Sine die done: Here are the winners and losers of the 2024 Florida Legislative Session
Every legislative session is different, but one thing was the same this year: When the governor’s not happy, nobody’s happy. And at the end of the day, the man in the mansion’s got to be a winner.
Ron DeSantis started the session as a presidential candidate, becoming an un-candidate just two weeks in. The speculation started: Would he exert as much control over the process as he had last session?
The closest Florida lawmakers got to a hullabaloo in 2024 was over the effort to keep kids under 16 off social media. They pushed the measure known as HB 1 to passage then found out DeSantis wasn’t kidding about how much the social media minor ban caught him crosswise because of parents’ rights and anonymous speech concerns.
So legislative leadership went bill rewriting, pulling a related measure (HB 3) out of the dustbin of session and tossing in “similar, slightly less sweeping restrictions,” as the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida reported, creating an exception for 14- and 15-year-olds who get a parent's or guardian’s permission.
Efforts to continue to remake the state into a conservative paradise were a bit of a mixed bag. Some bills, like the one to protect Confederate memorials, sputtered and fell into the black hole of dead legislative dreams. Others, ahem, streaked through: A bill to raise the minimum age to be a stripper in Florida to 21, up from 18.
The social media bill was House Speaker Paul Renner’s priority, and a wide-ranging health care plan to boost the number of health care providers sailed through, a legacy of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.
2024 SESSION WRAP: Lawmakers hit finish line with votes on budget and tax breaks
Oh, but there were losers a-plenty. What follows is a ragtag list of winners and losers – Crimson Tides and Deacon Blues for Steely Dan fans – of the 2024 legislative session:
WINNERS
Live Healthy
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo's priority is aimed at improving Florida's health care work force and providing some expanded access. Backed by more than $700 million in state funding, "Live Healthy" may boost the state's complement of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals and encourage the development of clinics to ease the burden on hospital emergency rooms. It would also give patients a clearer picture of the cost of treatments and protect them from aggressive debt collectors.
Florida high-stakes testing
While the Senate aimed to remove high-stakes testing from high school graduation requirements, the House took out those rollbacks, keeping the Algebra 1 end-of-course and 10th grade English Language Arts (ELA) exams. While the House agreed with most of the items in the Senate's "Learn Local" education deregulation package, "There were some things that, philosophically, there was no way that our some of our members were ever going to" agree to, House Speaker Paul Renner said.
Working teens
Two bills that would have allowed teens to work as roofers and would have greatly expanded the eligible hours 16-and 17-year-olds can work were both amended with added protections. For the roofing bill, the height of the roof was limited to 6 feet and only to residential construction, keeping teens much closer to the ground and on smaller sites. And a Senate amendment cut down on the hours a 16- an 17-year-old can work, unless they get parental permission. A representative from the Florida AFL-CIO even supported it, saying "this is an area where we have to break with tradition."
Media outlets
For the second year in a row, a proposal that would have made it easier to launch and win defamation lawsuits in Florida failed. While it initially moved quickly through the legislative process, it stalled after facing immense blowback from influential conservative officials and news outlets. First Amendment and media advocates also accused it of infringing constitutional rights and chilling speech.
State workers
Florida lawmakers completed a hat-trick of pay raises for state workers with the inclusion of a pay raise in the state budget for the the third consecutive year, after a decade of just two stand-alone raises. The average salary for 96,000 workers has increased by $4,000 since 2019.
Dozier School's 'White House Boys'
The Florida Legislature unanimously approved a plan to compensate the living victims of a 40-year reign of terror of murder, rape, and maiming inflicted on boys sent to a state-run school for delinquents. It took the "White House Boys" two decades of petitioning the state to recognize the abuse they endured and to approve the Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School Victim Program.
Republican resolutions
GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate were eager to send a message to Washington and Florida voters. A couple of non-binding resolutions were approved, calling for term limits on members of Congress and for a balanced federal budget.
