TAMPA, Fla. – Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem’s recent comment that she plans to close FEMA sparked debate on Wednesday among Florida leaders.

The backstory:

During a televised cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump a day earlier, Noem told the president, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA,” without going into detail about how that would happen. The statement, however, is in line with President Trump’s executive order in January calling for a “full-scale review” of FEMA.

READ: Florida bill would restrict artificial intelligence use by insurance companies when denying claims

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t comment on Wednesday on Noem’s comments, but last month said he would support closing down the agency.

“You’ve got folks with Milton and Helene who are still battling FEMA,” DeSantis said at the time, adding he wants to see disaster funding provided to states in the form of block grants ahead of a major storm. “Cut the bureaucracy of FEMA out entirely and that money will go further than it currently does at greater amounts going through FEMA’s bureaucracy.”

By the numbers:

Ninety-three percent of counties in the U.S. have had FEMA disasters declared since 2011, and Florida has received $8.5 billion.

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The other side:

Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who reprsents Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, said FEMA should be reformed, but she believes a full-scale closure is short-sighted and would leave communities unprepared and under-staffed to recover from storms.

“Congressional District 14, which is Tampa and St. Pete had more requests for emergency FEMA aid than any other district in the country over the past couple of years,” Castor said. “There is no way for local counties or the state of Florida to be able to surge in that kind of relief and expertise. You have to have a flexible national disaster response agency that can go to the areas of disaster, whether it’s wildfires or floods, tornadoes or hurricanes. So this one, it scares me.”

Amy Chester, the director of the non-profit Rebuild by Design, has dealt with FEMA a lot over the years and said transferring its responsibilities entirely to the states would be a complex process.

“We are able to show that 90% of counties across the US and 99.5% of congressional districts have experienced a major disaster declaration for a weather event from 2011 to 2024,” Chester said. “It would be incredibly complex to solely rely on a state to respond. There is so much depth of knowledge that needs to be built, and that’s not going to be built overnight. It’s not going to be built in a year, and we’d be lucky if it was built in ten years.”

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Chester believes it’ll be more difficult for states unaccustomed to natural disasters to take on recovery responsibilities.

“I think is going to be very different from a place like Iowa that has a smaller government than a place like Florida or New York or California,” she said. “What we really need is to be shifting our resources pre-disaster and our funding pre-disaster so communities aren’t suffering in the first place.”

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Elon Musk’s America PAC is putting down more than $20,000 to pay for texting services on behalf of Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis, both of whom are running to replace Florida Republicans that President Donald Trump sought to take with him to the White House, according to the Federal Election Commission.

FEC records indicate the America PAC paid marketing agency IMGE LLC $10,244.45 each for texting services related to Fine and Patronis, a total of $20,488.90.

The special election for the U.S. House seat in District 6 — left open after Mike Waltz became President Trump’s national security advisor — pits Republican Randy Fine against Democrat Josh Weil. The Republican stronghold spans parts of Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns, Marion, Putnam and Lake counties.

President Trump won the district by 30 points and has endorsed Fine while Weil, an Orlando school teacher who’s reportedly fundraised millions more than his opponent, believes Trump’s endorsement — what he calls Fine’s “only campaign strategy” — may backfire.

Fine, R-Brevard County, is resigning effective March 31 from the state Senate.

[ Here are the candidates running to replace Randy Fine in Florida Senate District 19]

Not dissimilar to Fine’s campaign strategy is that of Patronis, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, who’s also running as Trump’s pick.

Patronis is vying for the U.S. House seat in District 1, which former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz occupied. The seat opened up when Gaetz announced he wouldn’t be returning to Congress, after he bowed out of consideration to be Trump’s attorney general amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

The election is set for April 1. Early voting for the special elections is underway and runs through Saturday, March 29. Find out how you can vote HERE.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Jaguars will need a place to play their home games in 2027. Orlando’s Camping World Stadium hopes to land the assignment.

Via WESH-TV, the Orange County Tourist Development Tax Sports Incentive Committee has authorized spending at least $10 million to lure the Jaguars to Orlando.

Gainesville also is attempting to attract the Jaguars to the University of Florida’s stadium for all or part of the season. Per the report, however, there’s a belief that Orlando has the upper hand given its infrastructure, attractions, and accommodations.

A decision is expected this summer.

Florida Citrus Sports projects that the eight 2027 Jaguars home games (the ninth will be played in England) would generate a financial impact of $160 million.

As to the apparent possibility of splitting the games between multiple stadiums, remember this — any stadium in which NFL games are played must have the appropriate technical capabilities in place, from the real-time connection to the league office for replay review to the implementation of boundary cameras and all other related NFL technology.

For that reason, it makes plenty of sense for the Jaguars and/or the NFL to pick one stadium and stick with it.