Good morning everyone. Welcome to the legislative affairs and intergovernmental relations committee meeting of August 15th, 2024. Could I please have a roll call? Here. Here. Drisco. Here. Fixanders. Okay. Everyone we have an agenda before us. I'll entertain the motion for approval. Move approval. All in favor. We also have for approval the minutes of April 18th, 2024. I'll entertain the motion for approval. Make a approval. All in favor. Okay. Well, welcome, everyone, for our Federal recap. Today, we are joined by representatives of Senator Mark Rubio's office. We have Savannah Sipsi here. We also have from Anna Polina Luna's office. We have Samuel Wilson here. And we also have James and Carnegie from Representative Kathy Castor's office. And we have our legislative representative in United States, United States Washington DC, Robert Diamond. Welcome. Good. I hope that everyone had a chance to maybe meet with Robert Diamond. He came in to kind of give everyone an opportunity to have a one-on-one and the meet and ask any questions of what's happening before our meeting. So what we'll do is we'll start today with Robert and he's gonna kind of give us an overview of what's happening in Washington, DC and then we'll kind of go over to everyone and do a federal recap and they can give us an overview of what's happening in each of representative's office. So with that, I'll turn it over to Robert Diamond. Thank you, Madam Chair. Great to be back with everybody again and appreciate the opportunity to update you on what's going on in Washington, DC. It's not lost in anybody. It's been quite an eventful few weeks and months. I'll come back at the end on a little bit of an election update, but want to talk more on the official side first. Congress, most of Washington, and recess right now for August, returning after Labor Day to pick up official business with the main item really being the appropriations activities for fiscal year 25, where we have, and thanks for our representatives, our community project funding asks in those packages, and I'm sure the reps will talk a little bit more about that. Those remain right now in the subcommittee markup process, and then those appropriations committees will continue to meet, approve those bills. It is our expectation that we will see a post-election day omnibus appropriations vehicle move through Congress, so we're probably not going to see individual spending bills passed. We will see sort of one gigantic appropriations bill move post election. I don't think much else is going to move prior to the election. Frankly also, there's some other must pass pieces of legislation that Congress has this year, including the National Defense Authorization Act. We're still looking to see if there will be Farm Bill Reauthorization this year. It is due, but it has just been extended. But those major activities, again, I think are going to be dramatically influenced by the November election, what the next Congress is going to look like and determine what those votes and how those are going to shake out. We continue to work aggressively with the mayor and his team on our grant activities. Again, Kudos to the team for the robust process we have in place there. We continue to look for every opportunity to make sure we are applying for and competing for discretionary grant opportunities within the federal executive branch. We are keeping a close eye and I have the privilege of talking with Council Member Gabri about again this morning on all issues related to the national flood insurance program and any reform activities there. I have unfortunately no good news in that regard. It still sits within the subcommittee process. Both FEMA reform package and other bills introduced by members of Congress and I look forward to discussing that more broadly with everybody how we continue to champion those issues on behalf of the city and the residents here. Lastly, I'll just touch on the election and happy to take any questions. This is obviously a very dynamic year with both the White House and the Chambers in play. So we will have a very – we will have a dramatically different Washington DC under any scenario come January and that will obviously shape a lot of what we want to focus on next year. We have our federal legislative priorities discussion scheduled for post-election in November, so look forward to being able to have that discussion with a little bit of foresight as to what the next Congress and what the next administration is going to look like and how we can do that. But we are back to a scenario where the presidential race is a 50-50 tie. Essentially, we're back to a point-toss in that regard. It was clear a couple of weeks ago that I think President Trump was on a path to victory. That's, you've seen the Democratic Party react to that. But essentially, we're back to a 50-50 race right now as far as the White House goes. Sitting here today, it's our prediction that the Senate would go Republican and go from Democratic and controlled or Republican control based on those races around the country. Also our prediction today that the Democrats have the likely path to take control of the House. So that's just based on what we're seeing in the field today. That continues to be dynamic races across the country. These are razor thin margins in all of these places, in all of these races. And even if in that scenario of a switch of control of the Senate and a switch of the control of the House, those would remain very tight margins. For the Senate, for example, you can see a 51-49 Republican control in the Senate is a very likely outcome. What does that mean? It means that just means it's a lot harder to get bigger things done in Washington under those very slim margins. So I think we will see another cycle in Congress with that. But with that, I'd love to take any questions from the committee. And again, thank you for an opportunity to update you guys today. Well, thank you, Mr. Diamond. Hopefully, it's not as dynamic as it was this summer. It was pretty dynamic. So to say the least. But before I turn it over to the committee, I want to give administration and David Thompson and do a Washington opportunity to speak about any issues, whether it's the community funding request or any grants or anything at the federal level that you would like to kind of cover that maybe has not been covered. Yeah, so I'll just briefly run through. You'll see the update, the tracker that we have for the federal community project fundings. And I do believe there was also some attachments in the initial email with the wrap up on the state tracker, the appropriations that all came through there. Thank you again for approving the contract for the 300,000 for St. Pete Fire. And then you'll also note the federal legislative bill tracker there. I think in our one-on-ones with the council members in Rob, we've discussed some additional bills that will be added to that tracker and you'll see that moving forward and updated for the next time that we meet. But really appreciate the continued partnership with Council on all of the work that we're doing to advocate on behalf of the City of St. Pete. And I'll just keep it short so we can hear from our representative. Great. Thank you. And