By Kimberly Leonard

Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis may have tried to score some political points by wading into Congress’ spending fight, but a prolonged government shutdown threatens to hurt Florida workers as well as its tourism and agriculture industries.

U.S. House GOP lawmakers remain splintered over a spending package just 11 days out from a partial government shutdown. A bill to temporarily fund the government failed in a dramatic floor vote yesterday as members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus push for spending cuts to the larger package while demanding a slew of promises that include funding for the southern border wall.

Lawmakers often cut it close with spending deadlines as leaders work to appease their members and arrive at a deal. In recent years, they’ve sparred over vaccine mandates, border security and the debt. Sometimes, shutdowns only last a few days. But the longer shutdowns last, the more damage they do.

“The tenor and the tone of their fights is getting amped up and so I'm concerned that this could be a prolonged shutdown,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who was director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management during the first two years Desantis was in office. “This is really going to hurt the American people. And oh, by the way, it's going to cost us billions of dollars.”

When Congress doesn’t fund the government, federal employees don’t get paid and all but the most necessary employees are told to stop working. More than 90,000 Floridians count the federal government as their employer and could see a disruption in their paychecks — while at the same time struggling with inflation and high housing costs. Florida’s federal staffers work at NASA and for agencies such as the Small Business Administration and others.

Those employed in the federal prison system are considered essential and therefore must work without pay during a shutdown.

But the private sector, including tourism, is also affected when lawmakers shutter the government. During the 2019 shutdown under former President Donald Trump — the longest partial shutdown that lasted more than 30 days — people traveling by air faced massive delays because more TSA and air traffic control staff called in sick, a move widely viewed as intentional.

Florida’s beloved national parks would also have no one to oversee and manage them, causing trash and bathrooms to overflow and risking damage to the fragile ecosystem.

FILE - Then-Republican candidate for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, gets off an airboat with Gladesman and former Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioner Ron Bergeron after a tour of the Florida Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sept. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) | AP

“People in the financial market have raised concerns to me about what’s going to happen if we have a government shutdown,” state Sen. Lori Berman (D-Palm Beach) said. “Businesses are concerned too.”

Agriculture, the state’s No. 2 industry, could see delays in crop and plant inspections — all amid reports that growers fear not having enough workers due to Florida’s hardline illegal immigration laws. The National Weather Service could lose staff during the remaining months of hurricane season. Federal court proceedings could slow and applications for food assistance might also be delayed.

DeSantis’ office didn’t respond to questions about how state agencies could step up in the event of a government shutdown. Back in 2019, DeSantis started the first 17 days of his first term as governor in the middle of the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history. When he was in Congress, he voted more than once to shut down the federal government.

It remains to be seen whether Congress can reach a spending agreement, but a prolonged shutdown would be sure to remind voters of how dire the situation got in 2019.

“It’s playing politics with people’s lives and their livelihoods,” Berman said. “I can’t believe that they are doing this again.”

— Mia McCarthy contributed reporting from Washington, DC. 

— WHERE'S RON? Gov. DeSantis will unveil his energy policy at an event in Midland, Texas, at 9:50 a.m. central. The governor promised to cut gas prices in half if elected president, per FloridaPolitics.com. He’ll later interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis.

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TODAY — The Florida Board of Governors will consider a new regulation that would make it a fireable offense for transgender state university employees to use restrooms that align with their gender identity.

THE WAITING GAME — An important voting rights legal challenge is unlikely to be resolved in time for the 2024 elections.

The group that pushed to restore voting for most felons in Florida — along with four residents previously convicted of felonies — filed a lawsuit in July that contends the current process surrounding voter eligibility in the nation’s third most populous state is unconstitutional and violates federal voting laws.

U.S. Chief District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, who is based in Miami, late last week set the trial date for September of next year. Attorneys representing the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition had asked for a May trial date while those representing DeSantis, Secretary of State Cord Byrd and local election supervisors instead recommended the trial start on Sept. 9, 2024. Altonaga, who was appointed to the bench by former President George W. Bush, chose the later date.

The coalition helped pass Amendment 4, a measure that restored voting rights to most felons except those convicted of murder or sex offenses. The Republican-led Florida Legislature, however, passed a law in 2019 that said voters remained ineligible if they had owed outstanding fines and fees that were placed on them due to their felony convictions.

This law was challenged and narrowly upheld by an appeals court. The latest lawsuit contends it is nearly impossible for convicted felons to find out how much they owe and within which jurisdiction they owe payments.

Neil Volz, deputy director of the coalition, agreed that any court “remedy will likely impact the 2026 election more than the 2024 election. That said, we believe fully engaging the court process is going to result in a better, more vibrant election system in Florida.”

— Gary Fineout

— “Floridians who were previously undocumented as children fear lawsuit challenging protections,” by the Miami Herald’s Syra Ortiz Blanes 

MALE DOMINATED — “Will 20 more years have to pass until another woman leads the Florida Legislature?” by Florida Phoenix’s Jackie Llanos: “Florida is ahead of most other states when it comes to the number of women in its Legislature, but, for the next two years, both chambers will go back to the status quo of male leadership.” Few women are chairing legislative committees, a Phoenix analysis showed, which makes it harder to rise in the leadership ranks.

