Following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage throughout Florida’s gulf coast, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) met with the Florida Farm Bureau as well as local agricultural producers, farmers, and growers to discuss the storm’s impact. Photos are courtesy of...
Following Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage throughout Florida’s Gulf Coast, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) met with local officials and volunteers from the barrier islands to discuss the storm’s impact and current recovery efforts. Photos are courtesy of...
Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm, causing catastrophic damage along Florida’s Gulf Coast. It’s crucial for the federal government to expedite state-requested resources and authorize key policy flexibilities in order for Floridians to make a swift...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host two in-person events to assist constituents affected by Hurricane Helene and help navigate applications for FEMA assistance. Food, water, and additional resources will be available at the events. Event...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host in-person and virtual Mobile Office Hours next week to assist constituents with federal casework issues in their respective local communities. These office hours offer constituents who do not live close to one of...
Following the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Debby, some local governments in Florida face looming budget shortfalls that could disrupt disaster recovery efforts. If these local governments receive reimbursements for past hurricanes from the Federal Emergency...
This is the greatest success story from the pandemic
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
April 3, 2023
Fox News
In April 2020, more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs. Economists predicted 8 million additional layoffs in May. That would have meant the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, not to mention a cascading crisis in real estate.
In response, I led Congress in creating the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which in less than two weeks began distributing forgivable loans to small businesses…. The result was nothing short of remarkable. Instead of losing jobs in May, the economy actually gained 2.5 million of them, overcoming the crushing impact of the lockdown orders.
Today, it’s fashionable for the media to blame PPP for fraudsters who exploited the system, but those critiques are wrongheaded. To be effective, the program had to be implemented at a breakneck speed with the understanding strict enforcement would come after the crisis passed. The Biden administration’s failure to verify borrowers’ information before forgiving the loans, on the other hand, was negligent at best, criminal at worst.
Even accounting for fraud, however, the program was an overwhelming success. Roughly 90% of the $800 billion issued in forgivable paycheck protection loans went to legitimate businesses for legitimate purposes….
Looking back on pandemic relief spending as a whole, it is obvious that the Democrats turned many of the initial short-term, targeted measures into a massive boondoggle, creating the inflation we continue to suffer from today. But…[t]hough it’s fashionable to play the cynic, I believe the Paycheck Protection Program truly is one of our nation’s great success stories—one Americans can be proud of for generations to come.
Read the rest here.