Unemployment benefits were necessary in the early days of COVID-19. Today, protracted unemployment assistance has become an obstacle for our local businesses to re-establish themselves. This is especially true for service industry jobs - like restaurants - but this same issue transcends all sectors of our economy from agriculture to construction. With many enhanced state and federal benefit programs, workers bring home more money from unemployment than they do from working a difficult job. So why return to work? Florida's economy is recovering in many respects and has been since the Governor re-opened Florida. Together, Governor DeSantis and federal partners have worked rapidly toward a reasonable reopening approach that protected public health and business interests. These efforts have put Florida in the forefront of a national recovery. However, as the state has re-opened, new hurdles have emerged that may irreparably harm Florida's vital restaurant, tourism, construction and manufacturing industries for many years to come. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with local business leaders in Venice and all sectors had a common challenge. Despite being able to legally open, restaurants and businesses are closing down, limiting hours, and local economies are suffering due to a continuing staffing crisis. There are good jobs available, but employees are not yet coming back, and, in their words, it is because employees are making more money staying at home not working on unemployment than they would otherwise make working. This was one of the many reasons all of my Republican colleagues in both the House and the Senate opposed Biden's last 1.9 trillion dollar "COVID" bill which extended unemployment benefits until September of this year. With less than 9% of the spending going towards COVID related expenses, this partisan legislation stunted our economic recovery and recklessly increased spending for unrelated purposes. Florida is one of the nation's largest state economies - this crisis of unfilled jobs is something we cannot afford. Pre-COVID, Florida's restaurant industry alone brought in over $50 billion from over 40,000 restaurant locations in the state. That translates into statewide employment of over 1 million people. In Florida's 17th Congressional District, restaurant jobs accounted for nearly 18,000 positions. More broadly, Florida's tourism industry sustained nearly 1.6 million jobs in 2019. Without this critical workforce we are setting ourselves up for failure. A workers shortage will negatively impact our restaurant, hospitality, agriculture, manufacturing, construction and tourism industries for decades to come. When businesses close, their business continuity is gone, their investment is lost, and the shuttered neighborhood businesses may never reopen, dragging down the overall community's economic growth. All this is not even to mention the impact of workers now being paid not to work that is further skyrocketing our national deficit to record numbers. This crisis demands a second look at our funding formulas and eligibility criteria for these extended unemployment benefits. Any solution that the Administration, Congress, or the Florida Legislature endorses should be designed to bring people back to work, not keep them home. Workers too should understand that re-employment represents future opportunity to succeed that is far better than static government benefits. A benefit check controlled by politicians and bureaucrats represents dependency, not economic independence. Our policymakers and citizens all need to realize that the best stimulus check is a paycheck from a job. Our state economy, our livelihoods and, to some degree, our sense of independence are related to seeking full employment as quickly as possible in Florida. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube represents Florida's 17th Congressional District.

The Biden administration has signaled its intent to weaken or lift sanctions against Iran that it views as "inconsistent" with the failed 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. Biden's overhyped campaign rhetoric was critical of the previous administration's decision to withdraw from the dangerously flawed JCPOA. Today, Biden's foreign policy team is in chaos, caught between the reality of Iran's dangerous intentions and his campaign rhetoric. Make no mistake, Biden's leadership weakness on this issue will pave the way for Iran's nuclear ambitions and regional efforts to destabilize its neighbors. We must not allow Iran, the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, to obtain or develop a nuclear weapon. To understand the gravity of reentering the terrible policy decision that was the JCPOA, we must first retrace the initial implementation and design of these sanctions. Since 1979, the United States has imposed different types of sanctions against Iran, designed to force the nation to stop funding and supporting international terrorism. In the decades since, these sanctions have been supported by Republicans and Democrats and passed through Congress in a bipartisan manner. Despite Congress being united on tough policy sanctions for decades, the Obama-Biden administration went around Congress to enter into the 2015 JCPOA. By doing so, the U.S. allowed new opportunities for Iran to fund terrorist militias in the region and beyond. And far worse, this deal allowed Iran to beat compliance efforts while it continued to work toward its nuclear ambitions. Iran's funding of terror attacks and chaos in the region was made possible by the release of billions of dollars in currency from the JCPOA deal. Recommended Video Target Giuliani: Raid on the 9/11 mayor Biden calls for wealthy to pay 'fair share' because 'trickle-down' has failed A conversation with Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action ForumIt's no wonder that Iran's regional neighbors are deeply concerned with the possibility of new Biden diplomacy. Iran has never signaled any interest in abandoning its anti-American hostility or its threats of the total annihilation of our allies in the region, such as Israel. With this in mind, there is no way the misguided Biden administration can reenter the JCPOA without sacrificing regional security. The JCPOA allowed Iran to enrich anti-American ideology, fund rogue military operations in the region, and continue to enhance weapons-grade nuclear materials. Just recently, Iran announced it is starting to enrich uranium to 60%, when the JCPOA limited Iran's enrichment to 3.67%. Our future Iran policy cannot be a repeat of a past mistake. The JCPOA was inadequate, and the next policy move must build on historically tough sanctions and promise of even tougher actions if Iran continues to pursue the dangerous hostility toward the U.S., our regional allies, and other Western interests. At an absolute minimum, any deal the U.S. offers Iran should never include an opportunity for it to develop a nuclear weapon. As one of the several veterans in Congress who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I understand the real consequences of military conflict and Iran-backed militia groups in the Middle East. Congress needs to push back on the Biden administration's flawed Iran strategy, or we will see more U.S. service members killed by Iran-backed militias. Instead of a return to a failed policy that encouraged a hostile regime, we need to implement sound policy that earns the respect of our regional allies and will keep our interests as well as our troops safe. To do this, Congress has an opportunity to join our effort from the Republican Study Committee and support our legislation, the Maximum Pressure Act. This legislation would codify the Trump-era maximum pressure policies, which proved effective in keeping our adversaries at bay. We need a clear mission, not diplomatic chaos, if we are to keep dangerous, ideologically driven regimes from achieving their objectives.

