Last week, U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., and  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, brought back their bill “to stop foreign intelligence services from using college exchange programs to steal technology, recruit agents and spread propaganda."

Back in September, Rooney, who was the vice chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee when the GOP remained in charge of the House, unveiled the “Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft (SHEET) Act” which Cruz was championing in the U.S. Senate. 

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., scored a win this week when his proposal to help the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other government agencies at the state and local levels advanced to President Donald Trump’s desk. 

Florida’s past two governors showcased the conflicting views about policy toward Cuba, after President Donald Trump’s administration this week banned a popular way to travel to the island nation.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican who left the governor’s office in January, gave full support to the decision. Scott, an ally of Trump, said money spent in Cuba goes directly to the Castro regime and helps keep President Nicholas Maduro in power in Venezuela.

Florida Power & Light and the state advocate for utility customers have reached agreement on about $1.3 billion in costs to restore electricity after Hurricane Irma --- and on a system to better track expenses when major storms hit in the future.

The U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is more than $21 trillion, dwarfing the economies of most other countries in the world. China’s GDP hovers over $14 trillion; Japan’s over $5 trillion.

The U.S. is neither the largest country by land mass nor population (4.4 percent of the world’s population) yet its GDP represents 24.2 percent of the global GDP.

The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) announced Wednesday its latest effort to aggressively accelerate construction of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir, submitting permit applications that will shave 18 months off the project's finish time.

The permit  applications will allow land clearing to begin and implement Gov. Ron DeSantis' "Achieving More Now For Florida's Environment" Executive Order.

Amid calls from Republicans and Democrats to apologize for his response to a comment about executing gay people, state Rep. Mike Hill, R-Pensacola, issued a statement Wednesday saying he regrets “how the tone of my response to a constituent was received.”

U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Roy Blunt, R-Mo. and Todd Young, R-Ind. reintroduced the Protect Our Disabled Heroes Act of 2019 on Wednesday, a bill to protect our nation’s disabled veterans from unethical and unfair practices in applying for Veterans Administration (VA) disability claims. 

Specifically, Rubio’s legislation would protect disabled veterans from unethical fees charged by third party organizations in preparing and executing veterans' disability claims. It would also reinstate criminal penalties for individuals charging veterans unauthorized fees.

Florida TaxWatch says $133 million should be slashed from the state’s proposed budget, though Gov. Ron DeSantis should employ a relatively “light touch” when wielding his line-item veto pen for the first time.

The business-backed nonprofit group Wednesday highlighted 109 member projects, known in Tallahassee parlance as “turkeys,” which it contends failed to be properly vetted before being inserted into the record $91.1 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

When physician Scott Rivkees takes over as secretary of the state Department of Health, he will continue to have an outside contract with the University of Florida.

Though there still is no official start date, Gov. Ron DeSantis remains committed to bringing on Rivkees to run the Department of Health, despite controversy that has included disclosures about a past sexual-harassment investigation.