News

Washington, D.C. – Tomorrow, July 21, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) will be meeting with veterans in Panama City Beach to hear their perspectives on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and to highlight his ongoing efforts to reform the VA and hold its officials accountable for failing to provide adequate services.
 
Later in the day, Rubio will visit the Lakeland area to tour a citrus grove affected by citrus greening, a bacteria that has infected approximately 80 percent of Florida’s citrus trees. Rubio will be joined by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
 
Media interested in attending these events must RSVP to Kristen_Morrell@rubio.senate.gov.
 
Thursday, July 21, 2016
9:15 a.m. CDT
Rubio to participate in Bay County VA reform and accountability event, followed by a media availability
VFW Post 10555
17680 Ashley Drive
Panama City Beach, FL 32413
 
Thursday, July 21, 2016
4:15 p.m. EDT
Rubio and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam to tour citrus grove impacted by citrus greening, followed by a media availability
Gapway Groves
Berkley Road and Gapway Road (head east on Gapway about 1,000 yards)
Auburndale, FL 33823
Note: RSVP’d press will be allowed to join the tour.
 
BACKGROUND: RUBIO’S EFFORTS TO REFORM THE VA & HELP VETERANS  

• The 2014 VA reform law, which Rubio served on the House-Senate conference committee that negotiated it, included his measure empowering the VA secretary to hold managers accountable for incompetence, negligence, corruption.‎ Although he was not a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Rubio was asked to be part of the conference committee due to his leadership in sponsoring the VA Management Accountability Act of 2014. 

• To date, Rubio’s office has worked on and closed approximately 4,000 VA-related constituent cases. 

• Rubio recently introduced the “VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016,” (S.3170) a bill that would strengthen protections for whistleblowers and increase flexibility to remove VA employees for poor performance or misconduct. The bill would also reform the department’s disability benefits appeals process, which is a top priority for VA leaders and many veterans’ service organizations. Chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Jeff Miller (R-FL-01), introduced the companion bill in the House. 

BACKGROUND: RUBIO’S EFFORTS TO COMBAT CITRUS GREENING & SUPPORT FLORIDA’S CITRUS INDUSTRY 

• Earlier this year, Rubio announced his backing of the Emergency Citrus Disease Response Act (sponsored by Florida Senator Bill Nelson), which would allow citrus growers impacted by citrus greening to immediately expense the cost of planting new citrus trees instead of the standard 14-year depreciation process.‎ 

• On December 16, 2015, Rubio supported Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam’s petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant an emergency exception to use up to three antimicrobials on diseased citrus plants in the fight against greening.               

• On February 8, 2016, Rubio’s office held a briefing with the EPA and Florida delegation staff, where we pressed the issue for a timely decision as application of the antimicrobials must be made soon. 

• On March 4, the EPA concurred with Florida’s crisis exemption, allowing three antimicrobials to be used. 

• In early 2014, Rubio visited South Korea, where he pressed officials there on a harmful tariff that was harming Florida orange juice producers. Upon returning home, Rubio helped fast-track a solution by urging South Korean Ambassador Ahn Ho-young and his colleagues to tour Florida facilities and resolve their concerns, which they did a month later. As the Orlando Sentinel reported on April 26, 2014, “A tariff dispute between the U.S. and South Korea over frozen orange juice concentrate was quietly resolved…” ‎  

• Last year, the Tampa Tribune reported that as a result of this free trade agreement, Florida natural juice sales reportedly have gone from $4 million to $40 million in three years and the sale of fresh grapefruit went from $1 million to nearly $5 million over the same period.