My Review of Senator Rick Scott's Week in Review (July 14, 2025)
Welcome back to my Review of Senator Rick Scott’s Week in Review. In my column I seek to help all Floridians decode the material circulated weekly by Senator Rick Scott in his email entitled “Senator Rick Scott’s Week in Review.” Sometimes Senator Rick Scott is working for all of us, but sometimes he is not. And sometimes he just tries to confuse us.
Senator Rick Scott leads with a whopper that is not true no matter how often it is repeated.
Right up front Senator Rick Scott lets us know his delight with the Trump Administration’s newly passed tax and budget bill:
As Florida’s United States Senator, I’m proud to work with President Trump to ensure we fulfill our promise to keep the border secure and protect America’s families. I’m also working with my colleagues here in the Senate to ensure we’re getting this administration the tools they need to hold states accountable for sheltering illegal aliens. Blue states like California are taking advantage of critical programs, like Medicaid, by giving them to illegal aliens instead of American citizens who need them the most. I am fighting hard to stop this and reform this program so we can protect and preserve it for future generations.
Senator Rick Scott is unfortunately repeating a lie that started with the Trump White House. The Center for Children and Families describes how the lie originated:
The White House fact sheet [issued June 2, 2025] says that, under the House bill, Medicaid will better serve the American people “[b]y removing at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants from the program.” This is unequivocally false.
As we have covered previously, comprehensive Medicaid coverage is not available to undocumented immigrants. The 1.4 million immigrants the White House presumably refers to are immigrants who will lose coverage due to reductions in state health care programs, funded by states and not by federal Medicaid dollars.
The new tax and budget bill of which Senator Rick Scott is so proud is estimated to result in 16 million Americans losing health insurance, starting in 2027. But those Americans are not illegal aliens, no matter how often someone repeats the lie.
Senator Rick Scott wants to rethink the census count—in opposition to the Constitution, the Supreme Court and (ironically) the interests of the State of Florida. But his real goal is to relitigate a 2020 Supreme Court decision.
Senator Rick Scott has jumped on another bandwagon—this time, relating to the proper method of conducting the census. Every ten years, the Constitution mandates that the federal government conduct a census, which is used to apportion the number of members of the House of Representatives for each state. Each state gets at least one member in the House, but according to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution the excess are divided “among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State”.
Senator Rick Scott announced his enthusiasm as follows:
Illegal aliens shouldn’t be allowed to break the law and be rewarded with taxpayer-funded benefits, and states that shelter them shouldn’t gain increased influence in Washington as a result. Since illegal aliens are currently counted in the census, states like California receive disproportionate representation in the Electoral College and the House of Representatives. By restoring the census to its pre-2000 standard and including a citizenship question, this bill ensures that states like California don’t gain an unfair advantage over states like Florida, and that every citizen’s vote carries equal weight.
First, I will deal with the distractions about his desire only to count citizens:
Senator Rick Scott’s preface—”Illegal aliens shouldn’t be allowed to break the law and be rewarded with taxpayer-funded benefits”—is intended to provoke, not clarify. This proposed legislation has nothing to do with rewarding illegal aliens with any benefits. It solely relates to the operation of the census.
The Constitution requires that illegal aliens be counted in the census. Ever since the first census in 1790, the census has counted both citizens and non-citizens. And the Supreme Court has ruled on several occasions that the drafters of the Constitution—by specifying “persons” rather than “voters” or “citizens”—intended to count all inhabitants. For example, in Evenwel v. Abbott, 136 S. Ct. 1120, 1132 (2016) the Supreme Court noted that “persons” includes nonvoters, sustaining Texas’s drawing of State Senate districts based on total population rather than voter population.
The attempt not to count noncitizens is so unlikely to survive a challenge that the drafters of the legislation built in an escape hatch. If counting only citizens is found unconstitutional, the rest of the legislation is still valid—which suggests a concern that counting only citizens is on very shaky constitutional grounds.
Now, for the big reveal. What does Senator Rick Scott really want out of this legislation? He wants the Census to include a question about whether the responder is a citizen. Asking about citizenship may seem an innocent request, but consider this:
According to the Supreme Court in 2020, the Census Bureau and former Bureau officials have resisted proposals to ask a citizenship question of everyone, on the ground that doing so would discourage noncitizens from responding to the census. Given the level of heavy-handed ICE enforcement in America under the second Trump Administration, with masked and unidentified ICE officials pulling people off the streets these days, I would expect the discouragement effect to be even more striking today than in 2020.
The Census has not asked about citizenship as part of the standard census form since 1950—the last year it was included on all questionnaires. Between 1960 and 2000, only a small percentage of forms (between 16% and 25%) included a citizenship question, which was done for statistical sampling purposes. Since then, no citizenship question was asked of any respondent. So when Senator Rick Scott claims he is “restoring the census to its pre-2000 standard and including a citizenship question,” he is not being straight with you.
In 2020, President Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sought to add a citizenship question to to the census, claiming that it was the only way to collect good data about where citizens reside in the United States. The Supreme Court rejected the attempt by a 5-4 vote on the basis that the claimed justification was just a pretext. Senator Rick Scott and his fellow co-sponsors are now making a push for Congress to require the citizenship question, rather than the Executive Branch, in hopes that on appeal a Supreme Court with a larger conservative voting bloc will approve introducing the citizenship question.
