Staff Reports
Sixty Days — A prime-time look at the 2021 Legislative Session:
The Last 24
Gov. Ron DeSantis named Adrian Lukis as his new Chief of Staff. Lukis’ appointment comes about a month after former Chief of Staff Shane Strum announced he would leave the administration to become CEO of Broward Health. Strum has held the Chief of Staff since Day 1 and the Governor noted that “usually Adrian was right there with him.” Before joining the DeSantis administration, Lukis served as Deputy Staff Director in the House and as an attorney for the House Economic Affairs Committee. His most immediate duty is to fill the communications director vacancy in the Governor’s Office. Here’s your nightly rundown.
There’s a difference. A bill to prevent free-standing hospital emergency departments from presenting themselves as urgent care centers, which typically charge less for medical care, cleared its first committee.
Bottoms up. With a near-unanimous vote, the House Regulatory Reform Subcommittee OK’d a bill that would unscrew the cap on wine bottle sizes.
Flood of support. The House Environment, Agriculture & Flooding Subcommittee voted unanimously to advance a proposed committee bill to address sea-level rise and nuisance flooding.
Double-check. Legislation (HB 947) to add a new step for government employers to confirm that workers want union dues deducted from their paycheck passed its first House committee.
Grandfathered in. The Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee advanced legislation (HB 1273) that would charge top-performing out-of-state students in-state tuition rates if their grandparents are Florida residents.
Helping hand. A bill (HB 231) that would set up a behavioral health care referral service for veterans cleared the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee with a unanimous vote.
Vax rules. DeSantis announced that the state will lower the minimum age for vaccines from 65 to 60 on March 15.
Coronavirus Numbers
Positive cases:
— 1,912,440 FL residents (+3,231 since Sunday)
— 35,867 Non-FL residents (+81 since Sunday)
Origin:
— 15,128 Travel related
— 742,560 Contact with a confirmed case
— 20,666 Both
— 1,134,086 Under investigation
Hospitalizations:
— 81,015 in FL
Deaths:
— 32,349 in FL
Vaccinations:
— 5,537,301 Doses administered
— 3,590,686 Total people vaccinated
— 1,631,196 First dose
— 12,875 Completed one-dose series
— 1,946,615 Completed two-dose series (+13,223 since Sunday)
Quote of the Day
“The teachers, the very people who impart the knowledge and wisdom that we are privileged to obtain, are being insulted by this bill and being told that we do not trust their ability to understand how to fill out a form.” — Rep. Kelly Skidmore, on a bill requiring government employers to get confirmation before withholding union dues.
Your Metz Husband Daughton-sponsored question of the day is: True or False: The Senate allows motions for the previous question and to lay on the table.
As always, click here to tweet your answer with cc: @MHDFirm. The first person with the correct answer will get a shoutout in the next 60 Days!
Last time, we asked: St. Petersburg is home to the world’s largest club of what game that involves weighted disks?
Answer: Shuffleboard.
Congrats to Joe Baker, Jr. (@Section2Joe) the first person to tweet the correct answer!
Bill Day’s Latest
3 Questions
House Democratic Co-Leader Evan Jenne of Hollywood and Policy Chair and Rep. Fentrice Driskell of Tampa spoke to Florida Politics about proposed policy on local emergency orders, federal bailout money and THC caps.
Florida Politics: The Governor made a point in his State of the State address about his goal of trying to reform the emergency powers of local government. This seems to be aimed at masks and maybe more. Have you heard any more detail on what this reform might amount to? Does the House bill dealing with Emergency Management Powers of Political Subdivision (HB 945) relate to this?
Evan Jenne: I think [HB 945] is at least going to be the initial thrust. It is not a long bill — it is only two pages long — but one thing I did notice as I was reviewing, it has no Senate companion at this point. Of course, they can file a committee bill and that changes everything — immediately. But right now, as we’ve been seeing especially with some of the Senators and what they’ve been saying in public, there seems to be a little bit of a disconnect about who’s going to have power and who’s going to have power taken away from them. It basically hamstrings locals and this has been going on for decades and decades, the wearing down of home rule, the erosion of local authority.
Fentrice Driskell: We were all trying to figure out which way was up and which way was down and trying to feel our way through it, but it was really our mayors and our county commissioners who sprang into action when we weren’t having the type of well-defined response from the state government.
Florida Politics: What do you think of the Senate President’s suggestion to use federal rescue money to bail out the unemployment compensation fund to prevent a tax increase for businesses?
Fentrice Driskell: Let’s use these [federal funds] to the extent that we’re able to. Anything that’s going to provide relief for Floridians and for our small businesses here in the state, but we have to think through a system that has sustainability and we saw our unemployment system breakdown. So, we have to go back to the drawing board I think, and draw up some longer-term plans.
Evan Jenne: There are a lot of strings attached to federal funds so we want to make sure that’s allowed. But I would warn, while it may get us through the short term, long-term there’s going to have to be a significant overhaul to the entire unemployment compensation fund and program moving forward. Without that, we’re just going to watch history repeat itself the next time we are dealing with a statewide tragedy like we are right now.
Florida Politics: When it comes to THC caps, do you think limiting placing a 10% THC cap on whole-flower cannabis will increase sales, since people will have to buy more to achieve the same effect?
Co-Leader Evan Jenne: At the end of the day people are just going to buy more and more of it. If you cut the potency in half, people are just going to take double the amount they take. It is, in my opinion, a very bad idea. But I think the intent is not to have this be a good idea where more people are getting the medicine they need. I think the idea is to drive down sales as much as possible. There is a significant contingency including a lot of members of leadership, not in our caucus but in the House as a whole, that has been dead set against medicinal cannabis and especially dead set against recreational cannabis.
