Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio gets heat for his vote against the RESTORE Act.
WASHINGTON - Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a leading candidate to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate, is getting some heat back in his home state for casting the only Gulf Coast vote against sending 80 percent of BP oil spill fine money to the five Gulf states.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, joins Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for a news conference in Aston, Pa., last month. The measure, known as the RESTORE Act, was added to a $1.9 transportation bill in the Senate by a 76-22 vote in March. Senate and House members are now trying to negotiate a final transportation bill. On Tuesday, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the only Louisiana member on the "conference committee," urged the panel to keep the Senate RESTORE Act language in the final bill.
The criticism of Rubio came this week from former Florida Republican Sen. George LeMieux, who is running in a Florida GOP senatorial primary against Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., to return to his old job.
"Those dollars need to come to the Gulf Coast," he said in a Florida radio interview. "You remember I was in Pensacola and all throughout Northwest Florida half a dozen or so times in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill....In general it's a good bill and I would have supported it."
Mack, who like Rubio is a favorite of Tea Party voters, said he agreed with Rubio's vote.
Rubio objected to some provisions added to the bill to generate needed Democrat votes, including a financing mechanism for the entire Senate transportation bill as well as provision providing funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and for a study of oceans.
"What started as a genuine bipartisan effort to dedicate as much BP fine money as possible towards Gulf Coast restoration has now turned into a raw deal that increases taxes, creates a new environmental bureaucracy, and could steer money to places like the Great Lakes and West coast that had nothing to with the oil spill," Rubio said after the Senate vote in March.
Rubio is getting strong support by some Republicans to be Romney's running-mate because he is young and articulate, has strong conservative credentials and could generate more support for the GOP presidential ticket with Hispanic voters.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who contends the RESTORE Act is needed so Louisiana can move ahead with massive plans to restore vital wetlands and ecosystems, said neither the $1.4 billion for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which pays for the federal purchase of land considered environmentally significant, and the oceans study will take away funding due the Gulf States from the Clean Water Act fines imposed for the 2010 oil spill.
The fines are expected to generate $5 billion to $20 billion, depending on whether the conduct of the responsible parties is considered merely negligent, or reckless, as well.