U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, spent about 20 minutes this morning viewing photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body.

“They’re pretty graphic. He’s definitely dead,” said Rooney, who also called the images “extremely gory.”

President Obama has decided not to release the death photos to the general public. But Rooney and other members of the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees were invited to view the images at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, are scheduled to visit CIA headquarters today to view photos of Osama bin Laden‘s body taken after the May 1 Navy SEAL raid of the Islamist terrorist’s in-plain-sight Pakistani hideout.

Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, turned down invitations to view the bin Laden death photos.

Select members of Congress have been invited to view the photos, which President Obama has decided to keep from general public release.

Nelson, Rubio and Rooney are members of the Intelligence Committees in their respective chambers. West is on the House Armed Services Committee.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, came within about 30 miles of Osama bin Laden‘s in-plain-sight hideaway when he visited Pakistan two weeks ago as part of a congressional delegation.

“I’m not surprised that he was in Pakistan. I’m surprised at the kind of place where he was,” Rooney said today of bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, a town that includes a large Pakistani military base and a military academy.

Rooney, a member of both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, visited Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan last month.

The group flew out of Islamabad, which is about 30 miles from Abbottabad as the crow flies or about 72 miles by car. Rooney’s congressional district stretches about 145 miles from northern Palm Beach County across the state to Port Charlotte.

“Justice has been done,” President Obama said late Sunday night from the White House in announcing that a U.S.-led operation had killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson and U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney and Allen West were quick to issue statements. U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch and Gov. Rick Scott have also weighed in.

Read their reactions after the jump….

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U.S. Reps. Allen West, R-Plantation, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, are being targeted in Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee radio ads for voting for a budget plan last week that would change Medicare from the defined-benefit program it is today to a program in which the government provides “premium support” for people to purchase private insurance plans.

The Medicare proposal, part of a budget plan drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., would apply to those who are now younger than 55. The Ryan budget passed last week on a 235-193 vote with every Democrat in the House opposed.

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U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, says it’s “more than likely” he’ll vote against the budget deal cobbled together late Friday night by President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“Obama and Harry Reid ought to be ashamed of themselves and John Boehner ought to be doubly ashamed,” Hastings said today of the agreement to cut about $39 billion over the next six months. Details are still being worked out, but Hastings said it’s already apparent that “you’re getting ready to hurt poor people. I can tell you that without knowing where the cuts are coming from.”

Hastings in early March criticized Obama for being “slow out of the box” in budget talks. He reiterated that criticism today.

“I thought Obama should have been in much earlier. Quite frankly I think Obama is (concerned) about his 2012 election and couldn’t care less,” Hastings said.

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Thursday’s U.S. House vote for a one-week stopgap funding measure was actually a vote on a defense authorization bill that would provide funding for the military for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

The largely partisan vote and the current fight over tonight’s looming government shutdown are merely previews of bigger budget battles to come.

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, had pledged he wouldn’t vote for any more stopgap bills, but unhappily voted for Thursday’s measure. He blamed Democrats for the situation reaching its current point, but he released a statement that also ripped the Republican House leadership for making military pay a “bargaining chip” in the budget debate.

“The House majority has now placed the funding for the Department of Defense and the funding for the troops down as a bargaining chip…I am disgusted at the perception that the leaders in my own party who did not move a defense bill earlier and are now using the men and women in uniform, the individuals who are defending our freedom, as a way to pass yet another continuing resolution,” said West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

He added: “my Yes vote today was for my brothers and sisters in uniform. My no sentiment reflects a disappointment in my own leadership.”

Read other statements from other members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation after the jump…

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U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, accuses President Obama of overstepping his authority by authorizing military force in Libya without an “imminent national security threat.” And Rooney says the president, in his Monday night speech, “left many questions unanswered, and he continues to send mixed messages about our ultimate goals in Libya.”

Read Rooney’s entire statement after the jump…

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Even without Florida’s new anti-gerrymandering law, the Republican-controlled state legislature could have a tough time crafting a new map in which Palm Beach County continues to provide significant support for U.S. Reps. Allen West, R-Plantation, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta.

Under traditional redistricting politics, Republican lawmakers might try to bolster GOP rising star West in District 22 by giving his swing district some Republican precincts from Rooney’s District 16. But that would make Rooney’s seat less secure for the GOP, particularly if District 16 also loses Republican strongholds in Charlotte County to create a new seat there.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

With significant defections in majority Republican ranks, the U.S. House today approved a three-week spending bill that, if also approved by the Senate, will avert a partial shutdown of the federal government looming Friday.

Most Republicans in the GOP-led House were supportive of the measure, which cuts $6 billion in spending on top of the $4 billion cut in the last stopgap spending bill. But there were 54 “No” votes in the Republican caucus, including U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, and other conservatives who are critical of the piecemeal approach. The GOP defections mean Speaker John Boehner needed Democratic support — which he got this time — to pass the continuing resolution.

The final vote was 271-to-158, with the unlikely duo of U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, voting yes while conservative West joined liberal U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, in voting no.

Read what local members had to say about the vote after the jump….

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Freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, has opened a “leadership PAC” allowing him to raise money outside his regular congressional campaign and dispense contributions to favored candidates and otherwise boost his already considerable national profile.

The PACs are often used by aspiring House leaders to curry favor with colleagues (House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., used his PAC to contribute about $4.5 million to GOP House candidates over the last four elections) and by those with larger national political ambitions (then-Sen. Barack Obama’s Hope PAC spent more than $3.7 million in the 2006 election cycle as he laid the groundwork for a White House run).

Many members of Congress — including the three other members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation — have set up leadership PACs.

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UPDATED with reaction from Nelson’s office.

