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Sen. Bill Nelson on Sec. Zinke’s meeting in Tallahassee

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Following is a statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on the Secretary of Interior’s meeting with the governor in Tallahassee this evening:

“I have spent my entire life fighting to keep oil rigs away from our coasts. But now, suddenly, Secretary Zinke announces plans to drill off Florida’s coast and four days later agrees to “take Florida off the table”?  I don’t believe it. This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott, who has wanted to drill off Florida’s coast his entire career. We shouldn’t be playing politics with the future of Florida.”

Nelson, others voice 'strong opposition' to Trump's offshore drilling plan

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) today led a group of 37 Senate Democrats in voicing their “strong opposition” to the Trump administration’s plan to open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling.
“This draft is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. “We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk.”
Nelson, a long-time opponent of allowing oil rigs too close to Florida’s coasts, filed legislation in April 2017 that would block the Trump administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022.
He’s also filed legislation to extend the current moratorium in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for an additional five years, to 2027.
Following is text of the senators’ letter to Zinke, a PDF is available here.

January 9, 2018

The Honorable Ryan Zinke
Secretary
United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Dear Secretary Zinke:
We write in strong opposition to your agency’s misuse of taxpayer funds and agency resources to issue a draft 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the middle of the current 2017-2022 Five-Year Plan. This draft proposal is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input, and we object to sacrificing public trust, community safety, and economic security for the interests of the oil industry. We urge you to abandon this effort and maintain the protections outlined in the current 2017-2022 plan.
During your confirmation hearings, you pledged to incorporate local input into the management of our nation’s public lands. Our constituents, scientific bodies, businesses, and local elected officials have already decidedly rejected efforts to expand offshore drilling that could compromise ecosystems, tourism and recreation, public safety, and marine industries. The governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and the Attorney General of Rhode Island, all are formally opposed to new leasing off their respective shores. Additionally, more than 150 municipalities on the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico have passed resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. The New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Department of Defense, Air Force, and NASA have all weighed in expressing serious concerns or opposition to offshore exploration and drilling. More than 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have also expressed opposition to drilling in their communities.
The current 2017-2022 plan already allows leasing for more than 45 billion barrels of oil, and guarantees protections for vital resources in the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic. As the nation’s coasts are already bearing the consequences of climate change through rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and increased storm surges and flooding, we should not open all previously closed outer continental shelf areas to fossil fuel extraction and further endanger our climate, coastlines, communities, and economies. Especially in the harsh and fragile Arctic, where your agency has predicted a 75 percent chance of a major oil spill, proposing 19 new leases is the height of irresponsibility.
We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk. Offering 47 leases by expanding drilling into the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico waters would lock us into decades of carbon pollution, and endanger future generations and livelihood simply for short-term gain of major oil companies.
We strongly object to this draft proposal, and urge you to maintain protection for the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico and for our communities.

Sincerely,

Nelson, others voice ‘strong opposition’ to Trump’s offshore drilling plan

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) today led a group of 37 Senate Democrats in voicing their “strong opposition” to the Trump administration’s plan to open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling.

“This draft is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. “We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk.”

Nelson, a long-time opponent of allowing oil rigs too close to Florida’s coasts, filed legislation in April 2017 that would block the Trump administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022.

He’s also filed legislation to extend the current moratorium in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for an additional five years, to 2027.

Following is text of the senators’ letter to Zinke, a PDF is available here.

January 9, 2018

The Honorable Ryan Zinke
Secretary
United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Dear Secretary Zinke:

We write in strong opposition to your agency’s misuse of taxpayer funds and agency resources to issue a draft 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the middle of the current 2017-2022 Five-Year Plan. This draft proposal is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input, and we object to sacrificing public trust, community safety, and economic security for the interests of the oil industry. We urge you to abandon this effort and maintain the protections outlined in the current 2017-2022 plan.

