Politics

Ron DeSantis returns unallocated federal funds to D.C.

Published

23 hours ago

March 22, 2025

Florida has finally figured out how to give back money it didn’t want to appropriate during the Joe Biden administration.

“For years, Florida has been trying to return federal funds to the federal government due to the ideological strings attached by the Biden Administration—but they couldn’t even figure out how to accept it. Today, I met with Elon Musk and the DOGE team, and we got this done in the same day. Other states should follow Florida in supporting DOGE’s efforts,” posted Gov. Ron DeSantis to Musk’s X on Friday.

More than $848 million is headed back to Washington, according to a letter from the Governor.

The Governor’s recent claims that the previous administration couldn’t figure out how to take money differ from what he was saying when Biden was in office, when his predecessor pressed him and others to send the money back. If DeSantis asked Scott how that should be done, it was never publicized.

In 2022, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was asked about DeSantis continuing to “deploy” COVID-19 relief funds for priorities not related to the pandemic. Scott said leaders with extra funds should return them to defray the federal debt.

“What every responsible state and local official should do is they should say ‘Hey, I’m going to send that money back. We need to pay down this $30 trillion worth of debt.’ We can’t waste money,” Scott said.

“If there’s something that we needed to do to deal with the COVID crisis, I get it,” Scott added. “But you’re sending money to states that they can spend basically any way they want, or to local governments. It makes no sense. Somebody’s going to pay that money back.”

Scott offered a similar appeal in 2021: “Send it back! We’re all American citizens. Don’t waste the money,” the Naples Republican urged on America’s Newsroom.

When rolling out the $116 million Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative in 2021 in Scott’s hometown of Naples, DeSantis suggested he had complete discretion on how to allocate the federal pot.

“We got this money dumped,” DeSantis said in March 2021. “I could have just spent it and said it was emergency spending.”

The Governor took issue with the funding formula, suggesting it has served as “a bailout for blue states, poorly managed states.” He also has described the allocation process as “Washington at its worst.” And he said before running for President that there was no point in giving the overage back to the federal government.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said DeSantis, as reported by POLITICO Florida. “If Florida were to send the money back, (Treasury Secretary Janet) Yellen is going to send it to Illinois, California, New York or New Jersey. I don’t think that would make sense for Floridians — for us to be giving even more money to the blue states.”

The money returned is just a fraction of what the Biden administration sent to Florida.

Billions of dollars worth of that cash went to the Sunshine State, and the Governor made no moves to return it to the federal government.

The office of Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis noted that “the Coronavirus Relief Fund … provided $150 billion in direct assistance across the nation to State, territorial, local and Tribal governments.”

“Of this amount, the State of Florida was allocated $8.4 billion: $5.86 billion was deposited into the State Treasury as General Revenue and approximately $2.47 billion was allocated to 12 of the largest counties directly by the U.S. Treasury,” the CFO office noted. Those large counties include Brevard, Broward, Hillsborough, Duval, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Volusia counties.

The Florida Housing Finance Corporation received $250 million. Smaller Florida counties got $1.137 billion from the CARES Act as well.

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Politics

Chuck Schumer says he won’t step down as Senate Democratic leader despite government funding uproar

Published

38 minutes ago

March 23, 2025

May Greene

Bernie Sanders steps up criticism of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says he won’t resign his post, despite pressure from some in his party after he voted to move forward with a Republican spending bill that avoided a government shutdown.

“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. The New York senator said he knew voting for the bill backed by Republican President Donald Trump would spark “a lot of controversy.”

“I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was,” he said. “People disagree.”

Democrats last week were confronted with two painful options: allowing passage of a bill they believe gave Trump vast discretion on spending decisions or letting funding lapse. After Schumer said he’d vote to advance the spending measure, 10 Democrats supported breaking the party’s filibuster and allowing the bill to pass.

Schumer’s move has sparked outrage from some Democrats and progressive activists who protested at his office and called on him to resign his position. They said they’d like to see him face a primary challenge — perhaps from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The uproar prompted Schumer last week to postpone his book tour amid a series of planned progressive demonstrations.

