Dear Friend,
We have a lot to share with you about both COVID-19 and Florida’s Legislative Session. Please scroll down to learn more, and click here for an online version of this email.
Also, if you’re not doing so already, 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 Sessions live on the Florida Channel.
Finally, I want to send a quick thank you to everyone who joined us for our Community Clean Up co-hosted with Representative Travaris McCurdy two weekends ago. More events to come!
Onward together,
Representative Anna V. Eskamani
COVID19 UPDATES
We have updated our COVID-19 Guide (español) along with our Unemployment Issues blog post and our guidance for renters. If you are facing issues with your unemployment claim, please fill out our DEO escalation form here.
This week, Florida announced new eligibility criteria to access the COVID-19 vaccine. They are:
- Long-term care facility residents and staff;
- Persons 65 years of age and older;
- Health care personnel with direct patient contact;
- K-12 school employees 50 years of age and older;
- Sworn law enforcement officers 50 years of age and older; and
- Firefighters 50 years of age and older.
In addition to hospital providers, physicians may also vaccinate people who they deem to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. Advanced practice registered nurses and pharmacists may also vaccinate those determined by a physician to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. Such physician determinations shall include a statement that the patient meets the defined eligibility criteria outlined in a form prescribed by the Florida Department of Health. You can click here for that form.
Click here for a statewide list of COVID-19 vaccination locations. Starting today, three FEMA-run COVID-19 vaccination sites in the greater Orlando area will open in rapid succession. Learn more here and see all main FEMA sites in Florida below.
In February, Commissioners approved a revision to Orange County’s rental assistance program that will increase the amount of money available to help tenants facing eviction, from $4,000 to $10,000 per household. This program began on March 1st, and you can read more here.
ICYMI: PAST VIRTUAL EVENTS
Here’s a quick recap of recent virtual events we’ve hosted in case you want to catch up and watch the recordings ➡️➡️➡️
Rep. Eskamani Tours Hannibal Square Heritage Center
Black history runs deep in House District 47. Founded in 2007, the Hannibal Square Heritage Center “is a tribute to the past, present, and future contributions of Winter Park’s historic African-American community.” Click here to watch our virtual tour!
End Corporate Giveaways in America: Virtual Press Conference
Known as the “Interstate Agreement For Best Practices In Economic Development,” this legislation would create an anti-poaching agreement that would prohibit states from offering company-specific incentives like tax breaks and cash grants to get a company to relocate an existing facility across state borders. Click here to watch our virtual roll out of this bill!
Introducing HB409/SB1720: Legislation to Expand Access to Civil Legal Aid
The term “cy pres” comes from the French, “cy pres comme possible,” meaning “as near as possible,” and the doctrine is often applied in class-action cases in which full restitution to all injured parties is either impossible or infeasible, such as when the amount of damage per person is insignificant even though the aggregate damages are large. It can also be employed in probate matters when gifts fail, or in the area of charitable trusts. Currently Florida statute does not provide clear authorization for courts to apply the doctrine cy pres, but HB409/SB1720 would change that — allowing unclaimed class-action funds to be donated to civil legal support for the poor. Click here to watch our announcement on this important bill!
Tracking the State Legislature: A Preview of the 2021 Legislative Session
Last Wednesday, we hosted a legislative preview outlining our major policy priorities and what we expect to see move in Tallahassee this year. Click here to watch!
REMINDER: UPCOMING EVENTS
I am proud to be the first Iranian-American elected to any public office in Florida and this year — for the first time ever — we are partnering with the Iranian-American Community Center of Central Florida (IACC) to host a virtual celebration of the Persian New Year! Click here for more details.
COMMITTEE MEETINGS & LEGISLATIVE SESSION
As I mentioned earlier, this week is the first week of Florida’s 2021 Legislative Session! Below is a quick review of what’s happening in Tallahassee.
FIXING UNEMPLOYMENT
This week, the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) provided two different presentations to the Florida Senate and House. These presentations followed the release by the Florida Dept. of Economic Opportunity of a more than 200-page independent audit Friday night on the unemployment system.
According to DEO’s Director, Florida’s CONNECT unemployment system was not built to handle the flood of claims during the COVID-19 pandemic and needs $244 million over the next five years to fix the problems. That would include $73 million to upgrade the IT system and move to a cloud-based program
Senate President Wilton Simpson also suggested Tuesday he would be willing to increase Florida’s weekly unemployment payments during the 2021 Legislative Session. Currently, Floridians on unemployment are eligible to receive $275 per week for 12 weeks. Read more here.
We’ll keep pushing for long-term changes to the unemployment system while also addressing immediate concerns.
HOUSE BILL 1 & CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM REFORM
Today at 4:00pm, House Bill 1/ Senate Bill 484 — also known as the anti-protesting bill — will be heard in its second committee stop in the Florida House. You can watch the bill debate yourself on the Florida Channel here. We teamed up with Orlando-based comedian Ben Brainard to build more awareness around this bill. You can watch our video together below!
Yesterday, we joined Families Against Mandatory Minimums and Florida Cares to speak on the need to end mass incarceration through new sentencing laws and prison reform. You can listen to some of my remarks here.
HOUSING SECURITY & ACCESS TO LEGAL AID
Protecting the Affordable Housing Sadowski Trust Fund from being raided remains one of our biggest priorities, while also looking towards new solutions to solve the affordable housing crisis.
