Sen. Rick Scott releases new TV ad criticizing Ukraine priority over American disasters
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., released a new television ad titled “Hostage,” grilling politicians for prioritizing Ukraine funding over American disaster relief.
“When I asked the Senate to provide funding for Florida hurricane victims, the Democrats refused,” Scott said in his ad.
The 5-figure TV ad will be played in Tampa, Fort Myers, Tallahassee, and Gainesville during Sunday Night Football.
“I’m in the Senate to represent the great state of Florida and that’s why I aggressively fought back when Washington politicians tried to hold Floridians hostage in exchange for funding foreign wars,” Scott said Thursday in a press release.
“While much more work still needs to be done on the budget process in Washington so we can finally deal with our $33 trillion in debt that has caused this rampant inflation, I am glad we were able secure this critical funding for Florida,” he continued.
Democrats, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., blocked Scott’s Federal Disaster Responsibility Act, which would have allocated federal dollars to damages from Hurricane Idalia and not to military funding for Ukraine. Democrats demanded any disaster relief money must include funding for the war in Ukraine, according to the senator’s press release.
“I appreciated that Sen. Scott would like to accelerate disaster aid to his home state, but let me observe that disasters have taken place not only in Florida but in … Hawaii, in Vermont and Louisiana and other states as well,” Whitehouse reportedly said.
Scott’s bill would have supplemented more than $16 billion into the Federal Emergency Management System, or FEMA, disaster relief fund, which was estimated to drain to $550 million by the end of September.
You can listen to Scott’s speech on the bill here.
In August, the Biden administration presented a supplemental package of $12 million for recent disasters such as Hurricane Idalia, according to the Florida Phoenix. In the same deal, Biden reportedly included $24 billion in further funding for the Ukrainian military in their ongoing war against Russia.
Democrat former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell announced she is running to unseat Scott.
Scott also has three Republican primary challengers in Keith Gross, Dr. Joe Smith and Farid Khavari.
