Your Week 6 Legislative Session Review from Team Anna

Dear Friend,

This has been a really hard week in Tallahassee. The Florida House passed a 15 week abortion ban, and now the bill is set to be heard in the Florida Senate for its final committee stop. We also saw the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill pass its final House Committee, and now it’s coming to the House Floor on Tuesday and Thursday.

This is your update from Week 6 of Florida’s 2022 Legislative Session. Remember, our legislative updates are thorough but will never be all encompassing. I encourage you to tune into the Florida Channel live, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Onward, 

Representative Anna V. Eskamani

COVID19 UPDATES

As reported by the Tampa Bay Times:

Omicron cases in Florida are continuing to fall quickly, but there is no letup in the number of Floridians dying from the variant — and millions across the state remain unvaccinated.

Florida health officials reported fewer than 10,000 daily COVID-19 infections for the first time in more than two months. The state’s weekly report, released Friday, showed 42,473 total cases for the week of Feb. 11-17, down nearly 60 percent from the week before. It’s the fifth consecutive week that cases have fallen as the state recovers from the omicron wave that has infected more than 2 million Floridians.

The state’s positivity rate also fell to 8.2 percent, down from 14.3 percent the prior week. It’s the lowest positivity rate since Dec. 16.

Approximately 73 percent of the U.S. population is immune to the omicron variant, according to estimates reported this week by the Associated Press. That number is likely even higher in Florida, said Thomas Hladish, a research scientist at the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute.

“I think it’s safe to say that infections will return to pre-omicron levels by early March,” Hladish said. Read more here.

FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ABORTION BAN

As I mentioned already, this has been a very long week for us in Tallahassee. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we spent hours on the House Floor trying to amend and stop House Bill 5, Florida’s extreme 15-week abortion ban.

This unconstitutional bill has no exceptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking, and would force those who seek to end a pregnancy after 15 weeks to travel out of state. The bill passed the House Floor on a mostly party line vote after midnight.

Below you will find my remarks against it. I was the last lawmaker to speak in opposition, after nearly six hours of debate. 

As the bill sponsor was closing on her bill, a group of students began to chant in the gallery — leading them to be forcefully removed and trespassed. A staff member of Planned Parenthood was also arrested and later released due to a lack of probable cause.

It’s gross that this bill is being fast-tracked through the Florida Legislature, but it’s even worse that those in the public who speak up are silenced.

We cannot let this bill pass without a fight. There is one more hearing in the Florida Senate, and below are the details of who to call. Please contact these State Senators, and ask them to vote NO on HB5/SB146:

• Senator Albritton | 850-487-5026 | Albritton.Ben@flsenate.gov
• Senator Baxley | 850-487-5012 | Baxley.Dennis@flsenate.gov
• Senator Bean | 850-487-5004 | Bean.Aaron@flsenate.gov
• Senator Brandes | 850-487-5024 | Brandes.Jeff@flsenate.gov
• Senator Broxson | 850-487-5001 | Broxson.Doug@flsenate.gov
• Senator Diaz | 850-487-5036 | Diaz.Manny@flsenate.gov
• Senator Gainer | 850-487-5002 | Gainer.George@flsenate.gov
• Senator Hooper | 850-487-5016 | Hooper.Ed@flsenate.gov
• Senator Hutson | 850-487-5007 | Hutson.Travis@flsenate.gov
• Senator Mayfield | 850-487-5017 | Mayfield.Debbie@flsenate.gov
• Senator Perry | 850-487-5008 | Perry.Keith@flsenate.gov
• Future Senate Pres. Kathleen Passidomo | 850-487-5028 | Kathleen.Passidomo@flsenate.gov

SCRIPT FOR WHEN YOU CALL: “Hello my name is ________. I am urging Senator (___) to vote NO on SB 146, a dangerous abortion ban. Abortion bans are unpopular with most Floridians, who respect the privacy of medical decisions. Protect our rights and freedoms by voting NO on SB 146. Abortion is healthcare!”

REDISTRICTING UPDATE

As reported by the Miami Herald:

The conflict between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature came into sharper focus on Friday as the governor’s office paid for a conservative redistricting expert to appear before the House Congressional Redistricting Subcommittee and the committee rejected his arguments. Robert Popper, a senior attorney with the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, told the committee that if it moves ahead with its map that leaves in place a North Florida congressional district that stretches across several counties, it could “be in trouble” if the map were to get challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The warning sets the stage for what could be the long-range goal of the governor, who has all but threatened to veto a congressional redistricting map if it includes the district that has elected U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Tallahassee Democrat, who is Black. The district was approved by the court a decade ago to link together Black communities from the Antebellum South in an effort to allow minorities in the region to elect a candidate of their choice.

Ultimately, the House committee on Friday voted 14-7 along partisan lines to adopt a map that would likely elect only three Blacks to Congress, dismantling the Orlando-based district currently held by U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Black Democrat, but leaving the district that elected Lawson intact. 

