Jacob Ogles
The Senate postponed a mental health bill after the House nixed plans for a research center named after Sen. Darryl Rouson.
Now, House leadership is accusing the upper chamber of “emotionally blackmailing” Representatives.
Negotiations took a public and personal turn as legislation (SB 1620) returned to the Senate with funding for the center removed. Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat, encouraged colleagues on the Senate floor to approve the legislation, which also updates mental health and drug rehabilitation treatment practices, even without language naming the center after Rouson, a former addict.
“The establishment of this center means a great deal to those who believe in advancing mental health care with evidence-based compassion,” Rouson said on the floor. “Unfortunately, the House didn’t see it our way. And for me, it is more important that the work continue, that the work of the Commission be honored.”
But the elimination of the Rouson Center, approved in a Senate amendment by a 37-0 vote, prompted bipartisan protest from the Senate. Many lawmakers, including Republicans, said they would vote down on the bill in its form, and said House members tried to make the center a victim of ongoing budget disputes.
“This pains me a lot, Senators,” said Sen. Ed Hooper, a Clearwater Republican and Senate Appropriations Chair, before taking a shot at the House. “Maybe this will be some indication why on Day 58 of this Session, we don’t have a budget agreement. This is what we deal with. We will make it right, or else.”
A failure to reach even an agreement on total allocations for the budget has left talks between the House and Senate in limbo, with Session unable to end on time.
But Speaker Daniel Perez said the problem for the House wasn’t the project, but the process. The House version of the bill (HB 1439), incidentally carried in the House by Democratic Leader Pro Tempore Christine Hunschofsky, never included the center and dealt only with policy implementation.
“I have enormous respect for Senator Rouson. I admire his public service, and I would be happy to collaborate with the Senate to honor him,” Perez said.
“But the action of the Senate today — to name a center after Senator Rouson as a means of emotionally blackmailing the House into doing what they want — is unconscionable. The comments of ‘or else’ were a threat to the Florida House and beneath the dignity of the Florida Senate. The Senate created a backdoor appropriations project. They did so unilaterally, fully aware that the House did not wish to include additional items in the bill beyond the Commission’s recommendations.”
Perez said the House legislation enacted the recommendations of the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders, on which Rouson served.
“The center in question was not in the Commission report nor was it in the House bill,” Perez said. “The Senators were rightfully outraged, but they should direct their outrage at their own chamber who made this move in an attempt to push a backdoor project and used the good Senator’s legacy to do so.”
Rouson, notably, has spoken openly about his own history of drug addiction, which has fueled his efforts in the Legislature to improve treatment options in the state.
Senators made clear in statements on the floor they felt Perez was the one exploiting the situation as retribution.
“I’m just really glad that in a year and a half, we’re going to have another Speaker who will hopefully support the naming of the program after you,” said Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican and former Senate President.
