong tweet as “misinformed and not educated.”
Not all athletes agree, but far too many in business with China have made their loyalties crystal clear; and that is par for the course when it comes to dealing with Beijing’s authoritarian regime. It also does not even begin to describe the scope of the threat posed by the Chinese government and Communist Party.
…
We cannot view these incidents in isolation. We must view Beijing’s bullying on speech, expression and technology as a means to an end: China wants to completely supplant America and other advanced industrial democracies and become the world’s dominant country, economically, militarily, and culturally.
By pursuing short-term Chinese economic integration, many American companies are now complicit in a system that violently suppresses political dissent and normalizes mass incarceration of ethnic and religious minorities, live organ harvesting, and mass surveillance. And they are laying the groundwork for their own demise and America’s fall. They forfeit any claim they might have to a clean conscience for short-term gain. This must end.
Inaction is not an acceptable response. In response to last week’s aggression, we should consider using existing laws and regulations, such as applying statues from the 1970s to counter unsanctioned foreign boycotts, to defend America’s interests and hit back against China’s hostile and coercive actions against U.S. citizens and companies.
Similarly, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should revisit past examples of China leveraging market access into self-censorship, including in TikTok’s 2014 acquisition of the American social media company Musical.ly.
More broadly, we must confront the economic threat posed by China and our own economic weakness. Unless we act — policymakers, business leaders, and consumers alike — we simply embolden the Chinese Communist Party to hold the world hostage when it doesn’t get its way. And we condemn our nation to a future in which China sets the rules for our economy, our workers, and our culture.
Read the rest here.