Budget battles — ICE — retirement — rising sun — Sundance slap

Another budget showdown?

The Senate canceled all business on Monday as Washington remained under a blanket of sleet. That leaves little time for Congress to approve a budget ahead of a Sunday deadline, and significant issues may remain between the Senate and House versions of the bill.

Sen. Rick Scott said he feels anxious to return to work and pass a budget, one that funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“I will be returning to D.C. very soon,” the Naples Republican posted. “I want to be very clear. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to continue to be fully funded. I will not support any efforts to strip DHS of its funding.”

But following the fatal shooting by ICE of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti, Democrats are vowing to vote against a bill that fully funds DHS.

“Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President (Donald) Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no,” posted Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.

“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”

While Republicans hold a larger majority in the Senate than in the House, filibuster rules effectively require 60 Senators to pass appropriations bills.

Already, members of Florida’s congressional delegation in the House say they are prepared to go to battle about the funding, which cleared the lower chamber last week. However, every Florida Democrat voted against the Homeland Security budget. Should the Senate differ from the budget passed by the House, it will require representatives to return to Washington for another vote.

But Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Pinellas Republican, said she will block any bill from leaving the floor unless the Senate also passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (HR 22), which would nationalize some election laws like voter ID requirements.

“I have a group of Republican members that will refuse to vote to send any appropriations bill back to the Senate unless it includes a rule for the SAVE Act,” she posted. “This will force the Senate to vote on it. We will deliver this win for the American people.”

In other words, should Senate Democrats successfully force changes to the Homeland Security budget, the House could shut down any business unless the Senate also passes election legislation opposed by many Democrats.

If nothing else, the standoff presents a timing challenge, given that Reagan National Airport is still warning of delays. Should the chambers not deliver a budget before the end of January, it could force a temporary government shutdown, just a few months after the record-breaking shutdown last Fall.

And that assumes even votes can be rallies in either chamber to pass a budget.

No place for Noem?

The Pretti death, happening days after the ICE-related fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Good, also has Democrats in the delegation calling for another oversight action, the firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“This morning, I signed on to Articles of Impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem,” posted Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat.

“Secretary Noem and DHS employees have systemically violated the rights and privacy of Americans, terrorized our cities and obstructed Congress. This ongoing abuse has to stop. I am calling for a full and impartial investigation into the deaths of Renee Good, Alex Pretti and all others under Trump’s DHS.”

The headlines out of Minnesota prompted the most moderate Democrats from Florida to swing for Noem in a demand for accountability. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Parkland Democrat, called for Trump to demand Noem’s resignation in a Democratic Caucus call, according to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman.

“The President, for the good of the country, has that opportunity,” Moskowitz said. “Should he embrace her, we will have no other option but to begin impeachment, not just what’s happening in Minnesota, but FEMA and all the other issues in Homeland.”

Meanwhile, Republican allies of Trump blamed violence on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Rep. Randy Fine said should be in “jail.”

“The insurrection must be put down,” Fine posted. “Or we won’t have a country anymore.”

Yet, the biggest problem for Noem may come from gun advocates. Many of the nation’s top Second Amendment advocacy groups, like the National Rifle Association, National Association for Gun Rights and Gun Owners of America, all issued statements criticizing rhetoric from Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel while defending Pretti’s right to carry a firearm.

“You don’t have to accept the media’s ‘if you’re pro-2A then you’re against ICE’ narrative,” posted conservative radio show host Dana Loesch. “The people who tried to make Pretti a felon for simply carrying his apparent EDC (everyday carry) are the ones trying to play bouncer for 2A right now. Don’t fall for it.”

Cost of fraud

Reports of fraud against Medicaid in Minnesota have Sen. Ashley Moody seeking a way to lower health care costs.

The Plant City Republican introduced the Punishing Health Care Fraudsters Act, which would increase prison time for general health fraud against public or private insurers from 10 to 25 years, and for bodily injury fraud from 10 to 30 years.

“For too long, the American taxpayer has been abused at the hands of criminals who bilk weaknesses in our laws and leaders that won’t bolster enforcement. I applaud the White House for creating a new Assistant Attorney General position to investigate this deep-rooted fraud,” Moody said.

“The fraud that has been exposed in recent weeks is a cancer that undermines trust and stability in critical programs, steals resources from those who truly need them, and raises the cost on consumers. The recently uncovered instances of health and social services fraud in Minnesota have been further proof of just how pervasive this threat is, and my Punishing Health Care Fraudsters Act sends a clear message that we will protect the American taxpayer.”

Her office cited reports of $9 billion in fraud across 14 Medicaid programs.

In addition to harsher prison sentences, her bill would also increase fines and penalties to $250,000 for defrauding state-run plans or for illegally soliciting or receiving kickbacks for committing fraud, and to $100,000 for false statements, concealment, fraudulently using another’s information, or fraudulently claiming physician services.

Vern to retire

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan announced Tuesday he will retire and not seek re-election, ending 20 years representing Florida’s 16th Congressional District. His decision comes less than three months after Trump endorsed him for a 10th term.