Noah, would you like, yes? I just want to say one thing. So to both Congresswoman Kaster and Looner's office, thank you both so much for your engagement and these community project funding. I know there's a lot of dynamics, but you both have been incredible. So thank you for all the work. The staff has done it. If you could pass that along, be represented. Yes. Thank you. And we're extremely happy that we got a lot of funding requests that we've been doing. I'm both a castor's office and Luna's office, they were submitted requests that got funded, and it benefits all our citizens here in St. Petersburg, so we really appreciate getting money. That goes to the federal level, coming back to the local level always, and we will always take it. So thank you. Okay, Vice Chair Gabbard. Quick question on the Congress federal bill tracker. So the very last one on the list, the Farm Food and National Security Act. Can you speak specifically as to how that bill may affect us with our urban agriculture, our food deserts, the work that we are trying to do around food insecurity in an urban community? Can you speak a little bit about how that bill could be helpful if passed? Yes, so this is one of those. We have a divided Congress. So the house version of this bill looks very different than the Senate version of this bill. But the opportunities within that are largely around nutrition. So regardless of what ultimately get passed, there will be changes to the SNAP program and other food assistance programs, some potential opportunities for school, meal, expansion. This is something we've also spoken with our state representatives about making sure the money that gets funneled to the state also comes down all the way to us. And then from the urban agriculture, the urban agriculture department within the Department of Agriculture was first created in 2018. So we are just for six years, well, I guess they didn't reauthorize it on time. But we are just at the beginning of what that department looks like. So there are a lot of opportunities on what we can do to shape and inform what is going to happen in that space. And the last time mayor was in Washington, D.C., we had an opportunity to meet with some of the Department of Agriculture folks. They were actually very impressed with some of the work that we are doing in St. Pete to make it a place where, from even a zoning perspective, that urban agriculture farmers can work. So we're going to continue to make sure that the policy and the framing goes to support that. One of those is the lending for urban agriculture because there really hasn't been an infrastructure for those types of farmers. They don't have capital to actually expand their operations, same thing with minority farmers. So those are two I would highlight within that package. Fantastic, thank you so much. I appreciate the update. Thank you so much. I appreciate the update Thank you chair. Okay any other committee members or council members Well Robert, they're letting you off easy So now we go with our forward with our federal recap first on the list I have is Savannah Sipsy. She's the Gulf Coast Regional Director for Senator Mark Rubio. Savannah, welcome to St. Pete. Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me. And so, yes, as the Senator's Regional Director for this area, I have the privilege of covering nine counties around me. Penalis being the one I get to spend a large amount of time at. And so it's a blessing. But I've just put in some legislation that has been introduced to this Congress that I felt applied to some of the priorities of St.P. and so some of the first things I wanted to cover was flooding environmental issues. At the beginning of this year, the senator introduced a flood risk transparency for Home Buyer's Act as that is something that was actually brought to my attention in Sutra's County early late last year regarding people be not being aware that their home had previously been impacted and so that's something huge that has not been required to be disclosed and so hopefully we can get that pass that would be a huge shame for everyone and then also the flood insurance rate map intergracy interagency, sorry, that would require the input of multiple agencies to put in to the national flood NFIP rate map. So that would be helpful to get more than one opinion. Additionally, I did want to share that the Senator last week sent quite a few letters to the president regarding Trump's storm hurricane Debbie, getting different emergency assistance down here. I know that wasn't necessarily as impactful for panelists, thankfully, but it was more so for Manitian 07 counties that I covered. But then he's also at the beginning of this year and late last year sent letters along with Senator Scott pressing FEMA on the Dwindling disaster relief fund. So it's something that's high on his mind as especially where in the midst of her kids season. So that's really it I have for flooding environmental but housing the senators introduced several legislations regarding specifically section eight housing to help improve conditions and quality of living is something that the whole state has taken a priority in and looked into several different housing complexes from Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa areas to hopefully get the quality of living back up to a livable standard. And so those are all listed there with some different initiatives from removing blood paint to timber control. So please let me know if you have any questions on those. And then small business, the senator is still on the Committee on Small Business in entrepreneurship. He was the vice chair, or he was the chairman of it, sorry, in the 116th Congress back in the time period. And so he's still active in that and introduced some legislation to help small businesses get different loans. And also keep the SBA assistance, you know, away from China's. He's big on intelligence and foreign relations. And so there's some of his main focuses in protecting our local small businesses here in Florida. And then education kind of going back to that snap conversation when we were having earlier. He is hoping to modernize that. As Florida was unequivocally uncounted for, as far as the spending they got in, based off the 2021 year, Florida accounted for 8% of snap recipients, but only was getting 2.6% of snap-ed funding. So he's hoping to bring the standardsers up to a more modern timeframe because it's still being based off of FY 2009. So that's something that's big on his mind and making sure families are getting healthy and options that are sustainable for learning and whatnot and it courage growth. And so that's a big one and then just keeping trying out of our school systems, keeping that away from interfering with young minds is a huge priority of this. But that's all that I have to update y'all on. So. Well, Savannah, thank you so much. We really appreciate Senator Rubio focusing on issues such as flooding in the environment and housing. Those are huge issues in our community. Not just because it happens to be hurricane season, hurricane season highlights it, but maybe we have sunny day flooding and you know we want to make sure that flooding and insurance is a priority in Washington. My