Free Republic

WASHINGTON D.C. – South Florida congressman Mario Diaz-Balart has tested positive for COVID-19. In a release sent by his office, Diaz-Balart (FL-25) received word on Wednesday that a test he took over the weekend had come back positive. He is the first member of the United State Congress to test positive for coronavirus. Diaz-Balart began feeling symptoms of coronavirus on Saturday night, including fever and a headache. He then decided to self-quarantine in Washington D.C., where he will remain. “I want everyone to know that I am feeling much better,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement. "However, it is important that...

A group of Representatives led by Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) recently introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA). This bill will amnesty over 1.5 million illegal alien farmworkers, expand the H-2A program, add 40,000 green cards to the EB-3 category, and mandate E-Verify across the agriculture sector. Despite its flashy name, this bill does nothing to modernize the agricultural workforce. Instead of encouraging the adoption of time- and cost-saving technology, this bill proposes amnestying millions of alien farmworkers and giving them a path to citizenship. It is a massive amnesty, plain and simple. Farmworker Amnesty The bill...

A Republican representative on Wednesday filed a petition to force a House vote on immigration, going around leadership and the committee process. GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) filed the motion, known as a discharge petition. He was joined by Republican Reps. Jeff Denham (Calif.), Will Hurd (Texas), Mario Díaz Balart (Fla.) and David Valadao (Calif.) as initial sponsors. If a majority of the House votes for the discharge petition, the chamber will then vote on an immigration proposal by Denham. Republicans who support immigration reform have grown increasingly frustrated at leadership over inaction on the issue. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)...

Two Illinois Republicans considered among the nation’s most vulnerable congressional incumbents are breaking from their party and its outspoken presidential nominee, Donald Trump, to push laws that would include a path to citizenship for people living in the country illegally. Rep. Bob Dold and Sen. Mark Kirk joined GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and business leaders at an event Wednesday in Chicago. They argued comprehensive immigration reform would help the economy, ensure companies have the workers they need and is the right thing to do. “It’s about people before politics,” said Dold, whose district north of Chicago is home...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is trying to force the Obama administration's hand to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.Along with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the presidential hopeful on Tuesday introduced legislation calling on the Obama administration to designate the Islamist political group as a foreign terrorist organization.The bill, called the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, comes after a string of evidence suggesting the group supports terrorism, Cruz said, and after similar moves from a handful of foreign countries in recent years."As this bill details, the Brotherhood's stated goal is to wage violent jihad against its enemies, and...

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions has rebuked Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for voting on behalf of Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart. On Tuesday, Wasserman Schultz was in the speaker's lobby next to the House floor while her home-state colleague was caught up in an interview nearby with a reporter just before a roll-call vote, according to The Hill. "Deb, are you going in?" Diaz-Balart asked before handing her his voting card, The Hill said. "Can you…" he said, his voice trailing off as he handed her the card.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's economic development strategy is simple: Have the federal government do what is constitutionally mandated and then get out of the way of the states. Let them compete, he says. The companies will go to the states that are the most nimble, with the right mix of regulations and taxes, the ability to educate workers and incentives that lessen risk, he said. "Competition is uncomfortable," he said Wednesday in Rock Hill. "But it's what has allowed America to maintain its edge." Perry stressed his philosophy with several different examples Wednesday before business leaders from York, Chester and...

Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that he has appointed a “working group” of House Republicans tasked to respond to the border crisis involving the surge of unaccompanied minors trying to enter the United States illegally. (SNIP) Members of the working group include Republican Reps. John Carter of Texas, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, Kay Granger of Texas, Michael McCaul of Texas, Steve Pearce of New Mexico and Matt Salmon of Arizona. Granger chairs the subcommittee that oversees funding for the State Department and foreign operations.

The humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding along the Southwest border and, in particular, in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, is nothing shy of tragic. In 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection stated that 6,500 unaccompanied children illegally crossed the Southwest border into the United States. In 2014, CBP is estimating that number to rise ten-fold, to at least 66,000 children. Tens of thousands of children are being smuggled, trafficked, exploited and even abused by vast criminal networks to a point in which our federal law enforcement agencies are being overwhelmed. Something must be done and done immediately.

Within minutes of Lincoln Diaz-Balart's announcement, his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart, launched a campaign to succeed him in the more Republican-leaning congressional district. Mario Diaz-Balart called it a ``natural move,'' noting that he has represented -- at the state and federal level -- several of the communities in the district. That move will open up Mario Diaz-Balart's seat. There's no clear front runner for that seat, but state Reps. David Rivera and Anitere Flores are running for a state Senate seat that is almost fully contained in the congressional district.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) will announce his retirement this afternoon at a press conference at Florida International University, according to two Republican sources familiar with his decision.

