SARASOTA, Fla. – In case you missed it, Senator Rick Scott wrote an op-ed for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune highlighting his efforts to make Washington work for Florida’s citrus industry as the Biden administration has turned a blind eye and abandoned Florida’s growers following last year’s hurricane season. In the op-ed, Senator Scott urges the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to immediately distribute disaster aid funds to citrus growers in need, and support his Block Grant Assistant Act.

In the op-ed, Senator Rick Scott wrote, “When disaster strikes, Floridians expect their government to show up. Families in our state aren’t looking for a handout, they are hoping to recover. But since Hurricanes Ian and Nicole wreaked havoc on Southwest Florida last fall, politicians in Washington and the Biden administration have left our Florida families and businesses, and especially our citrus industry, without needed assistance.

Even now, the Biden administration wants to tie the funding FEMA needs to respond to future storms to completely unrelated issues, like Ukraine aid. Floridians, and especially our citrus growers, don’t deserve to be used as a political pawn. I’ve been fighting since these storms to get our families and growers what they need…

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On Sept. 28, 2022, when Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, it devastated everything in its path, including more than 93% of citrus groves across the Sunshine State.

The hardest hit groves were subject to hurricane-force winds and unprecedented flooding.

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About a month later, Florida’s badly damaged groves were hit by another hurricane – Hurricane Nicole. Some growers reported a near-total loss of their crop for the season.

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As governor of Florida, I oversaw recovery from multiple devastating hurricanes… We were able to support the recovery of Florida’s citrus groves with the help of a Block Grant program funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

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I fought to make sure growers got the direct relief they deserve. But my efforts were blocked by Democrats in the Senate…

Immediately following that setback, I, along with several of my colleagues, proposed the Block Grant Assistance Act to renew the authority for the Block Grant program that has successfully supported citrus recovery in the past.

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The Block Grant Assistance Act passed the House in June, but the legislation is stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

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As it stands now, the USDA has abandoned Florida citrus growers, leaving them with no other option but to sell their land to developers and forever shrinking Florida’s farmland.

If the USDA believes it does not have the authority needed to fulfill their mission of ‘protect[ing] the health and value of American agriculture and natural resources,’ they should ask my colleagues in Congress to support the Block Grant Assistance Act and allow the state to distribute disaster aid to growers. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has decided to abandon the Florida citrus industry.

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The Florida citrus industry, like all Floridians, pay federal taxes. When disaster strikes, our citrus growers and all Floridians deserve a federal government which has our back. Unfortunately, that is not happening. We all must stand up and demand that the Senate passes my Block Grant Assistance Act.

We cannot wait for action any longer.”

Read the full op-ed in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune HERE.

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