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Legislative Session - Week 1 Summary
March 6
- 10, 2006
The 2006
Florida Legislature convened for its annual sixty-day regular session on
Tuesday of this week. The session runs through May 5, 2006. Governor
Bush gave his final State of the State Address and touched on hurricane
relief and a "culture of preparedness", education reform, economic
development, services for the elderly, and more. To view the text of the
governor's speech
click here.
LIFE AND
DEATH
Parental Notice of Abortion HB 1527 (Stargel) was filed this week and has not been referred to committees. While we applaud Rep. Stargel's efforts to strengthen the bill passed last year, there may not be as much interest by the legislators in making changes to this new law. Some of his provisions include extending the time the court has to rule on the petition filing from 48 hours to 5 days, listing factors a court should consider when determining the maturity of a minor and requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse.
Unanimous Jury Recommendation for Death Sentence HR 1627 (Kyle) was released this week as the work product of a workshop held in the House Justice Council on January 11,2006. The resolution states "The House of Representatives believes that the public policy of this state should be that unanimous jury recommendations not be required in death penalty cases." The workshop was held in response to a statement in the Florida Supreme Court opinion in State of Florida vs. Alfredie Steele that the Legislature should revisit the statute on jury recommendations in death penalty cases. The Conference will continue to support SB 1130 (Villalobos) and HB 663 (Seiler) requiring that the sentence of death be made by a unanimous recommendation of the jury. Sheila Hopkins participated in a press conference on Thursday, March 9 with other organizations such as ACLU, Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty and Amnesty International to support this bill and ask that the state call on moratorium on the death penalty.
EDUCATION SB 248 (Constantine), which passed the Senate Education Committee this week, requires each high school that is a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association to have an operational defibrillator on the high school grounds. The bill encourages public and private partnerships to cover the cost associated with the purchase and placement of the defibrillator and training in the use of the defibrillator.
Opening Dates for School Year SB 306 (Margolis) passed the Senate Education Committee this week and prohibits district school boards from adopting opening dates for the school year earlier than seven days before Labor Day each year. This bill does not apply directly to nonpublic school calendars, though very often diocesan Catholic schools conform their calendars to the local county public school calendar.
Sales Tax Exemption/Textbooks SB 1554 (Haridopolos) provides a sales tax exemption for textbooks and ancillary textbook supplements that are required for coursework for postsecondary students. The exemption would apply to public and nonpublic institutions of higher education recognized and approved by the Department of Education, or those institutions accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting association.
SOCIAL CONCERNS
Farmworker Safety
Affordable Housing As a member of the Sadowski Coalition, FCC participated in a press conference on Thursday, March 9 that was a showcase for the many bills filed to address the affordable housing crisis in Florida. A new affordable housing license plate, to generate additional funding, was also unveiled. FCC supports full funding of the housing trust fund that provides local government with money for rental and home ownership programs. This would include "scrapping the cap" that is scheduled to go into effect next year and would limit funding at $243 million each year. With over $400 million in the fund from last year that was not allocated, approximately $940 million is available for appropriation. The Governor has recommended spending $302 million of this specifically for hurricanes and $243 million for ongoing programs, leaving $588 million not designated.
Proposals include providing down payment assistance to critical public workers, such as teachers are police officers. A House bill will provide up to $8,000 for math, science and reading or special-education to teachers who commit to a five-year stay in the community. Other proposals include expanding an existing down payment assistant program for low income residences; providing more rental housing; encouraging local governments, school districts and special districts to consider providing surplus land for affordable housing projects; helping mobile home residents, who are being forced out of their existing homes by new development, to find affordable housing.
Adoption by Homosexuals Two bills have been filed, HB 123 (McInvale) and SB 172 (Rich), that would lift the current Florida ban on adoption by homosexuals. The Conference opposes these bulls on the basis that they would have the effect of giving legitimacy to homosexual cohabitation outside of marriage. Such legitimacy does not now exist and to give it approval would send the harmful message to our youth that such relationships are natural, moral and the legal equivalence of marriage.
To view a letter outlining the concerns of the Conference, click here.
HEALTH Senate Health Appropriations Focuses on Nursing Homes The Senate Health Appropriations spent a great deal of time looking into nursing home issues this week, including staffing, reimbursement, diversion and liability insurance issues in the wake of SB 1202. Senator Durell Peaden probed one of the presenters regarding the coverage levels for nursing homes, getting at the point that there is no risk transfer for a majority of policies held in Florida nursing homes. Molly McKinstry, AHCA's LTC Bureau Chief also related information on overall levels of coverage in Florida. Lori Parham of AARP pointed out that low levels of liability insurance across the nursing home sector play a role in decreased litigation in Florida, in addition to improvements in quality, which we all celebrate.
ADOM Catholic Health Services Board Reviews HD Legislative Agenda At its annual board meeting Tuesday, Archbishop Favalora and the rest of the Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Health Services Board reviewed the FCC Health Desk Legislative agenda. There was interest in future updates from the FCC on these topics.
CHEC Meeting Monday in Tallahassee Looking forward to welcoming participants in Monday's CHEC meeting at 10 AM at the Florida Catholic Conference. We will discuss pending legislative issues prior to the FHA Hospital Days gathering. The agenda includes legislative priority areas of access to care, long term care, freedom to serve, ethical research environment and end-of-life care.
Catholic Days at the Capitol: March 21-22The FCC will be hosting Catholic Days at the Capitol March 21-22. For more information and to register, click here.
The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of the Catholic Bishops of Florida. It speaks for the Church in matters of public policy, serves as liaison to government and the legislature, and coordinates communications and activities between the Church and secular agencies. The Bishops of the seven (Arch)dioceses in Florida constitute its Board of Directors.
Florida Catholic Conference
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