Health care bill that carried parts of ‘Rural Renaissance’ package falls to Governor’s veto pen

Legislation that included portions of Senate President Ben Albritton’s “Rural Renaissance” priorities couldn’t make it past Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

The Governor vetoed a bill (HB 1427) that directed health care resources to nursing education programs. DeSantis in a veto message said his problem was the level of bureaucracy that comes along with it.

He wrote that the state has already made workforce investments in nursing with fewer strings attached.

“To meet the needs of the state’s aging and growing population, Florida has made significant investments in healthcare workforce education including funding for new facilities, PIPELINE funding to reward the highest quality programs, and LINE funding to foster partnerships with local healthcare enterprises,” DeSantis wrote.

The legislation “impedes these investments by establishing unnecessary burdens on nursing education programs,” the message reads.

“The bill also institutes bureaucratic overreach by allowing the Board of Nursing to impose a host of additional regulations on nursing programs and their directors,” DeSantis wrote. “These policies will deter programs from accepting students, encourage them to focus on test preparation rather than training students to work in healthcare, and will hinder the state’s ability to recruit and maintain nursing programs and directors in the first place.”

Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Lake Mary Republican, previously carried a Senate companion bill (SB 1568) on allowing electronic prescriptions to passage in the Senate in April. But the legislation returned from the House after the lower chamber opted to divide portions of the Rural Renaissance package, passed as a single bill in the Senate.

In the end, most of the Rural Renaissance package was left for next year’s Legislative Session. DeSantis ultimately did not care for the one bill that did come out of the Legislature.

“Florida is committed to accountability and to providing students with high-quality education,” the Governor wrote. “However, this bill will limit opportunities for students and those looking to make a career change and undermine the progress that has been made to bolster the state’s nursing workforce.”