Accomplishments
Mario Diaz-Balart is a strong community leader who has two decades of
effective public service. He has received numerous awards for service from
local hospitals, universities and community organizations – including
farmers, police, and firefighters. According to the Miami Herald, Mario
Diaz-Balart “has been a major force bringing federal funding to
Solutions to High Gas Prices & Securing Our Energy Future
Hard-working Americans are suffering from high gas prices and Mario Diaz-Balart is taking action by sponsoring a bill to give families relief now. He is actively working to make America more energy independent by responsibly expanding production, increasing conservation, and investing more in renewable energy innovations. Less talk, more action.
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Solutions to
Wasteful Spending & Fiscal Responsibility
Government exists to protect and serve you, not the other
way around. Mario Diaz-Balart believes the federal government has more
than enough of your money and needs to be more responsible with it. That is
why he strongly advocates for requiring performance-based reviews of all
federal agencies and highlights waste, fraud and abuse by the federal
bureaucracy. Getting an expansive bureaucracy to be responsive to Floridians
is no easy task, but it is what Mario Diaz-Balart is committed to making
happen. Less talk, more action.
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Restoring the Everglades and Protecting the Environment.
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Hurricane Relief & Recovery
When disaster strikes, Mario Diaz-Balart immediately goes
to work for you – checking on those affected, surveying damage, demanding
and getting results from the federal government. Less talk, more action.
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Better Education for Our Children
Making quality education – including college – available to
every student is a priority for Mario. Families need to have more say in
their children’s education, good teachers should be properly rewarded, and
education opportunities need to be financially possible for everyone. Less
talk, more action.
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Growing Our Economy & Creating Jobs
The
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• Introduced the Keep Our Homes Act to
provide strapped homeowners more tax relief.
• Ensured
support and emergency tax relief.
• Cosponsored Homeownership Protection and Housing Market
Stabilization Act
• Cosponsored Affordable Homeowners Insurance Act
• Cosponsored Homeowners Insurance Protection Act
•
• Voted for Neighborhood Stabilization Act of 2008
to provide $15 billion to revitalize areas most affected by the housing
crisis.
• Voted for HOPE VI Improvement and Reauthorization
Act to extend HOPE VI through September 30, 2015 at $800
million per year
which provides grants to Public Housing Authorities to
demolish and replace dilapidated public housing units and replace them with
mixed-income
communities
• Voted for Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending
Act to address the problems in the subprime and
securitization market that
recently surfaced in the current dual housing and credit
crisis.
• Voted for Homeowners' Defense Act
• Voted for National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act
• Voted for Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act
• Voted for Expanding American Homeownership Act
of 2007 to extend the FHA mortgage term from 35 to 40
years, provide certain
borrowers with financial counseling and to establish a new
affordable housing fund.
• Voted for Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007
to provide housing assistance to approximately 2 million low-income families
per year.
Making Your Taxes Lower
• Introduced the Tax Relief for Families Act to make
common-sense, pro-family tax cuts permanent:
◊ Increased Child Tax Credit
◊ Elimination of the Marriage
Tax Penalty
◊ Deduction for College Tuition
◊ Deduction of State and Local
Sales Tax
◊ Deduction of School Teacher
Expenses
◊ Elimination of the Death Tax
• Co-sponsored the Married Student Debt Relief Act to allow a
husband and wife to each claim the maximum tax deduction of $2,500 for
interest on education loans when filing a joint tax return.
• Co-sponsored legislation to make permanent the tax
deduction for state and local sales taxes.
• Co-sponsored the Family Budget Protection Act to hold
the federal government accountable for its budget just like the American
family.
• Co-sponsored the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act
that permanently bans state taxation of Internet access and e-commerce.
Delivering For Our Transportation Needs.
As a member of the House Transportation Committee, Mario
Diaz-Balart is a strong voice for our communities’ critical transportation
and infrastructure needs and has delivered millions in federal funding for
projects here at home. Less talk, more action.
• Secured authorization of more than $2.2 billion for all
Miami-Dade Transit Corridors including the new North and
as authorization that $100 million committed by the Florida
Department of Transportation for the Earlington Heights-MIC connector may be
used as part of the non-federal share for other transit
corridors
• Led the
95 improvements to address congestion from Broward to
• Secured authorization for I-75 widening
• Secured authorization for federal reimbursement for the
• Ensured Floridians get back more of the tax dollars
they send to
estimated $8.721 billion for
Making Health Care Affordable
Health care needs to be more affordable and more
accessible. We have the best quality health care in the world, but too often it
is too expensive for hard-working Americans to afford. Although so-called
universal health care would be disastrous for this country by creating longer
wait lines, more bureaucratic hurdles and worsen quality of care, we clearly
need to reform the current health care system so that it works better for
families when they need it. Less talk, more action.
• Member of the Speaker’s Prescription Drug Action Team
◊ Created
the highly successful Medicare prescription drug benefit for
◊ Since the
implementation of Part D in 2006, market forces have lowered drug prices, by
empowering doctors and patients, not
bureaucrats and insurance companies.
◊ According to CMS
actuaries, Part D is nearly $250 billion lower than its initial estimate in
2003.
• Cosponsored the SCHIP Extension Act to
extend SCHIP through FY2008 and the first six months of FY2009
• Cosponsored the Small Business Health Fairness Act
to create association health plans (AHPs) to help small
businesses provide
affordable quality health care plans to employees.
