This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[music] Coming up this week, the federal government shutdown became the longest in U.S.

history.

Local leaders on all sides of the political aisle are sounding the alarm on impacts to federal employees, service members, and military families in our community.

Two points of contention food programs and subsidies for the Affordable Health Care Act.

Plus, Florida regulators took aim against ten insurance companies in the last four months.

Those stories and more are next on Florida This Week.

[music] Welcome back everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Starting off our panel discussions this week is Mark Proctor, a Republican political consultant, and Victor DiMaio, president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida.

And later on in the show, we'll also be joined by Thomas Mantz, president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay, Clara Reynolds, President and CEO of the Crisis Center.

And Alexis Muellner, Editor In Chief of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

They will be helping us connect you with resources.

If you're struggling with the ongoing federal government shutdown.

Which brings us to our top story.

We are now in the longest shutdown of the US federal government.

Turmoil in Washington is echoing throughout the west coast of Central Florida.

Let's start with air travel.

The Federal Aviation Administration is cutting air traffic by 10% in what they call high volume markets.

Tampa International Airport as well as Orlando International Airport are on the list.

Airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale will also see significant cuts to airline service.

Turning to families struggling just to get by in terms of food.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, has cut benefits.

The Trump administration, in response to a judge's ruling, plans to provide partial SNAP benefits this month.

But the move will not help recipients right away.

Officials say only about half the amount people normally receive will be in the next payout.

Local nonprofits say the demand for basic necessities has spiked in the last week, and they're warning the need is expected to grow.

Stay tuned as we talk with Feeding Tampa Bay shortly.

And a key reason driving the stalemate in Washington is the extension of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act health plans.

As open enrollment begins, premiums on the ACA marketplace are projected to jump about 26% next year.

Florida is one of the top states receiving subsidies for ACA plans, and it's also the state with the highest proportion of recipients under the age of 65 who get their health insurance from ACA.

Joining us in the studio, we want to start with Mark and Victor.

Mark, this is not a situation where anyone seems to be winning Republicans and Democrats.

What is the latest in terms of impacts in our economy?

So the actually, I looked it up to see what the greatest impact was.

And not surprisingly, it's aviation.

That's really the biggest impact because people traveling this week are going to cut back 10% of all travel from Tampa, Orlando, other places in Florida.

Secondly, is the SNAP benefits.

That's obviously a another big consideration.

But as I looked at this, I said, you know, what's frightening about this is 42 million people are on the SNAP benefits.

It's like 12% of our population.

I think we got a bigger crisis than just a one time government shutdown.

We've got people that are living off what the reasons are legitimate.

They're elderly, handicapped and children.

But we got too many people relying on the government.

And then when government shuts down, it all falls back.

This is not the first government shutdown you've witnessed others.

What is the political climate now doing to help or prevent any kind of movement towards a compromise?

Well, one thing I would say is that the election's on Tuesday.

Now Vic's going to have a different opinion.

My opinion is that because the election is on Tuesday, the Democrats made their point.

We only need five Democrats to vote for this in the Senate, to vote for the continuing resolution, which basically no changes in what we have.

And now that they've had that success, maybe they'll vote for it.

I think Victor has a different idea on that, though.

Yeah, I mean, we obviously we can't talk about everything we're talking about without without what happened on Tuesday.

Tuesday was a landslide for the Democrats.

It's a sorely needed victory for a lot of things.

Well, I mean, you can say blue states, but it was.

Well, Georgia's not necessarily a blue state.

And they had three statewide seats that ran up, went all Democrat for their public service commission.

But that that made national news alone.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court had three Democratic Supreme Court justices reelected.

Pennsylvania goes back and forth a lot.

It's not exactly a blue state.

So, yes, I think in light of what happened on Tuesday, the big landslide that happened for the Democrats from California to New York.

Um, I think that puts everything we're in, in a whole life, because what it's proved is that, uh, what is proved is that the people are pretty much fed up with what's going on in Washington.

