Staff Reports
Sixty Days — A prime-time look at the 2021 Legislative Session:
The Last 24
Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined his plans for Florida’s share of federal pandemic relief funds during a Tuesday news conference. The slate includes $260 million for Florida’s seaports, $73.2 million to repair the state’s unemployment system, $72 million for a “comprehensive integrated behavioral health service” and $50 million for VISIT FLORIDA. It would also dish out a one-time $1,000 payment to first responders — EMTs, law enforcement officers and firefighters — which would cost $208.4 million. “We believe we should recognize their sacrifice over the past year,” he said. The Governor’s plan covers about half of the approximately $10 billion Florida is set to receive through the $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package. Here’s your nightly rundown.
Pump the brakes. A bill (SB 856) preempting local government ordinances limiting energy infrastructure was amended to apply only to gas stations.
Fraudsters beware. Legislation (HB 9/SB 1608) cracking down on pandemic scams that passed the House unanimously is finally moving in the Senate.
Dim Futures. Despite dozens of students speaking in protest, the Senate Education Committee advanced a bill (SB 86) that would limit Bright Futures scholarships to degrees with higher job prospects.
Cheaper drugs. A bill (SB 390) to add oversight to pharmacy benefit managers advanced in the Senate, but changes made to the legislation left neither PBMs nor pharmacists completely satisfied.
Put it out. The House Professions and Public Health Subcommittee OK’d a bill (HB 239) allowing Florida cities and counties to ban smoking at public beaches and parks.
Flu shots. A bill (HB 1063) that would allow pharmacists to vaccinate children cleared its first panel after an amendment limiting it to flu vaccines for children 7 years old and up.
Multipack. The Senate Transportation Committee voted to package all specialty license plate legislation into one bill (SB 676).
Pay over time. A proposal (HB 337) that would add restrictions on how local governments can use impact fees passed its first committee on a 13-5 vote.
Ride on. A bill (HB 365) to make peer-to-peer car-sharing companies pay sales taxes and rental surcharges moved through the House Tourism, Infrastructure and Energy Subcommittee.
Stock up. Proposals (HB 1353/SB 1760) requiring the Division of Emergency Management to maintain stockpiles of personal protective equipment met muster in House and Senate committees Tuesday.
Victim support. Legislation (HB 523) aimed at helping victims of human trafficking while cracking down on offenders received bipartisan support in the House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Subcommittee.
No Sunshine. A bill (SB 1488) shielding lawmakers’ personal information from public records passed the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee in a 5-4 vote along party lines.
Bottoms up. The House Commerce Committee unanimously OK’d a bill (HB 6073) that would allow wine to be sold in containers larger than a gallon.
Coronavirus numbers
Positive cases:
— 1,947,834 FL residents (+4,699 since Monday)
— 36,591 Non-FL residents (+92 since Monday)
Origin:
— 15,454 Travel related
— 760,850 Contact with a confirmed case
— 21,017 Both
— 1,150,513 Under investigation
Hospitalizations:
— 82,584 in FL
Deaths:
— 33,061 in FL
Vaccinations:
— 6,659,107 Doses administered
— 4,338,099 Total people vaccinated
— 1,906,559 First dose
— 110,532 Completed one-dose series (+9,980 since Monday)
— 2,321,008 Completed two-dose series (+41,362 since Monday)
Quote of the Day
“We want to get those type of butts off the beach to get other butts on the beach.” — Rep. Thad Altman, on his bill allowing local governments to ban smoking at beaches and parks.
Your Metz Husband Daughton-sponsored question of the day is: What Florida city is known as the Venice of America?”
As always, click here to tweet your answer with cc:@MHDFirm. The first person with the correct answer will get a shoutout in 60 Days!
Last time, we asked: Florida man robs GameStop store while wearing what unsuccessful disguise?
Answer: A transparent plastic bag.
Congrats to Jeremy Smith (@thejackal1106), the first person to tweet the correct answer!
Bill Day’s Latest
3 Questions
House Democratic Co-Leader Evan Jenne and Policy Chair Rep. Fentrice Driskell answered a wide range of policy questions about a social media censorship bill, the Senate’s seeming slow walking on a few pieces of House legislation, and how efforts at the national level to safeguard voting could affect bills in the Florida Legislature.
