Janelle Irwin Taylor
With a super-majority in the House and a strong majority in the senate, Florida Republicans stand a pretty good chance of getting their way during this year’s Legislative Session.
But that doesn’t mean progressive Democrats aren’t still riled up with messages for lawmakers.
The group Progress Florida came together in Governor Rick Scott’s first term in office to fight an onslaught of Tea Party ideals including drastic cuts to public education and efforts to seemingly silence minority voters at the polls. Back then the group arranged a whole host of rallies statewide called “Awake the State.”
The is the fifth anniversary of those rallies and they are continuing this Tuesday as lawmakers get ready to hit the House and Senate floors running for the start of the Legislative Session. But instead of hosting statewide protests against GOP-led efforts, the group will announce a list of five of its own legislative priorities.
“It’s an important second step to be able to put out a public message and say hey, if we had our shot at this these are the kind of things that we think our important,” said Progress Florida political director Damien Filer.
The group launched an online survey that was answered by nearly 2,000 people. During a radio interview, Filer wouldn’t say what issues landed on the list, but he did give a bit of a preview of what his group’s supporters are talking about.
One of the issues likely to make an appearance on the list, probably near or at the top, is Medicaid Expansion.
“People are overwhelmingly concerned about this,” Filer said.
One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act would have expanded Medicaid in Florida making healthcare available to nearly one million Floridians who don’t currently qualify. But, when Republicans challenged the law in the Supreme Court, justices ruled that states could decide whether or not they wanted to take federal funding to expand the program. Florida opted out of the program and declined $51 billion in federal funding to implement the program.
The decision of whether or not to expand Medicaid in Florida has fallen along party lines with Republicans opposing it and Democrats pushing for it. But Flier said it’s not a partisan issue noting that plenty of Red states have taken federal dollars, Governor Rick Scott came out in favor of it, albeit only briefly and even the Florida Senate had approved a bill that would have expanded Medicaid.
One of the most resounding arguments against accepting federal funding has been that Washington needs to get its financial house in order instead of doling out huge lumps of money for healthcare.
“The way the law works, this money is going to be spent on providing access to healthcare no matter what,” Flier said.
The way he and other supporters see it is, take the money Florida taxpayers have already sent to Washington to benefit our own residents or see that money go to another state.
But, conservatives also argue it’s a matter of protecting taxpayers not just throwing a hissy fit over the healthcare law they loathe. That is, if Washington somehow finds itself out of money, what’s to stop them from not continuing to fund the state programs leaving the states on the hook for the bill.
Flier is optimistic that with enough calls from constituents and business leaders who have begun to emerge in support of expansion the issue may stand a chance of seeing the light of day.
Other issues likely to pop up on the Progress Florida Legislative priorities involve water. Flier said he’s heard from supporters who are concerned about efforts to expand offshore drilling. They’re also worried about passing legislation that continues to improve water quality in the states lakes, rivers and springs as well as continue to restore habitat in the Florida Everglades.
Some issues they may wind up speaking against include abortion policy and gun laws.
“Get ready because there definitely are some things coming,” Flier said.
He said there are five bills related to anti-abortion sentiment. Two of those have bills in both chambers of the legislature making them the most formidable force to pro-choice advocates.
One of those bills would require doctors who operate abortion clinics to have admitting priviledges at a local hospital. This is billed as a patient protection measure ensuring that if a complication arises for a woman undergoing an abortion, she has the best shot at good care. It seems pretty common sense on the surface. There’s a but.
“What it would do, potentially, is restrict their access to a safe and legal procedure,” Flier said.
He points out that some data, including that from the CDC, point to a less than one percent instance of women needing hospitalization as a result of an abortion. It’s considered a safe procedure. Flier said hospitals aren’t even likely to grant admitting privileges to abortion providers because the instance of complication is so low.
Another bill is mandatory delay legislation. That would require a woman seeking an abortion to wait 24-hours before undergoing the procedure after completing an initial assessment that includes a consultation with the doctor and mandatory counseling. The idea is to give women a chance to really think through a big decision.
“It’s just condescending to suggest that a woman seeking an abortion wouldn’t’ have already thought these things through very thoroughly,” Flier said.
Nevermind the insult, supporters of a woman’s right to choose argue that legislation like this is a major hurdle for women, especially ones from a poor socio-economic background.
“Some women have to travel an hour or two to get to an abortion provider,” Flier said. That would mean women, particularly those in more rural parts of the state would be forced to make that trip twice, figure out how to pay for extra gas or a hotel, additional child care and how to get out of two days of work.
Another bill to outright ban abortions in Florida has also been introduced, but it’s not likely to go anywhere.
Another hot button topic this year is a bill that would allow guns on college campuses. Flier cautions people who support this measure to look at whether the people on campuses, the students and the teachers, want it.
“The gun lobby has a pretty much all access pass in Tallahassee,” Flier said. “We always see the gun lobby come out and say well we need more guns on campus not less. The groups like the gun lobby, they like to present themselves as speaking on behalf of gun owners. The gun lobby doesn’t necessarily represent those individual gun owners so much as an industry.”
The group is also keeping an eye on two medical marijuana measures in the House and Senate. One, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, would legalize marijuana for medical use for a broad range of patients. Another in the House doesn’t go quite as far – it allows use of the plant for medicinal use to a more narrow group of sick Floridians and would not allow the drug in smokeable form.
“Their doctors know a lot better what is in their best interest in terms of healthcare than politicians do,” Flier said. “We have to get them to agree with us in order to take that power away from themselves and that’s always a tough thing to do.”
