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Sen. Bill Nelson

Sen. Bill Nelson on rollback of offshore drilling safety rule

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The Trump administration today announced a new proposal to roll back several key offshore drilling safety regulations that the Obama administration put in place after the 2010 BP oil spill.

The Department of the Interior’s proposal would rollback significant portions of the “Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule” that was finalized and put in place in 2016 to address key safety recommendations made after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The “well control” rule includes several safety regulations that are now in place to help prevent another massive oil spill from occurring such as: increased design and maintenance standards for blowout preventers, requiring real-time monitoring of deep-water wells and requiring drillers to have a mechanism to properly cutoff a drill pipe if necessary.

Following is a comment from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who filed legislation last week to make the “well control” rule law and prevent the administration from rolling it back:  

“This administration wants to turn a blind eye to history just to help their friends in the oil industry,” Nelson said. “We can’t let that happen. These rules were put in place to prevent another massive oil spill off our coasts. We can’t allow this new administration to take us backwards in time and, once again, expose Florida’s beautiful beaches and  tourism-based economy to such an unnecessary risk.”

A copy of the legislation Nelson filed to prevent the rule from being rolled back is available here.

Background article on today’s announcement:

Rules Established After Deepwater Horizon Disaster Face Revisions

By Ted Mann and Tim Puko
Published: April 27, 2018

Federal regulators next week will unveil proposed changes to a major rule passed in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which the Trump administration says it can revise to be less of a burden on offshore oil drillers without compromising safety.

The existing rule—six years in the making and known as the “well-control rule”—was completed in the final year of President Barack Obama’s second term, and governs everything from the use of blowout preventers like the device that failed in the Deepwater Horizon spill, to the amount of pressure drillers must maintain to avoid accidents.

But the rule, the broadest of several completed after the 2010 spill, has been a point of contention with the oil-and-gas industry, which objects to some of the costs of complying with its safety measures and what the industry says is an overly prescriptive approach by the government to regulating oil production.

Among the changes in the proposed rule, which is to be sent Friday for publication next week, are the elimination of a requirement that Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement vet the third-party vendors who inspect offshore oil equipment for safety. The agency will leave in place provisions requiring the use of remote-operated underwater vehicles and real-time monitoring of offshore operations, but will tweak them to make compliance easier for companies.

Still, BSEE officials have backed off some of the changes originally intended for the well-control rule. One change the regulators won’t be making: deleting the word “safe.”

In a draft of the proposed changes submitted to the White House budget office late last year, the BSEE proposed eliminating a requirement that the agency affirm that plans for maintaining pressure in wells as they are drilled were safe. The agency argued in that version that the language was “redundant” and might lead regulators to overreach when deciding whether to approve drilling permits.

Instead, according to agency officials and people familiar with the final proposal, the existing rules will remain in place, while BSEE will ask drillers to submit guidance on how the provision could be changed in the future.

Lawmakers file bill authorizing military force against terrorists abroad

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U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Bob Corker (R-TN) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) have filed legislation to give the president clear authority to use military force against al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The measure would replace similar legislation Congress approved in 2001 and 2002 that gives the president clear authority to use military force against al Qaeda and Iraq, and would put to rest any questions as to whether the administration has the authority to target terrorists wherever they are today.

“Terrorists groups such as ISIS pose a serious threat to our national security,” Nelson said. “This bill will give the president the clear legal authority he needs to target these groups in Iraq, Syria or anywhere else they may be hiding.”

Debate over the president’s authority to use military force in a foreign country without first going to Congress resurfaced this week after President Trump launched a barrage of missiles against several chemical weapons facilities in Syria. While Nelson has said publicly that he supported the president’s decision to strike the facilities in Syria, he also said that the president should have sought Congressional approval before launching the strike.

The legislation, which Nelson and others filed late Monday, would end debate over the president’s authority to launch strikes against al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS anywhere in the world without Congressional approval. It would not, however, provide the president with the same blanket authority to conduct strikes against non-terrorists targets, such as the strikes this past weekend in Syria.

Nelson, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, filed similar legislation in 2014 after ISIS beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

The newly-filed bill, known as the “Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2018,” contains the following key provisions:

  • Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF): Authorizes the executive to use all necessary and appropriate force against al-Qaida, the Taliban, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and designated associated forces. The legislation does not provide authority for military action against any nation state.
  • Quadrennial Congressional Review: Establishes a process for Congress to review the AUMF every four years without risking a lapse in authorization. On January 20, 2022, and again every four years thereafter, the president must submit to Congress a proposal to repeal, modify, or leave in place the AUMF. For a 60-day period beginning on that same date, legislation to repeal or modify the AUMF will qualify for expedited consideration, guaranteeing the opportunity for both debate and a vote. If Congress fails to enact new legislation, the existing authorities remain in place.
  • Congressional Oversight and Transparency: 
    • Associated Forces and Foreign Countries: Requires the president to report to Congress on all new designated associated forces, the basis for those designations, and each new country in which the United States is using military force pursuant to the AUMF.
    • Congressional Review: The president may immediately use force against a new associated force or in a new country pursuant to the new AUMF, but within 48 hours, must notify Congress. Such a notification triggers a 60-day period during which legislation to remove the authority to use military force against the new associated force or in the new foreign country will qualify for expedited consideration. If Congress takes no action, the existing authorities remain in place.
  • Repeal of the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs: Repeals the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs after the new AUMF has been in place for 120 days.

