Dear Friend,

The second week of the 2023 legislative session is in the books and, just like we expected, it was a tough week and things are moving fast. 

Bullied by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican leaders in the Legislature are trying to ban abortions and books, strangle academic freedom in universities and force high schools to teach anti-science sexual health education, defund public schools, destroy public-sector unions and deny the very existence of LGBTQ+ Floridians. All while handing taxpayer subsidies to big companies while doing nothing to protect renters from predatory lenders, bring down the cost of property insurance or help the million-plus Florida families who are about to be kicked off their health insurance. 

But as grim as things look right now, we’re already seeing signs that your advocacy works. Tallahassee Republican pushed forth HB999 but the Senate version was amended to be less extreme. Advocacy works, but we just gotta keep the pressure on.  

As always, I encourage you to pay attention and make your voice heard as we have these debates. You can watch hearings and floor sessions live on the Florida Channel. And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for extra updates in real-time. 

Onward,

Rep. Anna V. Eskamani

HB 999, amendment and Senate impact

The governor’s attack on academic freedom in our public universities began moving forward this week, when the House Postsecondary Education & Workforce Subcommittee advanced House Bill 999. 

We’ve never seen anything like this bill: It tries to put politicians in control of what professors can teach and what students can learn. It forces schools to eliminate majors and minors in subjects around structural racism, gender studies and intersectionality, dictates curriculum for core courses, and tries to compel faculty speech when it comes to teaching American history. It also would weaken tenure projections for professors, put political appointees in charge of hiring and firing, and block state and federal funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

This bill is grossly unconstitutional – particularly the parts that try to control speech inside the classroom. That’s why I offered an amendment that would have removed all the parts of the bill that touched directly on curriculum. An attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights & Expression, a leading First Amendment advocacy group, testified at length about why HB 999 is unconstitutional and why my amendment was critical. 

Unfortunately, Republicans on the committee rejected the amendment and then approved HB 999 on a 12-5 vote. 

Watch the House Postsecondary Education & Workforce Subcommittee here.

But there is good news. Someone in the Florida Senate must have been watching, because a few hours later the Senate introduced changes to their version of the legislation (Senate Bill 266) – and they removed the provisions abolishing certain majors and minors. 

This is still a really bad bill. But our advocacy is making it better. We all have to keep pushing!

The Florida House passes bills privatizing schools, politicizing school boards and putting the governor in control of high school sports  

It was a busy week on the floor of the House. 

First, the House passed House Bill 1, a mass privatization of our public school system. The legislation would give parents, regardless of income, roughly $8,000, taxpayer-funded stipends to spend on private school tuition or home-school expenses – even if those parents never planned to enroll their children in public schools in the first place. 

I and several of my colleagues raised many questions about the potential of this huge voucher expansion to devastate funding for our public schools, where we’re already seeing a mass exodus of teachers because of low pay and poor working conditions. This is especially concerning because Republican leaders in the Florida Legislature have refused to allow independent, nonpartisan state economists evaluate the potential impact of this legislation – which is normally standard operating procedure for a bill with a big financial impact like this. 

We also expressed concerns about the lack of accountability at the private schools who take these taxpayer-funded vouchers. We require a lot of our traditional public schools – from building-safety design rules to curriculum standards to testing requirements to ensuring that they welcome any and all children. 

But we do not set any similar rules or requirements around private schools – some of which we know teach bogus history like humans and dinosaurs once lived together and some of which we know discriminate against children with disabilities or LBTQ+ kids. 

This is a mass privatization scheme without any controls and it’s going to led to an unequal system where the wealthiest families are getting subsidies at elite private academies while lower- and middle-income families are stuck in defunded public schools or unregulated private ones. 

HB 1 passed the House on an 83-27 vote. Unfortunately, the legislation is moving quickly in the Florida Senate, too: Senate Bill 202 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee last week and is now ready for a vote in the full Senate. 

The House also voted 79-29 to pass House Bill 477, which would reduce term limits for local school board members from 12 years to eight years. 

I voted against this bill for a couple of reasons. First of all, this is part of a concerted effort by the governor and Tallahassee Republicans to inject more partisan politics into school boards. In addition to this bill shortening the term limits for school board members, there is also another bill moving through the process that would turn school board races from non-partisan campaigns into partisan ones (House Joint Resolution 31). 

The goal here is clear: The governor wants to make these traditionally nonpartisan offices into partisan offices as quickly as possible, and he’s using lower term limits to get all the current, nonpartisan school board members around the state out of office as quickly as possible. 

And second of all, these questions should be left up to local voters. Individual counties and their voters already have the power to set shorter term limits or to make their elections partisan. We shouldn’t be dictating these decision from Tallahassee.

And the House voted 80-29 to pass House Bill 225, which would put Gov. Ron DeSantis in charge of high school sports. 

Florida’s high school sports are governed by the nonprofit Florida High School Athletic Association, which is led by a 16-member board of directors – one of whom is currently chosen by the governor. 

But HB 225 would change the FHAA board to nine members – every single of whom would be picked by the governor.

This part of trend we’re seeing in Tallahassee this year, where Gov. DeSantis is demanding that Republican lawmakers give more authority over more institutions. But I do not believe one person should have this much appointment power – no matter who the governor is. 

We’re supposed to have checks and balances for a reason.

HB 1069: Don’t Say Period?

Welp, just when you thought things could not get any worse in Tallahassee, HB1069 came along. Looking to build on a controversial 2022 law, this bill would bolster a process for people to object to school instructional materials and for parents to limit school library books their children can read. It also would also ban discussion of menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades. Watch that Q&A confirmation below.

The House Education Quality Subcommittee voted 13-5 along party lines to support the measure, with sponsor Stan McClain, R-Ocala, pushing back against opponents who characterized it as enabling book bans.

HB1223: Don’t Say Gay and Trans expansion goes through House committee

From the Tampa Bay Times: A Florida House panel Tuesday backed a proposal that would expand a controversial 2022 law barring instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades and restrict the way students and teachers can use their preferred pronouns in schools.

The Republican-controlled House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee voted 14-4 along almost straight party lines to approve the proposal (HB 1223) after numerous LGBTQ advocates slammed the bill as harmful to vulnerable youths. Rep. Lisa Dunkley, D-Sunrise, voted with Republicans for the measure.

The 2022 law, which drew national attention and federal court challenges, prohibited instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and required it to be “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” in higher grades.

The new bill would extend the prohibition through eighth grade — reigniting a legislative debate about the 2022 law, which was formally titled the Parental Rights in Education bill but was derided by opponents as the Don’t Say Gay bill. Learn more below.

Abortion and attempt to amend 

The House began moving forward with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ abortion ban, when the House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee voted 12-5 for House Bill 7.

The legislation would ban abortions in Florida after just six weeks – which would effectively be a total abortion ban, because most women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks. 

We’re already seeing tragic consequences of the 15-week abortion ban that the governor and Legislature approved just last year. And this would make an already awful situation here in Florida much, much worse.

I’m not on the Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee, but I appeared before the committee to offer an amendment removing the six-week abortion ban from the bill. 

Everybody should be able to make decisions about their bodies, their lives and their futures without interference from politicians. No pregnant person wants Ron DeSantis in the doctor’s office with them when they’re making such a personal healthcare decision.

My amendment was rejected, but you can count on us to continue fighting hard against this dangerous and extremist legislation. It will move next to the Health & Human Services Committee. 

Watch me present my amendment to HB 7 here. 

Watch the full House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee meeting here.

SB254: Anti-trans bill goes through Senate Health Policy

Last Monday, the Florida Senate’s Health Policy committee discussed Senate Bill 254 for the first time.

The proposed legislation would grant courts “temporary emergency jurisdiction over children in this state if they are “at risk of or are being subjected to” gender-affirming care.

“This is an egregious assault on parental rights,” said Brandon Wolf, a spokesperson for Equality Florida. Wolf spoke out against the legislation at a news conference on Monday. “We are here to resist their transphobic slate of hate legislation,” he said.

He also weighed in on SB 254 in an interview with WESH 2 News.

“Parents have the right to take their kids to the doctor to consult with a medical expert and get the best possible care for their children. This bill looks to take those rights away,” he said. “It would impose, as it’s written today, criminal penalties on the parent and the doctor and potentially anyone else who helps to support a trans young person getting access to the health care that is supported by all major medical organizations in the country.”

This policy is really gross and would separate families; we continue to stand opposed to it.

Tort reform on the House floor 

The Florida House passed another of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ top priorities this session: House Bill 837, which will make it far harder for everyday Floridians to hold big corporations and insurance companies accountable when they don’t play by the rules. 

The legislation will make it more difficult to sue insurance companies that refuse to pay claims, whether it’s your car insurance, your health insurance or your life insurance. It will also make it harder to make businesses pay your medical bills if you are hurt in an accident caused by their negligence.

The supporters of this bill keep claiming they are trying save money for consumers by eliminating legal costs for businesses. But they have provided no evidence that consumers will see any benefit at all – the legislation doesn’t require to companies to pass a single cent of savings on to their customers. 

These are the same lobbyist-written talking points that the governor and legislative leaders used in December, when they stripped Floridians of the power to hold property insurance companies accountable. And yet, property insurance rates continue to skyrocket in Florida. 

This bill is not about eliminating some so-called “tort tax.” It’s about protecting the profits of companies like State Farm and Allstate, Disney and Publix. 

And – just like with the giant school privatization scheme in House Bill 1 – it’s going to lead to a two-tiered system in Florida, where people with money will still be able to sue in order to get what they are owed but everyday working people will be denied their day in court. 

HB 837 passed the House on an 80-31 vote. The Senate version of the bill (Senate Bill 236) has moved through all its committees and is ready for a vote in the Senate.

