From his perch as the chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee for the Energy and Commerce Committee, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns sent letters on Monday to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius and Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) demanding to know how much Medicaid and Medicare fraud costs taxpayers.

Oxymoronically including nuclear power in his "green" energy portfolio, President Barack Obama has rejected calls to freeze new atomic plant construction. The administration maintains that nukes are consistent with its strategy to reduce the released carbon dioxide and other gases. To which critics ask: Have Obama & Co. checked the radiation releases over Japan lately?

In tandem with House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, opened the door Monday for bills that were vetoed by former Gov. Charlie Crist in 2010 to be passed into law via legislative overrides. The House and Senate already passed 10 overrides of Crist vetoes during a special legislative session in November, two weeks after Republicans gained a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Here is the letter Haridopolos sent to his fellow senators:

House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, informed members on Monday that he was going to allow committee chairs the option of pushing legislation that was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist last year -- including measures on teacher performance pay reform and mandating ultrasounds for women considering abortions.

On an otherwise quiet Monday in the Florida House, the Health and Human Services Committee held another session on Medicaid reform, holding a workshop and touching on the differences between last years proposal and this years legislation.

Democratic legislators highlighted their opposition to immigration reform proposals in the House and Senate Monday, vowing to fight measures that would ensure businesses do not hire illegal workers and punish those that do. Sens. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, and Oscar Braynon, D-Miami, said the immigration issue should be handled by the federal government, and that "Arizona-lite" bills would adversely hurt the state's economy. "Arizona has a black eye in the world. We don't need that black eye here in Florida," Joyner said.

With Japan reeling from nuclear accidents, Gov. Rick Scott authorized the state Division of Emergency Management to review Floridas plans in case any of the five nuclear facilities in the Sunshine State had similiar accidents.

The Sunshine States fight against prescription-drug abuse and pill mills received a bit of help from the federal government on Monday when Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan unveiled The Pill Mill Crackdown Act of 2011 with support of congressmen from both parties. Buchanans legislation would direct money seized from pill mill operators to be used for drug treatment, increase fines and sentences for those convicted of running pill mills and change standards, making hydrocodone drugs harder to obtain.

U.S. House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica was in Maitland on Monday, conducting a field hearing on pending major transit legislation. According to a release from the Florida Republican's office, the hearing was a forum "to gather information and innovative ideas for drafting a long-term reauthorization of the nations highway, transit and highway safety programs." Invited speakers included "transportation stakeholders." Oddly or not, no taxpayer representatives were among them.

The Senate Community Affairs Committee passed along a bill that would prevent the automatic deduction of government-worker union dues by a razor thin margin Monday in a 5-4 vote. Senate Bill 830, sponsored by Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, would allow state and local government workers to authorize union dues deductions and approve money spent on political purposes on a yearly basis, but it surprisingly ran into opposition by some Republicans on the committee.

As I prepare for the morning every weekday, I listen online to the Sports Final Radio show from WJXL 1010 AM out of my hometown of Jacksonville. Monday was a little out of the ordinary. Instead of hearing about how the Jaguars plan to make another run at a mediocre record next season, the show was dominated by angry callers who were horrified that the Duval County School Board, facing a $97 million shortfall, was considering cutting high school athletics.

Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, unveiled the second of his series of video blog updates on the 2011 session. Workman touched on the Houses passage of unemployment compensation reform, reforms to state pensions and a growth management bill facing the Military and Local Affairs Committee this week.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, released a video update late last week, updating an update on the progress of legislation related to the economic impact of the Gulf oil spill.

Conservative activist John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, offered his take on the first week of the 2011 legislative session in an update to supporters sent out over the weekend.

Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio weighed in over the weekend on Cuba sentencing Alan Gross, an American the Castro regime accuses of spying while his defenders maintain he was helping with setting up communications technology.