Lobby Up
In Florida, if you dig a hole more than few feet deep, it better be for a well.
The high water table means subways and subsurface highways are mostly off the table, as are true basements. Sorry, North Florida, walkout basements don’t count.
But tech entrepreneur Elon Musk thinks tunnels are a viable solution to South Florida’s traffic woes, and he says his newest venture, The Boring Company, can deliver them.
He may know what he’s talking about — after all, he did revolutionize the electric car business and then shoot one of his roadsters into orbit. At the very least, he’s started to make believers out of elected leaders at all levels.
Last week, Musk met with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. He’s also been on the line with DeSantis, Broward County Commissioners. And company representatives have toured Fort Lauderdale with Mayor Dean Trantalis to scope out potential tunnel sites.
The enthusiastic response has a lot to do with the price tag.
It’s not impossible to put a road underground in Florida. It’s just a money pit. It took nearly five years and $670 million to build the tunnel connecting Port Miami to local highways
Musk, however, says The Boring Company can build a two-mile tunnel under the Miami River for $30 million, and that it could be done in as little as six months.
A project of that magnitude would bring a lot of red tape — it would need approval from local governments and state agencies. And, if it gets the nod, it would need to go through a competitive bidding process.
When the tunnel talks started heating up a few weeks ago, Jeff Sharkey and Taylor Biehl of Capitol Alliance Group landed a contract to represent The Boring Company in the Capitol and were tasked with helping the company navigate past any potential roadblocks. It’s a natural pick, as the duo have long represented Musk’s other companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
Breakthrough Insights
The Next 24
A resolution (SJR 1238) that would ask voters to increase the threshold for constitutional amendments to pass from 60% to two-thirds will go before the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee when it meets at 9 a.m. in Room 110 Senate Office Building.
The Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security Committee will hear a bill (SB 922) that would permit government employers to waive degree requirements for military veterans, reservists and members of the Florida National Guard. The committee meets at 9 a.m. in Room 37 of the Senate Office Building.
The Governor and Cabinet are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. in the Cabinet meeting room.
The Revenue Estimating Conference will discuss state revenues related to the legal settlement between the state and tobacco companies when it meets at 9 a.m. in Room 117 of the Knott Building.
The House Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee will consider a slate of member appropriations requests when it meets at 9:30 a.m. in Reed Hall in the House Office Building. A list of projects is available in the meeting notice.
A bill (HB 559) that would require elementary school students to receive computer science education will go before the House Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee when it meets at 9:30 a.m. in Morris Hall in the House Office Building.
The House Local Administration & Veterans Affairs Subcommittee will hear a bill (HB 883) that would prohibit anonymous complaints from triggering local government code inspector investigations. The committee meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room 404 of the House Office Building.
The House Professions & Public Health Subcommittee will take up a bill (HB 1455) that would place a 10% THC cap on smokable medical cannabis when it meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room 212 of the Knott Building.
Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, Rep. Nick Duran and Rep. Anthony Rodriguez will hold a news conference on proposals (HB 357/SB 1474) that would allow local governments to use an automated system to catch speeders in school zones. It will be held in the 4th Floor Rotunda at 11:45 a.m.
A bill (SB 76) that would make changes to the state’s residential property insurance system, including change the way attorney fees are calculated in property insurance lawsuits, will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee when it meets at 11:45 a.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release an updated citrus production forecast for the 2020-2021 season at noon.
The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee will hear a bill (SB 148) to allow restaurants to continue selling to-go cocktails, if purchased alongside food, after the COVID-19 emergency order expires. The committee meets at 12:30 p.m. in Room 110 of the Senate Office Building.
Sen. Lori Berman and Rep. Robin Bartleman, both South Florida Democrats, will hold a news conference on bills (HB 767/SB 1044) that would prohibit the release of information, including public records, that could identify victims of sexual violence or sexual exploitation. The news conference will be held at 1:30 p.m. via Zoom.
The Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, the League of Women Voters of Florida, SPLC Action Fund, The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus and Florida PTA will hold a virtual news conference in opposition to the guns-in-churches bill (SB 498) at 1:30 p.m.
The Florida Council on the Status of Black Men and Boys meets at 2 p.m. via GoToMeeting. Attendees may also call in via 1-877-309-2073. The meeting ID is 316414141.
Newly appointed Department of Children & Families Secretary Shevaun Harris will speak to the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee when it meets at 3:30 p.m. in Room 37 of the Senate Office Building.
A bill (SB 498) to allow concealed carry license holders to bring guns to churches, synagogues or other religious institutions that share a property with schools will be heard in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee when it meets at 3:30 p.m. in Room 110 of the Senate Office Building.
The Senate Education Committee will consider a bill (SB 86) that would revamp the Bright Futures college scholarship program to prioritize degree and certificate programs that “lead directly to employment.” The committee meets at 3:30 p.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
The House Health & Human Services Committee will consider a proposal (HB 133) that would allow parents of unwanted infants to give up custody via “baby boxes.” Current law allows for a direct handoff to a firefighter, paramedic, or other emergency personnel. The committee meets at 4 p.m. in Morris Hall in the House Office Building.
The Old Capitol will be lit up in purple to raise Alzheimer’s disease awareness during a ceremony at 6:15 p.m.
Also, the following committees will meet.
— The House State Administration & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee will meet at 1 p.m. in Reed Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Committee meets at 1 p.m. in Morris Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House Commerce Committee meets at 3:45 p.m. in Room 212 of the Knott Building.
— The House Pandemics & Public Emergencies Committee meets at 3:45 p.m. in Room 404 of the House Office Building.
Full committee agendas, including bills to be considered, are available on the House and Senate websites.
