Nelson was often considered a
moderate Democrat. He styled himself as a
centrist during his various campaigns. According to ratings by the
National Journal, Nelson was given a 2013 composite score of 21% conservative and 80% liberal. In 2011, he was given composite scores of 37% conservative and 64% liberal. Conversely, the
Americans for Democratic Action gave Nelson a 90% liberal quotient for 2016. In the
115th Congress, Nelson was more conservative than 93% of other congressional Democrats.
GovTrack, which analyzes a politician's record, places him near the Senate's ideological center and GovTrack placed him among the most moderate senators in 2017. The only Florida Democrat in statewide office in 2017, Nelson was described by
Politico in March of that year as "a Senate indicator species ... an institutional centrist". Politico wrote that the Democratic Party "is shifting left and so is he". In July 2017, Nelson had a 53% approval rating and 25% disapproval rating, with 22% of survey respondents having no opinion on his job performance.
FiveThirtyEight, which tracks congressional votes, shows that Nelson had voted with President
Donald Trump's positions 42.5% of the time .
Economic issues Trade In 2005, Nelson was among 10 Democrats who voted in favor of the
Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on its 55–45 passage in the Senate.
Tax policy On several occasions, Nelson voted to reduce or eliminate the
estate tax, notably in June 2006, when he was among four Democrats voting for a failed (57–41) cloture motion on a bill to eliminate the tax. in August 2004 Nelson voted against a Republican plan to extend the
Bush tax cuts to all taxpayers. Instead, he supported extending the tax cuts for those with incomes below $250,000. In 2011, Nelson voted to end Bush-era tax cuts for those earning over $250,000, but voted for $143 billion in tax cuts, unemployment benefits, and other economic measures. In 2013, Nelson advocated tax reform, which he defined as "getting rid of special interest tax breaks and corporate subsidies" and gaining "simplicity, fairness, and economic growth". Nelson and
Susan Collins introduced legislation in 2015 that would "make it easier for smaller businesses to cut administrative costs by forming multiple-employer 401(k)-style plans."
Government spending Nelson voted for the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, often referred to as economic stimulus, proposed by President Obama. In August 2011, he voted for a bill to increase the
debt limit by $400 billion. Nelson said that while the bill was not perfect, "this kind of gridlock doesn't do anything." Nelson voted against Congressman
Paul Ryan's budget.
Consumer affairs In May 2013, Nelson asked the
Federal Trade Commission and the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate why consumers who carried out a real-estate short sale were having their credit scores lowered to the same degree as those who went through
foreclosure. Nelson suggested a penalty if the issue was not addressed within 90 days. Nelson was interested in product safety issues and was often engaged in oversight and criticism of the
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. He repeatedly opposed Trump's nominee to lead the commission.
Flood insurance Nelson voted in favor of the Biggert–Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which required the
National Flood Insurance Program to raise insurance rates for some properties at high risk of flooding to better reflect true flood risk costs and keep the program solvent. In 2014, after an outcry by Florida property owners facing steep flood insurance-rate hikes, Nelson supported legislation that would provide retroactive refunds for taxpayers who had experienced large hikes in their flood-insurance rates due to the sale or purchase of a home. The proposal would also cap average annual premium increases at 15 to 18 percent and allow insurance-rates subsidies based on current flood maps.
Earmarks In 2010, PolitiFact found that Nelson had flip-flopped on the issue of
earmarks, pushing for a moratorium on the practice after saying that "earmarks were an important part of creating jobs and growing Florida's economy."
Terrorism In September 2014, Nelson said the U.S. should hit back at the
Islamic State (ISIS) immediately, because "the U.S. is the only one that can put together a coalition to stop this group that's intent on barbaric cruelty." He supported the "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act." Introduced in 2013 and again in 2015, it would keep guns from people with suspected terrorist links. Standing outside the Orlando
Pulse nightclub immediately after the June 2016
massacre there, Nelson called
Omar Mateen a "lone wolf", and when asked if it was an act of
jihad, said he could not confirm that. Shortly afterward, citing intelligence sources, Nelson said there was apparently "a link to
Islamic radicalism" and perhaps ISIS. He later said on the Senate floor that "terrorists ... want to divide people", but that Mateen had instead "brought people together". After the massacre, Nelson and
Barbara Mikulski supported an increase in FBI funding. A year after the massacre, Nelson attended a memorial at which he reiterated that it had "united Orlando and it united the country". Nelson supported the Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act of 2016. In August 2017, the
Miami Herald urged Nelson to back
Lindsey Graham's
Taylor Force Act, which would block U.S. subsidies to the
Palestinian Authority, which gives monetary assistance to "Palestinian prisoners, former prisoners and families of 'martyrs.'" Nelson did vote for the bill, which passed overwhelmingly.
