© 2024 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Senate Delays Surgeon General's Confirmation

Surgeon General John Armstrong, who also functions as Secretary of the Florida Department of Health, will likely not win Senate confirmation this year, the Associated Press reports.

That news comes from Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who chairs a committee that decides whether appointees get confirmed or have to come back and try again the second year. He said some senators question Armstrong's ability to work with other officials, AP reports.

Armstrong, who was appointed 11 months ago, had been serving as chief medical officer for the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS).

His predecessor was Surgeon General, Dr. Frank Farmer, served less than a year before resigning in March 2012, citing his wife's illness.

Carol Gentry, founder and special correspondent of Health News Florida, has four decades of experience covering health finance and policy, with an emphasis on consumer education and protection.After serving two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, Gentry worked for a number of newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), the Tampa Tribune and Orlando Sentinel. She was a Kaiser Foundation Media Fellow in 1994-95 and earned an Master's in Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 1996. She directed a journalism fellowship program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for four years.Gentry created Health News Florida, an independent non-profit health journalism publication, in 2006, and served as editor until September, 2014, when she became a special correspondent. She and Health News Florida joined WUSF in 2012.
You Count on Us, We Count on You: Donate to WUSF to support free, accessible journalism for yourself and the community.