FNPN 2019 Legislative Report #5

This week marks the end of first week of the 60-day Legislative Session. As of Tuesday, there were 3,343 bills including 39 PCBs have been filed for lawmakers to deliberate on. This number tops the bills filed for 2018’s Session, which had a record high of 3,250 bills filed. With so many bills and only 60 days to deliberate, there are top objectives that Governor Ron DeSantis, Senate President Bill Galvano, and Speaker of the House Jose Oliva have emphasized to be a priority for the 2019 Legislative Session. These objectives identified are education, environment, healthcare, transportation, and infrastructure. Governor DeSantis spoke in his first State of the State on Tuesday, in the House chamber, on the critical need for lawmakers to hone in on the important aspects that will be heard and proposed in this Session to better Florida’s overall prosperity.

While federal grants have been under discussion in regard to Hurricane Michael relief, the state of Florida has been underway in providing emergency accommodations for the panhandle still recovering from the damaging storm. There have been approximately 70 bills that have been filed relating to Hurricane Michael with requests totaling over $600 million. It is estimated that the total costs of Hurricane Michael recovery will be around $2.7 billion, with $1.2 billion already spent in recovery efforts. The proposals call for programs to help in the replacement of public facilities and the evaluation of the emergency operations that occurred during and after Hurricane Michael.

On Wednesday, Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio sent a letter to Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt urging him and the department to stand by the exclusion of Florida from being considered in the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Plan. They emphasized that the potential damages to Florida’s shores could result in severe harm to Florida’s “environmental resources, fisheries, tourism, and the economy.” Senator Rubio reintroduced the legislation for the Florida Shores Protection and Fairness Act to extend, protect and provide the same resources that the other Gulf States have along Florida’s coast.
The Department of Corrections requested a $206.5 million increase in their budget directed towards providing proper state-mandated healthcare to inmates. The DOC has experienced shortfalls in their budget in previous years, resulting in them being forced to cut off mental and substance abuse health programs drastically. DOC health services director Tom Reimers stated that there are approximately 18,000 inmates who need mental healthcare. They presented their increased request to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice on Wednesday.

In one of the first actions of the 2019 Legislative Session, the Florida Senate voted 34-4 on Thursday to repeal the current ban on smokable medical marijuana. Medical marijuana was approved in 2016 by voters, yet the smokable form of the plant was banned in a bill signed by Governor Rick Scott in 2017. The state of Florida was sued over the ban, declaring it unconstitutional. Scott appealed the ruling, but Governor DeSantis stated that he would drop the appeal if the ban was not repealed by mid-March. The House will vote next week on its version of the bill.

The Florida School Board on Tuesday voted to keep Broward County Superintendent Ron Runcie in his position. The meeting was expected to attract many supporters and opponents of the decision, particularly from the city of Parkland. They also met on discussing security matters on Monday. The school board convened to discuss his position on the terms of “willful neglect of duty”. He was voted on and will remain in his position as Superintendent to Broward County Schools.
On legislation we would like to bring to your attention, SB 592, Prescription Drug Monitoring Program has passed in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services unanimously and is now in Appropriations.

In addition, HB 373, Certification for Prescriptive Authority is now in the Health Care Appropriations