Treasury Investigates DeSantis

The Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis improperly used coronavirus relief funds to transport migrants to Massachusetts following a request from members of the latter state’s congressional delegation.

The news comes weeks after the DeSantis administration sent two planes of about 50 Venezuelan nationals from Texas to the wealthy enclave of Martha’s Vineyard with a stop in Florida along the way, drawing outrage for what some – including President Joe Biden – have called a political stunt. 

Biden dismissed the ploy at the time and said Republicans are “playing politics with human beings, using them as props.”  READ MORE...

Florida's Use of COVID Funds

A watchdog group with the U.S. Treasury Department plans to examine whether Florida government properly used federal pandemic recovery money in connection to last month’s efforts to relocate migrants, a top official with the agency told the Massachusetts congressional delegation last week. 

In a letter dated Oct. 7, Richard Delmar, the Treasury Department’s deputy inspector general, wrote that his department plans “to get this work underway as quickly as possible,” as part of its broader oversight of Florida’s use of funds allocated by the American Rescue Plan Act last year. 

Delmar was responding to a written request from members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, who last month called on the department to investigate what the lawmakers deemed a misuse of pandemic relief money.  READ MORE...