By Greg Steube After nearly a year of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions are finally waning across the nation, as they have been in freedom loving Florida for months. Employment is on the upswing, many of our children are returning to school, and our state and national vaccination programs are making inroads toward herd immunity. We have more work to do, of course, to fully return to pre-COVID economic numbers. Therefore, lawmakers should now be drawing up plans focused on helping Americans return to work or, at the very least, refrain from creating additional barriers that could fumble our recovery. Some lawmakers, unfortunately, are using a different playbook direct from their union boss coaches. Congress is now considering a new version of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or the PRO Act. While the bill has been rejected each year it has been introduced, the PRO Act now has a greater chance at passage, with a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president who has expressed support for this legislation. That would be disastrous for our recovery and our country. The PRO Act is a partisan grab bag designed to benefit politically connected groups at the expense of many Americans simply trying to provide for themselves and their families. The bill would jeopardize and sometimes even outlaw most forms of independent contracting, gig work, freelancing, and franchising under the National Labor Relations Act. It would employ an "ABC" test, a tool regulators have often used to reclassify those with flexible work arrangements, to place them in traditional employment, possibly under union control. It is no surprise that this heavy-handed approach would be contrary to the wishes of these flexible workers, nearly 80 percent of whom prefer the arrangement they have to the one some lawmakers claim they need. PRO Act advocates contend that independent workers are being exploited by their clients and that the proper remedy is to invalidate those relationships entirely. Some advocates say they believe politicians and unions know better than the actual workers and their expertise as it relates to their own employment. The Act would block tens of millions of Americans who work as independent contractors, many of whom operate their own businesses, from earning a living. But some of the bill's supporters hope that employers will simply place those workers on payroll and then in a union. Not surprisingly, California tried the exact same strategy in 2019 with Assembly Bill 5. The law reclassified independent contractors in countless professions, including journalism, photography, construction, ridesharing, dentistry, environmental engineering, and teaching. And not surprisingly, it didn't work. Vox Media, for example, was forced to cut 200 of its California-based freelance writers. The company could afford to hire only 20 of them, with some working part-time. A similar story played out across the state. Countless independent contractors lost work, but their clients were often unable to place them on payroll. The fallout was particularly disastrous for women, who often rely on the flexibility of freelancing to support their families. Lawmakers should think twice before attempting to replicate California's mistakes at the national level. Expanding worker freedom, not limiting it, is the best way to improve outcomes for millions of American workers. Even more offensive, the PRO Act would invalidate right-to-work laws in 27 states, including Florida's, which is enshrined in our state constitution. Americans, now more than ever, cannot afford to be saddled with these job-killing regulations. They need solutions that recognize the reality of innovative work arrangements in the 21st century and the freedom to make those decisions for themselves. Fortunately, lawmakers have many good options in their playbook. They could pass legislation making it easier for businesses that work with independent contractors to offer them voluntary benefits, something often restricted by government regulation. They could also enact reforms that would help these workers access benefits outside of traditional employment. Perhaps the best thing they could do to further recovery is focus on expanding access to pandemic vaccines, therapeutics and rapid tests, which would help more Americans get back to work as quickly and safely as possible. But Congress must again reject the PRO Act. We cannot afford to fumble during our recovery. Americans are counting on Congress to drive the ball forward.