Nelson opposes Sessions over voting rights issues
LEDYARD KING,
THE NEWS-PRESS Washington bureau
9:45 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2017
WASHINGTON - Sen. Bill Nelson has known fellow Senator Jeff Sessions for 16 years, calls him a “first-class gentleman,” and say the two get along well.
But Nelson said he won’t support the Alabama Republican for U.S. Attorney General when the Senate is expected to vote on his confirmation later this week.
The Florida Democrat said he’s troubled chiefly by what he believes is Sessions’ lack of commitment to voting rights and access, which has been an ongoing issue in the Sunshine State.
While Sessions voted in 2006 to reauthorize the full Voting Rights Act, he agreed with the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eliminated the section of law that allowed the federal government to review new voting procedures before they took effect and block those it believed were discriminatory in places where there had been a history of racial discrimination.
The ruling affected five Florida counties: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe.
“The big thing that I’m worried about ... is the suppression of the vote,” Nelson said in a recent interview. “I’ve been at the forefront of that for years and Jeff seems to have a different point of view on all that.”
Nelson’s concerns are shared by civil rights groups who worry that Sessions will not focus the resources of the Justice Department to identify and block state or local voting laws that have a discriminatory effect on minorities.
That angst has been heightened by President Trump’s false allegations that millions of votes were cast illegally in the November election, and that his administration may take steps that opponents say will further restrict ballot access.
During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Sessions testified that he would enforce the Voting Rights Act and all other civil rights laws already on the books.
“So, I think my responsibility would be to ensure that there’s no discriminatory problems,” Sessions said. “If (an action) violates the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution, I think … the attorney general may well have a responsibility and a duty to intervene. You cannot allow improper erosion of the right of Americans to vote.”
Trump order on immigrants affects Florida
President Trump’s executive order directing the government to identify federal money it can withhold to punish “sanctuary cities” may be felt in parts of Florida.
Broward, Hernando, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Pasco and Pinellas counties all have been identified as among the roughly 300 communities that have policies protecting the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Trump vowed to “crack down” on those cities during a speech Wednesday at the Department of Homeland Security.
“These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our republic,” Trump’s executive order said.
Trump will be armed with a range of powerful options, including federal lawsuits and the power to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that states and cities rely on.
Nelson, Democrats push infrastructure bill
Bill Nelson is among the Senate Democrats hopeful that one of the (few) areas they can team up with President Trump is on an infrastructure bill.
To that end, the Florida lawmaker this past week joined fellow Democratic senators (including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York) in unveiling a measure that would raise $1 trillion over 10 years to pay for a bevy of bricks-and-mortar projects, including — he hopes — several in Florida.
Nelson’s plan includes:
•$210 billion to fix crumbling roads and bridges. Florida has plenty of those.
•$180 billion to improve and expand bus and rail systems, which he said could be used to restore Amtrak service along Florida’s Gulf Coast and extend Sunrail service in Orlando.
•$30 billion for airports.
•$10 billion to modernize ports and waterways, which he said could be used to speed up repairs being made to the Herbert Hoover Dike and deepen the ports in Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale to accommodate the new mega ships coming through the Panama Canal.
“Florida is growing at a rate of nearly 1,000 people per day,” Nelson said. “You can imagine the toll that’s taking on our state’s infrastructure. This is our chance to make some much-needed repairs and create millions of new jobs in the process.”
Trump has often touted the need for infrastructure. Paying for it, of course, would be the hard part since any bill that broadly raises taxes or expands the deficit would almost certainly go nowhere.
The Democrat’s bill is short on details, saying only that the money would be found by “closing tax loopholes used by corporations and superwealthy individuals to offset associated costs.”
Trump has proposed funding his plan by leveraging “new revenues” and working with financing authorities, public-private partnerships, “and other prudent funding opportunities.”
He would also use “incentive-based contracting” to keep projects on time and within budget, and “harness market forces to help attract new private infrastructure investments through a deficit-neutral system of infrastructure tax credits.”
Contributing, Mary Troyan and Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
Contact Ledyard King atlking@gannett.com
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