• Cosponsored the Children's Health Insurance
Promotion Act to conduct innovative outreach and enrollment
efforts that are designed
to increase the enrollment and participation of eligible
children under SCHIP
• Cosponsored the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell
Therapies Enhancement Act to develop stem cells that are
capable of
producing all of the body’s cell types to potentially treat
diseases and other health conditions without destroying human embryos.
• Cosponsored the Resident Physician Shortage
Reduction Act to increase, over five cost reporting
periods, the Medicare caps on the
total number of full-time equivalent residents in the field
of allopathic or osteopathic medicine for states with a shortage of
residents
• Cosponsored the Healthy Hospitals Act
to require public reporting of health care-associated infections data
by hospitals and ambulatory
surgical centers.
• Cosponsored the Group Health Plan Prosthetics Parity
Act to cover prosthetics for 1.8 million Americans without
limbs including
children and Veterans.
• Cosponsored the Keep Our Promise to America's
Military Retirees Act to reimburse Veterans for pharmacy
benefits received from a
pharmacy that is not a TRICARE (Department of Defense managed
health care plan) network pharmacy.
• Cosponsored the Legal Immigrant Children's Health
Improvement Act to grant states the option of covering
certain categories of
eligible pregnant women and child resident immigrants,
including targeted low-income children, under the Medicaid and SCHIP
programs.
• Cosponsored the Assisting Doctors to Obtain
Proficient and Transmissible Health Information Technology (ADOPT HIT) Act
to allow medical care providers to deduct up
to $250,000 of the cost of health care information technology used primarily
for the electronic
creation, maintenance, and exchange of medical care
information.
• Cosponsored the Early Treatment for HIV Act
to give states the option of providing Medicaid coverage for
certain low-income HIV-
infected individuals.
• Cosponsored the Medicare Patient Access to Physical
Therapists Act to authorize qualified physical therapists
to provide services
for Medicare beneficiaries without the requirement of a
physician referral.
• Cosponsored the Health Insurance for Life Act
to remove all limitations on Consolidated Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
continuation coverage that establish a period by which such
coverage must end, and instead provides no deadline for discontinuing such
coverage.
• Cosponsored the Financial Security Accounts for
Individuals with Disabilities Act to establish tax-exempt
financial security
accounts for individuals with disabilities to pay certain
expenses of such individuals, including expenses for education, medical
care, and
employment training.
• Cosponsored the Health Care Choice Act
to provide that the laws of the state designated by a health insurance
issuer shall apply to
individual health insurance coverage offered by that issuer
in the primary state and in any other state
• Cosponsored H.R. 1459 to improve
Medicare beneficiary access by revising the inpatient rehabilitation
facility classification criterion used for
a hospital or hospital unit.
Protecting Families
All families want to protect their loved ones. Mario
Diaz-Balart has made it a priority to help parents protect their children and
launched his Protecting Families Online initiative to help parents protect their
families against online predators and ID theft. Less talk, more action.
• Launched the Protecting Families Online initiative,
a series of seminars aimed at helping parents and families protect
themselves
against online predators and ID theft.
• Introduced the Web Video Violence Act to
curb the online promotion of violence among students.
• Cosponsored the Protecting Our Children Comes First
Act, which passed became law, to improve reporting and
recovery of missing |
and exploited children.
• Co-sponsored legislation that strengthened the
National AMBER alert network by strengthening law
enforcements’ ability to
prevent, investigate and prosecute violent criminals that
target children, specifically child kidnappers, molesters and pornographers.
• Co-sponsored the Children’s Safety and Violent Crime
Reduction Act that initiated sex offender registration,
notification, and
verification requirements as well as penalties for
violations.
• Cosponsored the Sex Offender Mandatory Registration
Act to require registration of sex offenders regardless of
the date of their
offense.
• Member of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus
Keeping Our Nation Safe
September 11, 2001 was a stark reminder that we have real
enemies in the world and we must take responsible measures to protect our nation
and our families. Mario Diaz-Balart supports a strong defense and especially
ensuring that our troops have everything they need to succeed with no strings
attached. Less talk, more action.
• Cosponsored and voted for an updated GI Bill
to provide troops and Veterans better education benefits.
• Cosponsored the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act
to enact sanctions against
• Voted for inspection of all cargo at foreign ports
destined for US ports.
• Voted to keep the
Defending Human Rights
Mario Diaz-Balart is a life-long, outspoken advocate for
human rights, especially those living under oppressive regimes such as
• Introduced a resolution condemning the FARC
for the kidnapping and hostage-taking of 3
demanding their immediate and unconditional release.
• Introduced and passed a resolution on the
House floor expressing support to the organizers and participants of the
historic meeting of
the Assembly to Promote the Civil Society in
• Cosponsored a resolution that condemns Communist
China's discrimination, harassment, imprisonment, torture, and execution of
its prisoners
of conscience.
• Cosponsored a resolution that condemns Communist China
for its manufacturing and exportation of unsafe products, casual disregard
for the
environment, and exploitative employment practices.
• Constant advocate and steadfast supporter of the State
of Israel having cosponsored numerous resolutions and signed onto letters in
support
of
• Member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus
• Member of the Freedom of the Press Caucus
• Member of the