Florida Politics: What are your thoughts on House Bill (HB 33) sponsored by Rep. Anthony Sabatini, which allows lawsuits against social media for censorship?
Driskell: We’re frustrated by any proposals that are not trying to help Floridians where they need most in the time of this pandemic. This is the type of legislation that just seems like a distraction. The Governor was saying that ‘we want big tech to stay out of our elections, we want big tech to stay out of our business.’ But the fact of the matter is that many Floridians use these platforms. And I think that big tech has had to take on this responsibility of making sure that their platforms are used in an appropriate way. So, on the one hand, messaging where we say we want business to be able to run itself — how it needs to in order to stay competitive and relevant in the free market — and then, on the other hand, we’ve got Gov. DeSantis trying to restrict them with this bill. So, I think you’ll probably see a lot of our caucus members down on it.
Jenne: This is a bill that tries to play into some pseudo-culture war. This is obviously done out of anger, because former President [Donald] Trump was removed from several social media apps. And here’s the thing: Right now, we as a nation are not in a good place. Our national mental health and our national emotions are not in a good place right now as a whole. This is just seeking to exacerbate that, and turn it into fuel for political gain. We have much more important things we could be working on. We could be working on vaccine rollouts. We could be looking into what we could be doing better in terms of our COVID response in our pandemic response. But when you look at the general tenor of the Session, and some of the bills that are moving, it’s very clear that policy that is going to help Floridians is not at the forefront of some people’s minds in this chamber. In fact, it is how can we make this as divisive as possible and let people know that we disagree with that? You know ‘owning the libs,’ if that’s your main policy thrust, the state is in really bad shape moving forward.
Florida Politics: The Senate hasn’t taken up the social media bill or the anti-riot bill (HB 1). Does that tell you something?
Jenne: Look they are a slower, more deliberate body. It’s one of the reasons why they’ve been the check in balance to the House — more so than the Governor’s mansion has been, over the course of the last couple of decades. I am happy that the Senate is taking a much deeper look at a much more measured reasonable speed at moving these bills through. But at the same time, I also know there’s been a lot of bad bills that have become public policy in the form of statute over the course of the last few decades. So even though they are slow-walking it — and I do agree with it that they are — we don’t know why they’re slow walking. Is it because it’s bad policy, which I would lean toward, or is this a negotiation ploy, moving forward? So, that is not a question for me to know the answer to. I do not know President [Wilton] Simpson that well, but I do know [Simpson’s Chief of Staff] Kathy Mears. Kathy is a dear friend of mine. And she is a highly intelligent individual, who is going to make sure Senate priorities are put at the forefront. So, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with that interest.
Florida Politics: What do you think of the movement at the national level to safeguard voting rights (HR 1 For the People Act), and do you think what’s happening in Washington could affect SB 90 snaking its way through the Senate?
Driskell: I’m very grateful for HR 1, and I think a lot of us are really excited to see Congressional leadership on this issue to stop what has been a national trend with state legislatures trying to curtail the availability of vote-by-mail for people, and frankly just curtail the right to vote. In the midst of a pandemic, we saw overwhelming election activity and participation across the country, and I think that terrified Republicans. They don’t want a large turnout because they know that it means that it puts some of their majorities in jeopardy across the country. So, what we’ve seen, including here in Florida, is a whole raft of these policies that would make it more difficult to vote by mail, and that would be tantamount to voter suppression. This is not anything new. This is just the, the latest tactic in efforts to suppress the vote. I certainly appreciate that Congress is taking this action. In terms of how I think it will impact our bills here in Florida, I’m optimistic that if it passes, it will help supersede some of what we are seeing in Florida. And maybe even preempt some of these bad pieces of legislation that we’re seeing in Florida, so that we don’t have to deal with the negative effects of Sen. [Dennis] Baxley’s bill (SB 90).
Lobby Up
A package goes through several pairs of hands on its way from the warehouse to the doorstep, but emerging technology could make at least one of them unnecessary.
Nuro has developed vehicles that can get those packages to customers without a person in the driver’s seat — or any driver’s seat at all.
Their latest model, the R2, can cart more than 400 pounds of goods and is decked out with safety features such as a 360-degree camera, energy-absorbing front panels, a laser depth-perception rig, a redundant braking system. It can even beep if a pedestrian walks into its path.
