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. Rubio called for accountability at OPM and the White House while warning about China which is believed to have launched the cyberattack. 

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.

From his perch on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., went to bat for U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy’s, R-Penn., “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act” on Tuesday. Bilirakis noted at a roundtable event on Tuesday that 10 million Americans are suffering from severe mental illness and pointed to reports s from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that around 40 percent of them do not get treatment. 

On Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the  data breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in which more than 4 million federal employees had their data stolen with many signs pointing to China as the culprit.

Florida TaxWatch insisted on Tuesday that the Legislature could have done more to cut taxes this year. On Monday, the Legislature passed $400 million in tax cuts and Gov. Rick Scott signed them into law on Tuesday.