During your confirmation hearings, you pledged to incorporate local input into the management of our nation’s public lands. Our constituents, scientific bodies, businesses, and local elected officials have already decidedly rejected efforts to expand offshore drilling that could compromise ecosystems, tourism and recreation, public safety, and marine industries. The governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and the Attorney General of Rhode Island, all are formally opposed to new leasing off their respective shores. Additionally, more than 150 municipalities on the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico have passed resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. The New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Department of Defense, Air Force, and NASA have all weighed in expressing serious concerns or opposition to offshore exploration and drilling. More than 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have also expressed opposition to drilling in their communities.

The current 2017-2022 plan already allows leasing for more than 45 billion barrels of oil, and guarantees protections for vital resources in the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic. As the nation’s coasts are already bearing the consequences of climate change through rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and increased storm surges and flooding, we should not open all previously closed outer continental shelf areas to fossil fuel extraction and further endanger our climate, coastlines, communities, and economies. Especially in the harsh and fragile Arctic, where your agency has predicted a 75 percent chance of a major oil spill, proposing 19 new leases is the height of irresponsibility.

We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk. Offering 47 leases by expanding drilling into the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico waters would lock us into decades of carbon pollution, and endanger future generations and livelihood simply for short-term gain of major oil companies.

We strongly object to this draft proposal, and urge you to maintain protection for the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico and for our communities.

Sincerely,

Nelson vows to fight Trump administration's offshore oil drilling plan

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Following is statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on the Trump administration’s plan to open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling – including the eastern Gulf of Mexico and areas off Florida’s Atlantic coast:
“This plan is an assault on Florida’s economy, our national security, the will of the public and the environment. This proposal defies all common sense and I will do everything I can to defeat it.”
Nelson, a long-time opponent of allowing oil rigs too close to Florida’s coast, often cites the state’s unique environment, its multi-billion dollar, tourism-driven economy and the vital national military training areas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico as reasons why drilling should not be allowed near Florida’s shores.

  • In 2006, Nelson and then-Sen. Mel Martinez successfully brokered a deal to ban drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast through the year 2022.
  • In Jan. 2017, Nelson filed legislation to extend that moratorium for an additional five years, to 2027. [Text of the legislation is available here.]
  • In April 2017, the day before President Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to open up new areas to offshore oil drilling, Nelson and others filed legislation to block the Trump administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022. [Text of that legislation is available here.]
  • Last month, amid rumors that the Interior Department was preparing to unveil the proposal released today, Nelson took to the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to take up and pass the legislation he and others filed in April to block the agency from implementing this new plan.[Video of Nelson’s speech is available here.]

Following is a recent Tampa Bay Times editorial on the issue:

Editorial: Congress should block efforts to expand offshore drilling

Published: Dec.13, 2017
Timing is everything, and Sen. Bill Nelson seized the right moment this week to call on his colleagues to pass legislation he filed earlier this year that would block the Trump administration from opening additional areas to offshore drilling. With the White House reportedly poised to move ahead to advance drilling, Congress should send a strong message that it intends to protect the environment, public health and the nation’s military readiness while encouraging the energy industry’s continuing pivot toward cleaner, more sustainable power sources.
Nelson issued the call Tuesday amid concern the administration plans to announce a new, five-year oil and gas leasing plan that would open up the entirety of the Atlantic coast to drilling. Nelson said the plan would go into effect in 2019, replacing the current five-year plan that’s not scheduled to expire until 2022.
Nelson’s speech on the Senate floor is his latest response to the directive Trump issued in April, ordering the Interior Department to review an Obama-era plan that limited drilling in areas of the Arctic and southeast Atlantic between 2017 and 2022. Trump ordered the department to consider revising the current schedule of oil and gas lease sales in the outer continental shelf with an eye toward maximizing production activity in the Alaska regions, the southern and mid Atlantic and the western and central Gulf of Mexico.
While the eastern gulf is still protected by a congressional agreement in 2006 that bars drilling within 125 miles of the Panhandle and 230 miles of Tampa Bay, drilling in the central gulf could still endanger Florida. That’s why Florida’s Democratic senator sought to pre-empt the president earlier this year with legislation that would block any new areas for offshore drilling until at least 2022. Nelson also filed legislation to extend the existing ban in the eastern gulf for an additional five years, to 2027. The Pentagon, in a letter to Congress this year, said a lid on offshore operations in the gulf was essential to preserving U.S. military training operations in the area. The Pentagon “cannot overstate the vital importance of maintaining this moratorium,” the Defense Department said.
Opening new areas in the Atlantic and gulf to drilling only seven years after the BP oil disaster ignores the lessons the nation learned from one of the worst environmental crises in U.S. history. Oil spilled off the coast of Louisiana poured onto the beaches of Florida, tainting eight Panhandle counties and dealing a serious blow to the state’s tourism industry. And all of this devastation rained across the gulf despite assurances by the biggest oil companies that they could contain a spill and the environmental and economic fallout. That wasn’t the case, and states and counties are still years if not decades away from accounting for the full impact of the spill.
Gov. Rick Scott and other Republicans need to add their voices to Nelson’s call to maintain the moratorium and extend the protections in the gulf for America’s military mission. The industry’s move to cleaner, renewable and more affordable energy sources is a shift that needs to continue. Allowing new drilling would give the industry a nose under the tent to push for new offshore leases that will only threaten the coasts. This effort is a threat to Florida’s economy and the natural beauty that attracts tourists from around the world.
Floridians have consistently made clear that protecting natural resources is a priority. Nelson’s legislation would give that public sentiment the force of law, and it deserves bipartisan support.

