Since joining the U.S. Senate, Marco has built a record of accomplishments on some of the most important issues for conservatives.
1. Marco led the effort on the biggest Republican victory against ObamaCare.
Back in 2014, Marco raised the alarm about the potential for the Obama Administration to bail out insurers losing money under ObamaCare.
He led the fight to make Congress blocked the Obama Administration from transferring taxpayer dollars to insurers losing money under ObamaCare. When those big losses started racking up, Marco’s work saved taxpayers $2.5 billion in one year alone.
2. Marco was behind the toughest part of the recent VA reform law.
Following revelations about deep corruption and incompetence at the Veterans Affairs Department, Marco introduced a bill that would allow the firing of VA employees who weren’t doing their jobs. The bill, the VA Management Accountability Act, was adamantly opposed by government-union-friendly Democrats, including Senator Bernie Sanders.
Thanks to his work on VA issues, Marco was asked to be on the conference committee that put together the final VA reform legislation. There, he ensured that an important element of his VA Management Accountability Act — the ability to fire senior VA executives who aren’t doing their jobs — made it into the legislation that passed. McClatchy’s reported that Marco “played a vital role on a special committee that finalized that legislation.”
Marco has continued to push for the full accountability act to be passed, and will ensure as president that it becomes law.
Here’s what Pete Hegseth, a top veterans advocate who runs Concerned Veterans for America, has to say about Marco on veterans’ issues:
Having led 9 townhall events w/ Rubio, Cruz, Jeb, Carly, Carson & Rand, I can say nobody knows vets/defense/foreign policy like @MarcoRubio.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) January 30, 2016
3. Marco pushed new sanctions on Hezbollah, which are already beginning to bite.
In 2015, Marco led the successful effort to tighten the screws on the financing of the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
His legislation allows the U.S. to sanction foreign banks that are working with the group, which is waging war on Israel, killed 241 American servicemen in the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombings, and has carried out attacks on civilians around the world.
The good news: Hezbollah is already starting to feel the pinch, the Wall Street Journal reported recently. The group even called Marco’s bill “a new crime by American institutions against our people and nation.”
4. Marco fought the Obama White House to pass sanctions against Venezuela’s brutal socialist regime.
Marco has long been a leader on human rights issues, calling on the U.S. to stand up for people living under oppressive regimes, in Latin America especially.
In 2014, he led an effort to pass sanctions against the corrupt, anti-American government in Venezuela.
One of the problems in the way: The Obama White House was reluctant to take a stand against Venezuela. Marco felt differently, and, as McClatchy’s reported, “played a pivotal role in prodding the Obama administration on the matter – in a hearing, in multiple letters, in Senate speeches.”
At the end of 2014, Marco and other senators succeeded in passing the bill, and the White House has since sanctioned seven individual Venezuelan government officials who’ve been responsible for human rights abuses.
5. Marco led the passage of the Girls Count Act, to combat human trafficking.
One of the most widespread human rights problems across the world is the way government policies and cultural norms undermine the rights of women and girls: many of them never counted at birth, depriving them of things like education and health care and making them much more vulnerable to human trafficking. The problem is greatest in the poorest countries, but it’s also a huge problem in China, with its horrific one-child policy (now “two child policy”).
Marco succeeded in passing a bipartisan bill, the Girls Count Act, seeing it through to becoming law, that would direct U.S. foreign aid resources toward protecting girls’ rights by addressing this problem.
The bill, supported by groups like Catholic Relief Services, means the U.S. will now help governments to properly register girls at birth and respect their rights under the rule of law, making it more likely that their rights will be respected.