Vaping bill awaits decision
DeSantis behind on rulings amid virus
TALLAHASSEE — In a normal year, the governor would have long since finished acting on all the bills approved by the Legislature by now. But this is 2020, and things aren’t normal.
Lawmakers have yet to send 26 bills passed earlier this year to Gov. Ron DeSantis, including SB 810, which would impose new regulations on vape shops and e-cigarette manufacturers. The bill is politically tricky for DeSantis, who will disappoint a large swath of fellow Republicans, including perhaps President Trump, whether he signs or vetoes it.
Numerous vape shop operators and e-cigarette industry representatives spoke out against it at legislative hearings. Trump last year opted not to move forward with a federal ban on most flavored e-cigarettes two months after saying he was considering it reportedly out of fear of political backlash from his base of supporters.
SB 810 would increase the minimum age to buy tobacco and vape products from 18 to 21, bringing state law in line with federal regulations passed last year. Another provision would ban certain flavors of liquid nicotine used in vaping devices, such as fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey and candy, but allow an exception for products approved by the federal
Food and Drug Administration. Such flavors are considered more enticing to teenage users.
Opponents of the bill have engaged in a campaign to urge a veto by DeSantis, arguing the bill will hurt a burgeoning industry and lead to job losses.
“There is no urgent need for a state bill, especially when the bill before you would needlessly crush small businesses and send adult vaping product users to the black market or back to combustible cigarettes,” American Vaping Association president Gregory Conley wrote in a letter to DeSantis on June 29.
A spokeswoman for DeSantis did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story. DeSantis has previously said he’s opposed to increasing the minimum age for tobacco to 21, but the federal legislation last year has made it a moot issue.
While SB 810 garnered 19 negative votes from Republicans, it still has plenty of support in the GOP as well, including from Attorney General Ashley Moody, and others concerned about the rise in underage vaping.
Moody’s office last month filed legal motions seeking to stop two vaping manufacturers, Monster Vape Labs and Lizard Juice, from using cartoons to advertise nicotine products and require them to take steps to ensure they aren’t selling to minors.
Other versions of the bill would’ve gone farther, imposing a $50 fee for a vape shop license, making it easier to sue shops that sell to minors and having them regulated by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
While those provisions didn’t pass, Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, who sponsored the bill, bemoaned the continued opposition from vape shop owners.
“This doesn’t keep vape operators and shop owners from operating. It just simply regulates them,” Simmons said. “There are just a group of people … who do not want any regulations so that they can put together the kinds of concoctions that are simply exceedingly inimical to the lives of young people.”
The alarm over the rise in vaping was especially acute during legislative hearings in January, when reports of deaths from vaping-related pulmonary illnesses grabbed headlines. The state Department of Health has reported 119 such illnesses and two deaths in Florida.
Vape shop operators and vape users, however, noted many of the reports of deaths related to vaping involved the use of vaping devices to smoke illicit drugs, not standard nicotine vaping products. The state numbers also show 110 of the Florida cases occurred last year, with only nine so far in 2020.
With vaping deaths giving way to daily death tolls from COVID-19, bill supporters are hoping the urgency that inspired the legislation isn’t lost on DeSantis.
“I hope that’s not the case because it’s still a very important issue that needs to be taken care of,” said Rep. Jackie Toledo, R-Tampa, who sponsored a House version of the bill. “I think (DeSantis) will take it very seriously.”
Legislative leaders typically work with the governor’s office to send bills to his desk, allowing him to consider the around 200 or so bills passed each year in batches at a time. This year, as DeSantis has been consumed with the response to the coronavirus pandemic, major decisions on bills have been delayed.
The budget wasn’t signed until June 30, the day before it was to take effect.
Most bills take effect July 1, the start of the new fiscal year, but most of the remaining bills have effective dates of Oct. 1 or Jan. 1, 2021, and since there’s no deadline for when bills must be sent to DeSantis, supporters argue there’s no harm in putting off decisions while he deals with the pandemic.
“Maybe because it’s a little controversial he hasn’t had the opportunity because of COVID and everything else that’s going on to really look at the data behind it, and I’m confident that once he sees the data and the support that this is necessary policy that he’s going to sign it,” Toledo said.
Other leftover bills would exempt the taxpayers’ email addresses held by tax collectors from public records laws; make a public records exemption permanent for financial information held by the Florida Prepaid College Board; and ban the import, export and sale of shark fins in the state.
On the vaping bill, Toledo noted the political pressure shouldn’t affect DeSantis, since he’s not on the ballot again until 2022, and the issue won’t go away if he rejects it.
“If it gets vetoed, then we’ll go back and run the same bill,” Toledo said.