Nelson vows to fight Trump administration’s offshore oil drilling plan

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Following is statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on the Trump administration’s plan to open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling – including the eastern Gulf of Mexico and areas off Florida’s Atlantic coast:

“This plan is an assault on Florida’s economy, our national security, the will of the public and the environment. This proposal defies all common sense and I will do everything I can to defeat it.”

Nelson, a long-time opponent of allowing oil rigs too close to Florida’s coast, often cites the state’s unique environment, its multi-billion dollar, tourism-driven economy and the vital national military training areas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico as reasons why drilling should not be allowed near Florida’s shores.

  • In 2006, Nelson and then-Sen. Mel Martinez successfully brokered a deal to ban drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast through the year 2022.
  • In Jan. 2017, Nelson filed legislation to extend that moratorium for an additional five years, to 2027. [Text of the legislation is available here.]
  • In April 2017, the day before President Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to open up new areas to offshore oil drilling, Nelson and others filed legislation to block the Trump administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022. [Text of that legislation is available here.]
  • Last month, amid rumors that the Interior Department was preparing to unveil the proposal released today, Nelson took to the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to take up and pass the legislation he and others filed in April to block the agency from implementing this new plan.[Video of Nelson’s speech is available here.]

Following is a recent Tampa Bay Times editorial on the issue:

Editorial: Congress should block efforts to expand offshore drilling

Published: Dec.13, 2017

Timing is everything, and Sen. Bill Nelson seized the right moment this week to call on his colleagues to pass legislation he filed earlier this year that would block the Trump administration from opening additional areas to offshore drilling. With the White House reportedly poised to move ahead to advance drilling, Congress should send a strong message that it intends to protect the environment, public health and the nation’s military readiness while encouraging the energy industry’s continuing pivot toward cleaner, more sustainable power sources.

Nelson issued the call Tuesday amid concern the administration plans to announce a new, five-year oil and gas leasing plan that would open up the entirety of the Atlantic coast to drilling. Nelson said the plan would go into effect in 2019, replacing the current five-year plan that’s not scheduled to expire until 2022.

Nelson’s speech on the Senate floor is his latest response to the directive Trump issued in April, ordering the Interior Department to review an Obama-era plan that limited drilling in areas of the Arctic and southeast Atlantic between 2017 and 2022. Trump ordered the department to consider revising the current schedule of oil and gas lease sales in the outer continental shelf with an eye toward maximizing production activity in the Alaska regions, the southern and mid Atlantic and the western and central Gulf of Mexico.