Below is the roll call vote.The link you provided is the final vote on the whole bill. It appears to have received bipartisan support. Just before that vote, another vote was held on the amendment by Rep. John Conyers which inserted the "Hate Crimes" provision. Amendment #25 - Roll #469   AYES NOES PRES NV REPUBLICAN 30 194   6 DEMOCRATIC 192 5   5 INDEPENDENT 1       TOTALS 223 199   11 REPUBLICANS VOTING AYE DEMOCRATS VOTING NO Bass Biggert Boehlert Bono Castle Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Fitzpatrick (PA) Foley Gerlach Johnson (CT) Kelly Kirk Kolbe...

The Diaz-Balarts were out of the country when Castro took over and after Castro burned their house to the ground they never returned, getting that message loud and clear. Living in Florida, Rafael was a leader of the Castro opposition, and taught his sons to love freedom through word and deed. The commitment runs so deep in the Diaz-Balart blood that speaking of their Cuba and other tyrannies, like China, Lincoln said in a 2003 interview with the National Review: "I feel almost embarrassed for the human race that we just sit here and accept regimes like that." As members...

MIAMI -- Rafael L. Diaz-Balart, a Cuban exile politician who fervently opposed Cuban President Fidel Castro -- his former brother-in-law -- and was father to two U.S. congressmen, died Friday. He was 79. Diaz-Balart died at his home in Key Biscayne after a long battle with leukemia, a family spokesman said. Diaz-Balart was an attorney and politician who rose to the position of majority leader in Cuba's House of Representatives before Castro seized power in 1959. After leaving Cuba, Diaz-Balart founded the White Rose Party that was dedicated to fighting Castro's government and also was a diplomat for Costa Rica...

MIAMI - Rafael L. Diaz-Balart, a Cuban exile politician who fervently opposed Cuban President Fidel Castro and fathered two U.S. congressmen, died Friday after a long battle with leukemia. He was 79. Diaz-Balart died at his home in Key Biscayne with his four sons - Rafael, Jose and U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart - wife Mercedes and her daughter, Belen, by his side, a family spokesman said. A funeral mass is scheduled for Saturday at St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Miami. "His death constitutes another reason to continue to fight for Cuba's freedom, which was the ideal of...

Statement from Rep. Eric Cantor, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Rep. Jim Ryun on Senator Kerry’s Speech Today in Florida(title edited for length) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christine Iverson202-863-8614Washington, DC—Representatives Eric Cantor (R-VA), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida) and Jim Ryun (R-Kansas) issued the following statement today regarding a speech on faith and values by Senator Kerry today in Florida. "Senator Kerry managed to give 'a major speech on faith and values' today without mentioning either one in any detail. Protecting the sanctity of marriage and promoting a culture of life are issues of importance to people of faith across all cultures, creeds...

In case you haven't heard, the Marriage amendment got shot down in the house: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134134,00.htmlHere's the Republicans voting Nay: Bass Biggert Bono Castle Cox Dreier Foley Frelinghuysen Gerlach Gibbons Gilchrest Greenwood Hobson Hostettler Houghton Johnson (CT) Kirk Knollenberg Kolbe Leach McInnis Ose Paul Pryce (OH) Sanders Shays Simmons Here's the republicans not voting: Boehlert Cannon Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Dunn Hunter Nethercutt Ros-Lehtinen Tauzin Be sure to contact these people & show your appreciation. Here's the list of Dems voting FOR: Berry Bishop (GA) Boucher Boyd Carson (OK) Chandler Cooper Costello Cramer Davis (AL) Davis (TN) Edwards Etheridge Ford Gordon...

Florida Naval Reservists Receive Presidential Unit CitationStory Number: NNS040116-04Release Date: 1/16/2004 11:56:00 AMBy Journalist 2nd Class Andrew Pratt, Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center MiamiMIAMI (NNS) -- Naval Reservists in Miami, back from combat support operations in Iraq and Kuwait, were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation Jan. 10 for their efforts from March through April. U.S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart of the 25th District of Florida recognized the Naval Reserve 4th Force Service Support Group (NR 4FSSG), 4th Medical Battalion (4MB), Headquarters and Service (H&S) Company Detachment 15 (D15) at a special ceremony at Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center...