This week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., continued to push against Mexico produce imports, calling on the Trump administration to protect farmers in the Sunshine State, as the Trump administration looks to replace NAFTA with USMCA.  

Rubio and Buchanan rounded up senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle to call on Trade Ambassador Robert Lighthizer to protect farmers as negotiations with Mexico continue.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has brought back his proposal for the U.S. Commerce Department to increase regulation on the international shark trade. 

Last week, Rubio teamed up with Republican U.S. Sens.  Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, to bring back the “Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act.”

Republican Irina Vilariño has launched a bid to take on U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla., in what is expected to be one of the closest congressional races in the Sunshine State next year. 

Vilariño, a businesswoman who owns restaurants, entered the race to represent all of Monroe County and parts of Miami-Dade County in Congress on Wednesday.

With the Final Four ready to battle for the NCAA basketball championship, a congressman from Florida is addressing the plight of unpaid student athletes.

U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, D-Fla., hosted a panel discussion and screened a documentary on Capitol Hill this week as he turned his attention to “the plight of unpaid student-athletes in a multi-billion-dollar athletic enterprise.”

The Business Roundtable showcased a study this week which shows that international trade supports almost 2.4 million jobs in Florida. 

From his perch on the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee,  U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., was able to get his proposal to offer employees of small businesses better retirement benefits through the committee.

A Florida Republican congressman has been tapped to help lead the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucus in Congress. 

On Monday, Antonio Flores, the president and CEO of the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Caucus and the president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), announced that U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., will help lead the caucus. He joins U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Tex., to cochair the HSI Caucus. 

Wrapping up his first three months as chairman of the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee this week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., advanced three bills and a nomination from the Trump administration this week, sending all of them to the full Senate. 

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., was elected last week to serve as one of the co-chairs of the  Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC), formerly the Democratic Women’s Working Group, a caucus of more than 90 congresswomen. 

Frankel, U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., will lead the DWC as co-chairs while U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Tex., and U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-NM, will serve as the vice chairs. 

This week, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., brought back his proposal to offer employees of small businesses better retirement benefits.

Buchanan introduced his “Retirement Security for American Workers Act” back in February 2017. When he talked about the proposal at the end of 2016, he said his legislation “makes it less costly for small businesses to offer retirement benefits, and could help the more than 76 million Americans who work for companies that do not offer the opportunity to save for a secure retirement.”