Big bills remain as time runs out

Florida lawmakers opt against gun control, alimony, tort measures

TALLAHASSEE — There are plenty of decisions yet to be made in the final two weeks of the legislative session, including how much to hike teacher pay, whether to force businesses to check workers’ legal status and whether to allow student-athletes to receive pay.

But on other issues, such as closing the so-called gun show loophole, rewriting Florida’s alimony laws and overhauling the state’s car insurance laws, lawmakers have made up their minds: They won’t.

The push to close what gun control advocates call the gun show “loophole” is dead for this session. Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, confirmed this week the bill, SB 7028, wouldn’t go forward in the final weeks, although he said the chamber will still address public safety issues, including beefing up school safety requirements passed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in 2018.

“Public safety is still a priority for the Florida Senate,” Galvano told reporters Wednesday. “We’re going to have a public safety day where we pass myriad measures that are going to make Floridians more secure in this state.”

The bill wouldn’t have required background checks for all gun

show sales, as gun control advocates favor, but only would have required sellers to check IDs of buyers to ensure they can legally purchase the firearm. The buyer also would’ve had to fill out a form asserting they aren’t a felon and mentally stable.

But it still rankled gun rights activists such as NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer and Donald Trump Jr., who slammed Galvano for allowing it to pass through a Senate panel earlier in the session, getting three Republican votes along the way. It never gained traction in the House, though, where Speaker Jose Oliva expressed skepticism of the measure.

Galvano is now being blasted by gun control advocates for not getting the bill through.

“A bipartisan background checks bill has collected dust in the Florida Senate,” said Gaby Padron-Loewenstein, volunteer leader with the Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action, a gun control advocacy group. “Senator Galvano’s failure to keep his word is not only disappointing; it’s dangerous for our families and communities.”

Another bill that would have ended court-ordered permanent alimony in Florida won’t make it to the finish line, despite advancing through its last House committee this week. The Senate sponsor, Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, told the News Service of Florida it won’t get a hearing in that chamber.

A series of bills aimed at reducing the liability and litigation costs of large corporations also seems doomed. The bills would ended most fee multipliers for attorneys in difficult cases, increased the standard to prove insurance companies deliberately mishandled claims and required juries to hear more information about medical costs in before awarding damages.

So does legislation that would end Florida’s no-fault car insurance system in favor of a mandatory bodily injury system.

The tort and car insurance issues were linked for most of the session — the big business and insurance lobbies would only go along with a switch to a mandatory bodily injury system, a move favored by the trial attorney lobby, if major tort reforms were included.

An amendment to merge the bills never materialized, however, and many of the tort bills are stuck in committees and aren’t likely to make it to the floor of the Senate, even though some of them advanced in House committees this week.

“The companion measures to those bills are bottled up in committee,” said Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, sponsor of the car insurance bill. “There are ways we could get to those if the powers that be wanted to do that. It would be somewhat unconventional but not unprecedented.”

But Lee said he won’t be pushing to get that through, though. He thinks the cost would be too high.

“I’m not asking anybody for anything at this point because every ask I make comes with a list of five things they want me to vote for that my constituents hate.”