Buchanan, the Vice Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, will depart as the longest-serving Republican to represent Southwest Florida in the U.S. House, closing a tenure marked by influence on tax, trade and health care policy.

“Serving the people of Southwest Florida has been the honor of my lifetime,” Buchanan said. “Every achievement worth doing began with listening to my constituents and fighting for their priorities,” adding that it is time to pass the torch.

First elected in 2006, Buchanan compiled a legislative record that includes 51 bills signed by four Presidents. He also secured nearly $28 million to design and construct a national veterans cemetery in Sarasota.

On Ways & Means, Buchanan later led the Tax Subcommittee and served on the Joint Committee on Taxation, helping implement the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He also worked with the White House to pass the USMCA trade agreement.

Buchanan has chaired the Health Subcommittee, advancing bipartisan efforts on Medicare, seniors’ health care access and prescription drug costs. He also championed animal welfare, coastal protections and opposition to offshore drilling, earning national recognition.

Florida stakes

Members of Florida’s congressional delegation want to see certain major budget winners make it to the President’s desk.

Rep. Jimmy Patronis, a Fort Walton Republican, pointed to funding for military installations in the Panhandle. The Consolidated Appropriations Act (HR 7148) includes $3 million for a critical one-mile section of road leading to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. But Patronis also noted the importance of a 3.8% salary increase for all military personnel in his installation-heavy district, as well as the budgeting for 12,300 more Navy sailors.

“This is great news for the Panhandle as we continue strengthening our military bases and delivering meaningful pay raises for the brave men and women who serve our country,” Patronis said. “Investments like these not only improve vital infrastructure at NAS Pensacola but ensure our service members are properly supported, and our military remains strong and ready.”

But Democrats also have a lot at stake in the budget. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ranking Democrat on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, worked hard on a $1 billion funding package that includes money for cancer research, drowning prevention and other medical spending.

“I’m so proud to help restore this critical bipartisan, bicameral funding that curbs the Trump administration’s cruel push to gut public services and helps restore our legislative purse strings, while also vital funding the medical research, national defense and education programs that make life healthier and more secure in South Florida,” said Wasserman Schultz, herself a breast cancer survivor.

The funding silo out of her Committee includes $236.5 million for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program. It also includes $10 million for a cancer screening program named for the late Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, which will fund care in underserved, rural and remote communities.

Rising sun?

In a speech on the House floor, Rep. Aaron Bean said Republican control of Washington means the “sun is rising” for America.

On the anniversary of Trump’s return to the White House, the Fernandina Beach Republican cited a historic moment in the Constitutional Convention when Benjamin Franklin pointed at the presiding officer’s chair and asked, “Was the sun rising or setting?”

Bean asserted that the answer was in a tax-cut bill and other GOP wins in 2024.

“We need only look at the results delivered over the past year under House Republican leadership and President Trump,” Bean said.

“Together, we’ve delivered real relief for American families with the Working Families Tax Cut — the largest tax cut in U.S. history — so workers keep more of what they earn, with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits. We’ve also unleashed American energy, restored our independence, and brought down costs at the pump.”

He suggested that actions had restored law and order in the U.S. and had bolstered American strength abroad.

“We ran on these promises. We delivered on these promises,” he said. “And we’re just getting started.”

Bad reviews

A man was arrested after punching Rep. Maxwell Frost at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The incident occurred at Park City’s High West Saloon on Friday at a party hosted by Creative Artists Agency, a talent agency. Frost confirmed to Florida Politics he was at the event on a personal trip, two years after speaking at the festival.

“Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” Frost, an Orlando Democrat, posted on X.

“He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested, and I am OK. Thank you to the venue security and Park City PD for assistance on this incident.”

Park City Police spokesperson Danielle Snelson said officers responded shortly after midnight to the event at High West Saloon.

“Upon arrival, officers conducted an investigation and determined that Christian Young unlawfully entered a private party after previously being turned away for not having an invitation,” she wrote in an email to Florida Politics.

“Once inside the saloon, Young assaulted Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost and a female who was attending the private event. Young was arrested and booked into the Summit County Jail on charges of Aggravated Burglary and two counts of Simple Assault, with each charge subject to a sentencing enhancement.”

Real estate debate

An increasing number of economists complain that corporate real estate investors are pushing home ownership out of reach for many Americans. Luna filed a bill this week to bar institutional investors and large corporations from buying single-family homes.

“American families should be competing with other families for homes — not Wall Street hedge funds, multinational corporations, and mega-investors like BlackRock,” Luna said. “This bill restores fairness to the housing market, lowers artificial price inflation, and puts the American Dream of homeownership back within reach.”

Her Stopping Wall Street From Competing With Main Street Homebuyers Act would prohibit corporations with $500 million in assets under management from buying single-family homes. It would impose a similar restriction on any business that buys more than five homes in 30 days.

Further, it requires any company covered by those definitions to divest its real estate over the next decade, selling at least 10% of its single-family home holdings each year after the bill becomes law.

