Chairman’s Message

Governor DeSantis Stays Focused on Saving Lives

Governor DeSantis is prioritizing rapid response strike teams centers for Florida Covid patients by setting up new monoclonal antibody therapy treatment sites in Broward County, West Palm Beach County, Brevard County, Orlando and Jacksonville, with more to come around the state. These locations will have the capacity to serve hundreds of patients every day in areas with higher outbreaks. It’s strategic and making a difference.

“Early monoclonal antibody treatment keeps people out of the hospital and saves lives,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We look forward to continuing to open these sites throughout the state and hope awareness about the treatment continues to spread.”

Crisscrossing the state to raise awareness of these effective drug treatments, the Governor is also energetically backed by leading medical professionals in Florida.

“The Governor is absolutely spot on,” said John Couris, President and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. “This is a therapy that is effective, but this is a therapy that is less known. This is a therapy that needs to be taken advantage of and Tampa General Hospital, USF and our private practice physicians are using it very successfully on positive COVID-19 patients.”

“We were the first system in Florida to offer monoclonal antibodies to COVID patients,” said Dr. Kami Kim, MD, from Tampa General and USF Morsani College of Medicine. “So far we have treated over 1,600 patients with monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID. These treatments, as Governor DeSantis, Dean Lockwood and Mr. Couris said, prevent the virus from infecting our cells. You probably heard them called ‘neutralizing antibodies’ and that is because they neutralize the virus. That’s a pretty powerful treatment against the virus that is very effective in our own studies and in studies across the country.”

More monoclonal antibody strike teams are being created to take treatment directly to Florida’s vulnerable populations in long-term care facilities. Rather than having nursing home residents be required to leave the facility to receive monoclonal antibody therapy, these teams will deploy to them on site to provide treatment.

“The monoclonal antibody treatment can be a game changer if you get it early,” said Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration Simone Marstiller. “I have seen firsthand how effective this therapy can be at keeping people out of the hospital and speeding their recovery. Once again, Governor DeSantis has prioritized Florida’s seniors and has created a delivery system for the monoclonal antibody treatment that will allow Florida’s most vulnerable citizens to receive the treatment without leaving their long-term care facility and keeping them at home and out of hospitals.”

To find locations to receive monoclonal antibody treatments: floridahealthcovid19.gov.

Read more about Orlando here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/16/governor-ron-desantis-announces-new-monoclonal-antibody-site-in-orlando/
Watch Orlando announcement here: https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/8-16-21-governors-press-conference-on-coronavirus-covid-19/
Read more about Brevard here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/17/governor-ron-desantis-announces-new-monoclonal-antibody-site-in-brevard-county/
Read more about Jacksonville here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/12/governor-ron-desantis-announces-expanded-monoclonal-antibody-access-in-florida-with-new-monoclonal-antibody-centers/
Watch Jacksonville announcement here: https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/8-12-21-governors-press-conference-on-coronavirus-covid-19/
Read more about Broward here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/18/governor-ron-desantis-expands-access-to-covid-treatment-by-opening-new-monoclonal-antibody-site-in-broward-county/
Read more about the West Palm here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/18/governor-ron-desantis-announces-new-monoclonal-antibody-site-in-west-palm-beach/

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Note on the our Third Quarter Meeting:
Omni Hotels & Resorts will continue with its current Safe and Clean protocols, but will follow state and local mandates pertaining to guest and associate requirements for mask wearing and social distancing while indoors. At this time there aren’t any mandates for Osceola or Orange county.

Florida

The Florida Board of Education voted to hold Broward County and Alachua County school boards accountable for imposing strict mask requirements in violation of new state rules.

“Every school board member and superintendent has the duty to comply with the law, whether they agree with it or not,” said Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran during an emergency meeting Tuesday evening.

The state board voted to direct Corcoran “to take all legal steps” to enforce the state rules. Those new rules aim to guarantee that parents have the right to decide if their children wear masks at school or not.

Board Chairman Tom Grady outlined the potential actions: “That may include withholding funds from the district — although I would add a footnote that I do not want to withhold funds in a way that would harm any child in any district…It may involve withholding salaries. It may involve removing officers…It may involve reviewing district conduct. It may involve public records requests to see how monies are being spent within the district, including whether they’re being spent for public relations or political purposes contrary to their constitutional mandate. It would include enhanced reporting and accountability to this board.”

He also said that there may be a report to the Legislature with recommendations for lawmakers to take further steps in law.