understanding is it's not one of the top issues that's talked about a lot, but you see more and more that more states are being affected by these severe storms. And we've been affected by severe storms for a long time, especially by shared gathered system and council member Montenegro's system. Deal with it a lot and you hear them in a lot of committee meetings talking about the flooding issues. We get it in our districts too not as much as there but we get it throughout our city. So we want to make sure that that is a priority and how do we ensure that our senators are focusing on flooding and insurance for that matter at the federal level. I mean, what are the things and maybe you don't have to answer now, but you can let us know what are the things that we could be doing to ensure that this is a priority, because I'm sure you hear this, not just from our county everywhere else. Yes, yes, the whole golf coast of the state, I mean, even the Eastern coast as well, it was experiencing these issues. And I mean, you're seeing it in Polk County, you're seeing it in Orange County. So it's truly become an issue. And, you know, keeping us aware of any asset you may have, I know I should have also mentioned in the environmental section that the senator still is working closely with the Army Corps and the rest of our wonderful legislation here on the beetroot nourishment issues and whatnot. And, you know, I know the flooding can help erode that and whatnot. But if there's any big projects like that dollar looking for, we'll be glad to work with our legislation to make sure the community's taken care of. OK, I appreciate that. And, you know, Robert, I don't know if you want to kind of just put it out there in terms of what your thoughts are on how we can champion these issues given the fact that we have our reps here and having a meeting on the federal issues, kind of the flooding and insurance issues that are. Yeah, I think, you know, my opinion, we've got to do everything we can to continue to raise the profile of the issue in Washington DC. It's critical to so many people in Florida, but it's not at the top of the list in Congress right now, and that's the hard part. So we've got our work cut out for us collectively as a community, as a state, as a delegation to really raise the profile of the issue. And that's hard to do. You're competing with every other policy, priority in Washington, DC, but we really need strong champions, loud voices. We've discussed a little bit in our one-on-one about, we will have a new Congress in next year. We should come out of the gate strong with whoever those new committee chairs of who are responsible for oversight on flood and FEMA. We should come out strong, right in February, and bring a gathering of local officials from not just different counties in Florida, but frankly different districts around the country. I mean, we've got, this is happening in Louisiana, this is happening up and down the East Coast, it's happening in Vermont, it's happening in, you know, up and down the Mississippi River. And so this has become a critical national issue. But I'm being honest when I tell you it's not breaking through in the top 10 list of issues for the Congress to address. And so I mentioned there's a possibility we would have a speaker who represents a coastal district in New York City. I mean, we've got to really take advantage of that and look forward to working with, and I know every one of our delegation understands us and is working harder on the issue. But as visible and as important as down here, it has not necessarily translated to that top of the list in DC and that's where we're going to cut out. We're working through all of our organizations. We've working through all of our organizations. We're working through Florida, League of Cities, National League of Cities. I think we just have to continue to find every avenue we have to elevate the issue, find those champions and make as much noise as about this as we can. I appreciate that. Thank you. Committee members, Vice Chair Gabbard, and then Council Member Driscoll. So just one thing that I would kind of pull out on the flooding issue and specifically around I think action that Congress could take. So when we're creating 2.0 was done administratively a few years ago through the NFIP and FEMA there was a piece that was around the mitigation. And, you know, we are always encouraging our residents to mitigate where they can, especially as it pertains to taking advantage of the federal monies that exist to elevate your home. That was a much easier sell to people when one cost were lower, right? It's become incredibly expensive. But two, whenever there was a savings on the back end for their flood insurance premium. Now, due to risk rating 2.0, they are not recognizing those same level of savings when they go through all of the cost and all of the time and energy and hassle of mitigating and getting themselves up out of harm's way, that discount, which in some areas could have been upwards of 80%, 90% of a discount on their flood insurance policy, that is now not happening. FEMA is aware of this. The NFIP people are aware of this. And essentially, that has fallen on deaf ears when that concern has been brought forward. So I'm looking at Congress as really, they are gonna have to be the catalyst for change on this particular issue because in a coastal community, it does us no good to try to advocate for mitigation in these neighborhoods when there is no cost savings on the back end. So I would just ask for assistance on that particular issue. It could be kind of a standalone bill. It could be part of the package, but there needs to be some real highlight put around that. So just wanted to bring that up. And then you had mentioned about Senator Rubio's stance on small business. I had brought this up in our one-on-one, so I just wanted to kind of elevate protection of a 1099 status. We have a lot of small business here in our community. We encourage small business. We encourage entrepreneurship. 1099 status is very important to that. And there's been a lot of talk through the Department of Labor, Federal Trade Commission about reevaluating what 1099 status looks like and so I would say do no harm when it comes to that and if we could get our delegation to be champions around protecting that I think that could go a long way for our small business community so I just wanted to bring that up as well because it's something we haven't really ever talked about before. Well, thank you. I'll be sure to flank that as well for our Kenai Hedosada Shusada. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Driscoff. Thank you. And thanks to all of you for being here today. I had a couple of questions for Savina. And thank you for being here. It's great to see you. It's a pleasure. I was really happy to see that all of the legislation under housing in the summary that you sent to us is related to helping situations with those who have low incomes with their housing. And a lot of new requirements in upgrading the standards of housing around HUD and Section 8 recipients. This is important. I mean, there was just recently an article in the Tampa Bay Times about how in the state of Florida landlords are required to provide units with heat but not with air conditioning. And it seems it should be done. Yeah, really should. And so under the Safe Temperature Act, it looks like that could be addressed. And I appreciate that very much. And then, you know, these other pieces really talk about, you know, ensuring that everyone has a safe and comfortable place to live. And that's safe physically, but then also with the external environment to making sure that security is insured as well. All of this together is really meaningful for many of our residents who are struggling and who are receiving that federal assistance for their housing. So I think we can agree that that's a priority for us as well and anything I'll just get myself anything that I can do to help with with with that I would be I would be thrilled to see all of that moving forward. Well thank you and if there ever is you know in any of the else districts, some housing that is a concern, we have, you know, champion and had, you know, Senator come out, Senator look into it, and you know, raise it to hunt, is this is, you know, unacceptable. Head funding should not be coming to this. And so it's a very passionate thing of all of our offices. So we want to be aware of there are situations and the more awareness, the more legislation we can introduce that pertains to different issues. So we've seen quite a bit of, we'll just call it squalor, I mean for all the tends to purposes around the day. And so. Right. We've made some really good progress on developing new affordable housing in our city. But we wanna make sure that the housing that already exists is properly maintained. So thank you for that. Another question that I have is we're learning SNAP and modernizing that. I mean that's music to my ears. There are so many people in the state of Florida who are eligible for SNAP but don't know, but don't apply either out of pride or because they don't know that they're eligible. And so as you look at making improvements with this and this becomes increasingly important especially at a time when we have a governor who is rejecting federal funding for summer food programs and allowing children, forcing children to go hungry through the summer. We need better snap period, you know. So I'm extremely supportive of that. And I hope that as this moves forward, you'll also be taking a look at that education as far as communicating it out to residents and making sure the people know that this is a benefit that they are eligible for and that it's easy for them to apply. I know that got, that was really tricky until the pandemic and the pandemic really forced everyone to look at a better way to apply for SNAP. So you don't have to, if you live in Pinellas County, before that, you would have to get on a bus and go to Clearwater to apply in person. And that was the only way he could snap. So we've gotten better, but there's more work to be done. And I really look forward to seeing how that moves forward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sheriff Fakes Sanders. Thank you. And thank you, Mrs. C. Hulley, update. The only, I don't know if it's a question. Well, it may be a question in the Combo statement on your prepare act because small business is vital for us here locally. The one question I have is I appreciate the fact that it is allowing the opportunity for small businesses to protect their property from future disaster. But the first thing in my mind when I saw this is they're still repairing themselves from a previous disaster. And so when we think about loans immediately I go to credit score and them being out of business for such a long time and trying to repair from a prior occurrence. If we could find a way, and I don't know how successful or what the numbers look like with this particular program, but a lot of the smaller businesses, once they've gone through something as drastic, disaster-related as that, it takes a long time to rebuild. So a lot of other personal finances, a lot of other situations kind of hindered them from taking out any loans, low interest, no interest, it still takes a lot from them to do that. So I'm hoping that when we look into this, that we can, and I don't know if grants would even be a consideration, as far as the loans are concerned, but for those that are trying to protect from future disaster related damage, I think looking at the prior steps that happen before a business owner can apply for these dollars, what that looks like for that small business. Because you know small business is just that small business. Their revenues are very limited, you know, their resources are very limited. So I love the fact that they do have this option but it's a steps prior to that caught my attention. Okay, yes. And you know, I'm not too sure I am not a legislator person. I will be completely honest with that, but I can you know flag and see what we can find out of what the typical process looks like. I think this is more of a, you know, to prepare to sort of that kind of thing. It's more of a life jacket and I appreciate that. But again, this business is that really needed. They've gone through so much before they even get to this step. And what are those gaps? What does that look like that we can improve the process for them that would really benefit from this? And so that was just the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this as to how we can help them prepare for a loan and when I saw the word loan it's like okay by the time they get to apply for a whole other loan for something else I don't know what they went to as I went through as a small business owner to get to that particular point because they I'm sure they've exhausted all the finances, their credit score, which is so important to so many people has been challenged in this process. So, but I love that and so thank you so much for that. But that was just a question and some of the things that came to my mind when I saw that. Absolutely, well I appreciate you bringing that, you know, with that point to my attention too and I'll be sure to look into that Thank you, Mrs I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you chair Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. Real quick On Senator Rubia's list is the feature announcement which I know representative or congresswoman Luna is very passionate about as well. And so I wanted to give you a chance to weigh in on that because I know that she is fired up about that one. And I really admire the passion that she has put into that particular issue, specifically as it relates to the Army Corps of Engineers. And so, it is wonderful to have two members of Congress working on this who truly understand how important it is. So... It's well true being this issue. So I will call it the I will give them. Oh good. I do my time in DC last year, I spent many conversations with your staff up there. So obviously, we know Beach Reneurshipment is the hot topic. Hot topic is something we've been focusing on since, you know, she took office. She had the ground running on that. I think we formed a strong coalition of beach mayors that have really come together. We sent four letters now to the Secretary of Conor of the Army Corps, and it has been a battle, but it's