Congress

Marco Rubio is a no-show on Senate government-funding vote

By William Douglas

wdouglas@mcclatchydc.com

December 18, 2015 02:27 PM

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., talks with Becca Goemaat as her son David takes a photo at right during a campaign stop at Weiler Manufacturing, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, in Knoxville, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall AP
WASHINGTON

Sen. Marco Rubio was a no-show Friday when the Senate approved a bill to fund the federal government and extend a series of tax breaks.

Rubio, R-Fla., was the only 2016 presidential candidate in the Senate to miss the vote, one of the chamber’s last for the year. The measure, which keeps the government running through September 2016 and extends an array of tax breaks, easily passed on a 65-33 vote.

Rubio’s campaign tweeted that he was in Dubuque, Iowa, where he was taping an interview for CBS’ "Face the Nation."

December 18, 2015　
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Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Bernie Sanders, an independent seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, voted against the bill. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., voted for it.

Rubio’s Republican rivals have attacked him for his Senate attendance record. He’s missed more than half of the chamber’s votes since October, according to The Hill, a Capitol Hill media outlet.

Although he wasn’t in Washington Friday, Rubio made his feelings about the government funding/tax bill known in an email statement delivered after senators voted.

"Washington’s leadership has created another massive spending bill in secret and rammed it through Congress, hoping that the American people don’t notice or have become numb to this kind of business as usual," he said in the statement. "This is what a broken Washington looks like under President Obama and what Congress reverts to without conservative presidential leadership."　

William Douglas: 202-383-6026, @williamgdouglas

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