Watch my debate against HB 837 here.

DeSantis Defamation Bill Moves Forward

One of the things that makes Tallahassee Republicans’ support for HB 837 so ironic is that, at the very same time they want to make it harder to sue State Farm or Disney, they want to make it easier to sue newspapers and media organizations. 

Attacking independent news media is, of course, yet another priority this session for our governor, who is trying to attack as many Boogeymen as possible to generate publicity for his campaign for president. 

The governor’s anti-journalism bill, HB 991, was approved last week by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee. You can read more about it here: Florida defamation bill will chill free speech, prompt bogus lawsuits, critics say

More bad economic bills

Committees in both the House and Senate last week approved some of the most anti-union legislation we’ve ever seen in Tallahassee.

The goal of these bills (Senate Bill 256 and House Bill 1445) is to defund and eventually destroy the collective bargaining power of most public-sector workers – including teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, 911 dispatchers, parks and rec crews, electric utility workers, nurses and more. 

Republicans claim these are pro-worker bills – even though they are making sure to carve out loopholes to them for police officers, firefighters and corrections guards. 

This union-busting bill is coming to one of my committees next. We’re ready for it.

At the same time, allegedly pro-free-market Tallahassee Republicans are trying to exert state control over private-sector banks. 

That’s one of the main goals of House Bill 3, which is Gov. DeSantis’ anti-ESG bill. While the governor claims he just wants to stop public investment funds from considering “environmental, social and governance” standards in their investment decisions, what he’s really trying to do is force banks to lend to his donors – like for-profit prison company The GEO Group. 

This bill came before one the House State Affairs Committee last week, which is one of the committees I serve on. And we exposed the sponsor’s total inability to answer even basic questions about this bill. 

Watch the House State Affairs Committee meeting here.

I also exposed some of the corporate giveaways buried in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ tax plan when it was presented to the House Ways & Means Committee, where I serve as the ranking member.

For instance, it turns out that the governor’s trollish tax break on gas stoves is actually a gift for big businesses like homebuilders and restaurant chains. And another tax break on natural gas fuel would really save money for the giant garbage company Waste Management. 

And then there’s another sales-tax giveaway that the governor claims is for small stores and restaurants – when it would really save money for giant chains with lots of locations, like Walmart and Publix. 

Watch the House Ways & Means Committee meeting here.

SB1718: Immigration Bill moves in Senate 

HB 1617/SB 1718 are omnibus anti-immigrant bills seeking to restrict community IDs, invalidate some out-of-state driver’s licenses, track immigration status of hospital patients, expand the E-Verify process, repeal the granting of law licenses for undocumented law students, remove protections for crime victims, create a DNA database for immigrants, conflate terrorism with immigration, and put all Floridians at risk of being charged with a felony for transporting or sheltering certain immigrants.

It’s another example of Governor DeSantis’ anti-immigrant agenda, and it just passed through its first Senate Committee last week. You can learn more here.

Florida State Guard Expansion 

As reported by Newsweek: Governor Ron DeSantis is requesting $98 million in funding this year to boost the Florida State Guard, which one critic has branded “a private army”, according to local network News 7.

DeSantis revived the Florida State Guard (which was originally created for home defense during World War II) in 2022, and is now seeking to expand it from 400 soldiers to 1,500, saying it is needed to help with emergency response measures and to back up the Florida National Guard. Unlike the Florida National Guard, which can be called up by the President, the State Guard cannot.

We had this bill before us in State Affairs and an amendment was added to also expand who can lead this new State Guard. The bill would also allow the State Guard to do work in other states, no doubt adding to the Governor’s goals of photo-ops at the Southern border. I voted against the bill for several reasons, but especially since we already have a National Guard that deserves our support and creating another Guard seems politically motivated and redundant.

Watch the House State Affairs Committee meeting here.

Radioactive Roads

The Florida Legislature introduced two bills that would pave the way for the use of radioactive phosphogypsum in road construction. House Bill 1191 and Senate Bill 1258 would authorize the Florida Department of Transportation to undertake “demonstration projects” using phosphogypsum in road construction while ordering a fast-tracked study on the suitability of the product as a construction material. The bills would also deregulate phosphogypsum as a solid waste under some circumstances.

Decades of science show that phosphogypsum poses a substantial risk to humans and the environment. An expert consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency found numerous scenarios that would expose the public — particularly road-construction workers — to a cancer risk the agency considers to be unacceptably dangerous.

The agency has also found that the use of phosphogypsum in roads may cause adverse effects to nearby surface and groundwater resources through leaching of trace metals and radionuclides. These toxins may also be resuspended into the air by wind and vehicular traffic.

This bill was before us in committee last week and I voted no. Watch the House Transportation & Modals Subcommittee meeting here.

Visitors, Activities & Events

As always it’s awesome to see so many visitors in Tallahassee! We also hosted a Nowruz celebration at the Orlando Museum of Art this weekend too!