“This is about choosing people over powerful financial interests, communities over corporations, and American families over global investment firms,” Luna said. “Housing should not be a speculative asset class; it should be a path to stability, security, and prosperity.”

Your own body’s CEO

During a House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee meeting, Buchanan pressed health care executives from across the country on whether high premiums were making Americans sicker.

“Our expensive health care system is reacting to illness instead of prevention,” the Longboat Key Republican said.

“I really do believe that we’ve got to prevent things before they start.”

The Subcommittee, which Buchanan chairs, brought together UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley, CVS Health Chair and CEO David Joyner, Elevance Health President and CEO Gail Boudreaux, The Cigna Group President and CEO David Cordani, Ascendiun President and CEO Paul Markovich and TnK Health and Nutrition Owner ReShonda Young.

Some said Buchanan was on the right policy track.

“Congressman, I am 100 % aligned with the way you think about the health care challenges today,” Joyner said. “The health status of our population is not great. The prevalence rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certainly the oncology cases that you mentioned, many of these are preventable.”

Buchanan, in turn, said some of the change in U.S. health must come from Americans themselves.

“One of the things I’ve always talked to people about is we’ve got to encourage people to be the CEOs of their own health care,” Buchanan said. “Get a physical every year in January. Start the year off right. Figure out where you’re at and make some tweaks and adjustments.”

DEI abroad

The Trump administration announced an expansion of its Mexico City policy, itself an extension of late GOP President Ronald Reagan’s prohibition on federal funding for abortion. The policy now prohibits any foreign financing of “gender ideology” or diversity and inclusion efforts abroad.

“We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life,” announced Vice President JD Vance at the March For Life, as reported by NPR. “We’re expanding this policy to protect life, to combat DEI and the radical gender ideologies that prey on our children.”

Rep. Brian Mast, a Stuart Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, endorsed the growth in prohibitions.

“Under President (Joe) Biden, foreign assistance funding was siphoned off for Beltway bandits, woke NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and abortion. That era is over,” Mast said. “By issuing a new, expanded version of the Mexico City policy, President Trump is preventing such a despicable misuse of taxpayer funding from occurring again.”

Securing the Caribbean

In Foreign Affairs news close to Florida, the Committee just advanced a bill sponsored by Rep. María Elvira Salazar on fighting crime in Caribbean nations.

The Coral Gables Republican filed the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Authorization Act (HR 4368) with Rep. Adriana Espaillat, a New York Democrat. The legislation strengthens maritime and border security, disrupts criminal financial networks and counters authoritarian regimes in the region.

Part of that is boosting cooperation with allies like the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Guyana. Meanwhile, it rejects partnerships with other nations, including Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

“After cutting off the economic oxygen sustaining (deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás) Maduro’s regime, the United States is back where it belongs in the Caribbean, standing shoulder to shoulder with our partners and taking on criminal networks,” Salazar said.

“But the work is not finished. Transnational gangs, narco-traffickers, and corrupt networks, backed by Communist Cuba, Communist China, Russia, and Iran, continue to undermine the rule of law across the region. This bill draws a clear line: the Caribbean is not for sale. It strengthens security, confronts corruption, and makes clear that America, not Beijing or Havana, is the partner of choice in our hemisphere. America First means the Americas first.”

Press shop hire

Rep. Kat Cammack turned to conservative media for a new person to run her press shop. Her office announced that Andrew Espitallier had been named the new Communications Director.

Espitallier previously worked as a field producer for NewsNation and, before that, as a Line Producer for Florida-based Newsmax Media. From 2017 through 2020, he worked at Fox News, starting as a production assistant and later working as a writer, booker, researcher and segment producer.

He replaced Kaley Stidham, who earlier this month became Rep. Mike Haridopolos’ Communications Director.

On this day

Jan. 27, 1967 — “Three astronauts killed as flash fire hits craft on ground” via the Orlando Sentinel — The prime crew for the first manned flight of Project Apollo died at 6:31 p.m. in a flash fire inside the three-man spacecraft atop its Saturn booster at Complex 34. Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee – scheduled to ride the nation’s 17th manned spacecraft into orbit on Feb. 21 – were inside the spacecraft’s command module during the countdown of a simulated flight test. The accident occurred at the T-minus 10-minute mark of a planned simulated liftoff. A NASA spokesperson said the fire started in the interior of the conical command module and was confined within the cabin section.

Jan. 27, 1785 — “Georgia incorporates first state university” via History.com — The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the University of Georgia, the first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic. The previous year, the assembly had set aside 40,000 acres from which it planned to earn the money needed to endow such an institution. In 1786, the future university’s Board of Trustees met for the first time in Augusta, Georgia, choosing Yale University alum Abraham Baldwin as president and drafting the school’s charter. In 1801, John Milledge, future Governor of Georgia, donated 633 acres along the Oconee River in what is now Athens to serve as the site for the new university.

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Peter Schorsch publishes Delegation, compiled by Jacob Ogles, edited and assembled by Phil Ammann and Ryan Nicol.