A copy of the legislation is available here.

Nelson, others call for funding for CDC to study gun violence

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) joined 33 other Democratic senators Friday in urging leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to include $50 million in next year’s Department of Health and Human Services spending bill for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the causes and prevention of gun violence.

“Every year, we lose more than 33,000 lives due to gun violence, and more than 81,000 people suffer injuries from firearms,” the lawmakers wrote. “It has become increasingly clear that gun violence in America is going to continue unabated until Congress takes meaningful action.”

The senators said the $50 million would be used to fund “approximately 10 to 20 studies on the topic of gun violence.”

A PDF copy is available here.

Sen. Bill Nelson statement on meeting with Mark Zuckerberg

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, issued the following statement after his meeting today with Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. The meeting comes just one day before Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees on Tuesday:

“I just met one-on-one with Mr. Zuckerberg and in no uncertain terms reminded him that Facebook has a responsibility to its users to protect our personal data. Facebook failed us. Not only did they fail to safeguard the personal information of millions of users, they concealed it from us – and this is not the first time the company mishandled user information. Only now are they coming clean and informing those who have had their information compromised and telling us they are going to make things right.

“Meantime, we still don’t know what Cambridge Analytica and other third parties have done with the data they collected. That’s why I’ve asked Chairman Thune to haul Cambridge Analytica in to answer these questions at a separate hearing.  The chairman has given me his assurance he plans to do just that. The bottom line here is: if Facebook can’t fix its privacy problems, then how can Americans trust them to be caretakers of their sensitive information?”

Sen. Bill Nelson on disaster aid in Senate budget deal

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The just-announced Senate budget deal includes roughly $90 billion in disaster assistance to help places like Florida and Puerto Rico recover from last year’s storms. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) has been calling on Senate leaders to pass a disaster assistance package for months now. Below is a list of the projects that Nelson had urged Senate leaders to include in the bill.

Here’s a comment from Nelson:

“The people of Florida and Puerto Rico are still struggling to recover from last year’s devastating storms and the disaster funding in this bill will help provide them some much-needed relief.” Nelson said. “The disaster funding in this bill will not only help provide Florida’s schools and citrus growers the help they need, it will also help Puerto Rico rebuild its power grid and avoid an even greater healthcare crisis. ”

And here’s a list of projects Nelson pushed to have included in the bill:

  • $2.36 billion to provide disaster assistance for Florida citrus growers and other farmers. Florida’s citrus industry sustained more than $760 million in losses due to the storm. USDA estimates Florida’s citrus industry will harvest only 46 million boxes of citrus this year, less than 25 percent of the nearly 204 million boxes harvested in Florida ten years ago.
  • $2.7 billion for schools impacted by recent disasters, including schools in Florida.More than 12,000 students, who evacuated from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the wake of the storms, have now enrolled in schools around Florida. The sudden influx of new students is putting a strain on some Florida schools as they struggle to accommodate the additional students with limited budgets and resources.
  • $15 billion for Army Corps mitigation and resiliency projects, including the Herbert Hoover Dike. Herbert Hoover Dike protects thousands of Floridians who live around Lake Okeechobee from the threat of catastrophic flooding. The Army Corps of Engineers says it needs approximately $200 million per year, for the next four years, to finish work on the dike by 2022.
  • Closing the Medicare Part D “donut hole” for seniors in 2019. Under the ACA, the Medicare “donut hole” is expected to close by 2020. Closing this gap in coverage by 2019, instead of 2020, and shifting more of the cost to drug makers, instead of Medicare, will lower the cost of prescription drugs for Florida seniors and save taxpayers approximately $9 billion over ten years and help offset some of the additional spending being proposed in a budget deal the Senate is expected to take up later this week.
  • $2 billion directed to help Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuild and improve their electric grids. Four months after Hurricane Maria, nearly 1/3 of the island remains without power.
  • $4.9 billion in Medicaid funds for Puerto Rico and USVI. According to the government of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program costs approximately $1.6 billion per year to operate. $4.9 billion would fully fund Puerto Rico Medicaid’s program for at least two years.
  • Decreasing Puerto Rico’s Medicaid cost-share requirement for 2 years. The federal government matches only 55% of the cost for Puerto Rico to operate its Medicaid program. By temporarily decreasing this cost-share requirement, the federal government would be allowed to pay a greater share of the cost of Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program while it works to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

New UNF Poll Shows Sen. Bill Nelson Leading Gov. Rick Scott in 2018 Senate Election

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The Public Opinion Research Lab at the University of North Florida has a new poll that reveals Sen. Bill Nelson in the lead for the upcoming Senate election, with Gov. Rick Scott trailing close behind. The survey also shows that President Trump’s job approval rating has risen some since last fall.