something that she is more than passionate on. We've tried many times to kind of get the easements requirements dropped, because a lot of those owners on the beach on the way that they don't want their properties to be worked on, they don't want to sign it for various reasons and we're trying to work with that because we understand it, it's your property. You don't want to sign it, you don't have to sign it. But I think the Army Corps requiring to sign it saying, hey, we're not going to do any work on your beach. And now what we've seen, we're in the midst of hurricane season. It takes one giant hurricane to completely wipe out our news. That's it. And we almost got lucky two years ago with, in 2022 with Ian, that was headed right for us and a mist. So imagine if that did. And obviously many members, right of us, haven't really pushed the Army Corps to tackle the easements, tackle beach and earth as a whole. So we have done what we can do so far, but we're not going to give up on it obviously with everything can happen with the elections. You know, you can get different members come in and we can work with them, but we are going to stay hammering them until we can get those easements fixed and we've even gotten to amendments and the water resource and development act I just want to talk about one pass unanimously by voice that would just tackle the easements in general just to Lower the requirements of the easements that passed unanimously in the house and then we had one more Amendment that did not pass On it and then the bill ended up failing. So it's been a back and forth thing but we will every opportunity that we get to deal with beach learners remember we're going to take. I know the Congresswoman sitting on natural resources I think that is the plus for the community I think. At any time there's an issue that gets brought up to her attention. She goes right to the committee and she says, this is what people with panels kind of care about. What can we do to get something done? So, and she's done that time and time again. So, we'll keep on hammering away. Yes, well thank you for that. I mean, even if even though the beaches are not in St. Petersburg proper, we benefit from that too. Not only is residents, I mean that's where we go, but also it is such an important part of tourism for all of us, because once our visitors get too much sun on the beach, they wanna hop over to downtown St. Pete and enjoy our museums and our galleries, taking a baseball game, things like that. And so we are one community when it comes to caring for our beaches. So just really appreciate all that you've done for them and keep fighting the good fight. And I definitely want to extend, I know the Congresswoman definitely wants to extend in our amount to you an arm out to you all to anything that you all think is a priority and we need to tackle with that. Just keep us informed. Like I said, we have a strong coalition with all the mayors on the beaches and we talk regularly what are you hearing from the people? So obviously, like you said, we're not near the beach right now but a lot of people in this community have properties on the beach or stay as involved as we can. Right. All right. Thank you. Thank you Council Member Driscoll. So I know Council Member Driscoll brought up the beaches but I would like to give you an opportunity to talk about other issues that representative Luna is working on. First again thank you for working with us on the community funding request. We're very happy to see those come through and we're looking forward for the next round to put in more community funding requests. So thank you again and Samo. Tell us a little bit more about what's happening. So obviously, first term congresswoman Luda has, I like to say, I was like to joke, taken DC by storm. So obviously, tries everything she can, obviously being a member of the military. She, we have released now. Our first bill was to bring where it's a sexual assault within the military. I think that is her priority as we dropped five bills now dealing with human trafficking and sexual assault going after predators. So that is something as she is now a mother, so that's something she holds near and dear. And so we've really been trying to hit that very hard. As well as we sponsored a bill on right to try IVF, I know how important. I know that she's a little touchy, but that is definitely IVF is something she strongly supports, strongly supports as in, you know, sometimes that can be a heated topic, but that is a bill that we did sponsor and that she will, she will talk all day about that so. So that's important. I know that within, we are proud that we did have three amendments passed within the NBA for military enhancing training for have dive school brought into the combat controllers to and allowing former military members to be able to wear their medals out in public I know or insert an an end in for certain occasions sometimes military members aren't allowed to wear their pins it's a whole big topic so we definitely got that in the past. So we are hitting ground running on multiple different issues, so I try not to go to nitpicky, but I definitely welcome any questions that you guys have on anything that she's been working on. So I can answer questions. Well, thank you, Samuel. Any questions from anyone else? Okay. But with that, I would love to introduce James in Carnegie, the field rep for Representative Caster. First of all, thank you so much for the correspondence from Representative Caster. We all just got it to the adding, get it any earlier. So some of us, we have not had a chance to review it, but we will review it and we appreciate the update, the thorough update from Repcaster. Thank you Madam Chair, I know it's all the council members being here as well and also the city of St. Pete. It's awesome work with you all the time. I know you all see our face and hair and aim all the time, so we're always knocking on our door and ball and y'all. Of course, going around. Short acres of river air base, so it's awesome to be here and kind of just touch on a few things that we've worked on. I knew we touched on a community project funding already, so in March, as Robert mentioned, Congress adopted the fiscal year, 24 appropriation package. And then those we had six community projects that were funded, so that was 1.5 million for the United Dent Davis Center, energy efficient improvements and Pre-Construction, $850,000 for the San Co for the development to very much need affordable housing to self-same Pete, 1.1 for PSTA to support the conversion of their bus fleet to clean electric buses and St. Peter's Bridge period gas, power-champ to electric vehicles. We also got $81,000 for a Pinellas County Urban League to update their technologies and increase reliable access to computers and boost their economy opportunities. 