Senate pairs heat exposure preemption, child labor bills

At the eleventh-hour, Danny Burgess gets a challenger.

On the second-to-last day of the Regular Session, the Senate opted to combine two controversial bills struggling to cross the finish in an effort to get them to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

One day after sending HB 433 — which prevents local governments from requiring companies to provide shade and water breaks to outdoor workers — to the House, the Senate inserted the bill into HB 49, which allows 16- and 17-year-olds to work longer hours.

Both bills have received vocal pushback from Democrats, but GOP leaders in the House and Senate have also failed to reach consensus on the measures in the waning days of the Session.

The Senate has already pared back both bills from their original versions, and the language preferred by the House. The heat exposure preemption bill included a provision preempting cities and counties from requiring contractors and subcontractors to pay higher wages, but the Senate stripped that out before sending it back to the House.

And the child labor bill originally allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to work at 5:30 a.m. and until 11 p.m. and go longer without breaks.

Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Miami Democrat, took issue with the maneuver.

“Let’s wage war on poverty, not poor people,” Pizzo said.

But Sen. Danny Burgess, a Zephyrhills Republican sponsoring HB 49, said the changes to the bills reflected well on the Senate.

The bills “are proof positive that this is a process and that we listen along the way,” Burgess said.

Now, with one day left in the Session, the ball is in the House’s court, which must decide whether to pass the watered-down version of the bill or “bounce” it back to the Senate, likely killing both measures.

Also, lawmakers have already finished most of their business for the session, with the budget (HB 5001) and the tax cut package (HB 7073) still left to be passed on Friday.