They see the Republicans controlling the white House, the House and the Senate.

Uh, and, you know, the the majority, uh, and we have the mister art of the deal sitting in the White House.

And, you know, if he if he can make a deal, uh, this is the time to do it because the SNAP benefits, uh, March.

Right.

42 million people depend on that.

These are kids, women, children, elderly people that are going to be food insecure.

Uh, they're a lot more important.

Even though before we went on the air, uh, TIA, uh, announced that they're going to lose about 50 flights, uh, at the airport.

So that's news.

The second part is the food situation is dire because the people are going to have on later on after us are going to talk about how serious it is, the food situation here in just Tampa Bay or the bay area within everybody within listening to this show.

So this is very serious.

They look at the and they look at the people in power.

You know you can play.

And first of all the Democrats are not going to crack.

There's a few Democrats that have gone along with this.

And the second thing most importantly, we can't lose lose sight of the fact that this continuing resolution expires in a week.

So even if they vote for it now, it's no good in a seven day.

So they're going to have to go back to Washington.

The house hasn't met in a month.

The continuation resolution had a date to begin and a day to end.

It was only going to be a 6 or 7 week continuing resolution.

So that's that's done.

So now the House is going to have to meet.

Johnson's going to have to swear in that woman from Arizona so we can do the Epstein file stuff.

So there's a lot of stuff going on.

There's there's a silent, silent majority of voters who say, um, why can't we come to some sort of a negotiation?

And it just seems from the quotes from our leadership that they are moving further and further apart.

You had Chuck Schumer called it a shellacking, and then you have Thune also saying, you know, when when it's their fault, when can we get together and vote?

And so it's it seems that there is growing frustration within the public, but that the politicians may not be getting that message.

I think Thune wants to negotiate.

I think his own pressure is coming from the white House to not negotiate.

So I think Thune see, the Senate is a much older, more deliberative body.

Those guys aren't going to do the nuclear option because they know in a year and a half, if the Democrats take over, which they have an opportunity to do in elections coming here right around the corner, um, then they're going to be screwed because now they're going to be not have a vote.

Ask one question.

What if six weeks ago, when the continuing resolution first came on, that the Democrats had voted for it, they could now be in negotiations on the on the, uh, the health care plan and everything else now.

Once that if they ever do pass that it's going to it's taking a longer time to resolve that issue.

So I just.

Said, look, this is the only thing the Democrats have because you.>> Need leverage.

Yeah, you need 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate.

So this is the only thing they have.

And what what proved on Tuesday was people around the country said, you know, the winning the winning group here is not the Republicans, it's the Democrats.

But I think it's always, you know, the people in power are going to always, particularly in the off year, are going to be.

So yes, it's Republican now.

But it could have been Democrats though.

Right, but I mean, but the Republicans are in charge of the House and Senate and the white House.

So the only leverage and we said, look, sit down with us.

Let's negotiate, because we're also going to throw out all of health care.

Uh, they're going to cut they cut $1 trillion off of Medicaid, Medicare, uh, Obamacare, the affordable beautiful.

That's what the Democrats are fighting for.

This other stuff is...is now.

Now you're starving babies and women and children.

Only the Senate five Democrat senators vote for it and the shutdown is over.

And if they sit down and negotiate and say, okay, we'll restore the ACA funding Medicaid funding, then they can go back to business.

And that's I do want to point out that there are things that are not affected.

Government contractors, unlike direct federal employees, typically do not receive the back pay on the shutdowns.

Following the 2019 shutdown, Congress passed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, and that basically provides immediate retroactive pay to federal employees after a shutdown ends.

However, just because you're furloughed does not mean that you will receive back pay.

They have to.

They have to.

Congress has to approve that, by the way.

So we will continue to follow those.

$15 billion a week that we're losing as a result of the shutdown.

We are going to talk about another topic that our viewers are really in pain about, and that is insurance and property insurance after last year's hurricane season.

