Congressman Curbelo: ‘I Want to Do It Right’

 

By Mark Howell

 

Mile Marker News has spoken with Congressman Carlos Curbelo on the occasion of his third month as our Representative in Congress. He took office in January as Representative for Florida’s 26th congressional district following his victory in last year’s election.

 

Curbelo, a Republican, graduated from the University of Miami with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration. He is a member of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board and the founder of Capitol Gains, a government and public relations firm. He also served as a state director for former U.S. Senator George LeMieux of Florida.

 

We began by asking the Congressman whether he was having fun. “Fun?” he responded. “It’s an 80-hour workweek and parts of the role are quite exciting. But there are challenges, too. However, I do feel privileged, yes.”

 

The Florida Keys represents just 15 percent of his district’s area but provides him, he said, with 50 percent of the work in terms of issues. Those include flood insurance, water quality, affordable housing, transportation, infrastructure, military matters plus ports and aviation. “They all require watching full time.”

 

The Congressman did have an opportunity in early March to visit the Keys for a luncheon organized by the Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce and held in his honor at Tarpon Creek. “A wonderful experience,” he reports. “A beautiful day, a great venue and many good people in attendance. “We had a great dialogue.”

 

Congressman Curbelo is co-sponsor of a bill that he believes is “critical for the State of Florida and especially for my constituents in the Florida Keys.” His original co-sponsor was Congressman David Jolly of Pinellas County, who shares a concern that soaring flood-insurance rates now threaten the real-estate market and small businesses “that employ hard-working Floridians. I will work with my fellow cosponsors from both parties to build support for this bill and to find a permanent solution for our challenges related to the National Flood Insurance Program.”

 

Known as FIPPA (for Flood Insurance Premium Parity Act), it aims to extend coverage to include commercial and rental properties and second homes. “There are some politicians who believe that a national insurance program should not exist,” he told us. “ But I am not one of them and he urged the Chamber membership to support the bill. “Coastal areas are especially vulnerable and we want to keep our properties.”

 

Curbelo is also a co-sponsor of the Social Security and Marriage Equality Act that was introduced this month by Rep. Ron Kind. The bill would ensure that all same-sex spouses receive equal treatment when applying for benefits.

 

Our Representative intends to attend the Equality Gala in Key West on March 28. “There is a growing movement to support freedom to marry and keep government out,” he said. “We still have a long way to go but the courts are ahead of Congress on this. Everyone now recognizes that government has no place dictating relationships or endorsing them.”

 

As for the state of the Social Security program itself, Curbelo before his election told this reporter in an interview that he supported the benefit program wholeheartedly. Today he is still supportive but somewhat more sanguine about its future. “I’m told that in 2033, the Social Security trust fund will only be able to pay out 77 percent of what it pays now.” He himself will be just 53 in 2033 but feels strongly that we must “not ignore the problem or worse, lie to those paying in billions of dollars and expect to see benefits similar to today’s.” He’s not, he said, a “third-rail” person on this, meaning, “don’t touch the issue, it’s too politically dangerous.” But he wants, he said, “to level with people. Longer life-expectancy will mean we do need reform.”

 

Hot off the press is news that Curbelo has just introduced what he calls the Small Entrepreneur Subcontracting Opportunities Act (SESO) to support the role that small business should play in the federal procurement process.

 

“My legislation would help to keep the Congressional promise to small entrepreneurs by expanding opportunities in the fed’s procurement process.”

 

We asked him to comment on the logjam that Washington politics appears to have become in the public’s perception these days.

 

“I’m not a supporter of President Obama,” he replied, “but I have had meetings with the White House on free trade, education, transportation and there’s plenty we can do to get things passed, believe me.”

 

We also asked him whether he feels that he personally has found the right balance between his personal life and professional life in the world in which he now finds himself?

 

“This is a family affair,” he declared, confidently and happily. He is the son of Cuban exiles and is married to Cecilia Lowell, sister of former Marlins third baseman Mike Lowell. They reside with their two daughters, ages 2 and 5 in Kendall.

 

“My wife gave me the best endorsement just the other day,” he told us. “‘This hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be,’ she said.”

 

Concludes Carlos himself: “I did not make this radical change in my life to waste my time. I am working on an agenda to make my people proud and to make a difference in this country.”

 

As for the people he represents, “They are the most generous and wholesome people I have ever encountered. And the Keys are one of the special places in all the word as well as an economic engine for the whole state. I am committed every day to doing things right.”

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION

Photo contributed

Congressman Carlos Curbelo with his wife Cecilia and their two daughters.

 

 

 

 

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