WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), R-Fla., was the only senator with sights set on the White House to miss the vote on the $1.1 trillion government spending bill on Friday.
Rubio is facing criticism for missing the vote, especially after bashing the spending bill in a statement after it passed, calling it emblematic of a “broken Washington.” He had also vowed in a Fox News appearance Thursdayto use procedural tactics to slow the bill down and “force some changes.”
Rubio has missed more than 40 Senate votes while on the campaign trail, Bloomberg Politics reported in July.
He was scheduled to appear at a campaign event in Dubuque, Iowa, the morning of the vote. The stop was added to Rubio’s schedule just last week, according to Bloomberg Politics.
Rubio’s opponents, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), R-Texas, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), R-Ky., voted against the deal. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), R-S.C., voted for it.
Cruz wrote an op-ed for Politico on Thursday slamming the spending deal: “I cannot and will not support this massive crony Christmas gift[.]”
Cruz’s press secretary poked fun at Rubio on Twitter on Friday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), I-Vt., voted against the bill, saying it, “gives more tax breaks to billionaires, encourages large corporations to ship jobs overseas and makes worse an already corrupt campaign finance system.”
American Bridge, a Democratic PAC, knocked Rubio in a statement Friday: “Rubio embarrassed himself on TV yesterday by promising obstructionist grandstanding that Senate procedure prevented him from following through on — he didn’t know at the time because he wasn’t at work.”
The bill passed 65-33.
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