Florida's property insurance troubles are back in the headlines.

This time it's over.

How private companies handled hurricane claims.

Since July 10th, insurance companies have been fined a total of more than $2.5 million by the state's Office of Insurance Regulation.

Officials cited widespread failures when handling claims after Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Hurricane Idalia in 2023.

The latest fines hit Tampa based Slide Insurance and Kin Insurance Network.

Each took a quarter million dollar hit for missing claim deadlines and using unlicensed adjusters.

Officials say the fines show accountability without costly lawsuits.

Lawmakers curbed litigation over insurance disputes, a move that was meant to stabilize Florida's market.

Consumer advocates argue the reforms have left homeowners with fewer protections when claims go wrong.

So this investigation really covered prior hurricane seasons until last year's victor.

What is your response when you see is this enough?

A quarter of a million dollars enough of a fine.

That's peanuts.

These guys make make billions and billions of dollars.

Insurance companies are in the business of making money, and the less they pay out, the more money they make and put in their pockets.

And listen, there's a lot to know about this subject.

I work for the insurance commissioner's office in Tallahassee for years, and my family sold insurance, so I know a lot about this.

And right now, it's still not fixed.

The Republicans had 5 or 6 special sessions, and all they did was give the insurance companies everything they ever dreamed of.

You can't.

If you want to sue your company, you got to pay 100% of the lawyers fees.

I sat right here on this show a while back with April Schiff, and she's a Republican, her husband's attorney, And they said the adjuster came in and found one drop of water in the in the window that came through and said, we're not paying the plane.

It was like $100,000 claim.

So they had to sue to get their money.

And the insurance companies know what's happening right now in Florida, which is a fact.

They're only paying 50% of the claims.

One out of every two claims is not getting paid.

So they can turn you down for anything you can imagine.

So the insurance business in Florida is not getting better.

It's not going to get better unless we get a set up, a cat, a cat fund, a catastrophic fund to carry the big.

This this move is a signal to the insurance companies.

Um, folks who support these fines say that it is a signal to the insurance companies that we are not going to give you everything you want.

Would you agree?

Yes, I do agree.

A couple of points.

Number one is we were lucky this year.

We didn't have any hurricanes because we had hurricanes.

It would be a completely different story.

Number two, we have not resolved the insurance crisis.

And number three, a lot of people, particularly with the some of the more expensive homes, are self-insuring.

They're not even taking insurance.

They say they don't want to go through all of that.

So really, we have a real crisis in the insurance and the legislature has failed again and again.

They to to solve it.

Right, he's he's 100% right.

We actually agree on something.

See the fact but it's true.

You know because we all have to pay insurance whether it's car insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, uh, homeowners, homeowners is a disaster here because we are in a hurricane zone.

But, uh, and I'm not taking credit because when the Democrats were around, we had a different more we had a more aggressive insurance commissioner that went after, you know, now, back then, you had to get your your rates pre-approved.

Now you just do the rates off and then they'll say, well, we'll let you know if we like it or not.

So they've gotten everything they've ever wanted, the insurance companies and they still are not happy.

So these are the Greediest people on earth.

They got more money than the banks.

So one of the things that we've heard from viewers is that they're concerned that so many folks were moved off of citizens to other insurance companies.

And paying higher rates.

Some of the names on the list of these fines are those insurance companies that they've been moved into.

Absolutely, and I mean, that's what's it's all very messed up system, right?

And they're making lots of money.

And we're all sitting there going.

So what happens when when they go belly up.

They they pull out.

They pull out.

And the states, the states get hold.

They go into a jail system and and then good luck trying to collect.

You both are agreeing on this.

Absolutely, no, it's true because all of us, all of us are suffering.

Everyone out there listening to us is suffering.

They know that this is a mess.

It doesn't take much to know that the situation is a mess in Florida.

Well, gentlemen, thank you for for coming on board and helping us sort through this, as we told you about earlier, how the government shutdown is impacting local families, government agencies throughout west central Florida.