963,000 dollars for a USF St. Petersburg just to disrupt human trafficking data project to ate local law enforcement to support Florida's anti-human trafficking efforts and then also an additional $936,000 for USF St. Petersburg's coastal resins, anti-human trafficking efforts and also an additional $936,000 for you. So I've seen Pete as part of the Coastal Resilience Center, the Out of Visualization Center, which is to protect our beautiful natural environments and improve coastal resilience through their research and science. So we were very excited about those in fiscal year 2024. And with this upcoming year for fiscal year 25, we also submitted some more in partnership with Mayor Welch in the city. And I'll just list those pretty quickly. So 2.5 million for PSCA's 34th Street corridor improvement to make those more energy efficient transportation improvements. 5.3 million for St. Petersburg Housing, Thories at White Senior Housing Redevelopment Project. To bring some of the one units of affordable housing for seniors. We're really excited about that one and their groundbreaking here coming up in a few weeks. 5 million for the MLK Street South Flooding and Liberation Project to address persistent flooding which we've all seen. We definitely know the effects of that. 8.1 million for U.S. obscene pizza. Research Festival of Modernization and Equipment upgrades for at Florida Institute of Oceanography to enhance their scientific capacity to protect ocean resources, 1.5 million for the Sea Grass Mitigation Bank in North Shore Park, and then 4 million for St. Petersburg College Smart Tech Industry 4.0 Lab to provide training and education for today's high tech manufacturing workforce. So we really want to help them improve that pipeline with the semiconductor's photosynthesis, or I bet, micro-tronics and automation and robotics. 1.3 million for the West Eye Accrescent Lake Improvements to help improve the water quality of Crescent Lake. And then 4 million for the USF St. Petersburg and Veteran Workforce Support Center to support an energy efficient remodel of the aging facility. So that's what we're looking forward to for Fiscal 2025. I know it's a pretty happy load but the Congress woman you know she's been doing this since 2006 so you know she's excited she's willing to you know work hard and she does it all the time so she's excited to go up to Congress go back and you know fight for those appropriations. Super super excited about that and then of course we keep talking about clean energy and resilience that's's something big on her. You know, she sits on the house of the energy and the committee of energy and commerce. She used to be the select committee chair for, I mean, she used to be the chair of the select committee of climate crisis. So that's something really big and keen in her heart. So you know, as we have this all for all have our third one actually tonight from five to eight. I want to architect at the Institute of America in Tampa Bay. But earlier this year we held with Florida Solar Energy Industries Association. We convened for an education session at EOSF St. Pete to spread the word on the tax incentives and credits in a row and provide a row well well real world case studies. So I'm talking pretty fast, low nervous. You're fine, you're doing fine. Don't worry. It's going to be a row world case studies. To local organizations that had gone solar and lower their operating costs, we were joined by Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County Urban League, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, and the cities of Clearwater, Gulfport, and St. Petersburg. Other local nonprofits also took part in this, so to learn more about how they could benefit from all these tax incentives by having clean energy. Making our area more resilient. So we also partnered with Pinellas County Urban League to promote weatherization to assist neighbors who are looking to lower their monthly energy bills. With the weatherization assistance, 3.2 billion of that was boosted by the bipartisan infrastructure law which ninety three point six million dollars of that came to Florida alone so that's a pretty huge win for us so we're excited about that as well and then of course climate crisis is putting Florida workers and our tourism industry at risk we have not only experienced Florida's hottest year on record but for years he has been the leading cause of weather related fatalities in the United States. So nearly half a million floridians working outdoor jobs, including farm workers and construction workers. The congresswoman has done a good job of pressing the occupational safety, health administration or OSHA to kind of finalize up some of their rules to protect those workers that are supposed to those extreme heat conditions. Even with our USPS fleet and their delivery trucks, they're excruciating, they're very, very hot, they only have those fans. So we're also working with them to kind of electrify those and bring better opportunities and protect them. And then even more with the clean energy and I kind of wrap it up here. We got two additional federal, well two additional federal grants that we were happy to announce this year, which was the $250,000 for the NOAA Ocean-based Climate Resilience CSC allerator, which Councilwoman Driscoll was there for that as well with the St. P. Innovation District, Temple Bay Wave and the University of South Florida for the Blue Tech Accelerator Initiative to help support entrepreneurs and energize a blue economy than also the $27.8 million from the Department of Transportation Low in Novi Mission Grant that went to PSTA. That helped to advance to advance and replace all their diesel buses, which also noted is one of their largest competitive grants that they've received, so we were excited about that to announce that with them too. So that's a lot what we're doing with the clean energy and resiliency so I was trying to go there pretty quickly we got a lot but this is five pages worth it. Yes you don't have to go with the whole thing. I'm not gonna do that's all I was but I know those are big topics that you know we were talking about as far as clean energy and the congressman I mean, she's an environmental lawyer. That's something that she's very passionate about. She can name a bird just from looking at it. I don't know how, but that's her background. So she's very serious. And that's something very important as well. Well, thank you. Thank you, Jameson. It's very clear to us. Representative Kaster has been such a great representative for our city and has been working so hard and getting things done. And what is amazing to me is when I hear y'all speak about different priorities, you can see the bipartisanship that you can actually work on these issues because I didn't just hear human trafficking from one of y'all, okay, or sustainability issues or caring our environment, whether it's replenishing our beaches or our sea grass or supporting USF and the Ocean Institute. So there are things that y'all can work on together that I think are gonna benefit our community and have robust solutions to all the issues we have. So it's wonderful to hear when you do the Federal recap, see how there are lines of that kind of blur together and we can find some hopefully some solutions. So thank you for that and thank you for the recap. Chair, fixanders and then council member disco and vice chair, Gabard. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of of the update, and there's no need for you to be nervous, you're amongst friends. I know. And family. So much info to get through. No, and we are very appreciative for the document. I don't have any questions other than for you to please relate to our Congresswoman, how appreciative we are for everything that she does. And it is so obvious that she cares about St.P. and that she cares about us here with the things that she's done. I love the fact of Anna Davis Center and PSTA was huge and I was just, just so excited to see that those funding that we've received for that as well as to Urban League. A lot of these organizations make such an impact here locally for us and to see her out in the community as much as she is and to see you all out in the community as much as you are. Please relate to her, play this tape, whatever it is that you need to do to thank her for her tireless work that she continues to do for us especially here on the city of St. Petersburg and this was a fantastic update I'm definitely going to have to keep this safe so that I can go and refer to it when people ask know, what does legislative support for the City of St. Petersburg looks like, and this is the perfect example for everything that she does. So again, thank her for us, and again, you're a much family and friends, and you did a great job in your presentation. Thank you, James. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Trisco. Thank you, and thank you for that update. It really is quite an impressive list. Committee Chair Hannah Wood's made a great point about how, you know, some of these items go beyond politics. It's an everybody thing. It's all of us who live in St. Pete, in Penelope in Florida, who are so proud and want to protect what we love. One of those things, I wanted to bring up the Seagrass mitigation bank because that's something that we talk about, each renourishment. This is like our Tampa Bay renourishment. It's very much needed. And we've all read about the loss of Seagrass that has been happening through various events. Something like this the Seagrass mitigation it's not going to solve the whole problem but just like with the beach or nourishment it's something we have to do and in this case it's absolutely vital for our ecosystem. So I hope we can count on all of your offices to really support that. It's something that's been worked on for a long time. And we could really use some help with that. Another thing that's marine- related, just above that, is the funding for equipment and upgrades for the research vessels for the Florida Institute of Oceanography, which is actually a collaboration, or a collective of about a dozen different higher education institutions that just happens to be based here at the USF St. Petersburg campus. And last year they welcomed their third research vessel, the Western Flyer, and more recently have added on a remote operated vehicle that can go out on that vessel and go deep, you know, like where do work that you can't do just by diving, you know. I mean, it's just an incredible operation that they have there. And the types of work that they do are related to some of the things that your offices are interested in. So I know last year I spoke a lot with Senator Rubio's office about both the corals and that crisis that started there. Yeah, the Coral Bleaching crisis. And then also the crisis, well crisis that's going on and these are the folks that are working on those things and so supporting the Florida Institute of Oceanography which has operations in the Keys Marine Lab on the corals and and help a green more locally. Right, right. And they're just doing some incredible work that has direct connections to some of the other issues that are important to you. So I encourage you to learn more. I'm happy to get you connected. Show you around. It's something I'm very passionate about. And everyone who knows me knows I can talk about this topic all day. So just an open invitation to have a conversation, meet me out there and see some of the great things that are happening there and why this funding is so important. Same thing with the NOAA Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerator grant. I have to read it because I was forget what it all stands for. The funding that was received that grant, that 250,000 that was granted, was actually for step one. And so there will be another application for, so this is for like the planning and design. The next round will be for implementation. And so we're gonna need some help with that and that'll be coming up. But they're making some really good progress on that right now. So exciting stuff happening there. So that's all, thank you so much. Thank you, Vice Chair Gabb all. Thank you so much. Thank you. Vice-chair Gabbard. Thank you. And I will be brief. I just first wanted to say, Jameson, thank you so much on behalf of the residents of Riviera Bay. I think that we've kind of shared, but I just want to make sure everyone is aware that on July 20th, the president and the vice president of Riviera Bay Neighborhood Association requested a, well, they started out just asking the mayor to come. They wanted him to come and tour homes that were in the middle of repair, talk about Riviera Bay specific issues, that kind of morphed into a multi-jurisdictional bipartisan group and Congresswoman Kaster, and you were there along with a couple of other staff members, and just having that opportunity for our residents to speak with their federal and their state delegation along with myself and the mayor in their front yards, back yards, in their homes, seeing what they're going through was incredibly powerful. And the residents felt so seen, heard, and understood to the point of there was a conversation around an SBA loan. And that was on a Saturday and on Monday, your office in Congresswoman Caster were reaching back out to that resident to give a response. And so I just wanted to thank you, because that is what good government looks like when it comes to the people and it is responsive in real time. And so I know that she understands the issues, she cares deeply about the issues. And so please send back to her, because I haven't had an opportunity to see her since. My heartfelt thanks and the thanks of the residents because it really makes a difference in everything that is happening. People are devastated whenever they have these losses and they feel so helpless, but to know that they're not alone makes all the difference. So I really want to thank you and thank her. So please share that with her whenever you get back to the office. Yes, ma'am. My last thing is that just kind of for everyone, we had talked about this with Infrastructure Funding, Reduction Act, all of those very large bills and all of that very large sum of money that quite rightfully has come to the region, but maybe hasn't made its way so much to St. Petersburg. So I kind of want to just to put a little bit of an emphasis around that. You know, yes, we're very grateful when those dollars come to a region, especially from my point of view, as a member of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, it's very important that the region is getting those dollars. But we are doing a really great job of building up our grants team, working with our lobbyists, making sure that we are really putting our best foot forward on those dollars. And quite frankly, Tampa's been getting