FLORIDA’S STATE BUDGET

This past week the Florida House and Senate debated and voted on the State Budget. Though there are some positives in the state budget, there were also many negatives, including not enough funding for the Agency for Persons With Disabilities, no funding for the rising cost of rent, cuts to hospitals that serve indigent populations and probably the worst of them all: $200 million being cut from school districts because they had mask requirements.

That’s right: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday appeared to do an about-face on his initial opposition to a House plan that would shift $200 million away from school districts that required students to wear masks last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plan is part of a proposed $105 billion state budget that the House is poised to approve Wednesday.

Orange County is about to lose $16 million from these cuts. I voted NO on the draft budget and will be encouraging my colleagues to not defund public education.

EDUCATION POLICY ISSUES

As reported by Florida Politics:

Legislation to replace standardized testing with a “progress monitoring program” is on to its final committee after receiving the unanimous support of a House education panel.

The bill (HB 1193), carried in the House by Orlando Republican Rep. Rene Plasencia, would replace the much-maligned Florida Standards Assessment, or FSA, with coordinated screening and progress monitoring. Gov. Ron DeSantis and teachers support the proposal.

Students would take tests three times during the school year, with the first two intended to give students, teachers and parents guidance on how to work on the students’ weaknesses. The final “summative” test, late in the school year, would still provide results in time for students to be able to use summer school to meet standards.

Members of the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee voted unanimously Wednesday to advance the bill to its final panel before it is ready for the House floor.

WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE

This past week in our Ways & Means Committee we heard a few local bills, along with a very interesting (and problematic!) bill about timeshares!

HB 801 would dramatically slash property taxes for timeshares by preventing property appraisers from using the value of new timeshare sales as comps. The potential fiscal is enormous too: The REC estimates nearly $200 million a year loss in property taxes, which would be heavily concentrated in Orange and Osceola counties, since they have far more timeshare properties than anyone else.

I tried to ask questions to the bill sponsor about this bill, and ultimately voted no. You can read more here as this bill has been filed in the past, too.

The Ways & Means Committee did have some good news though: We passed a bipartisan tax package that includes a version of HB85, our bill to eliminate the sales tax on diapers. We also saw a tax package that DOES NOT expand or extend massive corporate tax breaks which is *chef’s kiss* The bill also included a sales tax break proposed by Girl Scouts!

This is in contrast to the Florida Senate who is potentially going to pass a $4 BILLION tax break for the state’s largest corporations.

Of course, the Tax Package still needs to move through the committee process and will have to be approved on the House Floor and then negotiated with the Senate. Here’s an interview we did focused on the impact of a year long tax break on diapers: 

DON’T SAY GAY BILL & HB7

House Bill 7 and House Bill 1557 will both be heard on the House Floor this week. This is the “Stop Learning Act” (also known as the anti-CRT bill) and the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill. We’ve already filed amendments on both bills and are ready to push back against what are political distractions and attacks on marginalized communities.

Last week the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill had its final committee hearing in the Florida State House. You watch the hearing here, at this link (go the 29 minute mark). 

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY

There are quite a few environmental and energy updates from last week. First, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times:

After swarming legislators with nearly 40,000 petitions, more than 1,200 phone calls over the last two weeks and a veto threat from the governor, clean water advocates declared victory early Thursday over a bipartisan bill by Senate leaders to give the sugar industry an advantage in access to water flowing from Lake Okeechobee. 

“There were rumors going around Tallahassee last night the cavalry was coming bigger than ever, and it forced their hand,” said Daniel Andrews of Captains For Clean Water at a rally Thursday morning outside the Capitol. “And what we saw was a late-filed amendment last night that took the worst of the worst out of this legislation.”

The amendment to SB 2508, approved 37-2 by the Senate on Thursday, would remove provisions in the bill that advocates say would have led to toxic discharges, more red tide blooms and dead fish on beaches.

Despite the amendment, critics said they continue to have serious questions about the pieces of the measure that restrict the flexibility of water managers as it relates to various projects, and they hope those provisions will be removed during budget discussions with the House. We’ll be watching it.

Another bill to watch is SB1078. This bill targets Soil & Water Management Boards, and seem specifically designed to benefit developers and/or the big agricultural industry. See more from the Jacksonville Times Union here:

Several major northeast Florida developers — including one owned by the family of Palm Coast state Sen. Travis Hutson — invested tens of thousands of dollars to re-elect farmer John “Bucky” Sykes to the St. Johns County Soil and Water Conservation District two years ago. 

The $43,000 war chest — which also included $15,000 from political action committees — was an unprecedented and extraordinary amount of money for a seat that pays no salary and has no regulatory authority.

It forced the challenger, outspoken environmentalist Nicole Crosby, to raise $3,000 of her own money to push back against Sykes’ professionally-run campaign with its glossy flyers and highway billboards.

And even though Sykes, the scion of a longtime St. Johns County farming family known for its annual corn maze, outspent Crosby by a 14-to-1 margin, she still went on to beat him 54%-46% — or by 11,000 votes.

A year later, Hutson filed legislation to eliminate all 56 soil and water conservation districts in Florida.

We also saw a debate in the Florida Legislature over who should control Florida’s electric vehicle charging stations? As reported by the Tampa Bay Times:

During Sunday’s Super Bowl, the nation’s auto industry sent the message that the future is in electric vehicles. That future comes with a catch — if you’re on a long drive, you’ll need to recharge your car’s battery.