If you or someone you know needs help, it's just a phone call away.

Call your local 211 to get connected with experts who can assist you in getting information and getting your needs met.

Every call is confidential.

Local 211 is a network of local organizations that can connect you with resources for everything from food, caregiving, disaster recovery.

And so please take advantage of that.

[music] Welcome back.

Talking more on the impacts of the government shutdown is Thomas Mantz of Feeding Tampa Bay, Clara Reynolds for the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, and Alexis Muellner of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Thomas, I'd like to start with you.

You all have created a website to specifically help families, local families here who are impacted by the shutdown.

Tell us how that's going so far and what kind of response you've seen.

One of the things that happens in disasters of this type and in our world, this is a disaster, is you have groups of people come into your care that would not normally be there.

So the neighbors that we take care of on a regular basis know how to get to us, where to find us, where to find resources.

Government employee that's been receiving a paycheck for years does not have to come into our services until something like this happens.

Neighbors who relied on SNAP to stay in their homes, keep their families afloat, don't have to rely on our services, but they suddenly come into our area and to our area of services.

And so we have to find ways to make sure they have the resources they need.

And that happens in a variety of different ways.

To your specific question.

We're seeing, uh, twice the number of folks reaching out to us, uh, showing up twice the number of folks coming to the 400 different agency partners we serve.

And so this is hitting really hard.

I was out on one of our food distributions on Monday night.

And the stories that you're having and the conversations, the stories that you hear in the conversations you're having are really, really heartbreaking.

People are struggling.

How many families rely on programs like SNAP or WIC in the Tampa Bay area?

So in the state of Florida?

There's about five or in the state of Florida, there's 3 or 4 million in our territory, ten county territory.

Here, there's 500,000 folks who use who use SNAP.

A significant number of households.

When we talk about federal employees, we have MacDill Air Force Base here in the Tampa Bay area.

The what are what are some of the needs that you're seeing with the service member families?

So with service members, we right now, many of them have been paid.

We need to hear whether they're going to be paid again.

I think one of the challenges for all of us that provide services is we don't have an outlook as to what's going to happen.

It's difficult to plan.

We did a distribution yesterday for specifically for military families.

Last week we did one for the Coast Guard.

Right, so we're seeing again the same challenge there.

Oftentimes a service member themselves have resources, but their families don't.

And so we try to fill in those gaps as well.

The collaboration between the Feeding Tampa Bay and the Crisis Center has been commendable...incredible.

Clara, talk to us about what kind of services you all are having to provide to people impacted by this government shutdown.

I think one of the biggest things that we feel like that we're providing is a lot of emotional support.

Um, absolutely.

People are coming in because their basic needs are challenged, but they're also coming in with a lot of anxiety, anxiety about how long is this going to go?

Anxiety about will I get back pay anxiety of maybe I'll get benefits, maybe I won't, maybe it's going to be a while.

So being able to help people just be able to talk about how they're feeling, because oftentimes they can't.

Everybody else around them is struggling with the same situation, and so they don't feel like they can burden those family members or friends.

So we're doing providing a lot of that support.

And my hat goes off to Thomas and feeding Tampa Bay to really try to make sure that service providers are going where the individuals are.

And that has been wonderful.

So we've got staff that are now outposted.

They've been outposted for a while, but we've doubled up that staff to make sure that as somebody is coming in shopping, that we can be there alongside them to provide any other assistance and support that they may need.

What kind of response do do folks give you when you are able to say, here's food, but here's a connection to another service that you may be needing as well?

The gratitude that we experience.

You know, I often observe this during crises in our community.

We see the worst of people's lives.

They are struggling.

They have a variety of challenges.

We also see the best of communities come together.

And I think but to answer your question, people feel incredibly grateful to have someone to talk to, To have someone that cares about them where they are today.

I think a universal theme that we would hear from all the folks that we serve, Clara and I, is that people feel left behind and uncared for.