While the eastern gulf is still protected by a congressional agreement in 2006 that bars drilling within 125 miles of the Panhandle and 230 miles of Tampa Bay, drilling in the central gulf could still endanger Florida. That’s why Florida’s Democratic senator sought to pre-empt the president earlier this year with legislation that would block any new areas for offshore drilling until at least 2022. Nelson also filed legislation to extend the existing ban in the eastern gulf for an additional five years, to 2027. The Pentagon, in a letter to Congress this year, said a lid on offshore operations in the gulf was essential to preserving U.S. military training operations in the area. The Pentagon “cannot overstate the vital importance of maintaining this moratorium,” the Defense Department said.

Opening new areas in the Atlantic and gulf to drilling only seven years after the BP oil disaster ignores the lessons the nation learned from one of the worst environmental crises in U.S. history. Oil spilled off the coast of Louisiana poured onto the beaches of Florida, tainting eight Panhandle counties and dealing a serious blow to the state’s tourism industry. And all of this devastation rained across the gulf despite assurances by the biggest oil companies that they could contain a spill and the environmental and economic fallout. That wasn’t the case, and states and counties are still years if not decades away from accounting for the full impact of the spill.

Gov. Rick Scott and other Republicans need to add their voices to Nelson’s call to maintain the moratorium and extend the protections in the gulf for America’s military mission. The industry’s move to cleaner, renewable and more affordable energy sources is a shift that needs to continue. Allowing new drilling would give the industry a nose under the tent to push for new offshore leases that will only threaten the coasts. This effort is a threat to Florida’s economy and the natural beauty that attracts tourists from around the world.

Floridians have consistently made clear that protecting natural resources is a priority. Nelson’s legislation would give that public sentiment the force of law, and it deserves bipartisan support.

Sen. Bill Nelson on FCC vote to end "net neutrality"

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Following is a statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on the Federal Communication Commission’s vote today to repeal so-called “net neutrality” rules:
“The Republican-led FCC just turned its back on consumers. By voting to give internet providers the ability to decide what websites their customers will see, how fast they’ll see them and how much they’re going to have to pay, the FCC just ended the internet as we know it.”

Sen. Bill Nelson on FCC vote to end “net neutrality”

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Following is a statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on the Federal Communication Commission’s vote today to repeal so-called “net neutrality” rules:

“The Republican-led FCC just turned its back on consumers. By voting to give internet providers the ability to decide what websites their customers will see, how fast they’ll see them and how much they’re going to have to pay, the FCC just ended the internet as we know it.”

