New laws sought for care homes in crisis
Federal and state legislators want generator mandate
Amid promises of “never again,” federal and state lawmakers vowed Tuesday to require nursing homes to power air conditioning with generators in disaster situations.
Nine people from The Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills have now died after Hurricane Irma knocked out the facility’s power last week.
“A tragedy of gargantuan proportion took place in Congressional District 24 that shook the world,” U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, DMiami, said Tuesday at a North Miami Beach town hall with representatives from the nursing home industry, nursing unions, local governments, advocacy groups and state lawmakers. “I am livid. We should all be besides ourselves and livid too and wondering how could something like this happen in America, the land of the free and brave?”
Wilson’s district is almost entirely within Miami-Dade County, but a small portion includes parts of Pembroke Park and Hollywood, home of The Rehabilitation Center.
As she spoke from a podium, a crowd of unionized nursing home aides held up signs behind her reading “We are the guardians of our seniors” and “Never again in FL-24.”
At the federal level, Wilson is proposing two changes in how nursing homes operate federal disaster treats them:
First, Wilson said she wants to change a federal law to add nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to the list of top priorities that need power after a disaster. It would be an amendment to the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.
Second, Wilson intends to file a new bill that would require any nursing home or assisted-living facility to have a generator that can run air conditioning in case of a power outage. Places that did not comply with the rule would be ineligible to receive Medicare and Medicaid funds.
State Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, has already filed a bill for the upcoming Florida legislative session that would require nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to have generators capable of powering the facilities, including air conditioning, and enough fuel to last for five days in case of a power outage.
That’s a day longer than Gov. Rick Scott has required facilities to have under an emergency order he issued after the deaths. Under that order, facilities have 45 days to come up with a plan for keeping electricity running on generator power for four days. They have 60 days to put that plan into place. But hurricane season ends in 72 days, and after that, it would be up to the legislature to put permanent rules in place.
“We fell down on our job with dire consequences,” and how response State Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation
Book said at the town hall. “Eight lives were lost tragically and preventably.” The ninth victim died Tuesday.
Wilson announced numerous task forces that include mayors, first responders, advocacy groups, public utilities and state and federal lawmakers. She said she invited Florida Power & Light Co. to send a representative to the town hall, but the company declined.
Wilson and Book face the daunting task of guiding their proposed legislation through chambers dominated by the opposing party. And in Book’s case, similar legislation was attempted in 2006 after Hurricane Wilma, but failed to pass after industry opposition.
In Tallahassee, just an hour after Wilson’s South Florida town hall ended, House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, announced the formation of a new Select Committee on Hurricane Response and Preparedness and called on legislators to abandon local projects so that any extra funds could be put into hurricane recovery and preparation.