Miami-Dade social services feel sequester pinch

@doug_hanks

Rosanna Taveras figured the federal budget cuts from the so-called sequester would go unnoticed at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

But Taveras, the agency’s director, will close a Miami Gardens program that serves about 30 hot lunches a day to elderly residents of an apartment building.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t think we were going to be cut,’’ Taveras recalled. “But in the beginning of April, I realized I had to close something.”

Friday’s scheduled closing of the free-lunch program at the Saint Monica senior apartment building captures a string of ripple effects in South Florida from the sequester, a collection of $85 billion worth of spending cuts triggered by the failure of the White House and Congress to agree on deficit-reduction plan.

Although the nation’s airports caught most of the attention from the sequester, the cuts are being blamed for a string of smaller reductions at all levels of government, affecting mostly the elderly and poor.

Miami-Dade County last week alone issued a tally of estimated costs from the sequester for its operations, and the bulk of the $12 million tally comes from $9.5 million worth of security and immigration reductions at Miami International Airport. Beyond the high-profile airport impacts, the summary from Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s office shows smaller cuts to social services, including $730,000 in stipends to help the poor pay their utility bills and $25,000 for the county’s victims-assistance office.

The breakdown offers the first detailed look at the sequester’s estimated impact on Miami-Dade, Florida’s biggest county. With the sequester about to enter its third month, the ripple effects from the federal cuts still haven’t been fully measured or estimated by the local governments who rely on Washington to subsidize programs and facilities.

More here.

Cutler Bay mayor to kick off congressional campaign against Rep. Joe Garcia

@PatriciaMazzei

Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall, who has spent the past few months opposing the Miami Dolphins' now-defunct push for a subsidized stadium renovation, plans to challenge Democratic Congressman Joe Garcia.

MacDougall, a Republican who has already opened a fundraising account, will kick off his campaign Wednesday night.

"I've lived in South Dade for 50 years -- this is where I grew up," he said. "My children live here, my grandchildren live here. This is part of my soul, South Dade, and I don't believe it's had proper representation."

MacDougall is the first candidate to file paperwork to run against Garcia for the 26th Congressional district that stretches from Kendall to Key West. Former Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez said earlier this year he would also seek the seat but has yet to begin fundraising. Both MacDougall and Martinez are former police officers.

Miami-Dade School Board endorses immigration reform

via @NewsbySmiley

Count the Miami-Dade School Board among those wading into immigration reform Wednesday.

Board members and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho gathered in a break from their monthly meeting to laud an immigration bill filed overnight in the U.S. Senate and support bringing millions of undocumented immigrants “into the legal economy.”

“For us, this is a matter of fairness, a matter of justice and obviously a matter of law and order,” said board member Carlos Curbelo. “Our current, broken immigration system costs the school district over $20 million a year that no one reimburses us for.”

In Miami-Dade, there are close to 70,000 foreign-born students enrolled in classes

Close to 1,000 new immigrant students enter classes on average each month, totaling about 11,000 a year, according to a district report released last month. Each likely costs the district about $2,000 more than those students who come from South Florida and don’t require additional language services, the report states.

“Often times we educate children that are undocumented,” said Curbelo, who requested the report. “They spend 10, or 12 years in our schools only to face deportation or in other cases to be denied access to higher education. These children reach dead-ends after we have invested tens of thousands of dollars in them.”

Curbelo hosted a news conference after the board unanimously supported his proposal Wednesday to endorse five principles of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a group bringing together bipartisan mayors advocating immigration reform.

Among those principles: Bringing 11 million undocumented immigrants into the economy to pay taxes and attain a better education.

--DAVID SMILEY

Miami lawmakers question Beyoncé, Jay-Z trip to Cuba

@PatriciaMazzei

U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Cuban-American Republicans from Miami, sent a letter late Friday to the Treasury Department asking for details about R&B stars Beyoncé and Jay-Z's trip this week to Cuba.

