After winning almost 225,000 votes as the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate last year, Adrian Wyllie vowed to stay active and build the party in the Sunshine State. 

Over the weekend,  Libertarian Party of Florida (LPF) met in New Port Richey and chose Wyllie to be the party chairman, a post he has held before. Lynn House will be the vice chair. 

With reports that U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was breached by hackers who stole the personal information of millions of federal employees, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., weighed in and took a shot at China where the attack is believed to have originated. 
 

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., came out swinging at the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal on Friday. Huckabee is currently making a second bid for the Republican presidential nomination. After his 2008 bid, Huckabee moved to the Florida Panhandle. 

Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, was up in New Hampshire this week and said there was one major reason he could launch a potential bid for the Republican presidential nomination: the start of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s, R-Fla., efforts. 

The Florida Legislature has been in special session this week, trying to break a logjam over the budget and Medicaid expansion. The House, which opposes Medicaid expansion, received some intellectual reinforcements on Thursday as the James Madison Institute (JMI), a think tank offering free-market solutions, issued “25 Reasons Not to Take Federal Dollars to Expand Medicaid.”

From his perch as the chairman of the U.S. House Emerging Threats Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said on Thursday that the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations bill will help keep America safer as it adds more than $163 million to the FBI budget.

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., weighed in on Wednesday after the U.S. House passed the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. The Florida congressman noted that the bill included efforts to ensure American products were kept out of the hands of the Cuban military, even as normalization efforts with that communist nation continue. 

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., announced on Wednesday that he is backing U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the Senate. Rubio is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and has said he will not run for a second term. 

U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., was one of more than 50 congressional representatives who missed Monday’s vote on the  “Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility Act” which passed the House.

On Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott showcased two license-free fishing weekends later in the month. This weekend,  June 6-7, the license requirement for saltwater fishing will be waived. On June 13-14, the license requirement for freshwater fishing will be waived.