Dear Friend,
We just wrapped up our fourth week of hearings in Tallahassee in preparation for the 2024 Legislative Session. There are now just two more weeks of committee meetings left before the start of Session, which begins January 9th.
The past week saw a big win for free speech in Florida and some important discussions on everything from taxes on cell phones to the crumbling and unsafe state of our prisons. But we also saw many more bad bills filed – including another extremist attack on abortion rights and another bill to undo important child-labor protections.
With the holidays starting, the timeline in Tallahassee is starting to get really compressed. We’ll have our final two weeks of committee meetings in December and then Session will begin. That means a lot of important things are going to start happening – and happening fast. We are also working with colleagues to help champion solutions as it comes to housing affordability and the property insurance crisis. Though the two bills I filed during the recent Special Session were not granted a hearing, I am hopeful that we can see some movement during the regular session.
With that said: It is all hands on deck! It’s going to take all of us working together to delay, amend and destroy some of the really bad bills that Gov. Ron DeSantis is going to try forcing through Tallahassee this Session in hopes of salvaging his failing sputtering presidential campaign. And it’s going to take all of us working together to pass bills that will positively impact the lives of everyday Floridians.
Make sure you’re following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for real-time updates, too.
The latest committee week update is below. I hope you’ll find it useful.
Onward,
Rep. Anna V. Eskamani
An important win for free speech and the LGBTQ+ community
Let’s start with some really good news this week: The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling refusing to let the DeSantis administration enforce a terrible law targeting Florida’s drag community.
This unconstitutional, anti-drag law was one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ big priorities this past session – part of the governor’s continuing pattern of inventing fake culture wars and targeting already-marginalized people rather than solving real problems like property insurance.
Kudos to Hamburger Mary’s in Orlando, which bravely filed the lawsuit challenging this law. That lawsuit is still ongoing – but Hamburger Mary’s keeps winning at every turn.
This ruling is a big L for DeSantis – but a huge win for the First Amendment and for our collective freedoms as Floridians, especially for folks in the LGBTQ+ community.
Read more here: Supreme Court Refuses to Revive Florida Law Restricting Drag Shows (New York Times)
A new extremist attack on abortion access
Senate Bill 476 – this is yet another anti-abortion extremist piece of legislation, filed by Sen. Erin Grall (R-Vero Beach), who sponsored the draconian six-week abortion ban that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed earlier this year. This legislation would allow people to bring wrongful-death lawsuits against healthcare providers who offer reproductive healthcare, including abortion.
There is only one purpose for providing the opportunity to bring civil suits against abortion providers solely for providing necessary care — and that reason is to restrict access to abortion in our state. This is another extreme bill that will open up the door for abusers to go after their partners who seek abortion care, will push more doctors out of their professions, and create a legal framework that will absolutely be used to target pregnant people and their loved ones.
I’m sad to say that some Democrats thought filing an amendment similar to this bill last session would help stop changes to Florida’s tort laws. Let me be clear that regardless of who has filed this legislation past, present, or future — it is a bad bill that should never become law.
A bunch of bad bills were just filed
Unfortunately, SB 476 is not the only bad bill we saw filed. Here are a few more that I wanted to flag for you:
House Bill 433 – This bill would prevent local communities from passing local laws that protect farmworkers, construction workers and other employees from exposure to extreme heat – such as by requiring employers to provide access to cool drinking water and regular, shaded breaks. This bill is being pushed by construction industry lobbyists, among others, and it’s meant to crush campaigns in places like Miami-Dade County, where local leaders are right now working on a proposed heat-protection ordinance.
Senate Bill 460 – This bill is another attempt to weaken Florida’s child-labor laws. It would allow construction companies to have teenagers work dangerous jobs on top of roofs, scaffoldings and superstructures. This would be in addition to House Bill 49, which would eliminate any restrictions at all hours worked by 16- and 17-year-olds – allowing, for instance, a company to make a high school sophomore work the overnight shift on a school night or to work seven days in one week.
House Bill 465 and Senate Bill 470 – This bill is designed to target Florida students who express support for the Palestinian people by labeling them as “terrorists” and threatening them with things like higher tuition and funding cuts for student groups. There is no doubt whatsoever that this bill comes directly from Gov. Ron DeSantis – who continues to try and suppress Free Speech rights for anyone he disagrees with while continuing to make it easy for actual domestic terrorists to access assault weapons.
House Bill 475 – This bill would ban the production or sale of cultivated meats in Florida. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is animal protein grow in labs from animal cells. It’s an emerging industry that is meant to give consumers an ethical alternative to killing animals and a way to reduce the carbon impact of the industrial cattle industry, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Banning this is stuff for no reason at all other than to protect existing industry would be just wild and unnecessary – and another example of Tallahssse Republicans turning a blind eye to the climate emergency.
Hearings on hurricane recovery, cell phone taxes, and workforce development
Three of the committees I serve on held meetings last week.
On Monday, the House Select Committee on Hurricane Resiliency & Recovery held a panel discussion on the impacts of Hurricane Idalia on local governments in the Big Bend region, which is very rural and one of the poorer parts of the state. We heard from officials in half a dozen Big Bend communities, including Cedar Key and Taylor County – two of the places that were the hardest hit by the storm.
You can watch the Hurricane Resiliency & Recovery Committee hearing here.
On Tuesday, the House Ways & Means Committee heard a staff presentation on the state’s Communications Services Tax. Known as the “CST,” this is actually several state and local taxes combined into one that get charged on things like cell phone lines, Cable television and streaming video services.
The CST is really not a great tax, partly because it’s unnecessarily complicated and partly because it’s very opaque for consumers. I suspect we’re going to see a push by legislative leaders to cut the CST in the coming session – but my hope is that we’ll make some reforms that make the tax more transparent, too.
You can watch the Ways & Means Committee meeting here.
And on Wednesday, the House Postsecondary Education & Workforce Subcommittee heard presentations on the “REACH Act” – which refers to the Reimagining Education and Career Help Act, which refers to legislation that we first passed in 2021 and then updated again last year.
The REACH Act is aimed at improving access to, and coordination among, state agencies and programs that provide workforce-development services. Workforce development – along with career and technical education and training programs – are likely to be an important issue again this session.
You can watch the Postsecondary Education & Workforce Subcommittee meeting here.
Looking to the future on energy policy and fixing Florida’s crumbling prisons
There were several other interesting and important hearings last week, including two in particular that I wanted to bring to your attention.
The House Commerce Committee held a workshop on some important future energy issues, including electrification, smart grids and hydrogen fuels. It was a one-sided panel: The presenters included representatives from Florida’s big three monopoly utility companies (Florida Power & Light, Duke and TECO), plus executives from turbine manufacturer Cummins Inc. and carmaker General Motors. But it’s worth watching, as these are obviously very important issues in a world where the climate is rapidly heating up because humans are burning so many fossil fuels.
You can watch the Commerce Committee meeting here.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice heard the results of an audit looking at the state of Florida’s prison system.
It’s not good. The auditors at KPMG concluded that our prisons are “unsustainable” in the long run and will need as much as $12 billion in new investment over the next 20 years or so – including nearly $600 million just for new air-conditioning systems.
Here’s a good story recapping that audit and hearing: Florida prisons are at risk without billions in spending, auditors say (Tampa Bay Times)
And you can watch that Senate committee meeting here.
An effort to “deregulate” public schools
The Florida Senate rolled out a package of bills last week to “deregulate” public legislation – making changes to everything from testing requirements to recess.
You can find more details in these stories:
Changes to testing requirements and recess move forward in the Florida legislature (WLRN)
Florida Senate takes aim at 20-minute recess rule, high-stakes exams (Orlando Sentinel)
Please read them and give your feedback. We’ll keep you posted on what movement we see in the State House of Representatives, too.
Visiting Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee
Last Monday I joined a bipartisan group to tour the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee. For those who do not know, this Florida State Hospital treats individuals with severe and persistent major mental illnesses. Two categories of patients are treated at the hospital; those civilly committed under Statute 394, who represent a small portion of the hospital’s residents; and those forensically committed under Statute 916. The Civil portion of the hospital houses adult and elderly individuals who have been civilly committed to the hospital, and forensic residents who have been “stepped down” to the civil unit.
Florida State Hospital also maintains a forensic wing for the Florida Department of Corrections to care for justice impacted individuals who have been adjudicated through the criminal justice system to be incompetent to proceed to trial, or not guilty by reason of insanity. The ultimate goal of the hospital’s efforts is recovery. The hospital works to restore competency to residents adjudicated incompetent to proceed to trial.
Touring was an eye opening experience that offered the opportunity to connect with both staff and patients. It also reinforces our shared commitment to invest in Florida’s mental health systems.
Abortion supporters fight back in court
After Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the Florida Supreme Court to prevent Florida voters from being able to vote on a proposed amendment protecting access to abortion, supporters of the campaign fired back last week with their own legal briefs.
Attorneys for Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is gathering signatures for the amendment to preserve access to reproductive care, disputed Moody’s claim that the amendment – which is very simple and straightforward – is too “misleading” for voters to understand.
But that’s not all. A group of former Republican elected officials also filed a legal brief supporting the proposed constitutional amendment and urging the Florida Supreme Court to allow Floridians to vote on it.
You can read more about it here: Fl Supreme Court urged not to let ‘political questions’ sway it on abortion initiative (Florida Phoenix)
ICYMI: Important stories from this past week
Lastly, in case you missed any of them, here are a few other important stories from state government from the past week:
- In push to remove homeowners from Citizens, the state-run insurer uses unlicensed inspectors (WLRN)
- Florida leaves $800 million on the table for disability services, advocates say (Orlando Sentinel)
- Thousands of Florida children appear to not have coverage in Medicaid unwinding (WMFE)
- Ron DeSantis seeks more money for Florida’s emergency fund after using funds for non-emergencies (WMNF)
The week in pictures
As always, we leave you this week with a few pictures of Team Anna in action.
