Byron Donalds Jobs Billionaires & Big Business Food Assistance Florida

Byron Donalds Put the Founder of the Think Tank That Wrote Florida's Teen-Labor Rollback in Charge of His Transition's Policy

Florida's governor-elect named Tarren Bragdon, founder of the Foundation for Government Accountability, as policy chair of his transition team. Public records show Bragdon's group handed a Florida lawmaker the draft of a 2024 bill loosening limits on how long teenagers can work. Bragdon and his wife gave Donalds' PAC $57,000.

MAGA Report Cards · Nov 13, 2026

Byron Donalds Put the Founder of the Think Tank That Wrote Florida's Teen-Labor Rollback in Charge of His Transition's Policy — Photo: Shutterstock, via Orlando Weekly

The first big decision a new governor makes is who writes the plan. Byron Donalds has made his.

Days after he won the race for governor of Florida, Donalds named Tarren Bragdon as policy chair of his transition team, Orlando Weekly reported. That is the job of shaping what the Donalds administration will actually try to do.

Bragdon is not a neutral policy expert. He founded the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Naples-based group that has pushed to make public help harder to get — and to let employers put teenagers on longer shifts.

The group that wrote the teen-labor bill

In 2023, a Florida Republican lawmaker filed a bill called HB 49. As first filed, it would have wiped out the state's rule against 16- and 17-year-olds working before 6:30 a.m. or after 11 p.m., dropped the eight-hour limit on days before school, removed the cap of 30 hours a week during the school year, and blocked cities and counties from setting tougher rules of their own.

Where did the bill come from? Public records first obtained by More Perfect Union and shared with Orlando Weekly showed that a lobbyist working on behalf of the Foundation for Government Accountability's lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, emailed the lawmaker's office draft bill language in August 2023. The paper reported the draft was "nearly identical" to the bill as filed. Less than a day after the bill was filed and the criticism started, the lawmaker's aide texted the same lobbyist asking for talking points.

The bill was scaled back before it passed. The version Ron DeSantis signed in March 2024 still lets 16- and 17-year-olds work more than 30 hours a week during the school year if a parent, guardian or school superintendent signs a waiver. It lets them work more than eight hours on weekends and holidays, and lets employers schedule them for more than six days in a row. Teens who are homeschooled or attend a virtual school can work with none of the state's limits on minors at all, the Florida Phoenix reported.

Florida wasn't the only target. Through the same lobbying arm, the group has backed rules letting teenagers work night shifts and on factory assembly lines in other states, Orlando Weekly reported.

The group behind the push to cut food aid

Child labor is only part of the record. The Foundation for Government Accountability is best known nationally for pushing stricter work requirements on food stamps, Medicaid and unemployment.

Back in 2018, the Washington Post profiled it under the headline "They're the think tank pushing for welfare work requirements. Republicans say they're experts. Economists call it 'junk science.'"

Since then, it has backed Florida efforts to make it harder for low-income Floridians to qualify for food stamps or unemployment benefits, Orlando Weekly reported. It has argued against expanding Medicaid. And Trump administration officials have cited the group's papers to defend cuts to food stamps.

Those cuts are not abstract. We've tracked the food-stamp rolls since the 2025 budget bill in one state: in Louisiana, about 170,000 fewer people were on food stamps in the year after Trump signed it. The same think tank that sold the work-requirement idea to Washington will now help write Florida's agenda.

Who pays for it — and who paid Donalds

The Foundation for Government Accountability is a charity under the tax code, so it doesn't have to say who funds it. Tax filings show it has taken large contributions from conservative billionaires and right-wing foundations, Orlando Weekly reported.

The money runs to Donalds, too:

Bragdon and his wife, Anna, personally gave $57,000 to Donalds' political committee, according to the PAC's own contribution records.
Billionaire Dick Uihlein — a major backer of the foundation and of DeSantis — gave Donalds' PAC a total of $2 million, according to Orlando Weekly.

That fits a pattern we've already documented: of at least 18 billionaires who put money into Florida's governor race, 17 gave to Byron Donalds.

Bragdon, in his statement, said Donalds "has committed to advancing big ideas, cutting through red tape and bureaucratic delays."

The facts, in short

Florida's governor-elect, Byron Donalds, picked Tarren Bragdon to chair policy for his transition. Bragdon founded the Foundation for Government Accountability, whose lobbying arm handed a Florida lawmaker the draft of the 2024 bill that loosened limits on how long 16- and 17-year-olds can work, and which has pushed stricter work rules on food stamps, Medicaid and unemployment. Bragdon and his wife gave Donalds' PAC $57,000.