In the letter to the office of foreign assets control, the members of Congress say they want to find out which type of license the couple received to travel to the island, what the purpose of their trip is and who approved it.

"As you know, U.S. law expressly prohibits the licensing of financial transactions for 'tourist activities' in Cuba," the letter says. It also notes that so-called "people-to-people" licenses require that travelers have "a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities" in Cuba.

"Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple's trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda," the letter says. "We represent a community of many who have been deeply and personally harmed by the Castro regime's atrocities, including former political prisoners and the families of murdered innocents."

Federal budget cuts affecting cargo inspections at South Florida air, sea ports

Federal budget cuts to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol that have already delayed thousands of international passengers at South Florida’s air and sea ports are starting to affect a different type of cargo: flowers.

Ninety percent of all flowers imported to the United States arrive through Miami International Airport, where they are inspected by customs officers who specialize in perishable goods. If inspections are delayed, local importers run the risk of having flowers go bad — or at least not arriving in time to make it into refrigerated trucks for delivery across the country.

It’s not just flowers being threatened by the cuts. Tons of fish, fruits and vegetables — including 97 percent of all the asparagus brought into the country — must also clear MIA customs every day. They are being delayed by the federal cuts known as the sequester, which has resulted in slashed overtime pay for customs officers.

“We’re talking billions of dollars in goods,” said Bill Johnson, director of PortMiami, which has also seen slower cargo ship inspections since the automatic, across-the-board cuts began March 1.

The port has been trying to drum up new fresh-produce cargo business from countries such as Costa Rica, Peru and Chile, said Johnson said, who met Wednesday in Tallahassee with Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam to relay concerns that the customs delays could deter any potential deals.

Johnson spoke at a news conference organized at the airport Thursday by U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, a Democrat whose Kendall-to-Key West district includes many small businesses that import flowers and produce. Garcia sent a letter Thursday to the House appropriations committee asking for “strong funding levels” for customs officers.

More here.

Rep. Joe Garcia: To avoid airport & seaport delays, Congress should give customs more money

@PatriciaMazzei

With federal budget cuts to blame for slow lines for passengers and cargo entering South Florida, U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia wants Congress to give Customs and Border Patrol Protection more money to speed things up.

In a letter he plans to send Thursday, Garcia will ask the House appropriations committee to "support strong funding levels" for customs officers.

"Arbitrary CBP cuts at our air and sea ports, in communities like Miami-Dade County, will only weaken our economy and destroy middle class jobs," wrote Garcia, a Miami Democrat.

Overtime pay for customs officers shrunk as part of the automatic federal budget cuts known as the sequester. In March, a busy month for South Florida tourism, that led to long waits for Miami International Airport for international passengers, many of whom missed their connecting flights and had to spend the night at the airport. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had warned about the coming understaffing in a February visit to MIA.

Cargo traffic has also been delayed -- including time-sensitive deliveries for South Florida's flower import industry, Garcia wrote.

Garcia plans to hold a news conference at the airport Thursday to draw attention to the problem and to his letter asking for support from other members of Congress. He will be joined by representatives from the airport, PortMiami, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Association of Floral Importers of Florida.

The headline of this blog post has been changed to remove the word "patrol." 

Marco Rubio to co-chair national security group

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will co-chair the Senate's National Security Working Group, a bipartisan group founded in 1985 as a forum for national security matters.

"While the group initially focused on monitoring executive branch negotiations with foreign governments on arms control, weapons of mass destruction and missile defense, its activities have expanded to include policy examinations of terrorism, export controls and other issues to be determined by the administrative co-chairs in consultation with Senate leadership," read a statement from the senators.

“I have been impressed by Senator Rubio’s work as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and I look forward to working together with him to revive the National Security Working Group and provide critical oversight of the executive branch’s negotiations with foreign governments,” Feinstein said. “Our country faces no shortage of national security and foreign policy challenges including arms control, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and emerging cyber threats.  It is our hope the National Security Working Group will serve as a constructive forum for all senators to actively participate in these and other security matters.”

