Rubio joins Senate GOP in blocking jobs bill

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Pic via Facebook)

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., yesterday joined Senate Republicans installing President Obama’s jobs bill.

According to an impact report compiled by the White House, Obama’s American Jobs Act would have created thousands of education and infrastructure jobs in the state of Florida. But the proposed $447 billion jobs bill failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward — per new Senate rules. Rubio was among the GOP senators who voted to block the bill from moving forward.

According to the impact report (.pdf):

The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job. Of the investments for highway and transit modernization projects, the President’s plan will make immediate investments of at least $1,578,600,000 in Florida that could support a minimum of approximately 20,500 local jobs.

The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and will provide $1,669,500,000 in funds to Florida to support up to 25,900 educator and first responder jobs.

The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. Florida will receive $1,280,300,000 in funding to support as many as 16,600 jobs.

Florida is currently finding difficulty bouncing back from the economy, and unemployment has remained a persistent problem. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent numbers, Florida had the second-highest number of mass layoff actions in the nation during the month of August.

Rubio recently co-sponsored a bill that would eliminate one out of every 10 federal jobs by 2015.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., voted in favor of the bill.