Legislative Session preview: Lori Berman files fleet of family-focused bills

Image via Lori Berman.

As she did in previous Sessions, Sen. Lori Berman is focusing much of her legislative efforts this year on helping households in the Sunshine State.

Berman has filed a fleet of family-focused bills to curb the cost of educating, feeding and caring for children in Florida and for ensuring women aren’t priced out of vital health services.

Several are reruns of measures the Boynton Beach Democrat has carried before, and they’re still worthwhile, she said.

One returning proposal Berman hasn’t yet filed centers on caregiving youth — minors who, due frequently to tragic circumstances, are responsible for taking care of their parents, siblings or both.

Berman ran the measure last year (SB 152), with Highland Beach Republican Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman carrying an identical companion in the House.

Neither received a hearing.

Berman said the version she’s filing this year will be “a little bit different” from its predecessor, but the objective is the same. If passed, the bill will create a definition for “caregiving youth” in Florida Statutes and a state task force to make recommendations for how to help the children succeed in school.

The bill came as a result of talks Berman had with the American Association of Caregiving Youth, a Boca Raton-based nonprofit founded 18 years ago to work with the local School District on identifying and helping youth caregivers.

There are hundreds of such kids in Palm Beach County alone.

“Very often, they’re late for school because they have to take care of their relatives. They don’t have time to do their homework. So, we’re going to have proposed suggestions for what we can do to make their lives simpler,” Berman told Florida Politics.

Another measure (SB 70) Berman hopes to pass would more than double the number of voluntary prekindergarten hours public and private schools offer, from at least 540 instructional hours now to 1,440 hours.

The bill would also increase summer pre-K program hours from 300 to 480 hours. Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos G. Smith is co-sponsoring the bill to which West Palm Beach Democratic Rep. Jervonte Edmonds is carrying a House companion (HB 191).

The change would be significant, increasing early educational provisions statewide to a full-time schedule.

“Right now, we have a half-day program,” Berman said.

Other family-aimed bills Berman is sponsoring this year include:

— SB 72 to allow candidates for public office to use campaign funds on child care. Boca Raton Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore is carrying its House analog.

— SB 74 to create a universal free school breakfast and lunch program. Edmonds is sponsoring the bill’s House match.

— SB 76 to provide Florida state employees who are new moms and dads with 12 weeks of paid time off. Smith is a co-sponsor.

— SB 158 to cap the cost of diagnostic and supplemental breast exams. Hollywood Democratic Rep. Marie Woodson has filed similar legislation in the House.

Berman has also filed a bill to address what she described as “possibly usurious” interest rates being charged to Florida consumers due to a law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last June. That measure, which Lakeland Republican Sen. Colleen Burton and Vero Beach Republican Rep. Robbie Brackett sponsored (and Berman opposed), allowed rates as high as 36% on loans of up to $10,000 — a 10-percentage point increase from the prior limit — and 31.2% on loans of up to $25,000, up from 19.2% before.

More troubling, according to Berman, is that internet loans are being made at “truly usurious” rates as high as 90%. “And there is no regulatory scheme to stop them,” she said.

She filed SB 162 to create a “predatory loan prevention” section in Florida Statutes to create one.

Two other returning proposals center on “commonsense gun” safety, Berman said. One (SB 186) would require firearms kept in unoccupied motor vehicles to be locked up. The other (SB 188) would prohibit the weapons in “sensitive locations,” including schools, daycare centers, hospitals, courthouses, voting sites, parks, homeless shelters, public transit stations, medical marijuana dispensaries, event venues and places of worship.

The 2025 Legislative Session commences March 4 and runs through May 2.