Governor DeSantis is proposing three policies for the next session to help recruit law enforcement officers.

The Governor announced the policies at the 2021 Biennial National Conference & Expo hosted by the National Fraternal Order of Police with the goal of continuing to show Florida’s support for its high quality local and state law enforcement agencies.

“As so many cities and states choose to disrespect, degrade and defund the honorable work of law enforcement, we want Florida to continue valuing our men and women of law enforcement today, tomorrow and for generations to come,” Governor DeSantis said. “That’s why today, I am proud to announce new initiatives to recruit and reward brave, high quality law enforcement officers in Florida that I will be including in my legislative priorities for our upcoming legislative session, including $5,000 signing bonuses.”

These proposals provide state resources to recruit law enforcement officers through three programs:

New officer signing bonuses;
Academy scholarship program;
Out-of-state relocation support.
To read more: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/17/governor-ron-desantis-announces-new-initiatives-to-recruit-law-enforcement-officers-to-florida/

Watch the full event video here: https://rumble.com/vlbet4-governor-ron-desantis-announces-new-initiatives-to-recruit-law-enforcement-.html

Washington, D.C.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio was on Fox News’ Sean Hannity program explaining that Biden was warned for months what would happen in Afghanistan if there was a precipitous U.S. withdrawal of military forces. And he ignored it, and the consequences happened.

“Sean, not just did I tell them, but it was a bipartisan warning, OK?” he said. “You look at the intelligence, you look at everything before us, it was clear that not only was it the worst-case scenario out there, it was the likeliest outcome that was going to happen, and we kept insisting, what is the plan if this happens? What is the plan? And they arrogantly, and they smugly ignored it. They ignored everyone who was warning them because they’re the experts, they know everything, and now we’ve seen the consequences.”

“There are two things now to keep in mind,” Rubio continued. “Number one is Joe Biden was elected promising competence, the return on normalcy, the return of expertise to foreign policy, and we see that they can’t even execute on something like this, and ignore the people who know something about it. That does encourage people like China — countries like China and other adversaries not just to go out and try to undermine confidence in America, but actually test America and think they can get away with it.”

“And the other is something that the Pentagon’s already saying, and we’ve already been saying for close to nine months, the biggest problem here is going to be now that al Qaeda is coming back to Afghanistan, let there be no doubt,” he added.

REMEMBER: @FloridaGOP and retweet and share. The Republican message must be spread around the state and you are integral to making that happen.

PAID FOR BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDA. NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE. WWW.FLORIDA.GOP

Chairman’s Message

On the Right Side of Civil Liberties

The erosion of civil liberties over the decades has gone into lightspeed in recent months with the Covid-related mask mandates, vaccine passports and shutdowns, taking it from the important realm of public health to the critical realm of personal freedom.

That’s why the battle being waged by Governor Ron DeSantis and other courageous, principled Republicans on behalf of the essential civil liberty of freedom is so vital and requires our support. In the case of mask mandates, it is a question of whether it is the right of parents to decide if their child should be masked, or government-run schools. Some union-beholden school boards in Florida want to make the decision, then dictate that on every student and parent. For Governor DeSantis, it’s the parents who should decide — they can mask their children or not mask them — and that is the side of individual freedoms.

It’s the same dynamic in vaccine passports. The Governor supports the vaccines and has been vaccinated. But he, like most Republicans, believes that the decision should be up to each individual, not government entities including public schools, and not corporations or businesses. In America, in the Republican Party, we treasure freedom and will fight to defend it.

As part of this fight, parental rights were strengthened this past week when the Florida Department of Health and State Board of Education issued Emergency Rules to protect parents’ freedom to choose what is best for their children. These rules are pursuant to the Governor’s Executive Order 21-175 to allow an effective, in-person learning environment for Florida’s schoolchildren during the upcoming school year, preventing harm to healthy students and safeguarding the rights of parents and their children.

This rule is to ensure Floridians’ constitutional freedoms are not violated, do not violate parents’ rights under Florida law to make health care decisions for their minor children; and protect children with disabilities or health conditions who would be harmed by certain protocols, such as face masking requirements.

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Note on our Third Quarter Meeting:

Omni Hotels & Resorts will continue with its current Safe and Clean protocols, but will follow state and local mandates pertaining to guest and associate requirements for mask wearing and social distancing while indoors. At this time there aren’t any mandates for Osceola or Orange counties.

