Gabrielle Russon
A Republican lawmaker who sparred with Gov. Ron DeSantis over Hope Florida will return to leading his influential subcommittee this upcoming Session.
Alex Andrade was named as the chair of the Health Care Budget Subcommittee in the new assignments released Monday. House Speaker Daniel Perez revealed the incoming Chairs, Vice Chairs, and member assignments for the chamber’s subcommittees and committees.
Returning to the Health Care Budget Subcommittee will also be the same Vice Chair, Karen Gonzalez Pittman. Pittman is a Tampa Republican.
Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, and his subcommittee became the must-watch for political fireworks earlier this year.
Through his subcommittee, Andrade led an investigation into the Hope Florida scandal that had ties to some of Florida’s most powerful leaders and organizations.
The subcommittee called several Hope Florida leaders to testify about the misappropriation of $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement. Millions of dollars ended up going to Hope Florida — First Lady Casey DeSantis’ charity — and then got steered to help Gov. DeSantis’ then Chief of Staff James Uthmeier defeat last year’s marijuana ballot initiative. The picture emerging from Andrade’s hearings was Hope Florida was an organization with no employees and little oversight.
“In the real world, if someone defrauded the state or a charity out of $10 million someone would go to prison,” Andrade said this Spring.
Uthmeier and DeSantis both denied any wrongdoing and accused Andrade of political attacks. DeSantis went as far as calling Andrade a “jackass.”
Andrade’s investigation ended anticlimactically.
Several people tied up in the scandal refused to appear at a hearing meeting, and Andrade did not issue subpoenas to fight for additional records. But Andrade told Florida Politics in April that his work wasn’t over. He planned to bring forward new legislation to beef up criminal penalties for officials who misuse Medicaid money, add more transparency to require state agencies to report settlement agreements and other issues.
