Sen. Marco Rubio not optimistic aid for citrus will be part of disaster relief bill

WASHINGTON — Sen. Marco Rubio is not optimistic that money to help Florida's decimated citrus industry recover from Hurricane Irma will be part of a disaster relief package the Senate is expected to take up soon.

And if it's not in this bill, the Florida Republican thinks prospects of such assistance down the road are bleak.

"Some have made some promises that we'll deal with it in a future bill," he said on Facebook Tuesday. "But you know how those promises go in places like this."

More:House disaster aid bill lacks lifeline for Florida's squeezed citrus industry

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More:Citrus industry feels squeeze from Irma, waits for help

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The September storm that pummeled the Sunshine State flooded orange groves and uprooted trees, many of them only weeks from harvest. An estimated 421,176 acres of citrus production were affected by hurricane or tropical storm force winds in a state that provides 60 percent of the nation's orange juice.

Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott is asking for $2.5 billion in agriculture relief for the state, including $761 million to rescue the state's citrus industry.

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson also is seeking help for the state's battered agriculture industry.

The House passed a $36.5 billion emergency disaster bill Thursday that provides general relief to areas ravaged by recent hurricanes, including Florida (Irma), Texas (Harvey) and Puerto Rico (Irma and Maria). But Florida lawmakers were not able to add the citrus assistance.

Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee, led efforts to add the money but was ultimately unsuccessful.

As frustrated as Rooney was, he ultimately voted for the disaster aid bill because much of the money would help Florida families relying on assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and opposing it would have been "hard to justify."

And that's the same dilemma confronting Rubio, who said he's trying to form a united front with Texas lawmakers who are also seeking their own additional assistance for their Harvey-related needs.

"I fear that we’re going to be given this take it or leave it proposition: Either vote for the House package or nothing at all," Rubio said.

"It's a delicate situation because, on the one hand, if you vote against a disaster relief package because it doesn't have the things you really want in there than the other 47 or 48 states that weren't impacted by the storms will say 'That's fine. This was your priority. If you don't want to vote for it, we'll just move on to something else'," he said. "On the other hand if we don't use this moment to take a stand, we may never get those additional items that are critical for the state, the emergency relief that we need in things like agriculture."