Final Legislative Report (5/12/04)

2004 End of Regular Session Report
of the
Florida Catholic Conference
May 12, 2004

Please "click on" the entries which appear below
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The 2004 Florida Legislature concluded April 30, 2004. The summary below includes bills passed and sent to the Governor. At the end of this report are summaries of important bills that died which the Conference staff was following.

PARENTAL NOTIFICATION – HJR 1 (Byrd): Proposes a constitutional amendment to stipulate that the Legislature, notwithstanding constitutional right of privacy of a minor under the U. S. Constitution as interpreted by the U. S. Supreme Court, require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian of pregnant minor before terminating minor's pregnancy; legislation shall provide exceptions to such requirement. The amendment will go before voters on the November ballot. Assuming a majority of the voters approve the amendment, the Legislature will consider a bill to require parental notification in the next session.

SELF-MURDER – HB 221 (Peterman): Seeks to prohibit financial gain from acts of self-murder (suicide), such as occurred in the St. Petersburg area in the last year when a band publicized such a planned event to be shown live at one of its concerts.

MIGRANT LABOR - CS/CS/HB 1307 (Poppell): Reactivates the Legislative Commission on Migrant and Seasonal Labor. Department of Business and Professional Regulation is designated to administer the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Major and minor violations are defined with increased penalties for violations including permanent revocation of farm labor contractor’s license for certain convictions. The fee for a farm labor contractor license has been increased from $75 to $125. Farm labor contractors can qualify for a best practices incentive program, which will be developed by the department. Farmworkers cannot be required to purchase goods and services from a farm labor contractor or their designated representative. Farm labor contractors may not charge more than “reasonable cost” for housing, food, water, etc. The term “reasonable cost” means there can be no profit to the farm labor contractor or representative. The Florida Agricultural Worker Safety Act, known as the pesticide bill, was re-enacted requiring availability of agricultural pesticide information to workers and medical personnel under certain conditions and within two days of request of information by a worker. A $300,000 appropriation was approved for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to hire additional personnel and purchase equipment for training and outreach services. The worker’s compensation death benefit to aliens who are not residents of the United States or Canada ($150,000) will now apply to aliens from other foreign countries, who previously received one-half of that compensation rate.

HOUSING TRUST FUNDS – SB 1000 (Webster) & SB 1002 (Webster): Re-creates the State and Local Government Housing Trust Fund to be used as revenue for affordable home ownership, repairs, and rental housing.

ADOPTION – SB 2046 (Campbell): Prevents removal by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and calls for court review when adoption petition by foster parent or court-ordered custodian of a child is denied when a child has resided with foster parent or custodian for at least 6 months and has been permanently committed to legal custody of DCF.

UNIVERSAL PRE-KINDERGARTEN (UPK) EDUCATION - CS/HB 821 (Barreiro) – This legislation, which contained the language of CS for SB 3036, defines private-sector programs through the standardization of accreditation. The Florida Catholic Conference and the Florida Association of Christian Schools and Colleges successfully advocated for providers that are an integral part of a school and recognized by the Florida Association of Academic Nonpublic Schools and the National Council Private School Association can obtain a Gold Seal approved designation. Requires licensed child-care facilities and licensed family day care homes to meet Gold Seal Quality Care Program standards; CDA credentialing; five clock hours of emergent literacy course work for teachers; and, instruction on how to teach children with disabilities. The UPK program establishes a statewide kindergarten screening of all students and provides for a three-year phase in of a new screening instrument, requiring the continued use of the Early Screening Inventory Kindergarten screening instrument. Early Learning Councils, the Florida Child Development Advisory Council in the FDOE, the Governor and the Commissioner of Education are required to offer recommendations as to additional credentialing, teacher-pupil ratios and other policies for accountability as they deem necessary.

TAX EXEMPTION FOR SALES OF SCHOOL SUPPLIES – HB 237 (Kilmer) – States that no sales tax will be levied for the purchase of school supplies, including pens, pencils, erasers, crayons, notebooks, filler paper, legal pads, composition books, poster paper, scissors, cellophane tape, glue or paste, rulers, computer disks, protractors, compasses and calculators for the week of July 24-August 1. [HB 237 was presented to the Governor on May 10, 2004.]