Schumer told NBC that the spending bill that funds the government through September was “certainly bad.” But he argued that not voting to provide the funding would have been “15 or 20 times worse.” He called his action “a vote of principle,” arguing that “sometimes when you’re a leader, you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve.”

In an interview that also aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Vermont Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Schumer and other members of Democratic Senate leadership. But he abruptly ended the interview when asked about Ocasio-Cortez potentially being elected to the Senate.

“I don’t want to talk about inside-the-beltway stuff,” Sanders said.

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Ron DeSantis heads to Idaho, Montana to push Balanced Budget Amendment

Published

1 hour ago

March 23, 2025

May Greene

He is pushing for a Balanced Budget on the federal level.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is headed to Idaho and Montana Monday, where he will hold press conferences with Governors Brad Little and Greg Gianforte.

The press advisory from the Governor’s Office omitted details about why he’s going. However, Idaho News 6 reports that the Florida Governor will be pushing for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as part of the Balanced Budget Campaign supported by all Republican Governors.

KTXB reports he will be in Idaho for a so-called “informal rally aimed at state legislators” between 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. The press conference in Idaho is slated for 9:30 a.m Mountain Time, while the Montana event (presumably covering the same topic) is scheduled for 1:45 MT.

The Governor has made news involving both states in the last year.

DeSantis found a way to disparage Idaho’s recent economic growth, arguing that its lower population than Florida made it impossible to truly equate what’s happened in the two states.

At a press conference, the Governor was discussing Florida having the second-best performance in the “economy,” which has grown by more than 30% since he has been in office. He said Florida led “sizable states,” but less-populated “Idaho may be a little bit more than us.”

But DeSantis dissed the comparison between the states.

“Idaho has less people than Polk County does, so it’s a little bit different comparison when you’re talking, and I love Idaho, but it’s just not the same as comparing to a mature economy,” he said at Winter Haven’s Central Florida Intermodal Logistics Center.

While Gov. DeSantis hasn’t held forth about Montana’s economy, he was active in working to get U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy elected last year.

Meanwhile, First Lady Casey DeSantis vacationed in the state last July. She ran a 5K according to a published report.

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Wilton Simpson’s updates to farming practices get warm welcome from agriculture industry

Published

2 hours ago

March 23, 2025

May Greene

Agricultural businesses throughout Florida now have updated Best Management Practices (BMP) to help guide through changing developments.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson has detailed the completion of updates to nine agricultural Best Management Practices manuals for the state. The BMP manuals provide guidance on how to improve water quality, how to handle smaller farms and livestock among other areas included in the documents.

Simpson’s office is touting the manual updates bring the first revisions in about two decades for many of the manuals and included advancements in agricultural science and oversight of multiple practices for farmers. The project on revising the manuals started about two years ago when Simpson took office.

“Florida’s farmers, ranchers, and growers are the original stewards of our land and water resources, and these updates ensure they have the latest, most effective tools to continue producing the safe, affordable, and abundant food supply we all rely on,” said Simpson.

“These Best Management Practices manuals, updated in partnership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the University of Florida (UF), and industry partners, provide real solutions that benefit both Florida’s natural resources and our agricultural economy.”

UF Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources Scott Angle said the updates to the manuals were long overdue.

“I commend Commissioner Simpson for the completion of updating all the agricultural BMP manuals. It was a huge undertaking and essential to Florida agriculture,” said Angle, who is also the leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “Sound science is a foundation of Florida farmers’ success. They rely on research that demonstrates what works in the field, in the grove and on the ranch. Commissioner Simpson is to be lauded for focusing on evidence-based agricultural practices that provide guidance on how farmers can best achieve water quality goals and support their livelihoods.”

The revisions appear to be welcomed by many in the agricultural industry.

“Florida growers and ranchers have long been leaders in the implementation of Best Management Practices to help grow our nation’s food supply and protect our state’s natural resources for future generations,” said Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association President Mike Joyner. “We are grateful to Commissioner Simpson for leading and prioritizing this significant effort to make needed updates to the BMP manuals. These new BMPs better align with the water quality goals of the program and ensure the overall requirements are practical and economically viable for growers.”

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