Dear Friend,
We’re now a third of the way through the 2025 Legislative Session.
There are literally hundreds of bills moving now, and poison-pill amendments are surfacing everywhere you look. Last week, for instance, a Senate committee slipped a provision into legislation that would overturn the rural boundary in Orange County that was just approved by roughly 70 percent of voters.
One bill that started moving forward last week would harden Florida’s already draconian abortion ban by giving embryos and fetuses some of the same rights as human children. Others would give corporations more power to handcuff employees to noncompete agreements, retaliate against whistleblowers, and prevent laid-off workers from accessing unemployment benefits.
But there were some positive developments last week, too. A bill I’m sponsoring to make sure Floridians who rely on wheelchairs can fix their chairs when they break passed its first committee. We even had some Star Wars-related legislation.
You can read more about those bills and others in our Week 3 Session Update below.
And as always, please be sure to stay connected with us on our social-media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube – where we post lots of real-time updates throughout the week.
Never forget that your voice matters in this process.
Onward,
‘Right to Repair’ for wheelchair owners clears its first committee
We’re going to start this week with a positive update: A bill I’m sponsoring to help Floridians who use powered wheelchairs fix their devices when they break passed its first committee.
House BIll 311 is known as a “Right to Repair” bill and this is specifically for powered wheelchairs. It would make the companies that manufacture wheelchairs share parts, tools and documentation needed to make repairs with wheelchair owners
New wheelchairs can cost as much as $15,000 to buy brand new. And they can also be really hard to fix, because the companies that make them impose physical, digital and legal obstacles.
The goal of HB 311 is to end those anticompetitive practices and make sure Floridians who rely on wheelchairs can fix their chairs when they break – or find affordable repair options.
The bill passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee last week by a unanimous vote. It’s one of several Right to Repair bills moving through the Legislature this session, including others for smart phones and farm equipment.
Click here to watch my bill presentation.
Bills would reinforce Florida’s abortion ban and force anti-abortion propaganda on sixth graders
A really dangerous anti-abortion bill started moving last week.
The bill is House Bill 1517, and it’s another attempt by extremist anti-abortion politicians to give the same legal rights to an embryo or a fetus as a human child has.
This legislation, which passed the House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee, would specifically allow someone to file a civil lawsuit on behalf of an embryo or fetus. And it could become a legal weapon to be used against everything from in vitro fertilization to any future efforts to undo Florida’s near-total abortion ban.
At the same time, anti-abortion legislators are pushing another bill to force public schools to show anti-abortion propaganda.
This terrible idea is tucked inside House Bill 1255, which passed the House Student Academic last week. It would require school districts to show computer-generated videos of fetuses to students starting in sixth grade. It’s one of a “Baby Olivia” bills that have been filed in states across the country, as part of an effort to get a medically inaccurate propaganda video produced by the anti-abortion group Live Action added to public school curriculums.
Amendment would undo Orange County’s voter-approved rural boundary
After something like 70 percent of Orange County voters approved a new rural boundary to protect some of the few remaining undeveloped lands east and west of Orlando, big developers are lobbying the Legislature to overturn the vote.
Provisions dissolving the new Orange County rural boundary were added last week to Senate Bill 1118, which passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee. This one is a really gross bill: It would also force Fernandina Beach to approve an ethanol plant that local residents oppose and make it a lot easier for homebuilders to turn farmlands into new subdivisions.
The developer lobby is also pushing House Bill 665, which would end community programs in places like Sarasota and St. Petersburg that require big developers to contribute small amounts to public art programs. That bill passed the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee.
Corporations could bind workers to longer non competes, retaliate against whistleblowers, and find new ways to deny unemployment benefits
Committees in both the House and Senate passed bills last week that would help corporations lock more workers down with lengthy non-compete contracts that stop workers from taking better-paying jobs with competitors or even starting their own businesses.
House Bill 1219 passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee and Senate Bill 922 passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee.
I serve on IPA and I voted against the bill, which honestly seems like it’s primarily designed to help a few hedge funds handcuff their employees. Click here to watch my debate against the bill.
Several other anti-worker bills moved forward last week, too.
House Bill 1157, which would impose even more obstacles on workers trying to claim their unemployment benefits, passed the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee.
And Senate Bill 1776, which could give companies permission to retaliate against whistleblowers, passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee.
Alaska as Hoth and I-4 as the Kessel Run:
Using Star Wars to make a point
Sometimes you have to find a creative way to make a point. One of the more frustrating parts of this year’s Legislative Session has been the amount of time Republican leaders are devoting to pandering to President Donald Trump while leaving other important bills to languish without any hearings or votes.
