Senate Report Card: Bill Nelson D-FL

Senator Bill Nelson is the senior Democratic United States Senator from the state of Florida. Senator Nelson came to office in 2001. He is the second sitting Senator to have flown in space on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Senator Nelson serves on the Armed Services, Budget, Commerce Foreign Relations, Intelligence and Aging Committees. He is also the Chairman of the Strategic Forces and the International Operations and Organizations, Democracy, and Human Rights Subcommittee.

Nelson is generally considered to be a moderate Democrat. He was one of few Democrats to vote in favor of CAFTA. He is opposed to drilling for oil off Florida's coast. He is in favor of allowing the Federal Government to negotiate for lower drug prices. He is in favor of removing the estate tax and stricter bankruptcy standards. He voted against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban citing no allowances for the health of the mother. He has also voted against a provision for criminal penalties for anyone harming an unborn child during the commission of a crime.

After a few voting debacles in Florida, most famously brought to light amid the 2000 Presidential elections, Nelson introduced legislation banning paperless electronic voting machines. He believes that a lack of a trail of votes lends itself to voting fraud and unaccountable elections.

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Nelson voted against a measure to de-fund torture by the CIA except in "dire emergencies." He was the only Democrat to vote against the measure siding with Republicans, and defeating the measure.

Nelson drew criticism from the Bush Administration when he went to Damascus, Syria and met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The White House said that no member of Congress should go to meet with leaders of a state sponsor of terror. After the trip he noted that the Syrian President was in favor of stabalizing Iraq. Nelson remains in favor of meeting with potential enemies and discussing mutual interests.

Senator Nelson voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution providing for use of force to topple Saddam Hussein. In a statement on his website, Nelson said, "we were led to believe Saddam Hussein had a very active nuclear program. But now we know none of that was true. And knowing what I know now - that none of that was true - would I have voted the same way? Of course I wouldn't have. But I voted for the war authorization on the basis of that information." Effectively admitting he was wrong in his vote.

He is in favor of the Levin-Reed amendment that would safely redeploy U.S. forces from Iraq. He is also in favor of Senator Biden's solution that would provide a power sharing government in Iraq by effectively splitting the country into three areas, with their own centers of power and revenue sharing.

Senator Bill Nelson of Florida recently won reelection in 2006 and will be in the Senate until reelections in 2011.