This morning, I met with all the elected Senators and Representatives for Tampa Bay, along with County, City, and community leaders, CEOs and public heath officials to discuss the needs and capabilities of our region.

One thing is clear, traffic is in a gridlock and I'm doing everything possible to find, unlock, and speed up funding for our urgent transportation needs. We've already received commitments from FDOT to fix the highway interchanges along I-75 from Big Bend to Boyette, US-301, and Brandon Blvd but we're not stopping there. We're repaving State Road-60 and adding capacity further to the East, additionally we're about to start a long-term intersection improvement to Bloomingdale Blvd and US-301.

As it pertains to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, HCPS reports a 47% reduction in students missing class since imprementing its mask mandate. That's a 58% reduction from our peak on August 20th. Masks, vaccines, and testing are helping beat this virus once and for all and I hope you'll help me share that message by clicking below to share this simple message of success on Facebook.

A number of activists came to talk about criminal justice reforms and I'm proud to continue to be an ally in the effort on the Judiciary Committee. Our prisons are in a state of crisis according to the Secretary of Corrections and we MUST look wholeistically at the probem to find common ground solutions. 

I'll be working to clean up Tampa Bay with clean water initiatives that help reduce Red Tide and blue/green algea blooms. I have bills in drafting to address the crisis and get at the root causes of water pollution in our bay.

Lastly, and I think I speak for the entire delegation when I say this, GO BUCS!!!