Health care In March 2010, Nelson voted for the
Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which passed and were signed into law by President Obama. In 2014, Nelson called for the expansion of
Medicaid. In 2016, Nelson called the House Zika bill "a disaster", complaining that it would take "$500 million in health care funding away from Puerto Rico" and limit access to "birth control services needed to help curb the spread of the virus and prevent terrible birth defects." In 2017, he wrote a letter to the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking it to prioritize
Zika prevention. In September 2017, Nelson and
Susan Collins introduced the Reinsurance Act of 2017, an effort "to stabilize the health insurance marketplace". It would provide $2.25 billion to "reduce risk for insurance companies by providing funds to insurers for high-risk enrollees" and "help keep premiums in check".
Immigration In January 2017, Nelson wrote President Trump a letter protesting his immigration
order. "Regardless of the constitutionality or legality of this
Executive Order," he wrote, "I am deeply concerned that it may do more harm than good in our fight to keep America safe." U.S. success in the fight against terrorism, he argued, "depends on the cooperation and assistance of Muslims who reject radicalism and violence. Whether intended or not, this Executive Order risks alienating the very people we rely upon in the fight against terror."
Space exploration and NASA and Nelson visit Kennedy Space Center in April 2010 signs the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 In March 2010, Nelson complained that President Obama had erred in canceling NASA's
Constellation program. He argued against the $6 billion
development of the Commercial Crew Program the Obama administration proposed and for a NASA-developed heavy lift rocket built on Constellation's inheritance, which was later included in the
NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and became SLS. 11 years later,
Charles Bolden (NASA administrator in 2010) said that Nelson's skepticism was common in Congress at the time and refused to call him an opponent of commercial crew. On July 7, 2011, it was reported that Nelson said Congress "starved" the space program of funding for several years, but suggested that the situation was turning around and called on the Obama administration to push for NASA funding. In September 2011, Nelson and Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison led the push to continue the development of Constellation's
Ares V SLV in the form of
Space Launch System. In 2016, Nelson brokered a bipartisan compromise ending import of Russian
RD-180 rocket engines. In 2017 and 2018, Nelson sought to prevent
Jim Bridenstine, Trump's nominee to head NASA, from being confirmed in the Senate. Although Bridenstine had no formal qualifications in science or engineering, he refuted the
scientific consensus on climate change. During his own confirmation hearing in 2021, Nelson reversed his earlier stances on the Commercial Crew Program and desirability of a NASA administrator without STEM education, and praised Bridenstine (who had endorsed him earlier). In June 2021, Nelson said of the future of
U.S.-Russian cooperation in the
International Space Station (ISS): "For decades, upwards now of 45 plus years [we've cooperated with] Russians in space, and I want that cooperation to continue. Your politics can be hitting heads on Earth, while you are cooperating" in space.
LGBT rights On December 18, 2010, Nelson voted in favor of the
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which established a legal process for ending the policy that prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the
U.S. Armed Forces. On April 4, 2013, Nelson announced that he no longer opposed same-sex marriage. He wrote, "The civil rights and responsibilities for one must pertain to all. Thus, to discriminate against one class and not another is wrong for me. Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn't, and I won't."
Foreign policy Iraq War Nelson voted for the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 authorizing military action against
Iraq.
Iran In July 2017, Nelson voted in favor of the
Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed
sanctions on Iran together with
Russia and
North Korea.
Israel In September 2016, in advance of a
UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning
Israeli settlements in the occupied
Palestinian territories, Nelson signed an
AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel. In March 2017, Nelson co-sponsored the
Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which permits U.S. states to enact laws that would require contractors to sign a pledge saying that they will not boycott Israeli goods or their contracts will be terminated. In December 2017, Nelson supported President Trump's decision to
recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Venezuela In April 2017, Nelson called for tougher economic sanctions against
Venezuela, which he called an "economic basket case".
