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Watch Live: Biden to meet with DeSantis during Florida trip to survey Hurricane Ian damage
CBSN
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be among the people President Biden meets with during his trip to Florida to survey damage and relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
More than 100 people have been reported dead in Florida and North Carolina, after Ian struck Florida's west coast last week and traveled inland and north, according to CBS News calculations. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday said the president and first lady will "reaffirm" the president's commitment to Florida while in Fort Meyers.
"The president will meet with small business owners and local residents impacted by Hurricane Ian and thank the federal, state and local officials working around the clock to provide life-saving assistance, restore power, distribute food and water, remove debris and begin rebuilding efforts," Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. "Governor DeSantis, the FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell and other state and local officials will also provide the president with an operational briefing on the current response and recovery efforts."
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More than 2 million federal employees face a looming deadline: By midnight on Thursday, they must decide whether to accept a "deferred resignation" offer from the Trump administration. If workers accept, according to a White House plan, they would continue getting paid through September but would be excused from reporting for duty. But if they opt to keep their jobs, they could get fired.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.