When the Republican-led U.S. House passed a seven-month spending plan that cuts $61 billion from the current year’s federal budget, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson accused the lower chamber of “blindly slashing programs to posture for 2012 political campaigns.”

Now 12 Florida GOP House members — including both Republicans in the Palm Beach County delegation and potential Nelson 2012 challenger Connie Mack — are publicly urging Nelson to support “significant spending cuts” when the Senate takes up a measure to finance the government through Sept. 30.

Says U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta: “The Senate needs to listen to the American people, who are calling out for significant, immediate spending cuts. If families across Florida can respond to the economic downturn by cutting back and setting priorities in their budgets, why can’t the federal government?”

Says Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin: “Issuing partisan, political letters and press releases probably isn’t the best way to work together to solve the budget deficit.”

Read the letter after the jump…

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WASHINGTON — Palm Beach County’s newest congressional media star is U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta.

A day after leading the charge in the House to kill an alternate jet fighter engine program backed by House Speaker John Boehner, Rooney made his first-ever appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball tonight to talk about his victory. Rooney also appeared on CNN’s Situation Room on Thursday and is slated to appear on Fox & Friends on Saturday.

Federal candidates filed reports Monday showing their campaign bank account balances as of Dec. 31.

After raising and spending more than $6.5 million on his 2010 race to unseat Democrat Ron Klein, new U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, begins the 2012 cycle with only $52,459 in cash on hand. Should Klein attempt a comeback, he’ll begin with a mere $41,390 in the bank.

After a fairly easy glide to reelection in 2010, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, begins the 2012 cycle as the Palm Beach County delegation’s money leader with $432,474 in cash on hand.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, reported $128,766 in cash on hand.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, reported $161,204 in cash on hand.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley still has more than $1.2 million in his campaign account. And former Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s campaign still has $320,673.

The House of Representatives today passed a resolution that calls for limiting non-security spending to fiscal 2008 levels for the remaining eight months of the current fiscal year. It passed 256-to-165, with 17 Democrats joining 239 Republicans in support.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, sent out a statement hailing the measure as saving $60 billion and ending the federal government’s “spending spree.”

Three minutes later, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, sent out a statement blasting the resolution as “political theater” and lacking “seriousness.”

Rooney and Deutch plan to sit with each other at tonight’s State of the Union address.

Read their statements after the jump…

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U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, plan to sit with each other at Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech in Washington, their offices confirmed this afternoon.

In the aftermath of the Jan. 8 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., several lawmakers have discussed making a bipartisan show of unity and civility by sitting alongside one another without the traditional partisan separation when President Obama delivers his speech to a joint session of Congress.

Florida’s two Senators — Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio — have already announced plans to sit next to each other.

The Deutch-Rooney pairing is contingent on their ability to find each other Tuesday night and then locate a pair of seats together. The House chamber can be “kind of a madhouse” before a presidential address, Rooney said.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, called the civility effort “nice,” but said he’s “planning to sit wherever I can sit.”

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, said he’ll honor tradition by sitting on the Republican side of the chamber.

Members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation are reacting to today’s shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

Giffords was doing the kind of thing members of Congress in South Florida and across the country routinely do — conducting a “Congress On Your Corner” event with constituents at a shopping center in her district — when a gunman opened fire, critically wounding her and killing a federal judge and at least four other people.

Click here for a story on local reactions.

Read after the the jump for complete statements by local members of Congress and both Florida Senators….

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Though they are both relative newcomers to Capitol Hill, U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, have been key positions in the 112th Congress that convened Wednesday.

Rooney, beginning his second term, will be one of about 20 deputy whips for the GOP. Deutch, who won a special election in April and his first full term in November, will be an assistant Democratic whip.

Whips in both parties are responsible for making head counts and rounding up votes on key pieces of legislation.

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ranks third in the House leadership. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., is chief deputy whip and directly oversees Rooney and other other deputy whips. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, is chief deputy whip for Democrats.

Republicans blasted U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for voting the Democratic line 98 percent of the time, including his support for the landmark health care and stimulus bills. A billboard depicted Klein as a marionette controlled by liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Klein, who was defeated by Republican Allen West on Nov. 2, was one of 20 Democrats who bucked the party today and voted against a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts only for those making $250,000 a year or less.

The bill passed by a 234-to-188 margin. Click here to see the roll call.

Republicans favor a permanent extension of all the tax cuts. Klein during the campaign favored a one-year extension of all the tax cuts, and reiterated that position today.

“The middle class is the heart and soul of America, and I strongly support middle class tax cuts,” Klein said in a statement released by his office. “However, I couldn’t vote for today’s proposal because it just didn’t go far enough. I have said consistently over the last few months that I believe all tax cuts should be extended for one year while our economy recovers and we work out a stable, long-term tax structure that allows American families and business to reasonably plan ahead.”

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Just one day before the crucial vote that will decide whether his $75 million investment paid off, Rick Scott included West Palm Beach in a last-minute appeal to Republicans.

U.S. Sen. George LeMieux climbed on the stage with Scott, also joined by Palm Beach County homeboys U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, outgoing Senate president and chief financial officer candidate Jeff Atwater, and a host of other local officials.

Mark Foley, who once held Rooney’s Congressional seat, also showed up in the crowd at Park Avenue BBQ Grille.

PBC businessman and longtime GOP donor Llywd Ecclestone, who escaped the restaurant parking lot heat under an awning, said he supports Scott’s plan to get the state’s economy back on track.

“He will create jobs and that’s what we need,” Ecclestone said.

But Scott’s pledge of 700,000 jobs is an ambitious goal, the developer acknowledged.

“It’s going to be difficult. It’s not going to be easy,” Ecclestone said.

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