Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Florida Government & Politics

Francis Rooney Calls on Federal Officials to Visit Florida to See Impact of Algae Blooms, Red Tide

Last week, the freshman Republican sent letters to four U.S. Cabinet secretaries urging them to “visit Southwest Florida first hand so that they may personally assess the damage, meet with key local officials, and provide recommendations on how their agencies may be able to help.” 

U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., is calling on federal Cabinet officials to come down to Southwest Florida so they can witness firsthand the impact of algae blooms and red tide on the Sunshine State.

Last week, the freshman Republican sent letters to four U.S. Cabinet secretaries–the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the U.S. Department of the Interior–urging them to “visit Southwest Florida first hand so that they may personally assess the damage, meet with key local officials, and provide recommendations on how their agencies may be able to help.”

Rooney also wrote other federal officials, including the heads of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the matter.

Early last week, Rooney reached out to President Donald Trump on the matter, sending a letter to the White House and urging the administration to declare a formal State of Emergency for Florida due to the toxic algae blooms and red tide. Rooney referenced the letter to Trump when he offered his take on why he reached out to other federal officials.

“We requested that the White House declare a state of emergency to free up additional resources for combating the algae and red tide issues that are wreaking havoc on our economy and leaving behind tens of thousands of dead fish, sea turtles, and manatees,” Rooney said. “While we still await a decision on this, we must also look for whatever assistance is available from all relevant federal agencies in addition to the official disaster declaration. As expeditiously as possible we need to pursue every possible means to resolve the destructive impacts to our tourism and real estate-based economy and quality of life in Southwest Florida.”

Rooney announced that the Environmental Protection Agency was sending Region 4 Deputy Regional Administrator Mary Walker and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was dispatching District Commander Colonel Jason Kirk to join the congressman in examining the region on August 15. The U.S. Department of Interior and the South Florida Water Management District will also sent officials.

“I am encouraged that these federal agencies which have the ability to provide help for our ongoing toxic algae crisis have responded quickly to our request,” Rooney said. “Seeing the devastation in-person and having a dialogue with those directly affected is critical to understanding the urgency of providing resources to solve the immediate needs of our community.”

Kevin Derby can be reached at [email protected].

Author

  • Kevin Derby

    Originally from Jacksonville, Kevin Derby is a contributing writer for Florida Daily and covers politics across Florida.

    View all posts

Archives

Related Articles

Environment

A bipartisan initiative is underway to tackle the increasing threat of harmful algal blooms in Florida. This week, Florida Congressmen Vern Buchanan (R) and...

Opinion

Op-Ed by Jim Farley President Donald Trump won Florida in the 2024 election by more than 13 points. With nearly 1.5 million more votes...

Political News

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to abolish the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Below is an overview of recent votes of involving...

Political News

U.S. Congressman Aaron Bean (FL-04) and U.S. Congressman Cory Mills (FL-07), co-chairs of the Congressional DOGE Caucus, introduced H.R. 2006, the Department of Government...

Advertisement
Florida Daily
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

HOW WE COLLECT E-MAIL INFORMATION:

If you sign up to subscribe to Florida Daily’s e-mail newsletter, you will provide us your e-mail address and name, voluntarily, and we will never obtain any of your contact information that you don’t voluntarily provide.

HOW WE USE AN E-MAIL ADDRESS IF YOU VOLUNTARILY PROVIDE IT TO US:

If you voluntarily provide us with your name and email address, we will use it to send you one email update per weekday. Your email address will not be given to any third parties.

YOUR CONTROLS:

You will have the option to unsubscribe to our E-mail update at anytime by clicking an unsubscribe link that will be provided in each E-Mail we send.