Tallahassee, Fla. — Today, Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried, an independently elected member of the Florida Cabinet, released the following statement after her request was denied to add discussions to the March 29th Cabinet meeting about affordable housing, homeowners property insurance, condominium inspections, and divesting state assets from Russia.
“It’s an insult to the people of Florida that Republicans in our state continue to ignore so many of the important issues that are negatively impacting people’s lives. We need to take immediate action to stop the spike in housing and homeowners insurance costs so Floridians aren’t priced out of their homes. It’s also negligent beyond belief to not work to improve condo safety after the devastating tragedy in Surfside last year. We need a plan to immediately divest the $300 million our state has in Russian entities so Florida taxpayers aren’t helping to fund Putin’s unprovoked and murderous war in Ukraine. Since the Legislature decided to leave Tallahassee without addressing any of these issues, the Cabinet should act immediately. Unfortunately it seems that Governor DeSantis would rather focus on college swim meets in other states and taking rights away from Floridians than doing anything to actually help them.”
Commissioner Fried requested that during the upcoming Cabinet meeting, the Office of Insurance Regulation discuss taking action to decrease the costs of homeowners property insurance; the Department of Economic Opportunity discuss implementing policies to prevent rent increases and provide more affordable housing; the State Board of Administration discuss divesting from Russian assets in light of the Russian war in Ukraine; and the Cabinet discuss improving condominium inspections after the Surfside tragedy. The agenda for the Cabinet meeting was released without any of her requested items included. The Cabinet has not met since September.