The issue gets to the heart of what is emerging as an electric vehicle charging war in the Florida Legislature: Should the state’s investor-owned utilities — Florida Power & Light Co., Duke Energy and Tampa Electric Co. — own the charging stations or should gas stations and charging manufacturers be allowed to compete?

There are an estimated 58,000 electric vehicles in Florida and, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, Florida has the third-largest electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the country, behind California and New York.

Current electric vehicle models have typical driving ranges of 150 to 300 miles and, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, there are only 954 registered charging stations available for public access.

A House committee on Tuesday approved House Bill 737, by Rep. David Borrero, a Miami Republican, that would require state regulators to issue rules “that facilitates the deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in a competitively neutral manner.”

Under the bill, and a companion measure sponsored by Sen. Keith Perry, R-Alachua, the Florida Public Service Commission would be required to end the current practice of letting the electric utility companies make customers pay for the financing of charging station development in 2024 and write rules to encourage competition and private investment.

However, the bill may face obstacles this session. In addition to the opposition from the powerful utility industry, the Senate version of the bill made it through only one committee and “time may be running out,” said Perry, the Senate sponsor.

We also wanted to uplift that the fight to protect net metering continues! The anti-net metering will be heard in the Florida Senate tomorrow at 1:00pm. Check out this video to learn more (43:45 and watch thru 47:00): 

ANTI-IMMIGRANT BILL MOVES FORWARD

As reported by the Tampa Bay Times:

In recent months, Gov. Ron DeSantis has directed state regulators to crack down on shelters that house unaccompanied minors in Florida and asked the Legislature to bar state contracts with companies that transport migrants, including children, into the state on behalf of the federal government.

But the Republican lawmaker who is sponsoring legislation that is part of DeSantis’ immigration agenda said Thursday that the measure is not intended to impact unaccompanied children or the shelters that care for them as they wait to be reunited with their families or vetted sponsors.

Despite the bill sponsor saying that this bill would not impact unaccompanied children, as currently written it 100% does. And right now, unaccompanied children are already being negatively impacted by the Governor’s recent Executive Order restricting the DCF license renewal of faith based organizations that support unaccompanied children.

Again, from the Tampa Bay Times:

“We are absolutely tying up unaccompanied minors. They are not authorized to be employed. We all know that,” said state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, who also worried the definition would rope in migrants who have been granted temporary protected status or are seeking protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Smith and state Rep. Kevin Chambliss, D-Homestead, attempted to amend the bill to clarify that unaccompanied minors would not be impacted, as Snyder said his intent is. But the Republican majority in the House State Affairs Committee, where the bill and the amendments were heard on Thursday, rejected their efforts.

Here are two public testimonies that were against the bill.

WORKER’S RIGHTS & LOCAL CONTROL

Last week, the Tampa Bay Times broke an important story about HB943:

A St. Petersburg company that paid millions to settle a wage theft case is pushing a controversial bill that would prohibit local governments from setting a minimum wage higher than the state’s current $10 an hour for employees and contractors.

The company, Power Design, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the political committees of key legislators, including the bill’s sponsors. And the company is tied to a mysterious group lobbying on behalf of the bill.

This is another example of anti-worker legislation being pushed by a corporate interest. I actually saw this bill in my committee a few weeks ago, and confirmed through Q&A with the bill sponsor, that it would result in workers being paid less.

Another bill of concern that progressed this week is HB1239/SB804 would impact the staffing structure of nursing homes.  As reported by the Tampa Bay Times: 

Now, two amended versions of the bills are making their way through the House and Senate. It appears the lawmakers have built some consensus. The nursing home industry and the trial lawyers who sue those facilities on behalf of residents and their families now both support the bill.

But groups that directly represent people who live and work inside nursing homes continue to vehemently oppose the legislation. The AARP in a news release called the House bill “irresponsible” and “unconscionable.” The group predicted the bills, if passed, would make people suffer from inadequate care.

See an interview we did about this bill last week via the link below:

Finally, we want to bring your attention to HB403. As reported by Florida Politics, this proposal is among the most contentious this Legislative Session.

The measure (HB 403) would freeze any ordinance for 90 days if a filed lawsuit claims its rules are “arbitrary or unreasonable.” The bill also would require governments to draw up a “business impact estimate” for every ordinance.

Upon being sued, governments that choose not to roll back the ordinance in question and lose the lawsuit would have to cover up to $50,000 of a plaintiff’s legal fees, costs and related damages.

While an individual business would be barred from suing to stop the same ordinance twice, the bill places no limit on how many times a government could be sued per ordinance.

We asked a lot of questions on this bill, and you can watch my debate against it via the video below.

HEARINGS HAPPENING THIS WEEK

This coming week on the House Floor we have quite a few bad bills on check! From HB7, ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill (HB1557), to a predatory bill impacting renters and changes to parent timeshare. Keep in touch with us and stay tuned via The Florida Channel.

SCENES FROM TALLAHASSEE & THE DISTRICT

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