Senator Rubio joined Senators Kyl, McCain, Graham, Cornyn, and Ayotte in introducing The Down Payment to Protect National Security Act, legislation which overrides the automatic, across-the-board cuts to our nation's defense capabilities, which are scheduled to take effect in 2013 unless Congress acts. Instead of making severe cuts to the Department of Defense that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has warned would be "devastating to the defense budget" and would "weaken our national defense," This bill replaces the scheduled cuts by reducing the federal workforce and extending the current pay freeze for federal workers. By doing so, the legislation ensures the debt reduction targets laid out in the Budget Control Act are still on track to be met --without endangering our national security at a time when threats both at home and abroad remain very real.

After co-sponsoring the Earmark Elimination Act, a bill introduced by Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to permanently ban earmarks and institute a strict two-thirds point of order against pork-barrel projects contained in legislation, Senator Rubio has joined with Sens. Toomey and McCaskill again as a co-sponsor of S. Amdt.1472. S.Amdt. 142, like the Earmark Elimination Act, would permanently end earmarks.

In this week's installment of Marco's Constituent Mail Box video series, Marco responds to letters about the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA sent by two constituents that reflect the diverse opinions expressed in the thousands of letters received.