Nelson urges passage of Dream Act

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) took to the Senate floor this evening to speak in support of the Dream Act and the thousands of Dreamers who currently live in Florida.
Nelson – a supporter of legislation known as the Dream Act, which would allow Dreamers to remain in the U.S. without fear of deportation – told the story of Elisha Dawkins, a Jacksonville-area veteran who was raised believing he was a U.S. citizen, but later found out he was actually brought into the U.S. illegally as a small child.
“He was a baby that was brought from the Bahamas at age six months. He grew up in America. He grew up in Jacksonville, in my state. Never knew anything about his roots. Only knew that he was an American. Served two tours in Iraq. Came back, joined the Navy Reserves, had a top secret clearance, was sent to the very sensitive post of Guantanamo where he was given the job as a photographer,” Nelson said. “When it came to be learned that he had come to America as an infant … he was thrown in jail.”
Dawkins made headlines in 2011 when he was jailed for a single count of submitting false information on a passport application. As a result, he was suddenly facing not only incarceration, but also the possibility of deportation from the only country he had ever known.
Immediately upon hearing of Dawkins’ situation, Nelson stepped in to help. Nelson pressed the federal government for fairness in the case, and Dawkins was subsequently released and allowed to remain in the U.S. while he applied for citizenship, which he received in 2014.
Nelson also told the story of Cristina Velasquez, a Miami-Dade Community College graduate and current Georgetown University student who was recently accepted into the Teach for America program.
“Cristina came to America at age six from Venezuela,” Nelson said. “If we failed to pass the Dream Act, are we saying we are going to send Cristina back to the Maduro dictatorship in Venezuela? A dictatorship that can’t even provide the basic staples to its citizens.”
“This just shouldn’t happen, Nelson said. “And that’s why it’s critical that we pass the Dream Act as soon as possible.”
Below is a rush transcript of Nelson’s speech followed by a background article on Dawkins.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
Remarks on the Senate floor
December 13, 2017
Sen. Nelson: Mr. President, Senator Durbin has been leading a group of us talking about DACA or the Dreamers. I want to tell the senate two stories.
I want to tell you about Elisha Dawkins. He was a baby that was brought from the Bahamas at age 6 months. He grew up in America. He grew up in Jacksonville, in my state. Never knew anything about his roots. Only knew that he was an American. Served two tours in Iraq. Came back, joined the Navy Reserves, had a top secret clearance, was sent to the very sensitive post of Guantanamo where he was given the job as a photographer. Obviously, a very sensitive position. And through an application for a passport, in the checking on the background of a passport, it came to be learned that he had come to America as an infant, and for what reason, for the life of me it has not been explained, but he was arrested and thrown in jail by a U.S. attorney.
Once this case came to the light of day and some of us started speaking out about it, a federal district judge took it in her hands to lecture the U.S. attorney. And only because of that was Elisha Dawkins released from jail, and as a result then we started getting into it, and Elisha Dawkins was finally given his citizenship, and he is now serving in his native Jacksonville, and he is a nurse.
Now, here’s a child that had served two tours in Iraq and was in a top-secret clearance in service to the Navy Reserves in Guantanamo.
This just shouldn’t happen. Individuals in good faith have gone about carrying on, some even knowing as Elisha certainly didn’t know of his undocumented these individuals in good faith have divulged personal information to the Department of Homeland Security that could eventually deport them. And that’s why it’s critical that we pass the Dream Act as soon as possible.
I’ve heard from DACA recipients from all around the country but especially I’ve heard from a lot of them of the 30,000 that are in the state of Florida. I’ve heard from DACA recipients that are valedictorians, that are medical students, even priests. Many are the primary bread winners for their families.
Senator Durbin has already highlighted some of my constituents over the years, including Cristina Velasquez, a graduate of Miami Dade Community College who will soon graduate from Georgetown University and fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher by joining Teach for America.
Cristina came to America at age six from Venezuela, a country whose problems you and I have — Senator Durbin and I, but also the presiding senator today have consistently been concerned about the plight of Venezuela.
And so if we failed to pass the Dream Act, are we saying we are going to send Cristina back to the Maduro dictatorship in Venezuela, a dictatorship that can’t even provide the basic staples to its citizens? Are we going to allow this young lady who only grew up thinking she was an American, now graduating from Georgetown and allow her to channel her skills and her passion to ward bettering our communities in need as a teacher?
It doesn’t make any sense to send these kids, to deport them.
The contributions that Dreamers have made are countless and Cristina and Elisha are just two examples. These Dreamers will continue to better our communities if only we would pass the legislation that Senator Durbin is sponsoring and many of us are cosponsoring.
And so rhetorically, this was going to be a time of question and answers, but Senator Durbin allowed me to kick off this session. And I see that we have many other senators to speak.
So, Mr. President, I will yield the floor.
Background article:

Iraq, Guantánamo vet settles passport fraud case

By Carol Rosenberg
Published: July 12, 2011
A U.S. military veteran of the Iraq surge and Guantánamo averted a federal passport fraud trial on Tuesday by settling for probation in a deal that lets him stay in the United States for now and perhaps continue Navy service.
Under the deal, Navy Reserves Petty Officer Elisha Leo Dawkins, 26, ducked a felony conviction and will have the opportunity to settle his citizenship question separately with U.S. immigration authorities.
The U.S. government says he was born in the Bahamas. His lawyer said he grew up in Miami believing he was an American citizen, and went on to serve honorably in both the U.S. Army and Navy.
As a Navy Reserves photographer, he obtained a secret-level clearance and spent seven months chronicling the lives of captives at Guantánamo. He came home in April, to arrest and 10 weeks detention in four federal lockups.
Still, he declared himself undeterred by the experience and eager to return to active duty.
“If America goes to World War III, I’ll be in the front line. This is a great country,” Dawkins said outside the court. He had traded a detainee’s tan prison uniform for a blue suit and tie.
Dawkins trial was slated to begin with jury selection on a single count of making a false statement on a 2006 U.S. passport application. He did not report that he had applied for one in 2005, and was turned down.
Conviction on the charge can carry a 10-year prison sentence. Dawkins had on July 1 spurned the rare federal offer of “pretrial diversion” — a probation program that lets him avoid trial and the risk of a felony conviction.
In a surprise, his court-appointed lawyer Clark Mervis notified Judge Cecilia Altonaga that they had accepted the offer late Monday. Details were still secret Tuesday but his attorney said it did not address the issue of Dawkins’ citizenship. Separately, the U.S. immigration agency has agreed not to detain him on a 1992 removal order.
Experts have said such pre-trial probation packages typically involve rehabilitation, pledges to stay out of trouble and to undertake community service.
Altonaga agreed to abort the trial and send him to the program, provided Dawkins pays $1,600 in jury fees — $40 to each citizen in a pool of 40 jury candidates assembled Tuesday morning, plus their parking and transportation fees.
The debt became part of his probationary agreement.
In court, prosecutor Michael O’Leary said the sailor had a change of heart after hearing the case laid out in trial preparation on Monday. Federal prosecutors had made the offer, said O’Leary, because “his military service did mitigate” any alleged crime.
Outside court, the sailor’s lawyer told him not to say whether he still believed he was a U.S. citizen.
Dawkins declared that sorting that question out was “the next project here” — but said his experience persuaded him of the need to pass The Dream Act. It lets undocumented foreign children who grew up here attain American citizenship.
The case of the man who says he grew up believing he was American, that’s why he enlisted, energized pockets of Miami and the military.
Pastor Kenneth Duke of Miami’s New Jerusalem Primitive Baptist Church came to court Tuesday, as did a former Navy pilot who has championed his friend’s cause, “Flash” Gordon Schwartz of Jacksonville, where Dawkins now lives.
Also there was an envoy from the office of Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Bahamian-American first-term Congresswoman who represents the district where Dawkins grew up. Florida
Sen. Bill Nelson, also a Democrat, mentioned Dawkins story in a floor speech on June 29 as proof of the need to adopt The Dream Act.
The sailor’s mother was deported when Dawkins was 8. He grew up in Miami being shuttled between the homes of relatives who considered him a financial burden, the congresswoman said Tuesday.
Knowing he found the strength to overcome those “dark days,” she said, gave her the faith to believe he could survive future immigration issues.
Meantime, she said her staff has strong experience helping Haitians here and would help Dawkins sort out his status.
Plus, Wilson pledged to “preach his cause” on the House floor Wednesday, saying Dawkins exemplified the need for The Dream Act.
As written, she said, the Dream Act would immediately solve Dawkins problem.
A trial would have put the state of Florida’s birth certificate policy under a harsh spotlight.
At age 18, according to state records, Dawkins obtained a “delayed” birth certificate that showed he was born in Miami-Dade County on Oct 21, 1984. But, according to the government case: “None of the documents dated back to 1984, the year of the Defendant’s birth. None established precisely where the Defendant was born in the city of Miami. And none were evidence of citizenship.”
Both sides agree that the issue of the case centered on Dawkins’ intent when he checked a box that said “no” on a 2006 U.S. passport application question on whether he’d applied for one before.
At the time of his arrest, he said Tuesday, he was at his Jacksonville condominium listening to Kenny G and studying for his nursing boards, something he intended to resume.

Sen. Bill Nelson on CHIP funding

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Following is a statement from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) on Congress’s failure to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides coverage for over 8.9 million children across the country, including nearly 400,000 in Florida:
“Congress needs to act now before thousands of children in Florida lose their health insurance. Sadly, it seems the Republican-controlled Congress is more focused on cutting taxes for multinational corporations, instead of providing health care to children in need. That’s not right. Congress needs to get its act together and start working for everyday people, not major corporations.”
Nelson cosponsored legislation – known as the KIDS Act of 2017 – that would reauthorize the CHIP program for five years.
 

