Free Republic

Funding for the Division of Emergency Management in Governor DeSantis’ Focus on Fiscal Responsibility Budget proposal includes: $505 million and 15 FTE are provided to the Division of Emergency Management in the current year to ensure Florida stands ready to enforce President Trump’s Illegal Immigration policies. $1.24 billion in federal and state funding so that Florida communities and the state can respond to and recover from major disasters or emergencies and mitigate against future disasters or emergencies. $43 million for the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) Swift Current Program to reduce or eliminate repetitive flood damage to buildings insured through the...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is sending a strong message to those opposing his “Alligator Alcatraz” project: don’t expect any sympathy. The governor recently announced the creation of a new detention center deep in the Everglades, designed to house illegal immigrants until deportation. The facility is strategically located in an area teeming with alligators and pythons, making escape nearly impossible without risking deadly encounters with the surrounding wildlife.As Alligator Alcatraz gears up for its expected opening on Tuesday, demonstrators flooded Florida’s streets to voice their opposition to Governor DeSantis’ controversial new facility.However, DeSantis issued a blunt warning to protesters: stay...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state to take over some funding of government services for rural, thinly-populated fiscally constrained counties and allow them to eliminate their property taxes. (The cost) would be about $300 million per year, a drop in the bucket of the nearly $50 billion in general fund spending. “I’m just telling you that is budget dust, like, that’s easy for us to do,” DeSantis said. “And I’m not suggesting that, like, we have to just do that, but I’d be willing, of course, we’re going to help with that. You know, we want, we want homeowners...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared gold and silver legal tender. HB 999 maintains that these precious metals may be used in payments if they meet specific purity standards. The bill goes into effect on July 1, 2026, but many are confused as to what this will entail. As stated in the legislation: “Legal Tender; Revising the sales and use tax exemption for certain coin or currency; specifying that a person who claims the sales tax exemption bears the burden for determining whether the gold coin or silver coin meets a specified definition; providing a presumption regarding the purity requirements...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis voiced skepticism about President Trump’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, arguing that the theocratic regime can’t be trusted. The Sunshine State governor warned that “trying to cut a deal with Iran” is “hazardous,” and emphasized that Tehran is “not a traditional country” that can be treated in a “traditional way.” “I don’t see them as being good faith actors and in any way, shape or form. And the reality is they cannot be allowed to enrich uranium, period. End of story,” DeSantis told conservative radio host Mark Levin. “They are a militant Islamic government....

During a press conference today, Governor DeSantis addressed the failure of Congress to enact one DOGE suggested cut. Elon Musk and his DOGE team found over 900 billion dollars in cuts. Congress has not followed up on even one. Protect Your Retirement... BUT Beware of Gold IRA Dealer Lies This is the key section of Governor De Santis’s comments which also spoke to successes in Florida: “Trillion dollar deficit is a tax on you. It works its way through the economy. There’s no free lunch, and that’s what ends up happening. And it’s a little frustrating. “You know, Elon Musk...

The attorney general is asking an appellate court to lift the block on a new state immigration law. The law makes it a misdemeanor for adults who came to the U.S. illegally by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers to enter Florida. The governor and Uthmeier contend that the judge in the case has gone beyond her boundaries in calling on Florida law enforcement agencies to stop making immigration arrests. “She’s trying to exercise authority that she does not possess. Fine,” DeSantis said. “There’s parties to the case and she’s rendered a decision even though it’s a...

A Republican lawmaker shocked Florida’s political world when he accused representatives of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration of committing federal crimes by diverting $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to political activities last year. No one has been charged, and DeSantis administration officials have denied wrongdoing. But four former federal prosecutors told the Herald/Times that Rep. Alex Andrade could be on strong legal ground. At least eight different federal charges, from theft of government funds to money laundering, could be investigated related to the dollars that passed through the Hope Florida Foundation, they said. Those statutes could carry sentences of decades...

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration this week released its most detailed explanation to date on its legal reasoning behind diverting $10 million in Medicaid settlement money to the Hope Florida Foundation. In short, only $57 million of a $67 million legal settlement Florida made with the Medicaid contractor Centene was considered “potential Medicaid-related damages to the State,” Agency for Health Care Administration General Counsel Andrew Sheeran wrote to lawmakers on Tuesday. That meant that Centene could be directed to divert the remaining $10 million to the Hope Florida charity, Sheeran wrote. The charity was created by DeSantis’ administration to support the...

