Bethune statue in U.S. Capitol among 30 bills signed into law

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott on Monday signed 30 bills into law, including a measure that could make more permanent a controversial pregnancy “support services” program and a bill that calls for placing a statue of civil-rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune in the U.S. Capitol.

The list of bills signed by Scott also included a measure that will revamp regulations for the payday-loan industry, a plan to create a slavery memorial at the Capitol and a series of proposals dealing with health care issues.

The pregnancy “support services” measure (HB 41), sponsored by Rep. Jackie Toledo, R-Tampa, and Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, drew fiery debate during this year’s legislative session.

The bill will put the program into law after years of lawmakers supporting it in annual budgets. Putting programs into law makes them more permanent than authorizing them through the budget process.

The program provides services to women and encourages carrying pregnancies to term.

The Bethune bill (SB 472) received nearly unanimous support in the House and Senate before getting Scott’s signature. Under the plan, a statue of Bethune — the founder of what is now Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach — is expected to become one of Florida’s two representatives in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.

Bethune’s statue will replace a likeness of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. Florida’s other representative in the hall is John Gorrie, widely considered the father of air conditioning. The Bethune bill was sponsored by Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, Rep. Patrick Henry, D-Daytona Beach, and Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach.

Scott’s office released the list of 30 bills Monday night.