Jeffrey Epstein grand jury
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law legislation that allows for the public release of grand jury documents related to the 2006 investigation into Jeffrey Epstein by Palm Beach County prosecutors. Epstein, a financier and registered sex offender, died in 2019 in a federal correction center. The sealed grand jury evidence may shine a light into allegations that Epstein's conduct was shielded by favorable treatment from establishment figures.
Construction companies, landscapers, other outdoor employers
Legislation was approved preventing local communities from requiring employers to include safety precautions like drinking water and breaks for employees working outside in extreme heat. GOP lawmakers, who during the COVID-19 era, sought to withdraw from OSHA, the federal work oversight agency, now say it's OSHA's job, not local governments, to monitor workplace safety regulations.
Gambling for the environment
Most of the money the state earns from the gambling agreement, or compact, with the Seminole Tribe will be directed toward environmental programs. Legislation sets $450 million for buying endangered land, improving the state's wildlife corridor, trails, state parks and land management programs.
Jimmy Buffett
State Road A1A will be designated Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway from Nassau County to Key West, spanning 13 Florida counties. Buffett, whose songs celebrated a salt water-tinged lifestyle, died last year. In a nod to a line that cites a "Labor Day Weekend show" in his classic "Come Monday," the designation will take effect Aug. 30 – the Friday before Labor Day.
Pride flags
A measure was shelved that would've banned local governments and schools from displaying rainbow "Pride" flags, and even prohibit teachers and public employees from wearing lapel pins supporting LGBTQ rights. The Republican-dominated Legislature has done a lot to reduce LGBTQ rights in recent years — but this one seemed too much for most.
HIV prevention
Legislation this year will allow pharmacists to prescribe and dispense medicine that can prevent an HIV infection after exposure if taken within 72 hours — a small but nonetheless important effort to mitigate an epidemic that has lasted for over 40 years. Post-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PEP, lowers the rate of HIV infection by 90%.
Wakulla Springs
Lawmakers provided $3.7 million to purchase the development rights to land critical to protecting the springs, and another $750,000 to support research to better understand the hydrology of the world's largest known freshwater spring.
LOSERS
Book banners
PEN America, a free speech group, recently named Florida as the No. 1 state for "book banning," a term conservatives hate but one many people use to describe book removals from public schools. Even Gov. Ron DeSantis recently called for limits to how many books the public can challenge in schools. The Legislature passed a bill that states a "resident of the county who is not the parent or guardian of a student with access to school district materials may not object to more than one material per month."
Balloon releases
In a bid to protect marine life, lawmakers prohibited the intentional release of balloons, blunting events popular at baby gender unveils, the occasional wedding party and sometimes funerals. But there were some winners: Children 6 years of age or younger were exempt from being penalized for balloon releases.
Police accountability
Lawmakers passed a bill that puts a 25-foot "no-go" zone around first responders like police, alarming Democrats who said it could be used to preventing their constituents from documenting police brutality. Bill supporters say it's aimed at making first responders and those on emergency scenes safer. It would create a second-degree misdemeanor for anyone who, after a warning, approaches or remains within 25 feet of working first responders with the intent to harass, threaten, impede or interfere.
Another approved bill would limit what citizen-led police oversight boards can do and would require these boards to be re-established under county sheriffs, who would then appoint several members of the panel.
Local vacation rental regulations
Considering Florida's numerous tourist attractions and the rise of Airbnb, vacations rentals are a big deal to many in the state, especially those whose homes abut them. It's been a big deal for lawmakers too, who have tried and failed in recent years to get more control over how the industry operates. Lawmakers finally passed a bill preempting a good amount of local government's vacation rental regulations to the state government, though it doesn't affect local policies that came before 2016.
Strippers
Lawmakers passed legislation raising the age to strip to 21 years old, up from its current 18. That age requirement also applies to anyone working at an adult entertainment establishment, which includes adult bookstores and theaters. It also creates civil penalties for employers at such businesses who hire pre-drinking age workers.
Bears
What happens when the right to bear arms meets, well, bears? Lawmakers spelled that out this session, passing a bill that says Floridians can kill bears without penalty if they believe they or their pet or their home is at risk of getting ravaged. (There's certain caveats, like the bear can't be lured, so put away the honey.)
