Yesterday, Congressional negotiators indicated that the next COVID-19 economic stimulus package will not include funding for state and local governments. Florida previously received $8.32 billion in federal CARES Act funding, of which $4.58 billion was for use by Florida’s state government. The Governor noted in August that “those CARES Act dollars are obligated already,” but there has been no public accounting of the ways in which this taxpayer funding has been obligated or expended. Per federal law, states cannot make new CARES Act expenditures past December 30, and must return any unuse...

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement granting Florida authority to issue construction permits in protected wetlands, an authority previously handled for many years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA.

Today, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) are announcing additional COVID-19 testing sites and dates in Miami-Dade, Hendry, Collier, Hillsborough, and Glades County for farmworkers. The ongoing efforts to provide access to testing for farmworkers is in partnership with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), and local county governments.