Panama City, Fla - U.S. Senator Bill Nelson stopped in Panama City this morning to meet with community leaders. His top two priorities involve port expansion and off-shore drilling.

Bay County Chamber of Commerce leaders hosted Senator Bill Nelson Friday morning for a listening session. Nelson thanked chamber members for opposing plans to expand oil and gas drilling off Florida's coastline.

"It would hugely impair Tyndall and Eglin Air Force Bases mission," said Senator Nelson.

Offshore drilling was a major topic when Senator Nelson visited Tyndall a few months ago.

"They have hundreds of miles out there in the gulf and since it's not spoiled with oil activity they can do testing not only in the air, but on the sea and under the sea and a lot of unmanned platforms that they're now developing and testing," said Senator Nelson

Nelson is also concerned about protecting Forida's number one industry.

"If we had oil on the beach, we know what happened after the bp oil spill, we lost our visitors for an entire year" said Nelson.

Nelson is also joining Florida's other U.S. Senator, Republican Marco Rubio, to support an expansion at Port Panama City.

The two are lobbying the u.s. army corps of engineers for a major dredging project that would help the port accomodate larger ships. Port officials have already signed a funding agreement, and pre-construction and design work is underway, but the project has hit a snag.

"The chamber and the private sector, the city, the county, is willing to advance the money for the planning and engineering, but the trump administration decided that they weren't going to put it in the plan," said Senator Nelson.

Nelson is hoping to break the standstill and begin work on the project sometime next year.