Florida

Highlighting how Florida gives bonuses to law enforcement, not defunds it, Governor Ron DeSantis recognized several law enforcement officers, first responders and rescue teams in presenting them with one-time relief checks through the “Florida’s Heroes” initiative.

The initiative is an opportunity to recognize law enforcement officers, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and firefighters in the state of Florida with a one-time relief payment of up to $1,000 to 49,000 law enforcement officers as an appreciation of the selfless sacrifices made throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“First responders work every single day – no matter the conditions – to keep us safe,” Governor DeSantis said. “That was perhaps never more apparent than during the last year and a half during the pandemic. I am proud to deliver these checks to show our immense gratitude for their service.”

The Governor presented one-time checks to the Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, who worked tirelessly after the Surfside tragedy.

“The men and women joining me here today from Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces 1 and 2 are the best of the best. We thank them for their tireless response in Surfside and hope these relief checks express our gratitude for all that they have done in our state.”

Read more: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/10/governor-desantis-presents-first-responders-relief-checks-to-urban-search-and-rescue-task-forces-1-2/

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Governor DeSantis then distributed checks to first responders with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, where he was joined by Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

Read more: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/10/governor-ron-desantis-distributes-bonus-checks-to-jacksonville-sheriffs-deputies-through-the-floridas-heroes-initiative/

And the Governor distributed relief checks to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, where he was joined by Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons.

Read more: https://www.flgov.com/2021/08/10/governor-ron-desantis-thanks-escambia-county-sheriffs-deputies-for-service-with-floridas-heroes-initiative-relief-checks/

Governor DeSantis also traveled the state to thank educators by distributing one-time disaster relief checks up to $1,000 in recognition of their hard work teaching students in the challenging 2020-2021 school year. The Governor kept the schools open last year for crucial in-person learning and Florida educators stepped up. These 177,000 Disaster Relief Payments represent the state’s gratitude.

“During the legislative session, I proposed $1,000 bonuses for all public-school teachers and principals because I recognized the important role teachers played in providing in-person learning,” Governor DeSantis said. “We recognized that teachers, principals and first responders have dealt with countless challenges over the past year. I think people are going to look back and say, ‘Florida stood by its kids and teachers’ while other states did not.”

The Governor was in Bay County and Pinellas County to personally thank and encourage educators in those districts.

The historic gaming compact between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida was approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior this past week. This agreement, the largest gaming compact in history, will generate a minimum of $2.5 billion in new revenue to the state over the next five years and an estimated $6 billion through 2030. The Tribe is not currently making any revenue payments to the state.

“The final approval of this historic gaming compact is a big deal for the State of Florida,” Governor DeSantis said. “This mutually-beneficial agreement will grow our economy, expand tourism and recreation and provide billions in new revenue to benefit Floridians.”

“Today is a great day for the people of Florida, who will benefit not only from a $2.5 billion revenue sharing guarantee over five years, but also from statewide sports betting and new casino games that will roll out this fall and mean more jobs for Floridians and more money invested in this state,” said Marcellus Osceola Jr., Chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. “We thank Governor DeSantis, President Simpson, Speaker Sprowls and the Florida Legislature for their leadership and hard work.”

Washington, D.C.

Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted against the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate the day before voting against the even more massive $3.5 trillion budget framework.

“I support investing in roads, bridges, broadband, and efforts to mitigate against sea level rise, and I hoped there would be a bill I could vote for,” Rubio said. “But this bill was negotiated in secret, rushed through the process without meaningful opportunities to have input, and adds a net increase of $350 billion to the national debt. I can’t vote for a bill like that.

“The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would add a net $350 billion to projected deficits through 2031. The package follows the Democrats’ irresponsible American Rescue Plan, which prompted Obama Administration economists to raise alarms over inflation. And it will be followed by “a massive, $3.5 trillion spending proposal through the U.S. Senate that would fundamentally transform America into a far-left fever dream.”

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Senator Marco Rubio, who is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is calling on the director of national intelligence to investigate allegations that the federal government “unmasked” Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Rubio wrote that recent media reports that “Mr. Carlson was unmasked by a government agency” have “only fueled the perception that unmasking is being used as a political hammer or to satisfy curiosity.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/566207-rubio-presses-dni-to-investigate-alleged-unmasking-of-tucker-carlson

REMEMBER: @FloridaGOP and retweet and share. The Republican message must be spread around the state and you are integral to making that happen.

PAID FOR BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDA. NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE. WWW.FLORIDA.GOP