Scott to sign bill for statue of black educator at U.S. Capitol
TALLAHASSEEE — Gov. Rick Scott plans to sign a bill that would lead to a statue of civil-rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune replacing the likeness of a Confederate general as a representative of Florida in the U.S. Capitol.
The Florida House voted 111-1 on Tuesday to support placing the statue of Bethune in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, replacing Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. Rep. Jay Fant, R-Jacksonville, cast the only dissenting vote. The Senate backed the proposal (SB 472) in a 37-0 vote on Jan. 31.
A short time after the House vote, Scott’s office announced he intends the sign the measure into law.
Bethune, who would become the first African-American woman honored by a state in the national hall, founded what became Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach and later worked as an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt.
The Legislature voted in 2016 to replace the Smith statue during a nationwide backlash against Confederate symbols in the wake of the 2015 shooting deaths of nine African-American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., but haven’t agreed until now on who should replace Smith.
Exceptions for opioid limits proposed
People with cancer or terminal illnesses and certain trauma patients would be exempted from opioid-prescription limits being considered by Florida lawmakers, under a bill approved Wednesday by a House health-care panel.
The House Health & Human Services Committee unanimously approved the bill (HB 21), which would limit to three days opioid prescriptions for patients suffering from “acute pain.” Physicians could prescribe up to seven-day opioid supplies if they determine three days would be inadequate. And unlike an earlier version of the bill, the latest iteration includes exemptions from the limits for cancer patients, people who are terminally ill, those who are receiving palliative care, and trauma patients who meet certain criteria for severity of injuries.
College ‘free speech zones’ ban rejected
A bill that would allow state universities and colleges to be sued if students or others disrupt campus speakers was rejected Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The 6-4 vote against the measure (SB 1234), sponsored by Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, likely spells the end to the legislation for the 2018 session.
Under the legislation, public universities and colleges would be prohibited from establishing free-speech zones on their campuses. The bill also would prohibit students and faculty from causing “a material and substantial disruption” of a previously scheduled event on campus. And it would allow universities and colleges to be sued for injunctive relief and reasonable court costs and attorney fees if students or others disrupt campus speakers or other public activities.
Help for farmers advancing
Farmers and other parts of Florida’s agriculture industry could receive about $75 million in post-Hurricane Irma assistance from the state next year under a measure moving forward in the Senate.
The Senate Finance and Tax Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday unanimously backed a proposal (SB 1608) that would reduce property assessments on certain enclosed horticultural structures and offer tax refunds on materials used for construction of farm buildings and fences.
The measure is moving as the Senate continues to put together a $350 million tax package (HB 7087) that includes tax refunds on building materials, fencing and gas for farmers. It also includes a fuel tax refund on agricultural transportation and a tax break on citrus processing facilities that have been idled by Irma or by the industry’s fight against citrus greening disease.
Workers’ comp bill could aid immigrants
A Senate committee Tuesday narrowly approved a bill that would eliminate part of Florida law that allows employers to deny benefits to injured workers who use other people’s Social Security numbers or identification to obtain jobs.
Approved in a 6-4 vote by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, the bill (SB 1568) would eliminate a provision put into law in 2003 that made it felony insurance fraud for people to knowingly present false information about their identities for obtaining employment. But there is no House version of the bill, with less than three weeks left in the 2018 legislative session.
Bill sponsor Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, said the purpose of the bill is “to ensure that workers who are injured on the job, who were fulfilling their obligation, injured because of a dangerous workplace condition or something happened on the job, receive the benefits they are owed under the workers’ compensation system statute, regardless of what their immigration status might be.”