WASHINGTON - During what was the first congressional questioning of Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, since Monday’s release of the president’s budget, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson suggested the White House had ignored a special commission that was set up to advise the president on space exploration. That panel last year said NASA needed $3 billion extra a year for meaningful human exploration of space, Nelson noted. Yet the budget gives NASA only about half the amount of money cited by the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee, commonly known as the Augustine Commission.
WASHINGTON - The president is poised to announce in Tampa tomorrow that the Sunshine State has won in a competition among states for a portion of $8 billion in stimulus money the federal government is awarding as so-called Recovery Grants the Obama administration is offering to develop a national high-speed rail network.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is pressing the administration to see whether it could give one-year medical visas to the youngest and most traumatized of the earthquake victims in Haiti, ones who doctors say will die if they can’t get specialized care here. He’s also asked Florida’s children’s hospitals to help out.
WASHINGTON - In a letter to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson unveiled a detailed plan designed to "put an end to Wall Street compensation practices that emphasize short-term, unsustainable, and illusory profits and refocus the financial sector on its critical role as a bridge between lenders and borrowers."
MIAMI -U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a key member of two Senate panels set to investigate airport security in light of the attempted Christmas Day bombing, recently met with federal transportation officials for a briefing and demonstration of extra security measures at Miami International Airport. MIA is one of six airports in the country where full-body scanners are being tested for routine use.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -A U.S. senator says he’s grateful the federal government has decided it can help at least some of the homeowners who’ve been hard hit because of tainted drywall. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson previously had asked U.S. Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ) Secretary Shaun Donovan to let communities and homeowners know whether federal block grant monies could be used to help remediate homes with problem drywall. The answer that came: temporary relief is available to make home repairs affordable for at-risk borrowers.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson brought his Senate colleague Barbara Boxer, above, to the visit the Everglades two years ago. More recently she headed a panel that passed Nelson’s legislation aimed at curbing invasive species in the ‘Glades.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- A key Senate panel has approved Sen. Bill Nelson’s bill to ban nine giant constrictor snakes, sending a strong signal that more may be done to safeguard U.S. wildlife and natural resources. The measure would make it illegal for people to import or engage in the interstate trade of nine dangerous snakes, including Burmese pythons, anacondas and the boa constrictor.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -A deal in which drugmakers promised to pay $80 billion over 10 years toward health care reform will only cost the industry about one-fourth of that amount, a Wall Street firm’s recent insider report says. That’s why U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has introduced an amendment to the Senate health care bill that would break the $80 billion deal the pharmaceutical industry worked out with the White House and Senate leaders. The amendment would force the drug industry to give up extra profits worth about $106 billion.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The debate over Medicare Advantage misses a key point. It's not so much the extras, such as gym memberships, vision and dental care, that drew more than 10 million seniors to the plans. It's the affordable deductibles, co-pays and other such out-of-pocket expenses.
Batista and Levinson missing abroad, senator aids families
Staff Photos
Lourdes Batista, above, and Christine Levinson, right, both had their husbands go missing in foreign lands. While the circumstances of their spouses' disappearances are different, they are both getting help from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
