As promised, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio voted against the Senate deal to reopen the federal government and lift the nation’s debt ceiling Wednesday night.
The chamber passed the bill 81-18, sending it on to the House.
Rubio said beforehand that the agreement does not do enough to reform spending or grow the economy.
“This debate has never been about whether to have an open federal government, but about whether we are going to fix it so that it stops spending more money than it takes in. To save the American Dream, we need decisive action to create millions of middle class jobs and stop Washington politicians from wasting taxpayers' money on a government we can't afford,” Rubio said in a statement Wednesday afternoon, several hours after the news that Senate leaders had agreed on a deal to end the 16-day government shutdown and increase the debt ceiling before the country defaults.
The Republican also cited his continued opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
"I cannot support this deal because it postpones any significant action on pro-growth and spending reforms and does nothing to provide working class Americans even one shred of relief from ObamaCare’s harmful effects,” he said.
The state's senior senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, voted in favor of the bill.
The House approved the bill 285-144, sending the legislation on to President Barack Obama.
“Thank goodness, not just for the thousands and thousands of Americans who have been hurting because of the disruption in government services, but thank goodness for our nation’s economic well-being," Nelson said in a statement after the Senate vote, expecting that the House would also pass the debt deal. “I’m relieved about this shutdown being over and certainly relieved that we have avoided a default of the financial integrity of this country, but this never should have happened in the first place. A couple of senators and a handful of House extremists have managed to embarrass America in front of the world."