One example is House Bill 575, a bill that rewrites dozens of state laws simply to replace the name of Gulf of Mexico wherever it appears with Trump’s preferred “Gulf of America.”
It’s just all so silly and unserious. So when this bill came through the State Affairs Committee last week – one of the committees I serve on – I decided to offer an amendment.
Instead of sucking up to a billionaire politician, I figured we may as well use this legislation to instead honor one of our country’s most storied artistic achievements: Star Wars.
Instead of “Gulf of America,” my amendment would have changed the name to the “Gulf of Endor.” And since we’re just changing names on a whim now, my amendment also would have turned the Mississippi River into the Dagobah Current; the Grand Canyon into the Sarlacc Pit; the Florida Everglades into the Naboo Marshlands; the Great Lakes into the Mon Cala Seas; Las Vegas into Mos Eisley; Alaska into Hoth; Washington, D.C., into the Galactic Senate; and Interstate 4 into the Kessel Run.
I ultimately withdrew the amendment, instead of forcing the Republicans on the committee into voting against Star Wars. I’m not a monster, after all.
But I think I made my point.
Suspicious environmental bills
There are some suspicious environmental bills on the move.
One example is Senate Bill 1822, which would permanently tie the hands of our local governments and prevent them from addressing wasteful products like plastic bags and bottles and styrofoam food containers. It passed the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
And House Bill 577 could allow towing companies to charge up to three times as much to tow and store electric vehicles as they do for gas vehicles. That one passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.
Good and bad news on education
There’s good news and bad news on the education front.
The good news: The House Education Administration Subcommittee passed House Bill 1321, which would repeal the terrible public-records exemption Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature a few years ago that keeps university presidential searches secret from the public.
That secrecy is how the University of Florida ended up with disastrous reign of Ben Sasse, the Republican U.S. Senator who wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on travel, high-paid consultants and other unnecessary extravagances during his short (but still too long) tenure.
On the other hand, the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee passed House Joint Resolution 679, which would put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot imposing lifetime, eight-year term limits on county commissioners and local school board members.
I understand the appeal of term limits and obviously we don’t want politicians to stay in office for life. But I think all the destructive chaos we’re seeing out of Washington, D.C., is showing us the value of knowledge and experience. And what we’ve seen from term limits in the Florida Legislature is that what they really do is empower corporate lobbyists. Also, this is another attempt to remove strong local school board officials who have been defending their students and teachers in the face of extreme legislation.
Rolling back equal rights and economic opportunities for all
Tallahassee Republicans are continuing their coordinated attacks on equal rights and economic opportunities for historically marginalized people – attacks that ultimately harm everyone from women and girls, Black communities, and LGBTQ+ folks to military veterans and disabled Floridians.
For example, the Senate Community Affairs Committee last week passed Senate Bill 420, which could prevent cities and counties from ensuring contracting opportunities are available for women- and minority-owned businesses.
And the same committee passed Senate Bill 1710, which attempts to stop any silence any company that contracts with a state agency from even discussing diversity, racism or gender inequality with their own workers.
With that said, I do want to give a special shoutout to the 500+ Floridians who came out to Pride at the Capitol with Equality Florida, to advocate for our diverse communities and push back against extreme bills. Here are some of my remarks from the press conference we hosted.
Conspiracy theory bills
I’ve sometimes called this year’s legislative session the conspiracy theory session because we have so many bills moving that seem to have their origins in conspiracy theories or other fringe ideas.
Last week alone:
- The Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 56, a bill that was literally filed in response to chemtrail trail conspiracy theories.
- The Senate Regulated Industries Committee passed Senate Bill 196, a “vaccine lettuce” bill that creates new regulations for food infused with vaccines.
- The House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee passed House Bill 651, which would force local communities to stop adding fluoride to their water supplies.
Quick hits: ‘Rural renaissance,’ undoing Parkland gun reforms, and a favor for Philip Morris
Lastly, here’s a roundup for some of the other bills that advanced last week:
- Senate Bill 110, which would expand access to education, healthcare and technology in rural communities, passed the Florida Senate.
- House Bill 503, which would force cities and counties to cut local taxes on businesses, passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee.
- House Bill 759, which would lower the age to buy any gun from 21 to 18 – and undo one of the most significant reforms the Florida Legislature enacted in 2018 following the tragic mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland – passed the House Judiciary Committee.
- House BIll 1221, which would require all local option sales taxes – including tourist development taxes – to sunset unless renewed by local voter referendums, passed the House Ways & Means Committee.
- Senate Bill 1418, which would allow Philip Morris and other Big Tobacco companies to sell “heated tobacco products” without collecting tobacco taxes, passed the Senate Regulated Industries Committee.
- House Bill 4059, which would expand the Sunbridge Stewardship District in Orange and Osceola counties, passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee.