Delegation for 8.25.23: Congressional absence? — narcs — no relief — fast weed

No representation

Will the next Congress be missing all its Representatives from North Florida?

While conceding it would be unlikely, a Florida judge floated a rather extreme remedy if the courts haven’t settled constitutionality questions yet about its congressional map.

“Is there a requirement that Florida is required to send representatives to Congress, or can Florida just sit it out?” Leon Circuit Judge Lee Marsh said at a hearing. “I know that’s extreme. Nobody wants that.”

Indeed, no party in the ongoing challenge to Florida’s cartography supports such a remedy. An attorney for the Florida Senate argued such a move would be unprecedented and potentially leave voters unfairly without representation. Counsel for minority groups suing the map for diminishing Black voting power also said it’s common for maps to be enacted and pulled back as legal developments unfold.

But the actual shape of Florida’s political boundaries, at least along the border with Georgia and Alabama, remains cloudy. Marsh took strong issue with the state’s defense of the map after attorneys, in a stipulation, conceded eliminating a Tallahassee-to-Jacksonville district reduced Black voters’ ability to elect a Representative of their choice. Black Democrat Al Lawson represented that district in the last three Congresses.

Mohammad Jazil, counsel for Florida’s Secretary of State, has argued the old district violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause because it was drawn primarily based on race. Attorneys for the Legislature have said that doesn’t necessarily mean a prohibition on diminishing minority voting power within Florida’s Constitution is federally unconstitutional.

But Marsh suggested the arguments go there and a bit farther.

“In order to not diminish, one has to consider race,” he said. “Is that just a backdoor tackle and saying, non-diminishment violates equal protection, we throw the whole thing out? And this court will be the first in the country to say that even the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. I mean, is that a far stretch?”

Outside this week’s hearing, the rest of the case in front of Marsh will play out in court filings due next week. That means Marsh will likely render a verdict on the state’s existing congressional lines, used for the first time in the Midterms last year as soon as next week.

But members of Florida’s delegation still won’t have a map finalized until the case makes its way (at least) to the Florida Supreme Court. If the state’s arguments land, if not with Marsh with a Republican-dominated Florida Supreme Court, then an argument about the equal protection clause could force the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Many suspected that when Gov. Ron DeSantis demanded Florida lawmakers approve a map disposing of Lawson’s district, he always wanted to take the cartography to the high court. That said, redistricting rulings this year did not go in the direction Republicans in other states had hoped. The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, already ordered Alabama to create a new map with one more majority Black seat.

Narco negotiator?

Colombia’s new President wants a paramilitary leader released from a U.S. prison to function as a “peace manager” in Latin America.

But Sen. Marco Rubio urges President Joe Biden’s administration to deny extradition requests.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Miami Republican said the U.S. should not release Salvatore Mancuso into the custody of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

“As you know, both right-wing paramilitary groups and left-wing terrorist organizations have been responsible for thousands of human rights abuses in Colombia for several decades. There has been consistent bipartisan support in the United States and Colombia for investigating those responsible in order to support peace and reconciliation in Colombia,” Rubio wrote. “Recent events in Colombia, however, may undermine this search for accountability and justice for these abuses.”

As a senior commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, Mancuso completed a 12-year prison sentence for cocaine trafficking in 2020 but has been accused of involvement in more than 1,500 deaths and has admitted participation in at least 300. He has requested extradition to Italy, where he also holds residency.

Gustavo angered human rights groups when he named Mancuso a peace manager with the Mancuso drug cartel.

“Mancuso’s appointment as a ‘peace manager’ is problematic, not least because he has been convicted by U.S. federal courts for drug trafficking and by Colombian courts for more than 1,500 cases of murder or forced disappearances,” Rubio said. “While he is currently incarcerated in the United States, he has yet to serve any sentences for his Colombian convictions.”

He said the U.S. should not release Mancuso under these circumstances.

“To allow Mancuso to not only walk free in Colombia but also represent the Colombian government in negotiations with drug traffickers currently working to flood our communities with narcotics would be an insult to the thousands of Colombians who are victims of Mancuso’s crimes,” the Senator wrote.

Hurricane hostage

Sen. Rick Scott said Senate Democrats are holding disaster relief hostage in a bid to budget more funding for the war in Ukraine. He accused Biden of using disaster funding as leverage to pass unrelated budget priorities.

“Statements from this President pushing a radical climate agenda while refusing to commit to action are cheap and unacceptable,” the Naples Republican said.

“The same goes for his insistence that disaster aid be tied to Ukraine aid and other unrelated spending. We are in the middle of hurricane season.”

While complaints from Scott about the Democratic administration may not be unusual, it’s notable the Senator has been a stalwart supporter of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. He has regularly supported providing military reinforcement to the eastern European nation.

But he said it’s a dangerous game to connect replenishment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund to foreign aid.

“There’s no logic behind tying disaster aid to anything else and doing so only causes inexcusable delays that hurt Floridians and every other American who may face a disaster,” Scott said.

“I have been fighting to get aid to those in need following recent disasters and to make sure FEMA has the resources it needs to respond to future disasters, but I’ve been met with silence from this administration and Democrats in Washington. Enough is enough. It’s time to pass the Disaster Relief Fund Replenishment Act and stop playing games with disaster aid.”

Speedier weed

Biden has promised to mellow out federal drug schedules. But Rep. Matt Gaetz said it has taken too long to get a fix in. The Fort Walton Beach Republican sent a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram asking what’s taken so long.

He pressed the DEA leader on a recent House testimony.

“While it is reassuring that President Biden has formally requested that the process of de-scheduling marijuana from the list of Schedule I drugs commence, it was concerning to hear you say that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not provided a timeline for sending you its de-scheduling recommendation based on its review,” Gaetz wrote. “When I asked if you would encourage HHS to give you that timeline, you responded: ‘I will ask.’”

Gaetz asks for documentation of the request and any available update on when marijuana can be removed from the top list of illegal narcotics.

Biden promised in October to reform U.S. drug policy by pardoning all individuals convicted of simple marijuana possession and encouraging Governors to do the same.

But he also said it was unreasonable, even if possession remains a crime, for marijuana to remain a Schedule I drug. He promised then to kick off an administrative review.

“This is the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine — the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic,” Biden said.

Stopping exploitation

The World Wide Web constantly brings with it more ways to exploit children. Rep. Aaron Bean wants to provide law enforcement with the tools to combat such crimes.

“As a father of three, I cannot imagine the pain of a missing or exploited child,” he said.

The Fernandina Beach Republican filed the Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023 (HR 5224), a bipartisan bill co-introduced with Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat. That reauthorizes the Missing Children’s Assistance Act and updates the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) resources.

“Reauthorizing the MCAA gives hope and encouragement to loved ones during a time of immense heartbreak and uncertainty,” Bean said. “Time is a critical factor in the search and recovery effort and this bill will modernize the reporting system, so law enforcement can more efficiently find missing persons and bring closure to countless families to ensure the NCMEC can continue their critical mission to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization.”

The bill provides for background checks on individuals working with children and support to families of missing and exploited children. The legislation also establishes a system to remove child sexual abuse material from the internet.

“We are ensuring the Center has the resources it needs to continue protecting children and supporting families, which is particularly important today as more children are falling victim to predatory online practices,” Courtney said.

Based on race

The decision to pull all Black students from class at a Flagler County elementary school to discuss test performance, regardless of individual student’s test scores, incensed Rep. Maxwell Frost. The Orlando Democrat issued a statement condemning the tactic following news reports of the incident at Bunnell Elementary.

“Alongside parents and families in Flagler County and across our state, I share outrage over the explicit targeting of Black students under the guise of low test scores,” said Frost, an Afro-Cuban. “The fact that school employees felt empowered enough to discriminate based on race in a public school underscores just how far Florida has fallen when it comes to providing a good quality education free of racism and prejudice.”

School district officials confirmed all Black students were diverted to attend an “AA Presentation” and stressed that 32% of Black students had scored a three or higher on language arts test, but the school needed that number to be 41%. Flagler County Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore publicly apologized for the incident this week, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. “I appeal to this community to come together, not just around what we don’t want to see, but around what we want to see in our schools,” she said.

Frost said that can be done without discrimination based on race.

“If this was truly about test scores, the school in question would have approached all students and parents about what can be done to help those children succeed,” he said. “Instead, the school chose to round up Black kids, regardless of their grades and test scores, for a racially motivated presentation meant to ‘scare them straight.’ This is racism; it’s wrong, and it has no place in Florida. I am calling for immediate accountability and action from the school district to ensure this does not happen again.”

Clam bake

Rep. Vern Buchanan visited a coastal business using oysters to mitigate red tide on the Gulf Coast. The Longboat Key Republican toured Two Dock Shellfish alongside Manatee County Commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge.

The trip came after Manatee County had to clear 5 tons of dead fish from local beaches in the 2023-23 season.

“Red tide has wreaked havoc on marine life, our waters and the many businesses that rely on Florida’s tourism-based economy,” Buchanan said. “Two Docks Shellfish is not only putting fresh, local seafood on area residents’ dinner tables, but they are also helping filter and clean our water in the process. It’s encouraging to see a small business in our area working to make such a big difference in people’s everyday lives.”

The ousters at the facility can filter 50 gallons daily, with clams cleaning another 10 gallons. The shellfish are later sold to Bradenton and Tampa area restaurants and markets.

Two Docks works with scientists at Mote Marine on safe harvesting practices and with the University of Florida and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole to see what other helpful algae can be cultured at the local docks. Buchanan, in 2019, secured $6.25 million in funding for the National Institutes of Health to study red tide and other harmful algal blooms.

Spin room

Since presidential candidate Donald Trump elected not to participate in the first Republican National Committee-sanctioned debate, members of his inner circle — like his son Donald Trump Jr. — weren’t allowed in the spin room.

But since Rep. Byron Donalds, a Trump supporter, attended the presidential debate in Milwaukee as an RNC-invited guest, he effectively filled the role.

The Naples Republican spoke to reporters after the debate and propped up his favored candidate despite his absence from Milwaukee.

