The Florida State Guard is making national news in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis' deployment of some members to the Texas border with Mexico.
The Legislature got its first official opportunity to weigh in on this decision, which some believe exceeds the modest expectations that its principal function might be storm response in Florida, rather than its ultimately more expansive assignment.
But those expecting fireworks got fizzles instead.
The Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security committee unanimously advanced the nomination of Mark Thieme of Apollo Beach Monday afternoon, a Marine Corps veteran who says he has "unique insights" on how to build a "civil-military organization" very much like the State Guard.
Democratic Sen. Vic Torres posed the first question about the Texas deployment. Thieme noted he wasn't involved in decision-making, as it was the province of the Governor.
Torres was concerned about the "legality of the circumstance" of the Texas deployment.
Checkpoint operations and other logistics are expected to be what the Guard does, he said. He added that roughly a squad is expected to go, with "up to a platoon" if needed, with the potential to "sustain that for months." He noted that the mission is "evolving," however, and dependent on senior staff going to Texas next week to ascertain needs.
Other missions, including storm response in the Southeast, may also take the Guard out of state, he noted later.
While a Senate panel was waving through this confirmation, the House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee advanced a much more modest version of a bill that would have affirmed the Governor's right to deploy as he sees fit.
HB 1551 previously removed any perceived limitation against the State Guard being an expeditionary force, by striking the condition that it be used "exclusively within the state," and adding language permitting deployment to handle "civil unrest," a term of art open to creative interpretation.
The bill also gave members guaranteed legal defense in the event of any misdeeds such as those worried about by Sen. Torres, via "a qualified attorney designated by the Department of Legal Affairs."
Sponsoring Rep. Mike Giallombardo advanced a strike-all amendment more modest in its aims, however, dealing only with the mechanism of the Level 2 background check, allowing the Department of Law Enforcement to process the fingerprints, forwarding them "to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal history record check."
"Fingerprints submitted to the Department of Law Enforcement pursuant to this section must be retained by the Department of Law Enforcement as provided in s. 943.05(2)(g) and along with enrollment of the fingerprints in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's national retained print arrest notification program. Any arrest record identified must be reported to the Division of the State Guard," the new language reads.
No comments:
Post a Comment