EQUIVALENCIES FOR STANDARDIZED TESTS – SB 364 (Constantine) – The Commissioner of Education will approve the use of the SAT and ACT tests as alternative assessments to the grade 10 FCAT for the 2003-2004 school year. This language will allow students who attain passing scores on the SAT or ACT to satisfy the assessment requirement for a high school diploma. The Florida Catholic Conference supported this legislation. Among other things, the bill may be a precedent for children on Opportunity Scholarships in Catholic and other nonpublic schools to participate in the SAT or ACT in lieu of the F-CAT.

FLORIDA KIDCARE PROGRAM – SB 2000 (Dockery et al): Provides funds for approximately 90,000 additional children on the KidCare waiting list. The Florida Catholic Conference is pleased that Florida has funded expanded participation; however, other provisions of the legislation, which make the program less accessible to Florida’s working poor families are cause of serious concern. One concern is that it precludes participation in KidCare by legal immigrant children. [SB 2000 has been signed by the Governor. As a result of the subsequent budget process, even more children can be covered than when the bill was signed.]

CERTIFICATES OF NEED – HB 329 (Harrell) & SB 182 (Atwater): Together, these bills bring a new approach to regulating health service expansion, particularly for cardiac services, burn units, neonatal units and nursing home services. The Florida Catholic Conference is pleased that the bill prohibits specialty hospitals that would hurt existing providers' ability to care for the poor and uninsured.

AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE FOR FLORIDIANS ACT – HB 1629 (Farkas): Among provisions of this bill are several mechanisms to expand overall coverage to Floridians. These include:

1.	Health Flex Programs Now Statewide: We have had guarded optimism over these scaled back benefit plans, which have not had serious impact in the few pilot communities where they have been attempted so far. They can now be established statewide, and provisions have been added to allow high deductible and catastrophic coverage. There will also be pilots in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties to re-configure Medicaid as HealthFlex plans.
2.	Small Employer Access Program Established: Smaller employers - as well as rural entities and nursing homes - can join together to purchase health insurance.
3.	Florida Health Insurance Plan: Creates a high-risk pool for those who are very expensive to insure.
4.	Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) & Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs): Small group carriers must offer plans that meet federal requirements for these plans.

INSTITUTIONAL PROVIDER REIMBURSEMENT – MORE TIGHTENING: Hospitals will see their annual rates cut to save $70M. The biggest Medicaid providers are held harmless in this process. Nursing Homes will experience a similar cut ($66.7M); there will be a delay in a required staffing increase from May 1, 2004 to July 1, 2005, and a change in the threshold for Medicaid bedhold payments, which will require 95% occupancy. Hospice will also experience a rate cut.

KIDCARE – OVERHAULED, BUT MORE FUNDING THAN EVER: The program will have more money than ever - a $131M increase over current year (a $531M budget next year). Recall that administrative overhauls of program were implemented at the beginning of the session, along with funding to cover additional children. These slots were annualized, and additional slots were funded. We shall see if participation meets the funding level. The next open enrollment is slated for January 2005. One other change: KidCare has a smaller dental benefit this year.

SEXUAL OFFENDERS – SB 120 (Fasano): Prohibits certain sexual offenders subject to conditional release supervision from living within specified distance of certain places where children congregate; prohibits district school boards from establishing school bus stops within 1,000 feet of residence of persons prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of school bus stop; requires district school boards to notify Department of Corrections about school bus stop locations.

LIMITATION OF ACTION / SEXUAL OFFENSES – CS/HB 1831 (Public Safety & Crime Prevention): Authorizes prosecution of specified sexual offenses within 1 year after identity of accused is established through analysis of DNA evidence, notwithstanding time limitations otherwise prescribed by law.

RECORDS / SEXUAL PREDATORS & OFFENDERS – SB 1774 (Villalobos): Requires that each state or governmental subdivision search records of sexual predators and offenders maintained by FDLE before appointing or employing person to work or volunteer at park, playground, day care center, or other place where children regularly congregate; authorizes use of department's toll-free telephone number or internet site to conduct search.

WOMEN’S HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT – SB 2296 (Haridopolos) & HB 179 (Bean): Required rules for clinics performing abortions in the first trimester to be comparable to surgical procedures requiring the same level of skill and care; required reasonable, minimum standards for clinics performing abortions after the first trimester including medical screening and follow up for adequate patient care and safety [SB 2296 died in Senate Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care. HB 179 died in House Health Care.]

DEATH SENTENCE FOR JUVENILES – SB 224 (Crist) & HB 63 (Brutus): Provided that minors younger than age 18 who have committed a capital crime shall be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole but may not be sentenced to death. [SB 224 died in House messages. HB 63 died in House Public Safety Appropriations.]

