Balart Presents Millions in Federal Funds to Doral Mayor in Wake of Pro-Palestine Controversy

US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) presented City of Doral Mayor Christi Fraga with $2 million in federal funding for her city’s police.

The funds will be used for the Doral Police Department's Communication and Police Radio Modernization Technology Project.

Representative Balart managed to secure the funding through the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2024, enacted on March 9th, 2024.

The funds presented to Doral are part of the tens of millions of dollars in federal grants that will be disbursed to multiple South Florida projects and entities.

For example, Miami-Dade County will receive over $7 million dollars for transportation and roadway safety projects.

Additionally, Florida International University’s Windstorm Research Instrumentation and Testing Enhancement Project will be granted over $4 millions for expansion costs.

The Wall of Wind researches extreme weather and tests future climate scenarios – particularly for Category 5 storms – through simulations. According to Balart’s office, the large-scale hurricane simulator utilizes a 12-fan 8,400 horsepower system capable of generating 157 mph wind speeds.

Altogether, the funding obtained by Balart for South Florida authorities and public projects amounts to over $30 million.

Mayor Fraga and Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez received the symbolic check for the funds.

The former was recently engulfed in controversy after she passed a resolution addressing the Israel-Hamas war whose author many have criticized as an anti-Semitic Hamas sympathizer.

Fraga ultimately apologized for the resolution, calling it  "naive" and "fundamentally flawed.”

As The Floridian reported, Mayor Fraga excused herself, admitting that "while my actions were well intended, the process in which I followed, and the final wording of the resolution that was unanimously approved by my colleagues in the city council, was naive of me and fundamentally flawed."