Nelson calls on Senate to block oil drilling off Atlantic coast

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) today urged his colleagues to take up and pass legislation he and others filed earlier this year to block the Trump administration from opening up additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022.
The move comes amid reports that the Trump administration is planning to unveil a new five-year oil and gas leasing plan that would open up the entire Atlantic coast to drilling. This new five-year plan, which would go into effect in 2019, would replace the current five-year plan not set to expire until 2022.
“The Trump administration is about to give a huge early Christmas present to the oil industry,” Nelson said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “The Department of Interior is preparing to unveil a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing – one that would open up the entire Atlantic coast.”
In April, Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to open up new areas to offshore drilling by altering the current five-year oil and gas leasing plan that took effect earlier this year and doesn’t expire until 2022. In response, Nelson and others filed legislation that would prohibit Zinke from making any changes to the current five-year plan before it expires.
“I urge our colleagues to take up the bill filed earlier this year … that would block an attempt by the administration to open our coasts to oil drilling.” Nelson said. “The stakes are extremely high for the economies of our states.”
Nelson, a long-time opponent of having oil rigs too close to Florida’s coast, often cites the state’s unique environment, its multi-billion dollar, tourism-driven economy and the vital national military training areas as reasons why drilling should not be allowed near Florida’s coast.
In 2006, Nelson and then-Sen. Mel Martinez successfully brokered a deal to ban drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast through the year 2022. Nelson filed legislation earlier this year to extend that ban an additional five years, to 2027.
“Why is the Department of Interior in such a rush?,” Nelson said. “Because the oil industry wants to start drilling in these areas now, and the Trump administration is going to let them do it.”
Full text of the legislation Nelson filed earlier this year can be found here.
Video of Nelson’s speech on the Senate floor today is available here.
Here’s a rush transcript of his remarks:
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
Remarks on the Senate floor
December 12, 2017
Sen. Nelson: Mr. President, there are all kinds of reports swirling around Washington, and we’re hearing those reports that the Trump administration is about to give a huge early Christmas present to the oil industry, because the reports are that the Department of the Interior is preparing to unveil a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling, one that would open up the entire Atlantic coast of the United States to drilling.
This new five-year plan, which would go into effect in 2019, would replace the current five-year plan which was finalized last year and doesn’t expire until 2022. So why is the Department of Interior in such a rush to waste taxpayers’ money to write a new one? Because the answer is because the oil industry wants to start drilling in these areas now, and the Trump administration is going to let them do it.
While it hasn’t been released yet, we are hearing that the administration’s new plan will open up the entire Atlantic coast to offshore drilling from Maine as far south as Cape Canaveral.
But, Mr. President, let me show you why that’s a problem. This is the east coast of the United States. This is Maine. This is Florida. This is Cape Canaveral. This is Fort Pierce, Florida. Look what happens in the Atlantic coast off of the eastern continental United States. These are all military testing areas. Every one of these hatched areas — every one of these blocks — are places that have limited access because of military testing.
So take, for example, all of this area off the east coast of Florida. There’s a place called Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There’s a place called the Kennedy Space Center. We are launching commercial and military rockets, and within another year and a half we will be launching rockets, American rockets with American astronauts that, just like the space shuttle before them, will go to and from the International Space Station carrying crew as well as the cargo that it already carries.
Well, when you’re launching it to the International Space Station, or in two years we launch the largest rocket ever from the Kennedy Space Center, the forerunner to the Mars program, taking humans to Mars, where do you think the first stages, or in the case of the new mars rocket called the SLS, the Space Launch System, where do you think it drops its Solid Rocket Boosters? Precisely. Out here, which is exactly why you can’t have oil rigs out here.
Where do you think that all of the commercial rockets coming out of Cape Canaveral right now that put up the host of communication satellites, that is a constellation of satellites, how do you think we get our pinpoint GPS here on earth? Many of those rockets are coming right out of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and increasingly, the commercial activity at the Kennedy Space Center, which is located with the Cape Canaveral air force station.
