Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Vows to Reject Hurricane Ian Relief Bill If Legislation Is Filled With ‘Pork’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday vowed not to support a federal relief bill aimed at aiding his state in its recovery from Hurricane Ian if it goes beyond providing disaster funding to include unrelated spending.

Rubio made the comments in an interview for CNN’s “State of the Union” program several days after the powerful storm made landfall.

The Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph (240 kph) has claimed the lives of more than 80 people in Florida and the Carolinas, Reuters reported, although the death toll is expected to keep rising.

Meanwhile, 613,386 electric customers in Florida were without power as of Monday, according to PowerOutage.us.

Rubio on Sunday noted that he has always supported disaster relief funding packages that are “clean” but that he would not vote for any bill that is “loaded up with stuff that’s unrelated to the storm” and “smells like pork.”

Pork is a commonly used term to describe spending for other unrelated projects that’s placed into congressional spending legislation.

“I will fight against it having pork in it. That’s the key,” the senator said, adding that he feared that voting for such a package would deter other lawmakers from voting for disaster relief in the future.

“We shouldn’t have that in there because it undermines the ability to come back and do this in the future,” he said. “I think disaster relief is something we shouldn’t play with. We are capable in this country, in the Congress, of voting for disaster relief for key, after key events like this, without using it as a vehicle or a mechanism for people to load it up with stuff that’s unrelated to the storm.”

‘It’s Not About Politics’

“You will have people in the Senate, in the House that are going to vote against disaster relief because they view these disaster relief bills as ways for other people to

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