‘Medal of Freedom’ awards could be extended
Former CIA officer Felix Rodriguez walks past pictures of men involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, after speaking at a press conference calling for U.S. action to support the Cuban people, on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, at the Assault Brigade 2506 Honorary Museum, in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. In a level of frustration not seen in Cuba in more than 60 years, Cubans took to the streets of Havana and other cities this month to protest food shortages and high prices during the coronavirus crisis.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Former CIA officer Felix Rodriguez walks past pictures of men involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, after speaking at a press conference calling for U.S. action to support the Cuban people, on July 21, 2021, at the Assault Brigade 2506 Honorary Museum, in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. [AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell]
Sen. Tom Wright, a New Smyrna Beach Republican who chairs the Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security Committee, filed the measure (SB 1360), which would remove an expiration date from state law for awarding the medals.
The awards can go to “any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to the interests and citizens of the state, its culture, or other significant public or private endeavor.”
DeSantis awarded the medal in September to Felix Rodríguez, a Cuban-American former Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operations officer, and in April to the late Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden.
The medal was put into state law in 2020 as part of a bill that accompanies the budget. It included a July 1, 2021 expiration date. A similar bill approved this year extended the expiration date to July 1, 2022.
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