a large sum of it, right? And so we want to make sure that we are not forgotten when it comes to those sort of funding pieces. And any future funding that may come down as well. So I just kind of wanted to highlight that and just ask, on behalf of the residents that we all serve, don't forget St. Pete. The region is great, but St. Petersburg, really, in some of these ways is on the cutting edge of being able to take care of the issues that these funding addresses. And so we need your support. The residents of St. Petersburg that your representatives represent, they need your support. So I really just wanted to highlight that for us today as kind of my last comments and then thank all of you and the representatives and the senator for the work that they do on behalf of our residents. Thank you all so much for being here. Madam Chair, do you mind if I? No, absolutely. Go right ahead. Interior point of Tampa Bay getting a lot of the funding and I think that's one big thing that the Congresswoman has made a point. I think Doyle and David can talk about our team in the fact, like extensive conversation with like, we know we have a lot of funding over here in Tampa. Let's push it down to St. Pete. So that's the big thing that we've talked about with them. We're always, I'm always bothering David, like, hey, have you guys applied to this grant? us back and forth. So I think we're we're streamlining that communication between both offices to make sure we'll help him bring some more funding over here from our levels well. So just make sure. Yeah, David. And just briefly I want to let all the representatives speak for us but there are a few things that we do about. One of those who's Senator Rubio is the expansion or the re-expansion of the child tax credit. This is something we've talked about poverty reduction in our community and the child tax credit. This is the biggest reduction in child poverty in decades. Mayor Woll sent a letter to Senator Rubio in the delegation highlighting that. And that's something Senator Rubio has indicated he's supportive of his continuing working on. I also wanna know with Congressman Lewis's office, their work on mental health for our first responders. We have the opportunity to meet and discuss that as well, and then I have to call Congressman Cass or the grants queen, this not a letter that we have asked for support on these grants, no matter what the turnaround cleaners, not a letter that we have asked for support on these grants, no matter what the turnaround time is, that their office has been responsive on. And both Congresswoman Luna and Congresswoman Caster, when Mayor Welch sent a letter, a letter letter with all the mayors in the Pinellas County on these flooding issues, both of their offices provided support, quotes, and amplification of that. So we really appreciate some of the, smaller things that happened day to day, but they do make a difference in the lives of our residents. Thank you, David. And I'm glad, first of all, vice share a gatherer that you mentioned, the region and Tampa and St. Pete. Here's what people forget. We are within the top five largest cities in the state. Tampa and St. Pete are within those large five. So we're right next to each other and we are pretty much huge cities, you know, compared to the rest of the state, but somehow sometimes, you know, we kind of get forgotten. And I think it's important to remember that, you know, St.P. is not only a large city, it's growing. It's growing by leaps and bounds. And so, you know, and then you put that in context, which is we are what the third largest state in terms of population in the United States. So that always kind of, to me, reminds me how much of an impact that we have in our city. On these issues that we talk about, whether it's the environment in sea grass and making sure the beaches are nourished, we are advocating for a very large city for issues that, honestly, are throughout the state. for a very large city for issues that honestly are throughout the state. You know, these are the same issues that you hear about. So I really appreciate the partnerships that we have. I also tell you one of the things that these meetings highlight is we're here for you because we can tell you on the ground what the issues are that are important, how you can help, and they'll probably align with your priorities. And you can fight for our residents and for the citizens here to make sure that their needs are met, whether it is the flooding issues and going out there when disaster happens. And it's a good time to remember we are in hurricane season. We are just beginning really so you know we just had this storm and there could be another one around the corner so it's very good to be engaged on these issues as much as as much as we can with the residents to be proactive in terms of the solutions we have, because as we know legislation takes a very long time to get through and to make it the magic happen. I know you wanted to say something. Yeah, just as we closed, I just wanted to give the Evergreen reminder that we were talking about our FY25 CPF requests that are now in and working their way through the appropriations process. This fall is the time for all of us collectively to be focused on FY26. I think as our colleagues in the Congress, though, they had like a week window this year when the guidance officially came out to when those requests were due. It should be no surprise to us that that process is going to happen again. It's going to be that it's going to be chaotic again with the new Congress, but it doesn't mean we can't have our, and as we've done in the past work collectively, Mayor to Council, Council to Mayor, and then collectively with the federal delegation to be well ahead of that process moving into the new Congress in January, but those discussions should be this fall. So look forward to that process kicking off again. And in a welcome, any guidance that's in advance, I know we never have the formal subcommittee guidance until the end of January, but we know it's gonna be there. So that's my reminder. That's a wonderful contrast, because some things take a very long time, but community funding requests, we can get money quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Is that a plan ahead? Yeah. So that's a very good contrast to something that could be done quicker and see the results much faster. So thank you for that. Is there any other questions or comments by committee members? OK. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I think this is very important meeting to kind of give the residents and us an update as to what is happening at the federal level and to see ways that we can work together to find more solutions for our citizens and Robert thank you for coming from DC to spend time with us meeting with us one-on-one. Administration thank you for coming from DC to spend time with us, meeting with us one on one. Administration, thank you for your hard work and making sure that we are tackling every grant and every source of funding that we can get here. That is very much needed. With that said, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Thank you all. Thank you. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you.