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...
Washington, D.C. – Following reports that Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was sentenced to prison in Iran, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today issued the following statement condemning the move and criticizing the Obama Administration’s inaction regarding the cases of several Americans detained in Iran:
“It’s sickening that the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian has been sentenced to prison after a sham trial in Iran based on made-up charges. Jason is the longest held international journalist by Iran, and he deserves to be free. Instead, the kangaroo courts in Iran’s justice system have already forced Jason to languish in their jails for over 16 months, with details of his new prison sentence still unknown.
“It is unacceptable that the Obama Administration missed an opportunity to make the freedom of Jason – as well as Amir Hekmati and Pastor Saeed Abedini, and obtaining information about missing Floridian Robert Levinson – a priority in its negotiations with Iran. Jason should not be behind bars for his profession as a journalist, and he should be released unconditionally. Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the Rezaian family as the Iranian regime continues to use Jason as a pawn.”
As the Committee to Protect Journalists has highlighted, the Iranian regime uses mass and arbitrary detention as a means of silencing dissent and forcing journalists into exile, and it became the world’s leading jailer of journalists in 2009 and has continued to rank among the world’s worst jailers of the press every year since. As of December 2014, Iran had the second-largest number of incarcerated journalists in the world, after China.
Throughout this year, Rubio has called on the Obama Administration to demand the unconditional release of several American citizens unjustly imprisoned in Iran, including: