Gus Bilirakis Visits Brooksville Kiwanis
On Tuesday, February 18, US Representative Gus Bilirakis visited the Brooksville Kiwanis at a downtown Brooksville eatery. Gus spoke about how his grandfather worked at the Maillis Grocery store and pool room across the street from where he was speaking. The Maillis family were relatives and they all lived in a house nearby in Brooksville. The Maillis grocery was located in the Jennings Building for around 40 years, ending in the 1970s.
Gus’s grandfather moved to Pennsylvania and his father, Michael Bilirakis, was born there. Michael came to Florida and attended the University of Florida. Gus was born in Gainesville. Michael was elected to Congress, serving from 1983 to 2007, representing the area around Tarpon Springs. Gus was elected as a US Representative in 2007, replacing his father as the representative of that area. Through redistricting, Gus ended up representing Hernando County.
At the Kiwanis meeting Gus discussed some issues that were important at the moment. He spoke about his “Student Visa Improvement Act, which aims to close loopholes and the student visa program.” He mentioned that one of the drivers of illegal immigration was students overstaying their visas.
He then went on to highlight some of the waste that DOGE was finding in their review of spending. He highlighted some of the controversial projects that were being funded through USAID.
He also discussed hurricane relief. He mentioned that Pasco County is set to receive a direct appropriation of $585 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the damage from Hurricanes Idalia, Helene, and Milton. Hernando meets all the criteria for direct appropriation in population and damage from the hurricanes but has not received a direct appropriation so far.
DOGE Meeting
On Thursday, Gus held a meeting that was billed to be about DOGE. He held a similar meeting in Pasco and Citrus as well. In truth, it was less about DOGE and more about general budgeting.
The attendees were asked to imagine that they were members of Congress and that they needed to create a budget. They were presented with several pages of proposals. Some items increased the budget and others lowered the budget.
The participants were told to work in groups. Many of the groups slightly increased or decreased the budget. There were some groups that said they cut more than six trillion dollars. I question their math.