Or what about all of those scientific satellites that are out there that give us precise measurements on what’s happening to the climate so that when we then track hurricanes, we know precisely and have such great success in predicting the path and the ferocity of a hurricane. All of those rockets are coming out of Cape Canaveral, and they have first stages. And when the first stages burn out, they have to fall someplace. You can’t have oil and gas production out here.
And so the same would be off of Norfolk, Virginia. They also have a launching point there for NASA –Wallops Island — but in the Norfolk area, all of the military that does its training out in the Atlantic, you’re going to have a whole disruption.
Or take, for example, all of the military assets — spy satellites that go into orbit rocketed out of Cape Canaveral, those first stages when burned out have to fall. And that’s why you have a location like Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launching from west to east to get that extra boost of the earth’s rotation. Therefore, less fuel to get to orbit. This is the prime location.
You can’t put oil and gas out here. You can’t have oil rigs off of Cape Canaveral where all of these military NASA and commercial rockets as well as governmental payloads that are not military are going.
So we have heard the loud opposition of the department of defense, chambers of commerce, fishermen and coastal communities all along the Atlantic who weighed in against the administration’s plan to allow drilling off their coast.
We thought we had put this puppy to bed last year when the Obama administration backed off its plans to have these drilling areas. They backed off because of the opposition. They also backed off when it came to Florida. Why? Florida has more beaches than any other state. We don’t have as much coastline. Alaska has the greatest coastline. But last time I checked, Alaska didn’t have a lot of beaches. The one that is blessed with the beautiful beaches is Florida. And when it comes to beaches, that means people want to go to the beach. That means there is a significant tourism-driven economy.
Well, we learned what happened when just the threat of oil on the beach — remember the Deep Water Horizon oil explosion off of Louisiana? Let me show you so that you don’t get confused with all these colors, but in essence all of this yellow over on the other side of Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, this area is off limits and it’s in law. And it’s a good thing, because when the deep water horizon spilled off of Louisiana and the wind shifted, and that oil started drifting to the east, and it got as far as Pensacola Beach, and it completely blackened the white sugary sands. And that photograph went all over the world. Pensacola beach is covered up in oil, and the winds kept carrying it forward, and some of it got into Choctawhatchee Bay and the sands of Destin and got as far east as some of the tar balls in Panama City Beach. And then the winds shifted and carried it back. That was the extent of the oil on the beach.
But for one solid year, a tourist year, the tourists did not come to the west coast of Florida because they had seen those pictures of what had happened to Pensacola Beach. All the way down the west coast the Tampa Bay area, the Sarasota, the Fort Myers area, the Naples, Marco Island, the tourists did not come.
And, so, when it comes to Florida, now let’s go back to the Atlantic. You start to do this, you are now threatening the lifeblood of Florida’s economy, its tourism-driven economy. It’s not only a threat to the environment, but it’s a threat to the multibillion-dollar tourism-driven economy.
And so we lost in 2010 an entire season that the tourists did not come to the west coast of Florida. And so that’s why when I gave the list of all those entities, including the U.S. Department of Defense, they don’t want it because of the military areas.
But I also said chambers of commerce. Well, they have awakened to the fact that oil on beaches is a killer of our economy. And thus, it’s not unusual that you will start to see local governments, when this plan is announced later today probably, you will see local governments spring into action, like the Broward County Board of Commissioners has already sent letters opposing drilling off of Florida’s coast.
Floridians understand this issue. That’s why in the past we’ve had such bipartisan agreement all over Florida. Republicans and Democrats alike to keep drilling off of our coast.
But if Big Oil gets its way, every inch of the outer continental shelf is going to be drilled. We saw what happened less than a decade ago, and the scientists would say that we’re still uncovering, for example, the full extent of that BP oil spill and its damage.
So I urge our colleagues to take up the bill filed earlier this year with this senator, Senator Markey and others, that would block an attempt by the administration to open up our coasts to oil drilling.
The stakes are extremely high for the economy of our states all along the eastern coast. Georgia has a substantial tourism-driven economy. You know South Carolina does: Myrtle Beach. What about North Carolina? What about Virginia’s tourism-driven economy? But especially all the military concentration there. And you could go right on up the coast.
Mr. President, the stakes are exceptionally high. We simply can’t risk it.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.