And that is the real reason—Senator Rick Scott is trying to discourage census responses from individuals and households that include non-citizens. And what is at stake? The census is overcounted in favor of states with fewer percentages of non-citizens. According to the Pew Research Center, if only citizens had been counted in the 2020 census, Texas, Florida and California would have lost a seat in the House of Representatives, while Alabama, Minnesota and Ohio would have each gained a seat.
Yes, that’s right, Florida. Senator Rick Scott is taking this stand to try to make sure Florida ends up with at least one fewer Congressional district. That is one topic I would like to ask him about in a Town Hall.
Senator Rick Scott does good work when he stands for the protection of seniors.
Senator Rick Scott released a bipartisan report written along with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand highlighting the fraud issues faced by senior citizens. Here is his announcement:
I am proud to announce the release of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging’s 2025 Fraud Report, which serves as a critical resource in our ongoing mission to protect America’s aging population. Across our nation, older Americans are being targeted every day by increasingly sophisticated scams that rob them not only of their hard-earned savings but also of their security and peace of mind. These attacks are personal, and they are unacceptable. As chairman of the Aging Committee, I am fully committed to standing up for our aging population, who have contributed so much to the strength and prosperity of our country. Through critical initiatives like National Slam the Scam Day and our toll-free Fraud Hotline, we are expanding access to education, prevention tools, and direct support to better empower families to recognize fraud and respond quickly with the necessary steps. This report shines a direct light on the scale and severity of the threat we’re facing, and we must be united in our determination to stay vigilant, informed, and proactive in defending our seniors. Together, we can help ensure that every older American can enjoy their golden years with dignity, safety, and the financial security they deserve. I am proud of the work this committee has done and I look forward to the many more achievements we accomplish during my tenure as chairman.
Senator Rick Scott is right to bring these issues to our attention. The Committee’s report should be required reading for all seniors. As one example, the report cites that in 2024 U.S adults aged 60 or more lost $2.9 billion to scammers using cryptocurrency schemes. And those numbers are growing year by year. We all need to be careful, both for ourselves and for our loved ones.
The work of Senator Rick Scott and Senator Gillibrand stands at odds with the approach of the Trump Administration. As one observer described, “recent and ongoing developments suggest that the White House and regulators will seek to reduce barriers to entry in the crypto asset markets . . . and, at least temporarily, limiting certain types of crypto-related enforcement actions.” I hope that Senator Rick Scott makes sure that the Trump Administration sings from the same hymn sheet as Senator Rick Scott on this issue.
Senator Rick Scott salutes Cuban protests from 2021, using the opportunity to muddle the historical record.
Senator Rick Scott led a Senate resolution commemorating 2021 Cuban street protests:
We join in solidarity with the people of Cuba and its brave freedom fighters to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the ‘Patria y Vida’ movement – when the brave Cuban people took to the streets to speak out against the illegitimate, Communist Cuban regime. For years, Biden’s dangerous appeasement policies meant turning a blind eye to the atrocities and oppression of the illegitimate Castro/Díaz-Canel regime as they kidnaped, tortured, and killed peaceful political protestors for daring to speak against them, including children and leaders like José Daniel Ferrer, who continues to be held and subjected to daily torture. Now, the Cuban people have renewed hope with President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio working to hold the regime accountable and end the weak appeasement, and I am proud to stand firmly with them and the Cuban people to call for ‘Patria y Vida.
This resolution is an annual ritual for Senator Rick Scott, reflecting the political power of Cuban Americans in Florida politics. Although annual resolutions make for terrific press releases, it is worth noting that the 2021 protests were caused by horrible living conditions in Cuba that were exacerbated by additional sanctions imposed by the first Trump Administration. And Senator Rick Scott does not mention the negotiations at the end of the Biden Administration that were expected to lead to the release of 553 political prisoners by the Cuban government. The situation in Cuba needs to change—but I am not confident that Senator Rick Scott has or is even looking for the answers.
Senator Rick Scott makes hay for Florida when it comes to defense spending.
Senator Rick Scott capped his week by pointing out all of the ways he is helping Florida by influencing the national defense spending budget. Here is a sample of the items for which he claims credit:
Securing over $950 million for military construction projects throughout Florida, including the land acquisition and building of a Child Development Center at Eglin Air Force Base to increase access to childcare for military families in the Panhandle [clear benefit for Florida];
Extending the joint use prohibition at Homestead Air Reserve Base to 2034 to protect the military mission as threats to U.S. national security rise in Latin America [clear benefit for Florida];
Requiring the Secretary of Defense to gather information about utilizing civilian large cargo aircraft to continue the rapid growth and development of Florida’s space coast [clear benefit for Florida];
Providing support for United States’ ally, Israel, and a total of $80 million for counter-tunneling cooperation [unclear how this benefits Florida, unless he is concerned that those tunnels will extend across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Florida]; and
Allowing more than three Service Academy student-athletes to play professional sports and continue to serve our country [presumably this is a significant benefit for Jacksonville Jaguars fans hoping that recent draftee and Navy grad Rayuan Lane III makes the final roster; Dolphins and Bucs fans likely aren’t so thrilled by this]
Final thoughts.
Senator Rick Scott was in Florida recently—there are pictures proving it—but no Town Hall has been announced yet. I am sure it is just a matter of time . . .
Thanks again for reading.