HUMAN CLONING PROHIBITION ACT – SB 2558 (Wise) & HB 559 (Kallinger): Prohibited the “somatic cell nuclear transfer” (SCNT) process, which produces a cloned embryo. This is the process South Korean scientists used to successfully create developing cloned embryos that were subsequently destroyed to establish an embryonic stem cell line. There was an expectation that amendments would be filed that permit the SCNT process, but preclude the birth of resulting embryos. The Florida Catholic Conference supported the bill, and would have opposed such amendments. [SB 2558 was withdrawn from consideration in the Senate. HB 559 died in House Health Care.]

RESIDENT STATUS FOR TUITION PURPOSES – SB 412 (Bullard) & HB 119 (Zapata): Defined persons to be classified as residents for payment of tuition at in-state rates including students who are not permanent residents but have resided in Florida with a parent and attended high school for at least 3 consecutive years and will file an application to become a permanent resident when eligible. [SB 412 died in House messages. HB 119 died on House calendar.]

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION FOR LEGAL FARMWORKERS – CS/SB 1182 (Bennett) & HB 241 (Galvano): Benefited a small number of migrant farmworkers due to required legal status. The children of legal migrant farmworkers who have attended a Florida high school for at least 3 months each year for the last two years would be exempt from paying nonresident tuition and out-of-state fees at postsecondary institutions. [SB 1182 died in Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. HB 241 died in House Higher Education.]

HOUSING DISCRIMINATION – SB 442 (Wise) & HB 131 (Carroll): Prohibited discrimination in sale or rental of housing based on source of income. [SB 442 died in Senate Comprehensive Planning. HB 131 died in House Judiciary.]

RESTORATION OF VOTING RIGHTS – SJR 134 & SB 172 (Dawson): Similar bills provide that convicted felon who is incarcerated or on probation, parole, community control, may not vote. SJR 134 proposed an amendment to State Constitution to authorize legislation to provide the conditions under which a convicted felon's right to register or vote may be restored. SB 172 provided restoration of voting rights one year after completion of sentence. [SJR 134 and SB 172 died in Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections.]

GROUND WATER / CONSUMPTIVE USE PERMITS – SB 596 (Campbell): Provided for restrictions on sale or transfer of consumptive use permits or permitted quantities of groundwater. [SB 596 died in Senate Natural Resources.]

SUBSTANCE ABUSE / INTERVENTION – CS/SB 316 (Lynn) & CS/HB 281 (Adams): To combat the increase in child abuse and neglect caused by substance abuse in the home, this bill authorized the court to require certain persons to undergo treatment following adjudication and provided support to families in recovery. [SB 316 died in House messages. HB 281 died in House Judicial Appropriations.]

CHILDREN’S SUMMER NUTRITION ACT – CS/SB 2096 (Wise) & HB 1115 (Greenstein): Required Food & Nutrition Management Office of Department Of Education to develop plan for providing, in each school district, summer food programs that serve children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches during school year. [SB 2096 died in Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. HB 1115 died in Senate messages.]

HEALTH CARE ADVANCE DIRECTIVE REGISTRY – CS/SB 2902 (Jones) & CS/HB 1655 (Homan): Provided a fee for persons participating in a new health care advance directive and blood-type registry that would function much like the current organ donor registry. Participant’s directive would be stored in a database, readily available to healthcare providers (also established an end-of-life care educational campaign). The Florida Catholic Conference was mainly concerned that persons who participate in the voluntary registry would forfeit the simple and straightforward process of amending or revoking directives. [SB 2902 died in Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. HB 1655 died in House Appropriations.]

HEALTH CARE LICENSURE – CS/CS/CS/SB 1680 (Saunders): Among other provisions, this bill promoted greater and more prompt compliance with an advance directive, which cut the current timeframe within which a provider must comply with a directive or transfer a person from a week to 48 hours. An amendment offered late in the session provided that any entity that continued offering life prolonging procedures would forfeit state reimbursement for that care. [SB 1680 died in House messages.]

STARVATION AND DEHYDRATION PROHIBITION ACT – SB 692 (Wise) / House Judiciary PCB 5: Prohibited the withdrawal or withholding of nutrition and hydration from a person unless an advance directive clearly indicated that such action was requested in circumstances. [SB 692 was withdrawn from further consideration by the Senate.]