WHO RUN THE WORLD? — On that note, City & State just released its list of women in government and public service who’ve gone “Above & Beyond.”

BENEFITS EXPANSION — “DeSantis increases paid maternity leave up to nine weeks for state workers,” by The Tallahassee Democrat’s James Call: It’s the highest benefit among state workers in the Southeast region of the U.S., and will apply to nearly 98,000 workers.

BACKLOG — “DeSantis sits on Florida ethics cases as he vows to ‘break the swamp,’” by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher: The Republican governor hasn’t signed an ethics order since Jan. 28, 2021, according to his official website. Until he takes action, politicians and public employees won’t have to fork over thousands of dollars in fines, even if they settled their ethics cases and admitted wrongdoing.”

Disney sued DeSantis and his hand-picked oversight board for allegedly retaliating against the company and violating Disney’s First Amendment rights. | Walt Disney World Resort/Getty Images

DISNEY TO EXPAND ITS PARKS — The Walt Disney Company announced Tuesday that it will invest more than $60 billion to grow its theme parks and cruise lines over the next 10 years. That’s double what it spent over the last decade.

Dangling the prospect of new rides and business in Florida is a powerful tool for Walt Disney World in its dispute with DeSantis over who controls its special tax district. Company executives declined to make specific promises about what they’d do in Central Florida, but they indicated their decisions would be contingent on pending lawsuits.

“We want to keep growing and investing and have ambitious plans in Florida,” Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro said, per The New York Times. “For the benefit of our guests, our cast members and the economy of central Florida, we hope the conditions will be there for us to do so.”

— Mia McCarthy

SPEAKING OF WHICH … UP TODAY: The firefighters’ union for Disney World’s special tax district is continuing contract negotiations and bargaining with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District leaders in a bid to raise the stipend for annual passes to the theme park. The district initially offered $1,000, after taxes, but Jon Shirey, union president, said the group is aiming for a stipend of between $3,000 to $5,000, depending on family size, to be more in line with the benefits firefighters received previously.

“We were not informed in advance,” Wilt Simpson said of the closure. | AP Photo

FLORIDA POLS WEIGH IN ON PLANT CLOSURE — Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Rep. Neal Dunn said they talked to top Georgia-Pacific officials on Tuesday after the company announced a day earlier it was shuttering its Perry Foley Cellulose mill in Taylor County. The shutdown comes just weeks after Hurricane Idalia battered the area and more than 500 people will lose their jobs. Georgia-Pacific is owned by Koch Industries, the large conglomerate whose owners include members of the politically influential Koch family.

Simpson, in a statement, said that company officials declared that the decision to shut the plant down was “final and cannot be reversed. We were not informed in advance, but I can confirm that there were no state laws, regulations, or economic conditions within state control that contributed to the shutdown.” Simpson called on the company to help hundreds of people find new jobs.

Dunn, a Panama City Republican, said he talked to a top Georgia-Pacific official and called his answers “callous and vague.” “The devastating hurricane already impacted their lives. The last thing they need is Scrooge viciously taking away their jobs and benefits before Christmas,” Dunn said in a statement.

Dunn also called on Georgia-Pacific to extend health benefits and pay to employees for six months and to donate the mill building to Taylor County after it closes.

— Gary Fineout

DRAGGED OUT SETTLEMENT — Miami restaurant R House agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to settle a legal dispute over a drag show from last year after the DeSantis administration accused the venue of exposing minors to sexually explicit content, the Miami Herald reports. R House did not admit guilt as part of the agreement.

NEVER BACK WEED — Ron DeSantis thinks pot is a menace to society. His biggest backer is working to legalize it, by POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt: Axiom Strategies and Vanguard Field Strategies, firms helmed by prominent Republican strategist Jeff Roe, have been paid nearly $29 million by an organization pushing a 2024 ballot initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana. A DeSantis-aligned attorney general is fighting their work, and the governor himself has said he broadly opposes legalization.

IOWA CHECK IN — “Urgency grows for DeSantis in Iowa as Trump looks to finish him off,” by The New York Times’ Nicholas Nehamas: “They’re jittery, they’re nervous, and they absolutely should be,” David Polyansky, DeSantis deputy campaign manager, said of the Trump campaign. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be a very tight race in Iowa. And the former president losing there seriously damages the sheen of invincibility that they are trying to project.”

Calli Cooper is now Managing Director at Flex Point Media. She previously served as marketing director on the Ron DeSantis for President campaign and as digital director on Ron DeSantis for Governor re-election campaign.

Briana Saffold is joining the Florida House Democratic Office as an analyst for the Judiciary and Ways & Means silos and the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee. Saffold, a Florida native, previously worked as a senior analyst for Deutsche Bank.

Grant Golin is also joining the Florida House Democratic Office as a legislative analyst for the Commerce, Ethics and Elections silos, as well as the Select Committee on Hurricane Resiliency and Recovery. He previously interned for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is circulating a letter about the Senate’s dress code allowing for casual wear.

BIRTHDAYS: State Rep. Jason Shoaf … former State Chief Information Officer James Grant … businessman and investor Donald Soffer

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