Cuba Nelson opposed a 2009 spending bill until his concerns about certain provisions in the bill related to
Cuba were assuaged by Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner, who assured him that those provisions "would not amount to a major reversal of the decades-old U.S. policy of isolating the communist-run island."
Syria visit In 2006, on the bipartisan
Iraq Study Group's recommendation, Nelson met with Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad in
Damascus to try to improve US-Syria relations and help stabilize Iraq. He did this despite the
United States Department of State and the White House saying they disapproved of the trip.
Russia Following the destruction of
Kosmos 1408 in an anti-satellite weapons test by
Russia, Nelson said, "With its long and storied history in human spaceflight, it is unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only the American and international partner astronauts on the ISS, but also their own cosmonauts", and the "actions are reckless and dangerous, threatening as well the
Chinese space station".
Gun control In 2012, the
National Rifle Association (NRA) gave Nelson an "F" grade for his support of
gun control. He advocated new gun control laws, including an
assault weapons ban, a
ban on magazines over ten rounds, and a proposal that would require
universal background checks for people buying guns at
gun shows. In response to the 2016
Pulse nightclub shooting in
Orlando, Nelson expressed remorse that the Feinstein Amendment, which would have banned the sale of guns to people on the
terrorist watch list, and a Republican proposal to update background checks and to create an alert for law enforcement when a person is placed on the terrorist watch list, had failed to pass the Senate. He said: "What am I going to tell the community of Orlando that is trying to come together in the healing? Sadly, what I am going to have to tell them is that the NRA won again." Both he and
Marco Rubio supported the bills. In October 2017, after the
Las Vegas shooting, Nelson and
Dianne Feinstein sponsored a bill to ban
bump stocks for assault weapons. "I'm a hunter and have owned guns my whole life", he said. "But these automatic weapons are not for hunting, they are for killing." Nelson spread misinformation via
Twitter after the
Parkland high school shooting in 2018, falsely claiming that shooter Nikolas Cruz wore a gas mask and tossed smoke grenades as he shot people. After an April 2018 shooting in Liberty City, Nelson claimed that assault weapons had been used in the shooting, when in fact handguns were used.
Student loans In July 2017, Nelson introduced legislation to cut interest rates on student loans to 4 percent.
Environment Nelson and Mel Martinez co-sponsored a 2006 bill banning oil drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast. In 2017 he said he wanted the ban to continue to 2027, but that it was "vigorously opposed by the oil industry." Along with 16 Florida congress members from both parties, he urged the Trump administration to keep the eastern Gulf of Mexico off limits to oil and gas drilling. "Drilling in this area," they wrote, "threatens Florida's multibillion-dollar tourism-driven economy and is incompatible with the military training and weapons testing that occurs there." In 2011, Nelson co-sponsored the RESTORE Act, which directed money from
BP fines to states affected by the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. On June 27, 2013, Nelson co-sponsored what became the
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2014, which reauthorized and modified the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 and
authorized the
appropriation of $20.5 million annually through 2018 for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to mitigate the harmful effects of
algal blooms and
hypoxia. In 2015, after Gov.
Rick Scott directed Florida officials to stop using the terms "climate change" and "global warming," Nelson introduced an amendment to prevent federal agencies from censoring official communications on climate change. It "fell to a point of order after a 51-49 vote, though Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Nelson in supporting the amendment."
Hurricanes After
Hurricane Maria in 2017, Nelson and Rubio agreed that Trump had taken too long to send the U.S. military to Puerto Rico to take part in relief efforts. "For one week we were slow at the switch," Nelson said in San Juan. "The most efficient organization in a time of disaster is an organization that is already capable of long supply lines in combat. And that's the U.S. military." After Hurricane Maria led many Puerto Ricans to flee to Florida, Nelson encouraged them to register to vote there. Nelson was criticized for sending campaign fundraising emails in the wake of
Hurricane Irma.
Supreme Court Nelson opposed and
filibustered the nomination of
Neil Gorsuch to the
U.S. Supreme Court. In January 2018, Nelson voted to reauthorize the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the
National Security Agency to extend a program of warrantless spying on internet and phone networks. In 2015, he had called for a permanent extension of the law. == Controversies ==