Said Rubio: “It is vital to our country’s defense and foreign policy objectives that the Senate consider the wide range of issues that cut across different committees to advance America’s interests around the world,” said Rubio. “I look forward to working with Senator Feinstein to foster a productive working environment within the NSWG that that allows Senators to confront the many national security challenges facing our country. In particular, given the Administration’s recent announcements about missile defense and reports of a potential new round of arms control discussions with Russia, I see great value in the Group continuing its traditional role of overseeing the Executive Branch’s policies on those issues as well as examining new and emerging threats."

--ALEX LEARY

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez to visit Congress

@PatriciaMazzei

Yoani Sánchez, the dissident Cuban blogger who since last month has been on an international tour after being granted a passport, will meet with U.S. senators and representatives on March 19, Sen. Bill Nelson's office announced Monday.

Nelson, of Florida, and Miami Rep. Joe Garcia, both Democrats, invited Sánchez to visit. She plans to spend a couple of days in Washington D.C., and she is scheduled to stop in Miami in April.

"I look forward to this meeting and her unique view of the realities of life in Cuba," Nelson said in a statement.

Read the full statement after the jump.

Miami U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia: Aid Venezuelans who fled Hugo Chávez

Cuban-American U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Miami, announced Monday that when the immigration reform debate begins in the House he will present an amendment that would grant permanent residence to tens of thousands of undocumented Venezuelans living in the United States.

“Many of these people have spent a big part of their lives here,” Garcia said at a press conference at his office in west Miami-Dade County. “Many are people who attend schools with our children, who are business partners with us and who live in a very difficult status and we want to give them a forward solution.”

Garcia’s Venezuelan Liberty Act is a response to requests from leaders of the growing Venezuelan community nationwide to provide immigration relief to undocumented Venezuelans, many of whom not only lack immigration papers but also fear they will be persecuted and tortured if they are sent back to their country.

Garcia’s proposal is the first concrete action in the form of a bill that would benefit Venezuelan immigrants who are in the country illegally and do not have a police record. If the proposal were to become law, it would grant green cards to Venezuelans who have arrived in the U.S. from Feb. 2, 1999, when Hugo Chávez took office as president of Venezuela, until now, according to an explanatory sheet from Garcia’s office.

More from Alfonso Chardy here.

Joe Martinez says he'll challenge Joe Garcia

Joe Martinez, the former Miami-Dade Commission chairman who lost his bid to become county mayor last year, said Friday that he intends to run against Congressman Joe Garcia in 2014.

"I'm meeting with different people and feeling them out, seeing what the level of support will be there," Martinez told The Miami Herald shortly after announcing his intentions on Facebook. He wants to get in the race, Martinez said, "to shake it up."

Martinez's name has been floated in political circles in connection with the 26th Congressional district since Garcia, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican Rep. David Rivera in November. The district extends from Kendall to Key West.

Martinez, a Republican, said he sees himself as a pragmatist in tune with residents' needs after his 12 years on the County Commission, including two terms as chairman. In his first term, former Mayor Carlos Alvarez campaigned for a strong-mayor referendum. In his second, Alvarez was recalled. Both times, Martinez said, he helped lead the county. "It actually ran really smoothly," Martinez said.

He gave up his seat last year to unsuccessfully challenge Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Martinez said Friday that he has since opened a public relations and business development consulting firm.

Garcia's chief of staff, Jeffrey Garcia (no relation), said from D.C. that the congressman "is focused on doing the work that the people sent him here to do."

"There'll be plenty of time for politics later," he added.

Martinez, conceding that "it's too early to tell" how well Garcia will do as a freshman congressman, said he's committed to running in two years.

"I've survived Miami-Dade politics," he said. "What's Washington?"