1. Clarence William Nelson II was born on September 29,1942 and is an American politician, attorney, and former astronaut who served from 2001 to 2019 as a United States senator from Florida and from 2021 to 2025 as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Bill Nelson retired from Congress in 1990 to run for governor of Florida, but was unsuccessful.
Bill Nelson was later elected Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and Fire Marshal of Florida, serving from 1995 to 2001.
Bill Nelson ran in 2018 for a fourth term, but narrowly lost to then-Governor Rick Scott.
In May 2019, Bill Nelson was appointed to serve on NASA's advisory council.
Bill Nelson supported same-sex marriage, lowering taxes on lower and middle income families, expanding environmental programs and regulation, protecting the Affordable Care Act, and expanding Medicaid.
Bill Nelson chaired the Senate Aging Committee from 2013 to 2015, and served as ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee from 2015 to 2019.
Bill Nelson left NASA on January 20,2025, at the end of Biden's presidency.
Bill Nelson was born on September 29,1942, in Miami, Florida, the only child of Nannie Merle and Clarence William Bill Nelson.
Bill Nelson's father was a real estate investor and a lawyer.
Bill Nelson is of Scottish, Irish, English, and Danish descent.
Bill Nelson's father died of a heart attack when Nelson was 14 and his mother of Lou Gehrig's disease when he was 24.
Bill Nelson grew up in Melbourne, Florida, where he attended Melbourne High School.
Bill Nelson attended Baptist and Episcopal churches, but later was baptized through immersion in a Baptist church.
Bill Nelson served as International President of Kiwanis-sponsored Key Club International.
Bill Nelson attended the University of Florida, where he was a member of Florida Blue Key and Beta Theta Pi social fraternity.
Bill Nelson transferred to Yale University after two years at the University of Florida.
Bill Nelson received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in political science from Yale University in 1965 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia in 1968.
In 1965, during the Vietnam War, Bill Nelson joined the United States Army Reserve.
Bill Nelson served on active duty from 1968 to 1970, attaining the rank of Captain, and he remained in the Army until 1971.
Bill Nelson was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1968, and began practicing law in Melbourne in 1970.
In 1986, Bill Nelson became the second sitting member of Congress to travel into space.
Bill Nelson went through NASA training with fellow "congressional observer" Senator Jake Garn, who flew on STS-51-D in 1985.
In 1988, Bill Nelson published a book about his space flight experience, Mission: An American Congressman's Voyage to Space.
In 1972, Bill Nelson was elected to the Florida House of Representatives as the member from the 47th district, representing much of Brevard County and portions of Orange County and Seminole County.
In 1980, Bill Nelson was reelected to that district, which encompassed all of Brevard and part of Orange County.
Bill Nelson was redistricted to the 11th congressional district, encompassing all of Brevard and parts of Orange, Indian River, and Osceola counties; he won reelection in 1982,1984,1986, and 1988.
Bill Nelson remained a member of the US House of Representatives until 1991.
Bill Nelson chaired the House Space Subcommittee for six years as a key member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Bill Nelson's district included Cape Canaveral and its space facility.
In 1988, Bill Nelson criticized President Reagan's policy to export American satellites for launch on China's Long March rockets.
In 1990, Bill Nelson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida.
In 1994, Bill Nelson announced his intention to seek the office of Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and Fire Marshal of Florida.
Florida's resign-to-run law compelled Bill Nelson to submit his resignation as Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal early in 2000 when he began to campaign for the US Senate seat.
Bill Nelson chose January 3,2001, as the effective date of his resignation, as that was the date on which new senators would be sworn in.
In 2000, Bill Nelson ran as a Democrat for the US Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican senator Connie Mack III.
Bill Nelson won the election, defeating US representative Bill McCollum, who ran as the Republican candidate.
Bill Nelson was a Democrat in a state that Bush had won, though by a margin of only five percentage points.
Evangelical Christian activist James Dobson declared that Democrats, including Bill Nelson, would be "in the 'bull's-eye'" if they supported efforts to block Bush's judicial nominees.
