While Gov. Rick Scott announced the creation of 16,200 private-sector jobs in May, the state unemployment rate inched up to 5.7 percent. In April, the rate stood at 5.6 percent. 

This week, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., who sits on the House Budget Committee tried to rally support for the Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment that he is supporting -- and he pointed to Florida as an example of a government that manages with a balanced budget. 

From his perch as the chairman of the U.S. House National Security Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2016, announced he will be holding a hearing on how the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) handles major leases. The hearing will be held on Thursday, June 25. 

U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Fla., broke with the White House and her party on Thursday when she voted to repeal the 2.3 percent tax on medical devices set up by President Barack Obama’s federal health-care law. The repeal passed 280-140 and Graham was a co-sponsor of the measure. 

With the special session of the Florida Legislature poised to end on Friday, Bob McClure, the president and CEO of the James Madison Institute (JMI), a group based in Tallahassee fighting for greater economic and educational opportunities, offered his take on it. 

US. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., introduced the “Free Market Health-care Restoration and Coverage Act of 2015” on Thursday which repeals President Barack Obama’s heath-care law while keeping subsidies until 2017. 

On Thursday, the U.S. House voted to repeal the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices set up by President Barack Obama’s federal health-care law. The tax was repealed on a 280-140 vote and U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., co-sponsored the repeal. 

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., brought out the “Protecting Taxpayers and Communities from Local Detention Quotas Act.” The bill stops the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from getting “ into contracts that provide specific detention centers with prepaid, guaranteed numbers of detainees each day.” Deutch pointed to reports that at least 15 for-profit detention centers with ICE contracts have quotas. 

Gov. Rick Scott said on Thursday that Florida’s real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 stood at almost $770 billion, up 2.7 percent from the year before, higher than the national increase of 2.2 percent, making Florida the state with the fourth largest GDP in the nation. 

This week, U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., voted to direct President Barack Obama to follow the War Powers Resolution and remove troops from Iraq and Syria. Yoho sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., weighed in on the data breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in which more than 4 million Americans had their information stolen.

Currently running for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., called the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina which left nine people dead as a “hate crime” and offered prayers and condolences.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., offered his take on the Republican presidential contest this week and expressed surprise that former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., was not crushing the competition. 

Three South Florida Republicans in Congress--U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Carlos Curbelo and Mario Diaz-Balart--want Guatemala nationals to have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the U.S. due to natural disasters in that Latin American nation, allowing them to temporarily live and work in the U.S.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., a member of the U.S.  House Appropriations Committee, supported the  Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill on Tuesday which contained around $150 million for Everglades restoration funding. The Appropriations Committee passed the bill on a 30-21 vote on Tuesday.