| | | |  | | By Kimberly Leonard and Isa Domínguez | | 
Gov. Ron DeSantis projected optimism about the cuts during a press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday. | John Raoux/AP | Good morning and welcome to Thursday. DOGE may be targeting NASA, but top Florida Republicans insist they aren’t worried. Ever since President DONALD TRUMP took office, a flurry of job terminations and resignations has rocked federal agencies. On Tuesday, NASA’s probationary employees at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island steeled themselves for the worst — and scientists raised the alarm about thwarting innovation — once ELON MUSK and DOGE set their sights on trimming NASA’s workforce. But the NASA terminations haven’t happened in Florida or elsewhere. And the key Florida state lawmaker overseeing the industry doubts they’ll happen at all. State Sen. TOM WRIGHT (R-Port Orange), who represents part of Brevard County and is chair of the Senate Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security, told Playbook he would be “really surprised” if the cuts occurred, citing the need “to bring more people into [Florida] to work in those kinds of careers.” “It’s a matter of just, everyone’s kind of a little bit on edge, just waiting to see what happens. President Trump has got a lot of executive orders going out, which is causing a lot of pushback,” he said. “It’s like, oh my gosh, let’s let this man do his job, you know.” Gov. RON DESANTIS also projected optimism about the cuts during a press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday. He said the layoffs — in addition to the proposed relocation of NASA HQ to Brevard County — would be “good for” Florida’s space industry and “save the American taxpayer a lot of money.” “Actually, I think it very much benefits us because what [NASA] should do is they should stop the project that is scheduled to start, to spend a half a billion dollars on a new NASA building in DC when nobody shows up to work there anyway,” DeSantis said. Although NASA’s probationary personnel still have their jobs, their relief might only be temporary. In a written statement, NASA Headquarters News Chief CHERYL WARNER wrote that the agency is “in the process of validating hundreds of employees” who took the deferred resignation offer and “is working with [the Office of Personnel Management] on exemptions for those in the probationary period in mission critical functions.” State Sen. RANDY FINE (R-Melbourne), who also represents part of Brevard County, said he thinks there will be an “expansion” in space operations and that “the space program’s future is incredibly bright.” “My understanding is [that] a lot of the fears are Washington-based positions,” he said. “Those aren’t my constituents.” It remains unclear when the cuts will take place and how they might impact the Space Coast. EDWARD BOLLENBACK, president of the union chapter that represents the Kennedy Space Center, said the advice he is giving concerned employees was to “stay in good standing with [their] HR and [their] managers” since “their hands are tied.” “There's a lot of things that are going [on] at a very high level that the unions are fighting,” he told POLITICO. “But you know, we're just kind of holding our breath and waiting to exhale.” — Isa Domínguez WHERE'S RON? Gov. DeSantis is doing an unveiling at the Capitol at 9 a.m. for the United States' 250th anniversary celebration. COMING TODAY: Donald Trump's unprecedented effort to reshape the federal government is consuming Washington. POLITICO is going to be your guide to all the key decisions and characters with a fresh version of one of our signature newsletters — West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government. Sign up here to get it straight in your inbox.
|  | ... DATELINE TALLAHASSEE ... | | ‘LOBBIED TO DEATH’ — “An ongoing bid to overhaul Florida’s contentious way of resolving lawsuits against state and local governments kicked off again Wednesday,” reports POLITICO’s Gary Fineout. “The latest chapter in this tug-of-war over the state’s sovereign immunity laws started with a state House panel signing off on a bill that would increase dramatically the amount of money Florida governments would be authorized to pay to people who are injured. But the proposed legislation would also bring an end to a complicated — and often highly political — process to obtain payments that has depended on which elected officials are in control. … “The measure has already triggered a fierce lobbying battle, with more than 100 lobbyists representing health care providers, cities and counties, business groups and the state’s trial attorneys signing up to express an interest in the bill.” STAND BY YOUR TRUSTEE — DeSantis on Wednesday rejected criticisms leveled against a controversial University of West Florida trustee who Fine this week called an “idiot” over alleged antisemitic comments. The governor said the concerns over SCOTT YENOR, a Boise State University political science professor he appointed, are “misplaced” and “part of a separate political agenda,” as DeSantis and Fine remain at odds. The Florida Jewish legislative caucus has raised objections to Yenor’s appointment, led by Fine claiming the trustee recently picked as UWF chair “publicly questioned whether Jews elected to the United States Senate could be qualified for ‘national leadership.’” “All these things are very flimsy,” DeSantis told reporters Wednesday. “And let’s just consider the source: that same senator called me antisemitic — the guy that went and did a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, the guy that has signed antisemitism legislation.” Fine, a rare Republican detractor of DeSantis, promptly responded by once again slamming the governor over the appointment, who has generated controversy in the past by labeling career-oriented women as “more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome than women need to be.” “Ron DeSantis is deflecting legitimate criticism of his poor judgment because he can’t defend his abhorrent choice,” Fine said in a statement. “I’ve never called Ron DeSantis an antisemite; by falsely accusing me of doing so he raises real questions about whether he actually is one.” — Andrew Atterbury
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A bill filed by the state House Health Care Budget Subcommittee chair has language that would expand Florida’s medical marijuana law to also permit recreational use for adults. | Rebecca Blackwell/AP | POT LATEST — “A bill filed by the state House Health Care Budget Subcommittee chair has language that would expand Florida’s medical marijuana law to also permit recreational use for adults, a move seemingly made to start discussions among Florida Republicans,” reports POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian. “The bill filed by state Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola), HB 555, would also allow the state’s more than 900,000 medical marijuana patients to grow up to two plants at home. It would additionally create four new license types that would flatten the vertically integrated licensing scheme that now applies to the 27 pot companies currently licensed by the state as medical marijuana treatment centers.” WATER PROJECTS — A state House panel on Wednesday forwarded to chamber leaders a list of 22 water projects vetoed by DeSantis last year that could be considered for a veto override. The workgroup led by Rep. MICHELLE SALZMAN (R-Pensacola) went through a list of 160 vetoed projects to come up with the 22, which had received $36.7 million in the state budget. DeSantis said last year in vetoing more than $200 million in water projects that some should be eligible for state water and wastewater grant programs. Salzman said any of the recommended 22 projects receiving grants will be removed from the possible veto override list. "This is a constitutional practice that happens across the United States," she said. — Bruce Ritchie WIN FOR DESANTIS — “An appeals court Wednesday overturned a circuit judge’s ruling that DeSantis’ administration took too long in providing public records about a controversial 2022 decision to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts,” reports Jim Turner of News Service of Florida. “A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal backed DeSantis’ administration in the dispute with the non-profit Florida Center for Government Accountability, which made two public-records requests in September 2022 and filed a lawsuit in October 2022 after it did not receive all of the documents.”