The poll, comprised of Florida registered voters, shows that of likely voters in 2018, 48 percent plan to vote for Nelson, the Democratic candidate in the upcoming election for U.S. Senate, while 42 percent plan to vote for Scott, the Republican. Of those likely voters, 7 percent don’t know who their choice will be.

Regarding the U.S. House of Representatives, when asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 42 percent of likely voters indicated they would vote for the Democratic candidate, 40 percent would plan to vote for the Republican candidate and 14 percent didn’t know.

“Even though it appears Nelson has a reasonable lead in the poll, the election results will ultimately get determined by who shows up in November,” said Michael Binder, faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF. “Historically, Republicans have enjoyed a turnout advantage in midterms, but with the current mood of the country, and a large number of Republican retirements, Democrats are optimistic about an impending blue wave.”

Of registered voters who were asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way Nelson is handling his job as senator, 52 percent of registered voters claim to somewhat or strongly approve, with only 20 percent somewhat or strongly disapproving. Notably, 26 percent of voters expressed they don’t know how Nelson is handling his job. When asked about the way Scott is handling his job as Florida governor, 63 percent reported to strongly or somewhat approve, with 31 percent disapproving either somewhat or strongly.

“Both senate candidates have net positive job approval ratings of 32 percentage points,” said Binder. “This high level of job approval is very unusual and is going to lead to a hotly contested election.”

When asked about how Sen. Marco Rubio is handling his job, 55 percent strongly or somewhat approve, compared to the 35 percent who reported to somewhat or strongly disapprove.

When asked about President Donald Trump’s job approval rating, 43 percent of the overall sample strongly or somewhat approve of how he’s handling his job, with 53 percent disapproving somewhat or strongly. A large amount of registered Democrats—87 percent—disapprove of Trump, while only 16 percent of registered Republicans disapprove. On the contrary, Trump held 81 percent job approval among registered Republicans, compared to 40 percent approval among nonpartisans and a dismal 10 percent job approval among registered Democrats.

“Most presidents would consider 43 percent approval and net negative 10 percentage points a troubling number, but Trump’s approval is up 6 percentage points from his approval level in October, and his net negatives have improved by 12 percentage points,” noted Binder.

In light of the recent investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election, when asked about the way Robert Mueller is handling his job as Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, 40 percent of registered voters somewhat or strongly approve, 28 percent of voters somewhat or strongly disapprove and 29 percent of voters don’t know how he’s handling his job.

“Even though Mueller is acting in a legal capacity, and has a 12-percentage point net positive job approval, there are partisan divisions as Democrats are much more supportive than Republicans in their views on Mueller,” said Binder.

For details about the methodology of the survey and additional crosstabs by partisanship, sex, education, race and age, click here.

Nelson urges Pentagon to take steps to deter Russian attempts to influence 2018 elections

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services’ subcommittee on cybersecurity, today urged Secretary of Defense James Mattis to “prepare to engage Russian cyber operators” attempting to influence the upcoming 2018 midterm elections.

“Russia’s influence activities continue in the United States and elsewhere,” Nelson wrote in a letter to Mattis. “U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force, should be ordered to prepare to engage Russian cyber operators and disrupt their activities as they conduct clandestine influence operations against our forthcoming elections.”

Nelson also urged the secretary to implement the recommendations of a Defense Department task force on cyber deterrence, which offered the Pentagon several suggestions on how to the U.S. could deter further Russian cyberattacks. The task force recommendations were presented to the Pentagon last February but have not yet been implemented.

In addition to the Nelson, the letter was signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).

Text of the lawmakers’ can be found here.

Statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on President’s Speech

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) released the following statement in response to the president’s State of the Union speech this evening:

“The American people are sick and tired of the partisan politics that’s going on in Washington. We need leaders who are willing to put aside party politics and work together for the good of the country. We need a president who will not only call for more bipartisanship, but shows he’s willing to work in a bipartisan way.”

Statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on President's Speech

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) released the following statement in response to the president’s State of the Union speech this evening:
“The American people are sick and tired of the partisan politics that’s going on in Washington. We need leaders who are willing to put aside party politics and work together for the good of the country. We need a president who will not only call for more bipartisanship, but shows he’s willing to work in a bipartisan way.”

Sen. Bill Nelson on vote to end shutdown

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By a vote of 81 – 18, the U.S. Senate today voted to cut off debate on a bill to end the federal government shutdown – essentially ensuring its passage in a subsequent vote likely to be held later today.
In speaking prior to the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) credited a small bipartisan group of senators for their efforts over the weekend to bring people together to reach a consensus to reopen the government. Among the group of 13 Democrats and 9 Republicans credited for their efforts was U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).
Here’s a statement from Nelson following today’s vote:
“This is a win for bipartisanship and common sense,” Nelson said. “I have been meeting with a group of moderate senators for days to reach a consensus to end the shutdown and get a commitment to take up other critical legislation. As a result, there is now a path forward to help the Dreamers, fund the military and other agencies and provide Florida with the hurricane disaster assistance it still needs.”