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‘The New Washington’: Once Racing to Flee the Senate, Marco Rubio Now Digs In - The New York Times

posted onOctober 9, 2017
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Article snippet: During his run for president, Marco Rubio took plenty of fire for being an absentee senator. He now concedes that his day job might, indeed, have suffered. As the Florida Republican settles into a second term in a Senate that he once couldn’t leave fast enough, Mr. Rubio is aggressively pursuing his legislative interests in ways he did not while chasing the presidency. “We just have more time than we perhaps didn’t have the last couple of years when I ran for president,” Mr. Rubio said in an interview for the New York Times podcast “The New Washington.” “We were still doing our job, but you can’t be in two places at once sometimes.” [How to listen: If you don’t see an audio player on this page, or if you would like to subscribe to “The New Washington” at no charge, follow the instructions at the end of this article.] Mr. Rubio seems determined to shrug off the disappointment of a presidential race that didn’t go his way and show he is serious about the Senate, making up for lost time. Given his personal ties to Puerto Rico, as well as the substantial Puerto Rican population in his state, Mr. Rubio has been engaged in ensuring that the relief effort there gets on track and stays there. He has flexed his influence on American policy toward Cuba and Venezuela. He has worked with Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter, on a proposal to expand the child tax credit that could become an important element of the coming tax debate. He has helped push to passage a bi... Link to the full article to read more

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