Politics
As tropical threats loom, Jimmy Patronis warns that federal flood insurance impacted by shutdown
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis is warning that the ongoing impasse over federal appropriations will have consequences for Floridians who might need to file flood insurance claims via FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.
And that’s particularly true as two tropical masses threaten to bring wind and rain to the east side of the state.
He argues that Senate Democrats and Leader Chuck Schumer are to blame for not acquiescing to the continuing funding resolution already passed by the House, which requires a simple majority to move spending bills.
“If you look at the National Hurricane Center’s latest map, we’ve got a current tropical disturbance in the Atlantic. It’s about to become, if it hasn’t already become, a cyclone. During the ‘Schumer shutdown,’ NFIP cannot write new policies or renew existing ones,” Patronis told reporters on Friday.
The lapse in federal appropriations has specific effects on this program.
For starters, Floridians can’t get flood insurance policies ahead of the storm’s potential impacts due to the shutdown.
“This is a big deal for Florida’s economy. The Sunshine State accounts for 20% of all NFIP policies. Florida has 1.8 million policyholders,” said Patronis. “I fear property transactions are going to be delayed.”
Policy renewals are also on hold, which Patronis finds “terrifying,” especially in light of the upcoming third anniversary of the destructive Hurricane Ian and the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Michael, which ravaged the Gulf Coast and the Panhandle, respectively.
“The idea that families in Florida could go without coverage because of D.C. politics is frankly gross,” Patronis said.
Patronis says the shutdown means that if a “major storm” hits Florida, “the Democrats will be directly responsible for flood insurance claims being delayed when people are at their most vulnerable,” which is “downright dangerous” for Florida families.
A “clean” Continuing Resolution, such as that passed by the House but not yet by the Senate, would have protected coverage, says Patronis.
However, in light of the uncertainty, he’s introducing standalone legislation to extend the NFIP program through Nov. 21, 2025, which would help Floridians and others navigate the tropical weather this year.
Patronis’ concerns come as a group of state Insurance Commissioners, including those from Florida, were in Washington, D.C., this week to argue in favor of a long-term extension of the NFIP.
Mills was a day-one Byron Donalds backer in the gubernatorial race.
A former House Speaker and current candidate for Governor is leading the charge for Republicans as scandal swirls around a Congressman.
Saying the “evidence is mounting” against Rep. Cory Mills, Paul Renner says other candidates for Governor should “stand up and be counted” and join him in the call for Mills to leave Congress.
Renner made the call earlier this week.
But on Friday, the Palm Coast Republican doubled down.
He spotlighted fresh reporting from Roger Sollenberger alleging that Mills’ company “appears to have illegally exported weapons while he serves in Congress, including to Ukraine,” that Mills failed to disclose conflicts of interest, “tried to fistfight other Republican members of Congress, and lied about his party stature to bully other GOP candidates out of primaries that an alleged romantic interest was running in,” and lied about his conversion to Islam.
The House Ethics Committee is already probing Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, over allegations of profiting from federal defense contracts while in Congress. More recently, the Committee expanded its work to review allegations that he assaulted one ex-girlfriend and threatened to share intimate photos of another.
Other candidates have been more reticent in addressing the issue, including Rep. Byron Donalds.
“When any other members have been involved and stuff like this, my advice is the same,” said Donalds, a Naples Republican. “They need to actually spend a lot more time in the district and take stock of what’s going on at home, and make that decision with their voters.”
The response came less than a year after Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, spoke at the launch of Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign.
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Staff writer Jacob Ogles contributed reporting.
The cold war between Florida’s Governor and his predecessor is nearly seven years old and tensions show no signs of thawing.
On Friday, Sen. Rick Scott weighed in on Florida Politics’ reporting on the Agency for Health Care Administration’s apparent repayment of $10 million of Medicaid money from a settlement last year, which allegedly had been diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation, summarily filtered through non-profits through political committees, and spent on political purposes.
“I appreciate the efforts by the Florida legislature to hold Hope Florida accountable. Millions in tax dollars for poor kids have no business funding political ads. If any money was misspent, then it should be paid back by the entities responsible, not the taxpayers,” Scott posted to X.
While AHCA Deputy Chief of Staff Mallory McManus says that is an “incorrect” interpretation, she did not respond to a follow-up question asking for further detail this week.
The $10 million under scrutiny was part of a $67 million settlement from state Medicaid contractor Centene, which DeSantis said was “a cherry on top” in the settlement, arguing it wasn’t truly from Medicaid money.
But in terms of the Scott-DeSantis contretemps, it’s the latest example of tensions that seemed to start even before DeSantis was sworn in when Scott left the inauguration of his successor, and which continue in the race to succeed DeSantis, with Scott enthusiastic about current front runner Byron Donalds.
Earlier this year, Scott criticized DeSantis’ call to repeal so-called vaccine mandates for school kids, saying parents could already opt out according to state law.
While running for re-election to the Senate in 2024, Scott critiqued the Heartbeat Protection Act, a law signed by DeSantis that banned abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy with some exceptions, saying the 15 week ban was “where the state’s at.”
In 2023 after Scott endorsed Donald Trump for President while DeSantis was still a candidate, DeSantis said it was an attempt to “short circuit” the voters.
That same year amid DeSantis’ conflict over parental rights legislation with The Walt Disney Co., Scott said it was important for Governors to “work with” major companies in their states.
The critiques went both ways.
When running for office, DeSantis distanced himself from Scott amid controversy about the Senator’s blind trust for his assets as Governor.
“I basically made decisions to serve in uniform, as a prosecutor, and in Congress to my financial detriment,” DeSantis said in October 2018. “I’m not entering (office) with a big trust fund or anything like that, so I’m not going to be entering office with those issues.”
In 2020, when the state’s creaky unemployment website couldn’t handle the surge of applicants for reemployment assistance as the pandemic shut down businesses, DeSantis likened it to a “jalopy in the Daytona 500” and Scott urged him to “quit blaming others” for the website his administration inherited.
The chill between the former and current Governors didn’t abate in time for 2022’s hurricane season, when Scott said DeSantis didn’t talk to him after the fearsome Hurricane Ian ravaged the state.
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