y PETER GUINTA
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, said Monday the Republicans in Congress are abusing the filibuster process and prevented normal business from being completed by their blanket opposition to whatever the Obama Administration proposes.
"That's ground the Senate to a halt," Nelson said. "The (Senate) Majority Leader has several times had to cut off debate. We are going to have to figure out how we're going to work together."
Nelson, 68, spoke to St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach city commissioners, St. Johns County staffers and other political contacts and emissaries -- including notables such as former Florida Congressman Don Fuqua, and former state Senator and Secretary of State Bruce Smathers -- at the historic Markland House on Flagler College's grounds.
St. Augustine Mayor Joe Boles, a friend of Nelson, said the senator is "a true son of Florida, since his family settled here in 1829, though that's not long in St. Augustine time."
Nelson is a fifth-generation Floridian, Boles said, who has served 38 years in Florida politics as a state senator, congressman, cabinet member and senator.
One of the highlights of Nelson's service was spending six days in space on the Space Shuttle Columbia.
"He's pretty well thought of and pretty well balanced," Boles said. "He's been carrying water for the people of Florida for more than three decades."
The 450th
Nelson said he was excited about the coming 500th birthday celebration of the Florida's discovery in 2013 and St. Augustine's 450th birthday celebration in 2015.
"We're going to appoint a great 14-member (national commemoration) board," he said. "It will be similar to the board created for Jamestown. I've asked Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, an eighth-generation Mexican American, to carefully make the selection of the people on the commission." Nelson said he couldn't promise, but a good kickoff to the celebration would be to have Salazar in St. Augustine to make the announcement of who was chosen.
"We have 42 years on Jamestown. (To the Spanish), St. Augustine was the undisputed jewel in America. The city was not noticed for a long time but now is beginning to be noticed. (With the birthday celebration coming) we have an opportunity to really show her off."
In space
Nelson said his six days as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia's STS-61-C mission from January 12 to Jan. 18, 1986, deeply affected his world view.
"Space is nothing," he said. "When I looked out the window and saw the Earth, I realized 'There is life, suspended in nothing.' It's so beautiful, but looks so fragile."
According to Nelson's on-line biography, he went through NASA training with Senator Jake Garn of Utah.
He described his trying to fly like Superman in the weightless atmosphere, but he pushed off too hard and crashed into an opposite wall. He also spoke about how he talked NASA into allowing a grapefruit aboard the shuttle, about how space food is mixed in a bag and eaten, and about the International Space Station's future if a U.S. plan to commercialize future booster rockets fails.
Ten days after his return, on Jan. 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off.
Nelson praised Fuqua, whom he called "Mr. Space," for his work in making the space program a success.
The carrier
Nelson announced Monday in Jacksonville that, in his letter to the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, he will urge the Navy to "identify the nuclear carrier it intends to relocate to Naval Station Mayport."
At Flagler College on Monday, Nelson said the carrier being home ported in Northeast Florida will be one of five.
Congress has already appropriated $70 million for what he calls "long-lead items," such as dredging the harbor to 55 feet deep, but another $430 million is needed over four years to build nuclear facilities on land that go along with a carrier.
He said, "The decision (to move a carrier here) is a done deal. Unfortunately, the Virginia delegation said it will fight us every step of the way."
Specifying which carrier will be transferred is "helpful" as Congress considers defense spending for the next several years, his letter said.
"Spreading the fleet between two ports on the East Coast is a good idea," Nelson said. "The West Coast has five ports that share (those duties)."
Beach renourishment
The senator was asked what a St. Johns County lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop beach renourishment will do to the already funded plan by the Corps to study why the beaches here lose sand.
"The lawsuit says that the Corps of Engineers is taking sand from a shoal just offshore, which the homeowner says causes more erosion of his property," Nelson said.
He said the issue would be decided in the courts.
"Florida's got more coastline than any other state in the union except Alaska, and Alaska doesn't have a lot of beaches," he said. "It has double the coastline of California.
The census
Nelson was asked by Crescent Beach resident Marilyn Wiles to say something about the importance of the 2010 census.
He said Florida could gain one or two new congressmen and if so will get more federal grants, which are often based on population.
The extra congressmen mean that Florida would then get two more Electoral College votes to a total of 27.
"You can see that the importance of Florida would increase in electing any president," he said.
Bill Nelson facts
Name: Clarence William "Bill" Nelson
Born: Miami, only child of Nannie Merle Nelson and Clarence Nelson.
Grew up: Melbourne, attended Melbourne High School.
College: University of Florida then Yale University. Received Bachelor of Arts in 1965.
Law school: University of Virginia, 1968.
Military: U.S. Army Reserve, 1965. Served 1968 to 1970. Highest rank: Captain.
Florida Bar: 1968, practiced in Melbourne in 1970.
Politics: Legislative assistant to Gov. Reubin Askew in 1971.
Married: Grace Cavert in 1972. Two adult children: Bill Nelson, Jr., and Nan Ellen Nelson.
Home: Baldwin Park, Orlando.
Politics: Florida House of Representatives, 1972, re-elected in 1974 and 1976; U.S. House of Representatives, 1978, served 1979 to 1991; unsuccessful run for governor 1990; state Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner 1994 and 1998, elected U,S, senator 2000
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