Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says Democrats can’t get climate change bills passed
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday that Democrats need to take a bipartisan approach if they hope to pass climate change legislation.
Following a segment about a nationwide heatwave, host Margaret Brennan asked the Republican mayor if he felt the GOP is taking climate change seriously. The 44-year-old attorney blamed Democrats for being unable to pass federal legislation and build consensus across the aisle.
“Well, what we’re seeing at the national level is the only action that is occurring is action that is taken on a bipartisan basis,” said Suarez, the president of the US Conference of Mayors. “Democrats, unfortunately have failed to be able to pass bills to address climate at any sort of scale.”
“Well, they don’t have any Republican votes,” Brennan responded. “They also don’t have all Democrats on board, but it would help if they have Republican votes.”
“Yeah, exactly. I think that it means that it has to be bipartisan in terms of their outreach, in terms of their messaging,” Suarez said.
The mayor said climate change is “not theoretical for us in the city of Miami,” and touted a bond program approved by voters in 2017 that allows the city to borrow $192 million for work to deal with sea level rise. As a commissioner, Suarez voted against placing the bond on the ballot, but he eventually voted in favor of the bond at the ballot box, he says.
Progress has been slow on earmarking and spending the bond dollars, though the city has upgraded pumps and installed one-way valves to prevent water from flowing back up through the drainage system. In June, city officials told the Miami Herald that on some projects it will take about three years to finalize grant agreements with the state and federal government, design the projects and hire the contractors to do the work.
There’s been inconsistency in leadership on climate change initiatives under Suarez’s administration. The city has gone through three chief resilience officers in three years, and the position is currently open.
Suarez said his city needs help, but has not received any dollars from Biden’s infrastructure bill.
“We still have not seen a penny of that money trickle down,” Suarez said.
Suarez and DeSantis
The conversation shifted to the mayor’s relationship with Gov. Ron DeSantis, which has been strained at times. Suarez said he voted for DeSantis’ opponent, Andrew Gillum, in the 2018 gubernatorial race, and the pair had different views on masks and other aspects of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Suarez said he’s spoken to DeSantis “on a variety of occasions,” including during a January press conference to announce $40 million in state funding for drainage projects in Miami. Suarez complimented the governor, considered a potential presidential candidate in the future.
“So on the environment, I have to say, his record over the last fours years, including the Legislature’s record, has been very much pro-environment,” he said.
Monkeypox
The mayor was also asked about the response to the monkeypox outbreak. Florida has the third most cases in the U.S.
“We’re monitoring this outbreak. I am not aware of any shortages in vaccines or testing at this particular juncture, none of it has come to my attention,” he said.
This week, Miami-Dade health officials told the Herald that there is a vaccine shortage, and locals expressed frustration over the difficulty of finding testing sites. The department said in an email that the county is “seeing the same demand for vaccination as in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, the demand for the vaccine is far greater than the amount available from the federal government.”
