Jacob Ogles
The Senate relented on a key provision in a mental health bill after the House stripped out plans for a research center named for Sen. Darryl Rouson.
The Senate passed legislation (SB 1620) that implements several recommendations of the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders. That’s a panel on which Rouson, himself a recovering addict, serves.
Based on his work in the field, the Senate had unanimously voted to add language in the bill establishing an addiction research center at the University of South Florida named after the Senator, who is serving his last legislative term before terming out. The House, however, killed that part of the bill when it passed the legislation.
While this sparked a late-Session standoff, with many Senators ready to kill the bill over the snub, Rouson for the second time in a week stood on the Senate floor and urged colleagues to pass the legislation.
“The Commission will continue to meet in this calendar year to look at the systems that provide behavioral health care in this state and come up with additional recommendations,” Rouson said. “The work of the Commission is more important.”
With hours left in the Session, the Senate voted 34-3 in favor of the bill. That means it will now head to the Governor for his signature.
But three Republicans still voted against the legislation and made clear they stood in solidarity with Rouson.
That included Sen. Ed Hooper, the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair who remains in overtime negotiations with the House over basic budget allocations. He suggested the ramifications of the slight by the House may yet linger.
“We discussed this bill several days ago. I might have used the words ‘or else,’” Hooper said, referring to his push for the House to add the Rouson language back in.
“I still mean ‘or else,’ and ‘or else’ does not have an expiration date. We will resolve this, my friend.”
House leadership on Wednesday said the Senate’s position was inappropriate, and that putting the Rouson center in a policy bill served as a “backdoor appropriations project.”
“The center in question was not in the Commission report nor was it in the House bill,” said Speaker Daniel Perez.
But the issue drew in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who called out the “Florida House of Pettiness in all its glory” on social media. First Lady Casey DeSantis also posted that Rouson had “shown great courage in sharing his story and advocating for those in the fight.”
Senators who ultimately supported the bill made clear it was at Rouson’s insistence, not Perez’s.
“Your approach to this just makes me love you and respect you more,” said Sen. Danny Burgess, a Zephyrhills Republican. “We all have your back, and we’re always willing to take a hill with Darryl Rouson.”
