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Ed Hooper has a packed agenda for the 2025 Legislative Session

As he prepares to assume a key leadership role in his final term as a Senator, Ed Hooper has the budget on his mind. Set to chair the Senate Committee on Appropriations for the 2024-26 term, Hooper will lead conversations and drive priorities for state spending over the next two fiscal years.

“We’re not broke, we have money,” said Hooper, who just began his second and final term in the Senate, defeating Democratic challenger Doris Carroll with nearly 60% of the vote.

Not being broke is obviously a good thing, but it’s even more important ahead of the upcoming 2025 Legislative Session. Lawmakers will have to grapple with allocating funds for hurricane recovery after parts of the Gulf Coast — including areas of north Pinellas County and southern Pasco County that Hooper represents — were hit with back-to-back hurricanes in late September and early October.

“I’m assuming that either with budget money or part of our reserves, we’re probably going to invest $2 billion-3 billion in storm-related infrastructure up and down the impacted areas,” he hypothesized, adding that infrastructure includes roads, bridges and even airports.

Rick Scott, Mike Johnson endorse Randy Fine for Congress

Republican leadership in the U.S. House is lining up behind state Sen. Randy Fine’s candidacy for Congress. Fine also landed support from Florida’s soon-to-be senior U.S. Senator. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Naples Republican, endorsed Fine in an X post.

“I’m excited to endorse my friend Randy Fine for Congress!” Scott wrote. “He is a fighter who will work with President Trump to fix the destruction caused by Biden and the Democrats. He is a champion for Israel, our economy and making America safe! I’m so excited to work with him when he is in Congress and he will do a fantastic job representing the families of FL 6!”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer also endorsed the Palm Bay Republican in a Special Election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. “Together we will fight to Make America Great Again!” Fine wrote in an X post announcing the endorsements.

Fine said on Tuesday that he was running for Congress. The Special Election will choose a successor for U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for National Security Adviser.

Nick DiCeglie’s 2025 Session will be informed by hurricane catastrophe

Sen. Nick DiCeglie, like so many of his constituents in the Tampa Bay area, was one of thousands impacted by devastating flooding from Hurricane Helene in late September, then hit with a one-two punch just a couple weeks later when Hurricane Milton brought damaging winds and driving rain to the already battered region.

His experience is informing his priorities for the upcoming 2025 Legislative Session, with headaches he has experienced firsthand leaving him searching for answers not just for him, but for everyone.

“For me, everything changed when Hurricanes Helene and Milton came through Pinellas County and other parts of Florida,” he said. “I’m not the only legislator dealing with this and some of the very bureaucratic processes that are just lined with red tape.”

Fortunately for the Tampa Bay region, and other areas hard hit by either or both storms — which includes parts of the east coast where tornadoes spun off from Milton’s rain bands and brought devastation to several areas — DiCeglie is for the next two Sessions Chair of the Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development.

Trump pick Kash Patel must prove he’ll restore public faith in the FBI, a leading GOP senator says

Donald Trump’s drive to upend the FBI was welcomed by Republican senators although it was not clear on Sunday how strongly members of the incoming majority party would embrace his move to install ally Kash Patel as the next director of the Justice Department’s top investigative arm.

Patel, a onetime national security prosecutor who is aligned with the president-elect’s rhetoric about a “deep state,” “must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in line to be the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman when Republicans take control in January, in a post on X.

Patel lacks the high-level legal and management experience that FBI directors, including Robert Mueller, James Comey and Christopher Wray, who now holds that job, had before their nominations. It’s a 10-year term, and Trump named Wray in 2017 after firing Comey. So Trump’s announcement late Saturday means Wray must either resign or be fired after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.

“Every president wants people that are loyal to themselves,” said Sen. Mike Round, R-S.D., on ABC’s “This Week.” But he called Wray “a very good man” picked by Trump himself, and “I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now.”