Joel Eskovitz: Nelson promotes environmental responsibility

"From space, the Earth looks so beautiful and yet it looks so fragile," he said Thursday.

Nelson and Sen. Bob Graham, D-Miami Lakes, voted with 41 other senators on a bill that would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from industrial smokestacks. The bill was not passed, as the majority of senators questioned the science connecting an increase in the Earth's temperature to gases trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Nelson said one thing is unanimous in the scientific community -- that oceans will rise. That fact alone makes Florida especially at risk, he added.

"Can you imagine what that is going to do to a place such as my state of Florida, where most of the development in the state is along the coastline?" he asked.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who sponsored the bill with Connecticut Democrat Sen. Joseph Lieberman, promised he would work to bring the bill back, despite opposition from the White House.

Halloween scare

The offices of Southwest Florida Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Porter Goss are both located in the Cannon building that was shut down and partially evacuated Thursday when two unsuspecting staffers set off a panic with a Halloween costume.

A security guard noticed an image on the radar screen that looked like a gun. And it was -- a plastic gun a congressional staffer was planning to use for her costume as Sydney Bristow, the lead character on the ABC show, "Alias."

Diaz-Balart was in the Capitol, where the House took a recess during the incident. His staff locked his office's doors but did not leave the building, as some other congressmen and staff members did.

Goss was in his office, where staffers locked the door. They received conflicting messages on evacuating and decided to stay put until the incident was resolved.

The congressman was escorted out of his office for a House Rules Committee meeting during the two-hour security breach.

Everglades funding

The House late Thursday voted to approve the Interior Department spending bill that contains $65 million for Everglades restoration.

The bill barely passed, 216-205, because of a contentious portion that delays an accounting into the amount of money the department owes Indian tribes.

That likely will not be enough to stall the bill when it is scheduled to reach the Senate on Monday. The Senate cannot amend this final version, so the only option would be to vote the entire $20.2 billion spending package down.

Marlins mania

The House and Senate this week both passed resolutions commending the Florida Marlins for winning the World Series. The players, coaches and management of the team get a copy of both resolutions that salute the "never-say-die team."

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, said he hoped management would not replicate what then-owner Wayne Huizenga did when he broke up the team after the Marlins won the title in 1997.

"I am sure that we will see that the nucleus of this team will remain together so that the community can see that team again playing next year and winning, as I am sure that it will," he said.

Joel Eskovitz is the Daily News' Washington correspondent. He can be reached by e-mail at eskovitzj@shns.com.