Diaz-Balart maintained his spending-hawk reputation upon joining the House. As a freshman representative, he and Feeney cosponsored a bill in January 2007 targeting non-disaster spending by the Federal Emergency Management Agency following Hurricane Katrina. The two criticized the agency for funding puppet shows, yoga programs and gumbo cook-offs.

Cuba and Latin America

Diaz-Balart, his brother and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), all Cuban lawmakers from south Florida, form an influential group seeking to maintain a strict stance against Cuba. The three have been united in seeking to restrict both human and economic movement to and from Cuba from the U.S.

In 2003, Diaz-Balart condemned the Bush administration's decision to return 12 Cubans trying to make it to the U.S., but found in the sea. He stopped short of criticizing the president specifically, criticizing "midlevel" State Department bureaucrats for negotiating a deal with the Cuban government expected to result in imprisonment.

The three approved of a 2006 decision by President Bush to sign off on a plan for a post-Castro Cuba that included calls for $80 million in immediate funding for an opposition movement.

Diaz-Balart joined his brother in 2009 in warning President Obama against loosening U.S. restrictions on Cuba. The Diaz-Balart brothers issued an April 2009 statement saying Obama's decision to allow the free flow of money back to the island from Cuban Americans was "a serious mistake."

In October 2009, the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ros-Lehtinen visited Honduras on a fact-finding trip after the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. The three Republicans opposed reinstating Zelaya on grounds that he is closely aligned with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Health-Care Reform

Diaz-Balart criticized the health-care reform bill passed in the House in November 2009. He said he supported a proposal that would allow small businesses to pool insurance coverage and allow individuals to choose any coverage, even beyond state lines.

Environment and Energy

Diaz-Balart has carved a niche as an environmentalist with an eye toward protecting Florida's coastline and the Everglades in his district. As of 2008, he had attracted over $1 billion in federal funds for the Everglades and other local projects.

Early in his House career, Diaz-Balart opposed moves to open Florida's coastal waters to oil-and-gas drilling.He was among the most vocal lawmakers who favored stripping a provision from the 2006 Interior Department appropriations bill that could have revoked a moratorium on offshore natural gas drilling.

Diaz-Balart eventually shifted his support to a compromise giving individual states the right to institute their own drilling plans. "I believe that state legislatures should decide what is best for their individual states," he said in June 2008.

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