Capitol Connection
2021 LEGISLATIVE SESSION: WEEK 2
The 2021 Florida Legislative Session is well underway. These seven weeks move quickly in Tallahassee, and we appreciate your interest in monitoring issues that may impact Florida’s children and families. The Florida Children’s Council hopes that the content provided in this digest and the subsequent issues will help inform your advocacy efforts until session ends (sine die) on April 30th.
 
Each week the Capitol Connection will provide a brief summary of relative events from the executive and legislative branches. The update will also include information on legislation that has moved that week and provide updates on presentations, press conferences and conversations that may be of interest.
 
The first column lists the bill number, name and sponsor and provides a hyperlink to the bill's text and history. The numbered circles represent the number of committees of reference for each bill, and the final column provides a brief description of the bill(s). Here is a key to help guide you in your review of where each bill is:
This week the Senate and House Committees met for Week Two of the 2021 Legislative Session. This session saw more than 2000 bills filed; therefore, we expect to see bills moving through committees much later into the session than usual. While this week was light in terms of significant bill movement, we did see several child welfare bills move through their committees of reference. Senate Bill 80, a massive omnibus bill overhauling the state’s child welfare provisions unanimously passed its third and final committee in the Senate and is heading to a floor vote. Additionally, two more child welfare bills, Senate Bills 92 and 96,are now in their last committee stop.

The House Judiciary Committee considered HB 7005, related to COVID-19 liability claims. This bill would protect health care providers and long term care facilities from negligence claims brought on related to COVID-19. The bill passed with a 15-5 vote in its second and final committee of reference. In the Senate, a similar bill (SB 74 by Senator Brandes) was amended onto SB 72 during the Senate Rules committee and will now be placed on the Special Order Calendar.

On Thursday, the Internet Sales tax bill (HB 15), which closes a loophole that allows many online businesses to not collect sales tax on internet sales passed its first committee in the House and is headed to the Commerce Committee as its second and final stop. This bipartisan bill is expected to bring in about $1 billion to Florida’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund annually until the Trust Fund is replenished to pre-pandemic levels. The Senate companion (SB 50) has already passed all committee stops and is on the Special Order Calendar. 

In other news, Governor DeSantis announced that he had selected Adrian Lukis as his new Chief of Staff. Lukis is the current Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor and previously served as a Senior Advisor to former House Speaker Jose Oliva. The position of Chief of Staff became open when former Chief of Staff Shane Strum resigned to accept a position as CEO of Broward Health.

Below are links to news articles published this week that may be of interest to you.


Until next week!

Sincerely,
The Florida Children’s Council
Economic Self-Sufficiency
Economic Self-Sufficiency
Early Learning
Early Learning
Out of School
Out-Of-School Time Programs
Healthy Development
Healthy Development
Children With Disabilities
Children With Disabilities
Child Protection
Child Protection
Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice
Equity
Equity
K-12 Education
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For more information, contact: Jenny Foltz - jfoltz@floridacsc.org