Marco Rubio joins Democrats in fight for Zika funding

WASHINGTON – Democrats who have unloaded on GOP congressional leaders for blocking President Obama’s request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus have gained a key ally: Marco Rubio.

The Republican senator from Florida spoke bluntly on the Senate floor Thursday, warning lawmakers from his own party there will be consequences if they don’t deal quickly with the Zika crisis that is sweeping through Puerto Rico and has hit his home state. Roughly one in five of the more than 400 confirmed Zika cases on the U.S. mainland is in Florida.

Sen. Bill Nelson says GOP is dawdling on Zika virus

“I hope that there is real urgency about dealing with this,” Rubio said. “I understand this is not a political issue. There is no such thing as a Republican position on Zika or Democrat position on Zika because these mosquitoes bite everyone, and they're not going to ask you what your party registration is or who you plan to vote for in November.”

Women who contract Zika while pregnant risk giving birth to children with severe birth defects, and the virus may increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which causes paralysis. Most people infected with Zika will show no symptoms.

Rubio’s support for the president’s plan puts him at odds with Senate leaders who call the request “a blank check” that should be vetted through the appropriations process.

“I think responsible members of the Senate – and I would expect all 100 of us would put ourselves in that category – would want to know where the transparency is, where the accountability is, where the plan is, so we can sit down and do this as mature adults in a nonpartisan way in order to solve the problem,” said John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip and second-leading Republican in the Senate.

But Rubio cautioned Senate leaders Americans will want answers if congressional inaction allows the disease to spread during the upcoming mosquito season. A Puerto Rican man in his 70s who died Friday became the first known U.S. fatality from Zika.

“My advice to my colleagues is, we're going to deal with this, and I hope we deal with it at the front end, because not only is it better for our people, it's better for you,” Rubio said. “You're going to have to explain to people why it is that we sat around for weeks and did nothing on something of this magnitude.”

Congress is in recess next week.

Bush still no fan of Trump

The Republican establishment is slowly warming up to Donald Trump.

But not Jeb Bush.

“I don’t think he’s a serious person,” the former Florida governor told CNN in a rare interview that aired Thursday.

It’s clear the billionaire mogul isn’t about to win over Bush, who exited the race in February after Trump belittled him on the stump and trounced him at the ballot box.

“I don’t know which Donald Trump to believe,” Bush continued, referring to a recent foreign policy address by the GOP front runner. “The one that read from a teleprompter a speech that was inside the lines, or the one that wants to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, or (slap) a 45-percent tariff on China, or abandon NATO, or say that it would be a smart thing to have Japan and Korea go it alone and build their nuclear capability to deal with China.”

Bush, who has endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the presidential race, told CNN the nation needs a president “with a steady hand,” not one that acts unpredictably.

With Trump racking up delegates, Bush’s opinion probably won’t matter much. The day the interview aired, Florida GOP Rep. Jeff Miller endorsed Trump.

“America needs Donald Trump and his conservative agenda to shore up and secure our borders and to rebuild our military,” said the congressman, who represents the western Panhandle.

Miller was one of the first lawmakers to back Bush’s bid last year.

Obama nominates judges

Partisan rancor over judicial appointments has left the federal bench in Florida’s Middle District facing a crisis due to mounting caseloads.

President Obama hopes to remedy that by nominating two people to court seats that have been vacant for months. Patricia D. Barksdale of Jacksonville is a former federal prosecutor who has served as a magistrate judge for the Middle District since 2013. William F. Jung, also a former federal prosecutor, practices law in Tampa.

They would replace U.S. district court judges John E. Steele and Anne C. Conway. Both have assumed senior status and lighter caseloads. The district stretches from Naples to Jacksonville.

The seats are among 23 U.S. district court slots nationwide declared “judicial emergencies” because of high number of pending civil and criminal cases and length of time the seats have been vacant.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who monitors federal judicial selection, described Barksdale and Jung as “highly qualified, mainstream nominees” who are supported by both Florida senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio.

But that doesn’t mean they’ll get considered or confirmed by the Senate before Obama leaves office in January. GOP leaders in Congress have moved slowly in filling vacancies, even in cases where home-state Republican senators have endorsed the president’s pick.

As of Friday, there were 79 federal court vacancies, including 65 at the district level and nine at the appellate level, according to data from the American Bar Association. So far this year, the Senate has confirmed six nominees (five district judges and one appeals court judge).

Nelson urged his colleagues to confirm Barksdale and Yung.

“Sen. Rubio and I have conferred on these three nominees, and even in this highly partisan environment, I’m hopeful that we can get them approved quickly,” he said.

Tobias believes there’s a chance.

“It is somewhat late in a presidential election year,” he wrote in an email. “But the Senate Dem majority helped confirm eleven Bush nominees named after this date in 2008.”

Nelson meets with Garland

While some lower-court judges are getting hearings and a smattering of confirmation votes in the Senate, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court is stuck in limbo.

Sen. Bill Nelson is calling Senate Republicans’ decision not to hold hearings on Judge Merrick Garland “a desecration of the Constitution.”

The Florida Democrat met with Garland Wednesday and pledged his support.

“I gave him the encouragement to hang in there because sooner or later it’s going to be pretty hard to deny that this is not someone that is worthy of being voted on,” the senator told reporters after the closed-door meeting. “It’s going to be difficult for some of these senators to tell their constituents that they were unwilling not only to hear him in a committee meeting but also to do their job by voting either yea or nay.”

Nominee Garland deserves hearing

Nelson, who backs Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, believes Garland would get quick consideration if Clinton wins in November and a confirmation vote would be held before she took office in January.

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking