By Sen. Marco Rubio Ambassador Wendy Sherman, who served as President Obama's under secretary of state for political affairs from 2011 to 2015, is not qualified to serve as our next deputy secretary of state. Sherman's appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last Wednesday made this abundantly clear. In her confirmation hearings, the ambassador dodged substantive questions on her role in failed foreign policies, including the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that she helped negotiate. This alone should be disqualifying, but for anyone familiar with her past work, there is another enormous reason for concern: Sherman's radical position on abortion. The story begins in the early 1990s, when Sherman served as one of the first directors of EMILY's List, the nation's largest pro-abortion political action committee. Her time in leadership saw the organization grow significantly and expand abortion advocacy in national politics. That on its own should cause Senate Republicans, and any senator who values the sanctity of life, to think twice about her nomination. Sherman's abortion advocacy has extended well beyond our own borders. While serving in the Clinton administration's State Department, she helped to advance efforts to advocate abortion access around the world. Referring to a United Nations program on women, she wrote, "Our intent... was to support reproductive choice. As a matter of principle, we believe that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. We believe that women should be provided the means to prevent unwanted pregnancies." Of course, for many Democrats, "safe, legal and rare" has given way to "unlimited abortion, no questions asked,"or, worse yet, the actual celebration of tragedy, as seen in the social media campaign to "Shout your Abortion." Wendy Sherman is no bystander in this movement to normalize abortion as "health care." Her work in leftwing politics continued into the Obama administration. Afterward, Sherman beat the pro-abortion drum as a senior advisor for an international consulting company run by Democrats. In a USA Today op-ed about the 2017 Women's March -- published a day before President Trump even took office -- she made clear that there was no negotiating when it came to issues such as "reproductive rights," warning, "[W]e are here; we will not relent; we will not give up." The U.S. State Department plays an integral role in protecting and advancing the fundamental rights of women and girls around the world. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. supports critical programming for maternal and child health to ensure that every human being has the same chance to fulfill his or her God-given potential. But with Sherman as the number two in charge, we would risk allowing our programs to be hijacked and turned into a propaganda machine for advocating abortion-on-demand worldwide.

By U.S. Senator Marco Rubio The free world has rightly reacted in horror to Beijing's sweeping campaign to crush political freedom in Hong Kong, particularly since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed its draconian National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong last summer. Wielding the NSL as an all-purpose weapon, the CCP has effectively eliminated nearly every right guaranteed in Hong Kong's Basic Law, the city's de facto constitution, which until recently protected freedoms of speech, expression, assembly, and more. It has also protected the right to practice one's faith freely, guaranteeing that "Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of conscience… freedom of religious belief and freedom to preach and to conduct and participate in religious activities in public." Overturning Religious FreedomNow, the CCP is beginning to overturn religious freedom by using the NSL's provision against "collusion with foreign forces" as a pretext. This crackdown mirrors its actions in mainland China, where Xi Jinping's CCP has been merciless in its repression of people of faith. The CCP also continues to wage its brutal war against Tibetans, Uyghurs and others. Official regulations of religion require that "religious personnel and religious citizens support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party." Xi fears Christianity in part because of the religion's extraordinary growth in China. Like all communist regimes, the CCP promotes atheism and contempt for religion. Beijing fears Christianity's spread because the CCP rightly recognizes that the Gospel is irreconcilably at odds with totalitarianism. Faith acknowledges a higher authority than the party-state, and the CCP does not tolerate competing sources of authority inside the PRC, and increasingly, outside of it as well. In Hong Kong, Beijing knows that Christianity is a factor that fuels many Hong Kongers' desire for freedom. Negotiating with the CCP?And yet, in the face of the ongoing crackdown and against all precedent, past and present, some religious authorities still believe they can carve out deals with the CCP to protect their communities. The Vatican has worked with Beijing to seek compromise on a long-running dispute over the appointment of bishops in the mainland. However, the provisional agreement has not succeeded in helping unregistered churches that refuse to accept CCP control of their congregations. Nor has it stopped the CCP from detaining priests or tearing down crosses on churches. Worse, the agreement has now failed to prevent the spread of CCP interference in the appointment of bishops to Hong Kong, which has been without one for two years. Press reports indicate that the prolonged gap is due to Beijing seeking to influence the selection. Repression on the GroundMeanwhile, the situation on the ground is deteriorating for those actually trying to live out their faith. In May 2020, Chinese security agents detained two Catholic nuns from Hong Kong while they were visiting relatives in Hebei province. Authorities held them for three weeks without charges before finally releasing them into house arrest, where they remain, forbidden to return to the city. Also, Chinese security agents since then have reportedly increased surveillance of the Vatican's mission in Hong Kong. Three months later, the Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese, which has a history of criticizing the CCP's human rights record, was forced by the diocese itself to cancel plans to publish a prayer for democracy in local newspapers. In December, police raided multiple facilities of the Good Neighbor North District Church and arrested two staff members just hours after Pastor Roy Chan dared to question HSBC for freezing the bank accounts of his church and family. Pastor Chan founded Protect the Children, a group that aided young demonstrators when Beijing began its crackdown. Implications for the Hong Kong DioceseThe Vatican has been quiet on the campaign of repression. Cardinal Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, previously warned that "[t]he resounding silence will damage the work of evangelization. Tomorrow when people will gather to plan the new China, the Catholic Church may not be welcome." Cardinal Zen had long warned of a coming crackdown in Hong Kong and predicted it would eventually result in the Hong Kong Diocese, which had enjoyed relative freedom, being subjected to the same restrictions that Catholics face in China. After the NSL came into effect last year, Zen said, "we are already in that situation." He unfortunately sees no prospect of improvement for the Hong Kong church coming out of Vatican negotiations with the CCP, asking, "Is there any choice between helping the government to destroy the Church or resisting the government to keep our faith?" A Forecast for the FutureThe right to freely worship and live out one's faith according to one's conscience is sacred and fundamental to what it means to live with dignity. Whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, a practitioner of Falun Gong, or an atheist, all should be horrified by the CCP's campaign to co-opt religious authorities and, eventually, stamp out faith for good. It forecasts the future for us all, believers and non-believers, if the CCP's power and global influence are left unchecked. Sen. Marco Rubio is a Republican senator from Florida.

By U.S. Senator Marco Rubio On Feb. 18, NASA's Perseverance rover and Mars Helicopter complete their 203-day voyage from Cape Canaveral to the surface of Mars, where the probes will search for potential traces of past life and scout out future routes to explore the Red Planet. It's the latest in over 60 years of accomplishments for NASA, a decades-running source of pride and unity for our nation. Space exploration has created tens of thousands of jobs in Florida alone. It has spawned entire new sectors of advanced manufacturing, generating amazing technological innovations in our state. Winning the Space Race helped America gain a critical edge over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and, as China continues to execute on its own plan to explore -- and dominate -- the solar system, we must make sure we're prepared for a new contest among the stars. Today, the responsibility falls on the Biden administration and Congress to make sure NASA and our commercial space industry have the resources and opportunities they need to win once more. … The first Artemis mission is scheduled later this year to launch an unmanned capsule 40,000 miles beyond the moon to demonstrate the program's performance capacity. After that, Artemis II will send four American astronauts around the far side of the moon, by far the farthest man has ever traveled from Earth. Finally, Artemis III will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024, marking the first time a human being will have stepped foot on the moon since Apollo 17 over 50 years ago. Artemis will require channeling the best of American ingenuity through serious government investment in coordination with private companies. But the benefits of such coordination extend far beyond any single mission. Our space program is a source of dignified work for Americans across the country, providing stable, well-paying jobs. I see the benefits firsthand. In Florida alone, NASA contracts in 2019 totaled $1.4 billion, creating over 33,000 jobs and generating more than $200 million in tax revenues for our state and local governments. NASA jobs are also extraordinarily productive, with high employment and output multipliers -- for every one located in Florida, an additional 15.4 are supported. … From my position on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, I will work with the Biden administration to deliver the resources necessary to ensure America's return to the moon happens on schedule. President Biden should commit to continuing to prioritize deep space efforts like the Perseverance rover, as well as exploration missions like Artemis and, further down the line, manned flights to Mars. These are complementary with science missions such as those ongoing aboard the International Space Station, and his administration should not prioritize one at the expense of the other. America's future is pointed toward the sky, with Florida serving as the nation's gateway to the stars. As we celebrate the touch-down of Perseverance and prepare for Artemis' launch, Republicans and Democrats must come together to authorize the resources needed to explore that next frontier, so we can continue creating good jobs, beating China in the new space race, and inspiring Americans for generations to come.