Daniel Perez is nearing the end of his time as Florida's House speaker.
But he's got his next big position lined up. President Donald Trump has nominated him to be the United States ambassador to Brazil.
"It's very humbling that the President of the United States would entrust me with that nomination,” Perez said. “I'm sure there's a process over the next several months that will take place for this nomination to eventually be confirmed. What that looks like, I have no idea."
Perez frequently clashes with Gov. Ron DeSantis but has been a big Trump ally. The U.S. Senate needs to approve Perez as ambassador after a review process, and Brazil must also agree.
Perez got questioned about the nomination during a press conference on Tuesday. The Legislature recently passed a tax package that includes a provision allowing diplomats and some other overseas federal officials to keep their Florida homestead property tax break, even if they rent out the place.
Specifically, it applies to an “individual who is appointed or employed on a full-time basis by the United States Government as a diplomatic, intelligence, consular or foreign service officer and who, as a result, is directed to reside or required to be stationed or deployed outside of the state.”
Perez denied it had anything to do with him.
"I want to make sure that because someone is making a decision to serve their country humbly and in an honorable manner, that their homestead property all of a sudden isn't relinquished, and so this was something that was in the books well before, obviously, the nomination,” he said.
He walked off after his answer, not responding to shouted questions of whether he spoke Portuguese, Brazil’s official language.
Journalist Jason Garcia first reported on the tax break in his newsletter, Seeking Rents.
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This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