Homeless people
With the House and Senate both divided along party lines, Republican majorities approved a measure that banned cities and counties from allowing homeless people to camp or sleep on public property. Local governments would be urged to create designated homeless camps, with security, sanitation and access to mental health services and could be subject to lawsuits if they fail to comply with new restrictions. The conservative, Texas-based Cicero Institute, a policy research group, has advocated for states to adopt such restrictions and Gov. Ron DeSantis called upon lawmakers to act.
Communism
Students as young as kindergarteners may soon be taught a few things about Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Fidel Castro as the Legislature signed off on legislation requiring that the history of communism be taught in lower grades.
Social media and porn platforms
Lawmakers bounced back from a veto from Gov. Ron DeSantis, modifying then passing sweeping online regulations. If it gets the governor's expected signature and survives likely legal challenges, it would ban those younger than 16 years old from "addictive" social media platforms, but with a exception for Floridians who are 14 or 15 and get a parent's permission. It also requires age verification to access pornographic websites.
Florida Retirement System pensions
An effort to restore an annual cost-of-living adjustment to the pensions for public employees that was cut in 2011 during the Great Recession was blocked by the Senate. The House was unfazed by the estimated $2 billion cost but the Senate was not able to recover from the sticker shock produced by the proposal's price tag.
Confederate monuments
An effort to prohibit cities and counties from removing historic monuments on public property for at least 25 years. It would have protected Confederate statuary around the state and was defended by Senate sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, as shielding history. But it was shelved in the Senate after public comment at a hearing called for a need to protect "white culture" and "white supremacy."
Personal pronouns and gender
The Legislature failed to go along with legislation targeting personal pronouns, prohibiting local governments from requiring employees and contractors to refer to other people “using that person's preferred personal title or pronouns if such personal title or pronouns do not correspond to that person's sex” as determined at birth.
Second Amendment advocates
The Senate refused to support the House's push to ease gun restrictions imposed after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School school massacre. The measure would've allowed rifles, shotguns and AR-15s to be purchased at age 18, rolling back current law requiring these gun buyers to be at least age 21.
County Commission term limits
An effort to impose eight-year term limits on county commissions across the state failed amid concerns from small counties that it might make it more difficult to find candidates eager to run.
Prisoner rights
Proposals to guarantee proper ventilation at Florida's ailing prisons, sufficient meal time, and health products needed by inmates failed to get a hearing. The nation's third largest prison system, where 75% of housing provides no air-conditioning, did draw $100 million in the state budget for needed improvements, but that funding falls far short of the more than $2 billion in renovations and repairs consultants have said are needed.
Lab-grown meat
One of the stranger dramas of the session ended with lawmakers approving the nation’s first outright ban on the sale of cultivated, or lab-grown meat. DeSantis ridiculed the burgeoning industry as producers of "fake meat." Defenders said the state's ban was sending a bad message to researchers and investors developing new products that are actually, you know, edible.
Massage establishments
Massage therapists and business owners will face more regulation as a result of a bill that aims to combat sex trafficking. Massage parlors now have requirements that include how dark they are allowed to tint their windows, and the Florida Department of Health will be able to suspend a therapist or business license if the agency finds "probable cause" of sex work, regardless of consent, or sexual misconduct. A provision requires massage therapists to be fully clothed "and such clothing must be fully opaque," but there is a carve out for an establishment chartered with the American Association for Nude Recreation.
Gambling expansion
The Florida Legislature is where gambling-related legislation goes to die. This legislative session was no different, as a move to gin up a casino in Miami Beach flopped. The idea was to bring casino-style gambling to the famed Fontainebleau Hotel, owned by real estate billionaire Jeffrey Soffer, on whose jet DeSantis used to fly. But leadership blanched at the proposal, which came up snake eyes early in the session.
Contributors: James Call, Ana Go?i-Lessan, John Kennedy, Jim Rosica, Douglas Soule.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida bills 2024: What passed, failed in Legislative Session