Officials revealed more answers about donations to Hope Florida ahead of their board meeting Thursday. The Hope Florida Foundation posted drafts of unfiled tax documents online. The draft tax form is for the previous fiscal year, before a $10 million donation from a Medicaid settlement was made. But it shows no other donation has come close. Members of the House Health Budget subcommittee are looking into a $10 million donation that found its way to political committees opposing last year’s recreational marijuana amendment. Members of the subcommittee were visibly frustrated that information in the document wasn’t available during Tuesday’s hearing....

The Florida charity created by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration didn’t keep meeting minutes, had no budget or bylaws, didn’t file its tax returns and asked few questions before steering $10 million to two dark money groups, the board’s chairperson told a House committee on Tuesday. The Hope Florida Foundation — created to support first lady Casey DeSantis’ top initiative — doesn’t seem to have obeyed any of the requirements in state law governing its ethics, oversight or governance, lawmakers found. “In recent weeks, the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made,” said the board’s chairperson, Joshua Hay, the...

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), once a rising star in the Republican Party, is staring down a pair of decisions in 2026 and 2028 regarding his family’s political future that could both run afoul of fellow Floridian President Donald Trump. Despite a disastrous 2024 presidential campaign, DeSantis, a popular governor, is a rumored candidate for a 2028 run, setting up a likely showdown with Vice President JD Vance. However, the term-limited Florida governor also faces more tensions with Trump if his wife, Casey DeSantis, challenges a Trump-backed congressman in 2026 to succeed him in the governor’s mansion. “DeSantis’s strong conservative record...

Gov. Ron DeSantis came out swinging Monday against allegations that first lady Casey DeSantis’ charitable initiative, Hope Florida, funneled taxpayer money for political purposes. The DeSantis administration is accused of steering $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to Hope Florida. Shortly after that disbursement, Hope Florida sent $5 million each to two separate not-for-profit organizations, Secure Florida’s Future, run by the Chamber of Commerce and Save our Society from Drugs, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times.

Governor Ron DeSantis is taking a new round of heat from members of both parties over a $10 million payment that went to the First Lady's "Hope Florida" project, with some lawmakers saying it was potentially illegal. The money came from a settlement from a healthcare company, which was then used to help fight for the governor's political agenda. "Shame on you in the Florida House and your terrible behavior and leadership," the governor said during a news conference Monday morning. The governor is responding to tweets from the house Republican who led a committee hearing last week, Rep. Alex...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday defended a state agency’s involvement with a $10 million donation to a charity founded by his wife as a “cherry on top” deal using funds from a settlement between the agency and the state’s largest Medicaid contractor. State law mandates that money from the settlement be put in a trust fund or a general fund under legislative oversight. DeSantis called the settlement “100% appropriate”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis escalated his attacks against Randy Fine on Wednesday, blaming the representative-elect’s “unique problems” for a special election victory he said should have been won by a higher margin. Appearing at a press conference in Ocala, Florida, the day after the election, DeSantis argued that President Donald Trump’s involvement in the 6th District race pushed Fine over the line. He added voters had not wanted to support Fine, who Trump had endorsed, and that the president “really had to bail him out in the end.”

He wants lawmakers to issue $1,000 for each of about 5.1 million homesteaded properties in the state. The rebates would be issued in December, covering state-mandated school property taxes, which he says would prevent a loss in funding for districts. “We need to focus on our Florida residents and to focus on in this case, Florida homeowners, particularly our homesteaded homeowners and we need to focus our relief there.” The second-term Republican governor and former presidential candidate said he wants a ballot initiative aimed at lower property taxes on the 2026 ballot that he says will provide “robust protections” for...

Governor Ron DeSantis is heading to Boise, Idaho on Monday, reportedly as part of a campaign to build support for a federal Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would require the federal government to spend no more than it collects in revenue. DeSantis is leading a coalition of Republican governors supporting the amendment through the nonprofit Balanced Budget Now, which he launched alongside Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and introduced to the Republican Governors Association. The campaign seeks to promote a federal Balanced Budget Amendment either through congressional approval or a convention of states...

Article III of the United States Constitution makes one remedy for judicial tyranny as plain as language can make it. “The judicial Power of the United States,” Section I of Article III begins, “shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” With that plain language undoubtedly in mind, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida took to the social media platform X Wednesday morning to offer a historically plausible solution to the problem of inferior federal judges who have insisted upon “sabotaging” President Donald Trump’s popular...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded President Donald Trump's plans to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, saying Wednesday that doing so will put "American excellence at the forefront of education policy" while eliminating a bureaucracy that stifles success."Abolishing the department and reinvigorating state control of education would enable states like Florida to serve better the needs of students, parents, and teachers," DeSantis, a Republican, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, touting the successes in his state coming from allowing more local control in education.The governor noted that in Florida, his administration has pushed for student-focused and parent-friendly policies in education,...