| | | | With a new administration in place, how will governors work with the federal government and continue to lead the way on issues like AI, health care, economic development, education, energy and climate? Hear from Gov. Jared Polis, Gov. Brian Kemp and more at POLITICO's Governors Summit on February 20. RSVP today. | | | | | | | PENINSULA AND BEYOND | | | 
Funding for the national program, which pays for trained workers to assist people find insurance plans, will be cut from $97 million to $10 million. | Rebecca Blackwell/AP | CUTTING OBAMACARE ‘NAVIGATORS’ — “Trump cuts to Affordable Care Act program will hit hard in Tampa Bay,” reports Christopher O’Donnell of the Tampa Bay Times. “It will be tougher for more families to get help [finding health insurance] beginning in August when the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding for the navigator program by 90 percent takes effect. … Funding for the national program, which pays for trained workers to assist people find insurance plans, will be cut from $97 million to $10 million.” — “As Haiti teeters on brink of a violent collapse, group warns against elections this year,” reports Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald. — “58 percent of Escambia voted to add fluoride to water in 1998, and could be asked again,” reports Jim Little of the Pensacola News Journal.
| | CAMPAIGN MODE | | IT’S OFFICIAL — State Rep. LAUREN MELO (R-Naples) has filed as a candidate to succeed state Sen. KATHLEEN PASSIDOMO in Senate District 28, reports Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics. YOUNG GOP LEADER — Florida Young Republicans Chairman BRANDON LUDWIG, who works in business development for defense contractor LSI, Inc. in Jacksonville, has announced his reelection bid for the group’s June vote. He was previously spokesperson for Rep. KAT CAMMACK (R-Fla.) and the Clay County Sheriff’s office. If reelected to a second term, he wants to get more young conservatives elected to municipal and county government, reach out to independent voters and host young state lawmakers from around the U.S. for a policy summit with Florida lawmakers.
| | | | We’ve re-imagined and expanded our Inside Congress newsletter to give you unmatched reporting on Capitol Hill politics and policy -- and we'll get it to your inbox even earlier. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | TRUMPLANDIA AND THE SWAMP | | — "Venezuelan Americans are about to find out if they hold real political sway," reports Patricia Mazzei of The New York Times. NEW TRUMP-PICKED US ATTORNEY — “There are a couple of things in the background of Jason A. Reding Quiñones that were not highlighted in Trump’s glowing post about him on his media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday, including a name change and that he received poor evaluations as a criminal prosecutor in the same office he has been nominated to head,” reports Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald.
| | DATELINE D.C. | | TODAY — Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) will be addressing CPAC at 3 p.m. and Attorney General PAM BONDI will be speaking at 3:50 p.m. (Tune in live.) NEW DESIGNATION — “The U.S. State Department is moving to designate Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa Cartel and six other Latin American drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, according to an unpublished notice in the Federal Register posted Wednesday,” reports POLITICO’s Danny Nguyen. “The notice, which was issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and set to be officially published Thursday, suggests these groups have threatened the country’s defense, international relations or economic interests.” OUT OF PRISON — “Native American activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, weeks after Biden angered law enforcement officials by commuting his life sentence to home confinement in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents,” reports Graham Lee Brewer and Curt Anderson of The Associated Press.
| | TRANSITION TIME | | — JON LEVIN will be comms director for Rep. SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK (D-Fla.). He previously was comms director for the Kentucky Democratic Party. — James Uthmeier has announced his attorney general transition team, with JOE JACQUOT from Guster, JESSE PANUCCIO of Boies Schiller Flexner and chief of staff DAVID DEWHIRST as co-chairs. Other members of the transition include CHUCK COOPER and DAVID THOMPSON of Cooper Kirk, JASON GONZALES of Lawson Huck Gonzalez, BEN GIBSON of Shutts & Bowen, ASHLEY LUKIS of GrayRobinson, RACHEL KAMOUTSAS of the Florida Board of Governors, MOHAMMED JAZIL of Holtzman Vogel, DANIEL EPSTEIN of America First Legal and St. Thomas University, KELLIE FIEDOREK of Alliance Defending Freedom, DAWN HANSON and RYAN NEWMAN of the governor’s office, Continental Strategy’s CARLOS TRUJILLO and JEFF AARON of Downs Aaron.
| | ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN | | BIRTHDAY: Jeremy Redfern, spokesperson for Uthmeier … State Rep. Joe Casello. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