Last week, we penned an op-ed in The Florida Times-Union stressing once more the importance of investing in eviction-diversion programs. I am also proud to announce the filing of House Bill 409/Senate Bill 1720, legislation that would authorize courts dealing with civil matters to apply the doctrine cy pres, allowing unclaimed class action funds to be donated to civil legal services that benefit the poor. During the COVID19 pandemic our legislative office has been fielding thousands of calls and emails from across the state and supporting Floridians who are facing issues like eviction, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and domestic violence.
We also sent a letter to Governor Ron DeSantis asking for eviction protections to be put back into place at a statewide level since the CDC Eviction Order is being litigated in federal court.
STATE TAX ISSUES & COMBINED REPORTING
Last week, we gained a bill sponsor with Senator Victor Torres! He has filed the Senate companion to House Bill 6043, legislation that would repeal Florida’s Urban High-Crime Area Job Tax Credit Program, a tax break created more than 20 years ago that has been exploited and misused by companies like Universal Studios, Walmart, and Publix.
Floridians need help right now, and we need to deliver it to them. And one of the ways we can do that is by eliminating wasteful corporate tax breaks like this one that do nothing but pad the profits of politically influential corporations and instead use the money to deliver real relief to real people.
We’re also excited to announce that a Republican colleague has filed legislation for Florida to implement combined reporting! Combined reporting forces multistate and multinational companies to file a single tax return covering their entire business, rather than letting them file separate returns for each of their many subsidiaries. Experts say it makes it much harder for big companies to avoid income taxes by artificially shifting profits out of Florida.
As I told Bloomberg Tax: “Florida is one of a shrinking group of states that still allows big corporations to dodge taxes by moving profits to subsidiaries in other states and countries. The world’s biggest corporations — Amazon, eBay, Chevron, Target, Microsoft, and more — avoid millions in Florida taxes by creating sham transactions, such as paying themselves to use their own logos, that are done solely to shift profits out of Florida.”
While we’re talking about corporations, I also wanted to flag that Florida businesses and healthcare providers have been pushing for protections from COVID-19 related lawsuits. SB 72, by Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes, would make it harder for people to sue businesses over coronavirus infections and related problems. SB 74 would extend immunity for healthcare providers, including nursing homes, from COVID-19 infections. That measure is also sponsored by Senator Brandes.
PROTECTING FLORIDA’S WATER & ENVIRONMENT
After hours of public comment, mostly opposed to the proposal, the Suwannee River Water Management District Governing Board approved a permit application from Seven Springs Water Co. that will help Nestle expand its bottled-water operations in Gilchrist County. Seven Springs applied to draw 984,000 gallons a day from the aquifer — and the water source for Ginnie Springs — and pipe it to the Nestle bottling plant.
We stood opposed to this measure. And we continue to push for less plastic usage and more water conservation efforts.
Meanwhile, several bad bills have been filed impeding our efforts to move towards a clean energy economy. SB 856/HB 839, SB 1008/HB 761, SB 1128/HB 919, and SB 1236/HB 617, are designed to eliminate all local control over energy and will make it much more difficult to take action on climate change. I am opposed to these bills.
EDUCATION ISSUES
WFSU news provided an excellent review of legislative issues impacting education that you can read here. This includes funding for schools, student testing, the expansion of vouchers, and Bright Futures. We stand against changes to Florida’s Bright Futures program that will restrict access for students, and will continue to champion funding for our students and educators.
LGBTQ+ EQUALITY
This past week, two anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been filed in the Florida Legislature. One is an Anti-Trans Youth Bill and the other is a Trans Sports Bans targeting children. You can read more about both of these bills and other LGBTQ+ issues at this link from Equality Florida.
VOTING RIGHTS
A proposed measure by Senator Dennis Baxley would require voters seeking a vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot to request them every two-year election cycle. Currently, those who request VBM ballots will receive them for two even-year election cycles. This bill mimics efforts by other Republican Party leaders to make voting more difficult, and is one of Governor Ron DeSantis’ legislative priorities. We stand opposed to this bill.
HEALTHCARE ISSUES
Healthcare is the largest part of the state’s budget — but the state doesn’t actually foot all the bill. A significant amount of that budget is built using federal money that comes through the state-federal Medicaid partnership for low-income, uninsured Floridians. The pandemic has swelled the state’s Medicaid roles. Florida lawmakers are considering further reductions to the state’s share of the Medicaid program by tapping local governments to make up the difference in a program that’s used to draw down federal matching funds.
Meanwhile, despite these budget woes, my colleagues continue to ignore the expansion of Medicaid — a policy proposal that would actually save us money.
NEW BILLS FILED
In an effort to help restaurants devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have filed legislation that would stop delivery apps like UberEats, DoorDash and Grubhub from charging exorbitant fees during a declared state of emergency. This policy idea actually came to us from a small business in our district! You can learn more here.
We’ve also filed seven bills for the 2021 Legislative Session that would repeal a series of preemption laws that businesses have lobbied through the Legislature in recent years that prevent cities and counties from making decisions about their own communities. Learn more here.
COMMUNITY EVENTS & CONSTITUENT MEETINGS
Though we are still socially distancing and meeting virtually, that doesn’t mean we’re not connecting with our constituents! Special thanks to local volunteers with the American Cancer Society for meeting with me last week!
Last weekend we also spent time in Plant City getting to know our farmers and farmworkers in the strawberry fields! Special thanks to Republican Representative Lawrence McClure who invited us to his district for this very insightful experience.
