Free Republic

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in an interview tonight that Congress is “morally obligated” to act. Pierluisi says that he expects the House to propose legislation for Puerto Rican statehood by mid-March. The governor cited discussions with lawmakers, including Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Del. Jenniffer González-Colón (R-Puerto Rico), for his prediction, adding that statehood would provide new access to programs, such as Medicaid and the earned income tax credit. “What I anticipate is that there will be considerable support for a statehood bill in this Congress.” “The U.S. could be expanding by admitting Puerto Rico into the union,”...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), along with Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) officially introduced a national fracking ban in the House. The bill, announced at the end of last month, serves as a companion bill to the Senate legislation proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), one that Ocasio-Cortez helped draft. Both bills would ban fracking across the nation by 2025. The laws would also prohibit fracking within 2,500 feet of homes and schools by February 2021. They also would provide a transition for working families in the fracking industry. “Fracking is destroying our land and our water,” Ocasio-Cortez...

Update as of July 22, 2019: The House is expected to vote on H.R. 549 soon. The bill is being sponsored by 29 Democrats and three Republicans....Two bills, one each in the House and Senate, have been introduced that would legislatively mandate a grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans. They are, respectively, H.R. 549, introduced by Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), and S. 636, introduced by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has a grand plan to expand I-4 well beyond the cones and lane shifts that drivers in Central Florida face today. However, those plans could be changing, in part, because of the lengthy delays of the current “I-4 Ultimate” expansion and the lack of answers being given to Congress about why it is taking so long. The I-4 Ultimate project was scheduled to be finished in 2021 with two toll lanes running in each direction down the center of the interstate from Kirkman Road south of Orlando to the Longwood rest area in Seminole...

A band of Democrats who are demanding House rule reforms have yet to reach a deal with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the group announced Friday, putting up a potential roadblock in Pelosi’s quest to reclaim the Speaker’s gavel. Nine Democrats on the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus have vowed to withhold their votes for Speaker unless the candidate agrees to overhaul the House rules. Pelosi, who has been open to such changes, met with the group last week and promised to put in writing the changes to which she would commit. But the Democrats say they have yet to receive...

Alan Grayson has been out of office for more than a year, but his fundraising emails keep coming. Soon, the Florida Democratic Party could find out on which race all that money could be spent. And it may not like the answer. One expert said a scenario that worries party leaders is a primary battle against U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, who succeeded Grayson in District 9 in Osceola County and southern Orange County. “He doesn’t care what people think, including his own party,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida who closely...

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014, SB-296 by Senator Jeff Brandes will be heard on the Senate Floor.  The Senate needs to substitute the House bill, HB-209 and pass it without amendments. SB-296 Mandatory Evacuation is the Senate version of HB-209 that has been under constant attack by the Florida Sheriffs Association and continues to be under attack in the Senate. The bill was under attack in Senate Community Affairs Committee and Senator Darren Soto (D-Kissimmee) succeeded in passing an amendment for the Florida Sheriffs Association to strip out essential language.   SB-296 Firearms/Mandatory Evacuations is a bill to allow law-abiding citizens...