But it’s not allowed on most Florida roads.
Current law blocks low-speed vehicles (the R2 tops out at 25 mph) from driving on roads with a speed limit of 45 mph or higher. The state also requires vehicles to have rearview mirrors and windshield wipers, both of which are vestigial features in a driverless car.
Sen. Jeff Brandes and Rep. Fiona McFarland have filed bills (SB 1620/HB 1289) that would let autonomous delivery vehicles drive down higher-speed roadways for a mile at a time, sans wipers and mirrors, as long as it sticks to the right lane and is equipped with headlights, turn signals, reflectors and plates.
Nuro wants to ensure it gets the green light, so it’s turned to Johnathan Killman and Cesar Fernandez at Converge Government Affairs of Florida for assistance.
The firm has become a go-to for companies on the leading edge of tech innovation — their portfolio of clients includes flying car company Lilium and dockless scooter sharing platform Revel Transit, among others.
Fernandez, too, has extensive experience at the intersection of tech and transportation. Before joining Converge, he worked as an in-house lobbyist at Uber and was instrumental in the passage of the landmark statewide ride-sharing regulation bill during the 2017 Legislative Session.
Breakthrough Insights
The Next 24
The Senate Agriculture Committee will consider legislation (SB 1370) to allow veterinarians to treat animals via telemedicine when it meets at 9 a.m. in Room 110 of the Senate Office Building.
The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee will take up a bill (SB 490) making Juneteenth Day, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S., a paid holiday for state workers. The committee meets at 9 a.m. in Room 37 of the Senate Office Building.
The Senate Health Policy Committee will consider a proposal (SB 614) that would upgrade charges for assault or battery against hospital workers when it meets at 9 a.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
The Revenue Estimating Conference will discuss the Florida Lottery at 9 a.m. in Room 117 Knott Building.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Sen. Tina Polsky, Rep. Kelly Skidmore and Florida Conservation Group Vice-Chair Jim Strickland will hold a news conference to discuss energy and climate change legislation. It starts at 11:30 a.m. in front of the Agriculture Commissioner’s office on the Capitol.
The Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a confirmation hearing for newly appointed Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Simone Marstiller. It starts at 12:30 p.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
The House and Senate will each hold a floor session at 2 p.m.
The Criminal Justice Estimating Conference will discuss issues related to the criminal justice system at 2 p.m. in Room 117 Knott Building.
The Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a confirmation hearing for newly appointed Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Julie Brown and Lottery Secretary John Davis. The committee meets at 3 p.m. in Room 110 of the Senate Office Building.
The Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee will consider a bill (SB 1450) to change the K-12 civic education curriculum to include first-person accounts from people who lived under communist or dictatorial governments. The committee meets at 3 p.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
The Space Florida Board of Directors will meet at 4 p.m. via teleconference. The call-in number is 1-866-528-2256. The conference code is 4875556.
Florida Internet & Television will host a panel discussion on bills to boost broadband access to underserved communities (HB 1239/SB 1592). The speaker list includes House sponsor Josie Tomkow, former FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, Connect the Future executive director Zachary Cikanek and James Madison Institute VP of policy Sal Nuzzo. FIT president Brad Swanson will serve as moderator. It begins at 4:30 p.m. Register online.
Also, the following committees will meet.
— The House Civil Justice & Property Rights Subcommittee meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room 404 House Office Building.
— The House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee meets at 9:30 a.m. in Reed Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee meets at 9:30 a.m. in Morris Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House Secondary Education & Career Development Subcommittee meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room 212 Knott Building.
— The House Finance & Facilities Subcommittee meets at 1 p.m. in Room 404 House Office Building.
— The House Government Operations Subcommittee meets at 1 p.m. in Morris Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee meets at 1 p.m. in Reed Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House Regulatory Reform Subcommittee meets at 1 p.m. in Room 212 Knott Building.
— The Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Subcommittee meets at 3 p.m. in Room 37 of the Senate Office Building.
— The House Education & Employment Committee meets at 3:45 p.m. in Morris Hall in the House Office Building.
— The House Judiciary Committee meets at 3:45 p.m. in Room 404 House Office Building.
— The House State Affairs Committee meets at 3:45 p.m. in Room 212 Knott Building.
Full committee agendas, including bills to be considered, are available on the House and Senate websites.