They feel like somebody has forgotten that they matter.

And I think what Clara's organization does so well, and what we try to do is to make sure that the moment someone enters into our care, we remind them that they do matter.

And the Florida veteran support line is something that the crisis center does manage.

Absolutely.

Service members can call as well.

Absolutely.

Service members, their families, veterans.

And so again, anybody that is struggling right now, we are providing additional help and support.

And one of the pieces that I really want to talk about is toThomas's point.

You know, many people are feeling very isolated right now like this is only impacting them.

And so what we're trying to do, as Thomas mentioned, is let them know, no, no, no, you're a part of a community.

There's a community that's being impacted and there's no issue too big or too little that you can't come to us and just have a conversation, because you'll be surprised at how much better you feel, how much you're going to be able to problem solve even where you are right now.

When you reduce some of that anxiety that's keeping you up at night, that's preventing you from being able to really function.

Even if it's not directly impacting you, but you know someone who is.

You can refer them to the website and refer them to the call.

And we're surprised at the number of parents of military members, parents of veterans that are reaching out.

Um, friends?

Other people are are really there.

They're more worried for their service member or their veteran than the actual individual is.

So we're providing at this point, we're providing a lot of support across the entire really system of care for these individuals.

Alexis, one of the things that you have done over time is really focus on the connection between the business community, the local economy and food insecurity.

Yeah.

How does something like this?

Well, we realized a couple of years ago and I had to get educated, in part with help from Thomas, that 70% of the folks that seek services from feeding Tampa Bay, for example, are working.

And it became quickly apparent to us that this issue of food insecurity, especially, is intrinsically tied to the economy of Tampa Bay, and that CEOs at times not the people on Thomas's board, necessarily, but big employers are less apt to realize that and make that connection.

And so while wage growth might be one way to elevate it, you can't just add further wage growth because we're still behind on that generally.

And, you know, the current climate is so difficult because of the fact that the impact on retail stores on and when it comes to employers and employment, the workforce, which our CEOs and the people that we write about at the Business Journal rely on those folks to improve their bottom line.

And if they're thinking about feeding their families in an environment that is increasingly less affordable, they are not going to see the results to.

The bottom line that they're looking for.

Is the business community at this point, feeling that stress that local community organizations are.

I think it's oftentimes these things are in arrears in terms of taking a little bit longer, but it's going to catch up to them.

And I think once some CEOs that we've spoken to say, you know, CEOs need to be accountable and they look for various ways from serving free lunch to help them, you know, help employees who may not then have to pay for dinner.

Um, I mean, it's some little things like that, but I think that this is going to come home to roost sooner rather than later.

And the more awareness that certainly the leaders of businesses and feeding Tampa Bay, I know is trying to educate HR people.

I mean, that's leaders who are the team leaders, who are having direct impact with their workforces to help, you know, help people understand what services are available.

Um, and, you know, companies like Baycare, which has 42 pantries in schools, um, you know, there's some there's definitely a growing awareness, but there's so many large employers that probably don't realize that their hard working workforce are hungry.

Especially in moments like this where so many folks don't realize how many families are registered, and relying on programs like SNAP and like WIC.

Thank you so much for helping us provide our viewers with more information on the different ways that the shutdown impacts not just individuals and families, but also our community and the local economy.

Thank you to our panelists, all of our panelists, Thomas Mantz, Clara Reynolds, Alexis Muellener, as well as our earlier panel of Victor DiMaio and Mark Proctor.

Before we go, a quick look at the results of two election races that took place in Tampa Bay.

First, in Lakeland, Sarah Roberts McCarley has been named the city's next mayor.

She is a Lakeland native and will be the first woman to hold the position in four decades.

And in Seminole, Mayor Leslie Waters fended off her challenger.

She's held the post since 2013.

That's all the time that we have for now.

On behalf of the entire team here at WEDU.

Thanks so much for watching.

[music]