NASA HQ and more: Ron DeSantis reveals Washington, D.C., wish list

Image via AP.

Gov. Ron DeSantis heads to Washington, D.C., on Friday, and he has no shortage of requests from the Donald Trump administration on that trip.

Perhaps his biggest potential ask would be a relocation of NASA to Florida.

“Don’t build that new NASA building in D.C.,” DeSantis said while speaking in Tallahassee.

The Governor wants the proposed build in the nation’s capital stopped, in part, because “nobody shows up to work there anyways.” He thinks the project will end up “costing a billion” dollars, a spend not needed because “renovations” are already going on at Cape Canaveral.

“You can have everybody there and that could be the headquarters of NASA,” DeSantis said.

That option “could absolutely reduce the number of bureaucrats, particularly in D.C.,” he added.

“A lot of them are working from home now anyways, relocate the headquarters to Brevard County … you absolutely would save a lot of money. I think you’d probably save about a billion dollars, quite frankly, so we should do it. I think it’d be good for Florida if that happened.”

The Governor has made that suggestion before, but to no avail as of yet.

However, space isn’t the only thing on DeSantis’ mind.

He also reiterated his interest in getting a longer red snapper season in the Atlantic “just like we do in the Gulf,” saying “anglers will be really, really happy” if the Department of Commerce gives Florida its much-desired extension.

“How is it that you have 105 days of Gulf red snapper but only two days (in the) Atlantic,” DeSantis asked.

He also repeated the case Wednesday for federal block grant funding of Everglades restoration projects.

“Our request is going to be just block grant us the money, cut the Army Corps out and let us build the damn thing. We’ll get it done a lot quicker. We will do it a lot better, and I think the President is of this mindset. I think this is exactly consistent with his view of cutting down bureaucracy and letting the states step up to the plate,” DeSantis said.

Additionally, DeSantis wants the U.S. Department of Education to take a fresh look at college accreditation, even though Trump nominee Linda McMahon has yet to be confirmed as Secretary.

“Nobody elects these people, but the Department of Education approves the accreditors,” DeSantis said.

“We want to see a reevaluation of how the accreditation is done. We have legislation that’s been enacted in Florida for alternative accreditors. There’s a process that you’ve got to go through for that, but we want to jump-start that process because if you’re accrediting properly, then I think a lot of the problems that you see potentially could fall by the wayside. And I think that that’s really, really significant.”

DeSantis also expressed interest again in importing pharmaceuticals from Canada, which has been something he’s sought since his first year in office. He is hopeful that the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. pave the way.

“You have the same drugs that are much cheaper there and we could save the state a lot of money just if we did it through our programs. Now I think individuals should be able to purchase too, but if they just allowed us to fill our needs, we’ve got a warehouse,” DeSantis said.

While it remains to be seen how many of these agenda items will get fulfilled this week, DeSantis has no shortage of ideas.