Sarah Mueller
The Senate saw a new version of legislation that would revamp the state’s gift ban Wednesday.
The bill sponsor, Appropriations Chair Rob Bradley, introduced a strike-all amendment and amended some of the reporting requirements on the second reading. It’s now ready for a floor vote.
The strike-all adds circumstances with a spouse, in addition to the employee and child. The diagnosis of the condition has to be while the official is employed. The state worker has to report to the Commission on Ethics any gift that’s $100 or more. The amendment to the strike-all requires the reporting of a $100 or more in cash. That amount or more in a credit, setoff or waiver also has to be reported. Things like buying the person a meal would not have to be reported.
That adds to the bill’s (SB 1490) original language to allow non-elected state employees to “accept any gift or compensation, regardless of value” if it is applied directly toward the expenses incurred from treating their or their child’s “serious disease or illness.”
“There is disclosure,” Bradley said of the bill’s easing of some restrictions. “It’s in the sunshine.”
Gifts and compensation directly linked to care or treatment of “serious disease or illness” would be permissible, but not for elected officials, Bradley said.
The bill stemmed from challennges Alexis Lambert, an attorney working for the Florida Lottery and previously for the Constitutional Revision Commission, faced when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer.
Lambert has offered unsparing testimony at previous committee stops, calling cancer a “rich man’s disease” and pointing out that the “average state employee cannot afford to get cancer.
Lambert gave her testimony again, describing a “blur” of doctor’s appointments, “six weeks of chemo radiation … surgery … and 12 weeks of maintenance chemo.”
Her treatment plan also included a mandatory month of home health care.
“Losing my hair was the least of my problems,” Lambert said, describing the shutdown of her reproductive system as part of cancer treatment.
The Florida League of Cities and James Madison Institute supported the bill at previous stops.
