Dear Friend,
Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day, a time to honor Dr. King’s incredible service and leadership — and a time to recommit ourselves to the fight for equality.
Yesterday, I was proud to join our interfaith community in serving as a keynote speaker for an annual celebration of Dr. King’s life and legacy. You can click on the video below to see my full remarks and the remarks of other Central Florida leaders.
I also want to say a special thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for our Dr. King Day of Service. We spent a few hours picking up trash along and around Par Street, helping to beautify our neighborhoods and protect our planet.
Small deeds have a huge impact. It’s important that we honor the legacy of Dr. King every day.
Later today, we will be hosting a very important virtual event at 5:00pm focused on small business relief and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Starting tomorrow, PPP applications will be available to all lenders and we want to make sure Florida’s small businesses will be ready to apply. RSVP to join us at this link.
As a quick unemployment update: tomorrow morning we should see thousands more Floridians be able to access the extensions recently passed by Congress, including the $300 weekly FPUC payments. Still have issues with your unemployment? Please fill out our escalation form here. Also note that Florida has accepted rental assistance dollars from the US Treasury and we should see those programs re-activated soon.
Finally, it’s my pleasure to share with you an update from our first week back in Tallahassee for Committee Meetings. For those who do not know, before we officially begin the Legislative Session in March there are a series of Committee Meetings where bills are first heard and debated. Below is a review of how our first week went; please keep in mind that these updates will never be all-encompassing because there is so much that happens during the Legislative Session.
Please consider keeping up to date with us through our social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also watch Committee Meetings and Floor Session live on the Florida Channel.
Onward,
Representative Anna V. Eskamani
INTRODUCING CHEYENNE DREWS & SERGIO CARTAGENA
We are excited to share two new members of our Legislative Team, though both will likely be familiar faces to you! Cheyenne Drews, our 2020 Campaign Manager, will now serve as our Legislative Aide. Sergio Cartegena, a super volunteer from the campaign trail and Valencia student, will be serving as our Intern Coordinator. Both have hit the ground running and we are thrilled to have them on Team Anna.
ROLLING OUT COMPREHENSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT REFORM LEGISLATION
Following months of calls for a special legislative session to address Florida’s criminally broken unemployment system, we joined Senator Bobby Powell (D-West Palm Beach) in filing a comprehensive legislative proposal to fix the unemployment system in Florida. We hosted a press conference to introduce the bill, too
House Bill 207 / Senate Bill 592 would, among many other things, raise Florida’s Weekly Benefit Amount (WBA) to a maximum of $500 and a minimum of $100, increase the amount of weeks available to 26 weeks, establish a three-week timeline for the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) to provide an eligibility determination, create an Alternative Base Period (ABP) to allow for greater eligibility, and implement an ombudsman to provide oversight over DEO. You can see the bill here and read a one-pager here.
We need YOUR help to build support around this bill. Please contact your State Lawmakers and ask that they co-sponsor House Bill 207 and Senate Bill 592. Not sure who your State Lawmakers are? Click here to find out.
IN THE NEWS
Bobby Powell joins Anna Eskamani to ‘modernize and revamp’ unemployment system
Eskamani Files Bill to Overhaul Florida’s Jobless System
Unemployment in Florida would be revamped under a new bill
WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE MEETINGS
I am proud to be the Ranking Member for the Ways & Means Committee. This first meeting was a staff presentation focused on Florida’s revenue projections and realities from 2020 and looking towards the next fiscal year. I asked some direct questions about our regressive tax system and what the impact of combined reporting would be. Unfortunately not every lawmaker liked my fact-based questioning. You can watch the full Committee Meeting here.
CIVIL JUSTICE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS SUBCOMMITTEE
Last week we also had our first meeting of the Civil Justice & Property Rights Subcommittee. House Bill 7 was on our agenda. This is legislation being pushed by big businesses to shield themselves from the potential of lawsuits related to COVID19.
The bill sets no guidelines for businesses to follow when it comes to maintaining safety, and it offers no workers protections, either. When I asked how many frivolous lawsuits there are currently in Florida, I was told by the bill sponsor less than ten.
I voted no and made the point in my remarks that small businesses are not facing frivolous lawsuits but they are facing bankruptcy, and it would be better for us to get immediate relief to them vs this bill. Florida has (thus far) only provided $50 million to small businesses via a loan program during the pandemic.
You can watch my full remarks here, at this link.
OTHER COMMITTEES OF IMPORTANCE
Though I don’t serve on the House Pandemics & Public Emergencies Committee I do encourage you to watch the meeting held last week focused on vaccine disbursement. You can click here to watch it. You can click here to watch the Senate Select Committee on Pandemic Preparedness and Response too. Remember you can look back at all committee meetings here at the Florida Channel.
PROTECTING ABORTION ACCESS
Instead of focusing on responding to COVID19 some of my Republican colleagues are instead, once more, pushing politically motivated bans on abortion. Abortion restrictions, like the one mentioned here, are dangerous, not based in medical guidance, and stand in the way of people and the care they need. Learn more at the link below.
NEW LEGISLATION WE FILED
In addition to our Comprehensive Unemployment Bill, we announced the filing of two other bills: House Bill 6029 and House Bill 6023 / Senate Bill 596.
HB6029 seeks to repeal mandatory minimum laws that impact non-violent drug offenders. Mandatory minimums don’t work to reduce crime rates and have instead created significant unintended consequences. Mandatory minimums today are used in situations far different than those anticipated by the law’s authors, they have sent thousands of low-level drug offenders to prison, and they have created a “trial penalty” system where mandatory sentences imposed after a trial are significantly longer than what defendants receive from plea bargains.
We should let judges be judges, and repeal mandatory minimums – especially those for non-violent drug offenders.
House Bill 6023/Senate Bill 596 would repeal Section 163.045 in Florida Statute, allowing local governments to once more make their own decisions around the pruning, trimming, or removal of a tree on residential property. Floridians overwhelmingly agree that local elected officials should have the freedom to enact local measures that pertain to a community’s public safety, economy, and environment. Unfortunately, the legislature continues to strip away local voices, instead pushing a big-government agenda while siding with profit-driven corporations over our constituents. We are filing this bill with Senator Stewart as our Senate companion.
Expect more bills to be filed in the coming weeks!