Bill Nelson focused on safe issues, portraying himself as a bipartisan centrist problem-solver.
Bill Nelson obtained the endorsement of all 22 of Florida's daily newspapers.
Bill Nelson transferred about $16.5 million in campaign funds to other Democratic candidates, and won the election with 2,890,548 votes to Harris's 1,826,127 votes.
On May 28,2019, Bill Nelson was appointed to serve on NASA's advisory council.
Bill Nelson was a member-at-large of the council, which advises on all major program and policy issues before the agency.
Bill Nelson endorsed former vice president Joe Biden for President of the United States in 2020.
On February 22,2021, reports emerged that President Biden was considering nominating Bill Nelson to be the Administrator of NASA.
Bill Nelson's nomination received widespread support from members of Congress from both parties, including from Bill Nelson's Senate successor Rick Scott, as well as the overall space industry.
Bill Nelson styled himself as a centrist during his various campaigns.
On several occasions, Nelson voted to reduce or eliminate the estate tax, notably in June 2006, when he was one of four Democrats voting for a failed cloture motion on a bill to eliminate the tax.
Bill Nelson voted against a Republican plan to extend the Bush tax cuts to all taxpayers.
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, Bill 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".
Bill Nelson voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, often referred to as economic stimulus, proposed by President Obama.
In May 2013, Bill 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.
Bill Nelson suggested a penalty if the issue was not addressed within 90 days.
Bill Nelson was interested in product safety issues and was often engaged in oversight and criticism of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Bill Nelson repeatedly opposed Trump's nominee to lead the commission.
In 2014, after an outcry by Florida property owners facing steep flood insurance-rate hikes, Bill 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.
Shortly afterward, citing intelligence sources, Bill Nelson said there was apparently "a link to Islamic radicalism" and perhaps ISIS.
In March 2010, Bill Nelson voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which passed and were signed into law by President Obama.
In January 2017, Bill Nelson wrote President Trump a letter protesting his immigration order.
In March 2010, Bill Nelson complained that President Obama had erred in canceling NASA's Constellation program.
On July 7,2011, it was reported that Bill 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 2016, Bill Nelson brokered a bipartisan compromise ending import of Russian RD-180 rocket engines.
In 2017 and 2018, Bill Nelson sought to prevent Jim Bridenstine, Trump's nominee to head NASA, from being confirmed in the Senate.
On December 18,2010, Bill 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 United States Armed Forces.
Bill Nelson voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 authorizing military action against Iraq.
In July 2017, Bill Nelson voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Iran together with Russia and North Korea.
In September 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Bill Nelson signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.
In December 2017, Bill Nelson supported President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
In 2006, on the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendation, Bill Nelson met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to try to improve US-Syria relations and help stabilize Iraq.
Bill Nelson did this despite the United States Department of State and the White House saying they disapproved of the trip.
Bill Nelson 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.
Bill 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.
In July 2017, Bill Nelson introduced legislation to cut interest rates on student loans to 4 percent.
In 2011, Bill 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, Bill 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 to mitigate the harmful effects of algal blooms and hypoxia.
Rick Scott directed Florida officials to stop using the terms "climate change" and "global warming," Bill Nelson introduced an amendment to prevent federal agencies from censoring official communications on climate change.
Bill Nelson was criticized for sending campaign fundraising emails in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
Bill Nelson opposed and filibustered the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
In 2007, Bill Nelson was the only Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote against an amendment to withhold funds for the use by the CIA of torture on terrorism suspects.
Bill Nelson's vote, combined with those of all Republican members of the committee, killed the measure.
In January 2018, Bill 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 March 2018, Nelson voted against Bernie Sanders's and Chris Murphy's bill to end US support for the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war.
Amid the criticism, Bill Nelson defended his assertions, saying that Senate Intelligence Committee leaders Mark Warner and Richard Burr had instructed him and fellow Florida Senator Marco Rubio to warn the Florida secretary of state about Russian interference.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a conservative watchdog group, filed an ethics complaint against Bill Nelson, saying that he "discussed classified information or made it up".