“It’s not a two-person race at this point,” Donalds told reporters. “In my view, it’s a one-person race with a lot of other people in the race. That’s what I think really came out of this debate tonight, which is why I think, in the grand scheme, Donald Trump is the winner of this debate. Nobody on that stage, from what I saw, really galvanized Republicans in a way where you can then directly challenge Donald Trump. We’ll see what the polling says in a couple of days, but that’s what I saw.”

Gaetz also attended. By his estimation, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy won the debate and DeSantis, once a close ally to the Congressman, lost. “Probably President Trump does the best coming out of it because you saw nothing in this debate that is going to reshape the fundamental contours of this race,” he said.

Back to normal

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office highlighted a bipartisan effort that stopped a change in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coding that would have blocked breast cancer survivors from the preferred breast reconstruction procedure.

The Weston Democrat, also a breast cancer survivor, joined with Republican Rep. James Comer, as well as Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, to stop a coding change that would have unintentionally changed the availability of a reconstruction procedure that is a safer and preferred method to reconstruct breasts after a mastectomy due to cancer.

“This reversal means women emerging from a life-threatening breast cancer fight can now breathe a small sigh of relief,” Wasserman Schultz said. “To survive a deadly battle with breast cancer, women need to reclaim their life — not face fewer reconstruction options, financial anxiety and medical uncertainty.”

She also credited the work of cancer advocates, journalists and medical professionals with flagging the change before it resulted in pulling the option for reconstruction.

Back to school

Wasserman Schultz also showed up for the second day of the new school year with one of those giant checks for the Broward County School District that theoretically could buy a new future for scores of students.

The $525,000 she presented Tuesday came from the Congressionally Funded Community Projects Grant. It will enable the district’s Applied Learning Department to create the 3D Art & Technology Lab and technology lending library with professional development for teachers.

According to district officials, the lab, which will soon be at Nova Middle School, could open the door to future careers and professional pathways that don’t exist yet. Students can create and manipulate three-dimensional designs in real life and virtually.

The lending library will make resources such as computer-aided design, visualization and three-dimensional printing available to teachers for classroom resources.

“This represents the funding … I was able to secure for our school district,” Wasserman Schultz said as she posed with the gargantuan check along with the district’s schools Superintendent, Peter Licata, and School Board Chair Lori Alhadeff and Sarah Leonardi, another School Board member.

Cuban visa

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart said Cuba’s communist leader shouldn’t be allowed to visit the U.S. That includes a trip to address the United Nations in New York expected next month.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel will address the U.N. General Assembly in September, according to a report in the Miami Herald. While the newspaper said it remained unclear if Díaz-Canel has been issued a visa by the U.S., Díaz-Balart suggested Biden’s administration would allow the Cuban leader into the U.S. Díaz-Canel previously addressed the General Assembly in 2021.

“I am appalled by the Biden administration’s appeasement of dangerous adversaries and rewarding human rights abusers, this time by granting the special privilege of U.S. entry to Cuba’s Díaz-Canel, and the rest of his ‘delegation’ of thugs, particularly after the expulsion of Cuban diplomat-spies over the past two decades from the missions in New York and Washington, D.C. for espionage,” the Miami Republican said.

In 2017, then-President Trump’s administration expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from the nation’s embassy in Washington. At the time, the State Department said the action occurred “due to Cuba’s failure to take appropriate steps to protect our diplomats in accordance with its obligations under the Vienna Convention,” a seeming reference to a mysterious illness affecting the U.S. embassy in Havana. The conditions were later called Havana Syndrome by the State Department.

Díaz-Balart said it surprised him little that the United Nations would allow a visit from the Cuban leader.

“Regrettably, the U.N. continues to falter in its duty to protect human rights by allowing some of the worst human rights offenders to partake in critical discussions and even hold positions on the Human Rights Council,” he said.

On this day

Aug. 25, 2017 — “Donald Trump pardons former Sheriff Joe Arpaio” via NPR — President Trump has pardoned controversial former Arizona Sheriff Arpaio for a misdemeanor criminal contempt conviction. A statement by the White House said, “Today, President Donald J. Trump granted a Presidential pardon to Joe Arpaio, former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.” Known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio gained a reputation for his harsh — his critics would say cruel — treatment of immigrants in the country illegally. Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt earlier this summer for defying a judge’s order that his deputies stop detaining immigrants because they lacked legal status. His deputies carried on the practice for 18 months.

Aug. 25, 1950 — “Harry Truman orders army to seize control of railroads” via History.com — in anticipation of a crippling strike by railroad workers, President Truman issued an executive order putting America’s railroads under the control of the Army. Truman had already intervened in another railway dispute when the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railway Company union employees threatened to strike in 1948. This time, however, Truman’s intervention was critical, as he had just ordered American troops into a war against North Korean communist forces in June. Since much of America’s economic and defense infrastructure depended upon the smooth functioning of the railroads, the 1950 strike proposed by two enormous labor organizations posed an even more significant threat.

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Delegation is published by Peter Schorsch, compiled by Jacob Ogles, edited and assembled by Phil Ammann and Ryan Nicol, with contributions by Anne Geggis.