February 2020 Policy Update

Local

PBC elections office hacked in 2016 by ransomware.
- The attack occurred at the main headquarters, not the tabulation warehouse where the machines are kept.
- Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Link, says it was not connected to the two Florida attacks made by Russia to influence the election and voter information was not accessed. No ransom was paid.
- Florida Secretary of State, Laurel Lee, noted that the State Department conducted an “elections-specific risk assessment” across the state, and has five “cyber navigators” to help election supervisors with issues

Governor and Republicans in the state legislature are trying to cut the office of energy from Nikki Fried’s department of agriculture and consumer services. Similar occurrences in Wisconsin and North Carolina after Democratic Governors took office. The Republican-led state legislature in the lame-duck session tried to limit the executive powers that the new governor would have to make several high-level appointments. The law was struck down by a judge.
- Republicans in the Florida state house trying to move the Office of Energy to the DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) from the Dept. of Agriculture.
- The office, which has lived under the Department of Agriculture since 2011, evaluates energy-related studies and analyses, makes recommendations to the governor and Legislature on energy policies and manages education programs throughout the state using state and federal funds.
- Currently unlikely that it will be moved as the senate does not see a valid reason for it to be moved.
2020 Python Bowl took place in late January highlighting the danger of invasive species to the everglades and the native wildlife that live in and around the area.

In Florida, the primary election is March 17.
- The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, February 18.
- Early voting in Florida for the primary election starts March 7 and ends on the 15.
- The deadline to request a "vote by mail" ballot is Saturday, March 7.
- https://www.pbcelections.org
Public student loan forgiveness being cut by trump
“The program, enacted by President George W. Bush in 2007, allows borrowers who work in certain public or nonprofit sector jobs to have their federal student loan debt erased after making on-time payments for 10 years.”
- In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the program costs $12 billion annually.
- only spark animosity between the parties. The PSLF program remains very strict with 1% of borrowers having their applications accepted as of 2018.
Roger Stone, a Trump campaign consultant, famous for his tattoo of Richard Nixon, received a reduced sentence request at the direction of AG Bill Barr shortly after Trump criticized the sentence length on Twitter.