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: We Need Sea Power to Counter China
Sea Power Is Essential to Countering Communist China
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
April 10, 2023
Defense News
[O]n March 28,…U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro admitted a disturbing imbalance of military resources to the Senate Committee on Appropriations: “By 2028, we will have approximately 291 ships or so. I can’t predict exactly what the Chinese will have, but estimates are upward of 440.” In other words, China is on a fast track to displace America as the world’s dominant naval power….
Too few people fully understand or appreciate the fact that our ships do more than defend allies and partners from invasion; they also guarantee freedom of navigation on the open seas…. That will end if Beijing uses a more powerful force to overturn our maritime supremacy.
That Beijing seeks to do so is undeniable…. Beijing has…challenged the law of the sea countless times, using everything from fishing boats and artificial islands to warships and fighter jets to advance its illegal claims and restrict innocent passage in the South and East China Seas.
Meanwhile, just one of China’s 13 naval shipyards has greater productive capacity than all seven U.S. shipyards combined…. Don’t the stakes in this conflict merit a response from the Biden administration? The answer is obviously yes…. But President Biden apparently didn’t get that memo because his budget request for the Navy and Marine Corps is about two percent below inflation….
There’s another problem here, too, which is how the U.S. Department of Defense invests the money it does have. Instead of using funds for basic tasks like shipbuilding, the Pentagon has been spending more and more taxpayer dollars on obscure experiments conducted by third-party contractors under the guise of research and development….
If our leaders want even the slightest chance of maintaining U.S. maritime supremacy—and all the benefits it brings to the American people and the world as a whole—they need to reorder their priorities and accelerate our nation’s shipbuilding….