List: Bills That Passed And Failed During 2013 Legislative Session

May 6, 2013

Here’s a look at significant bills that passed and failed during the 2013 Legislative session:

BILLS THAT PASSED


HEALTH CARE/MEDICINE

-HB 1159: Creating an expedited process for new nursing beds for certain communities, including The Villages retirement community in central Florida.

-HB 1159: Allowing Miami Children’s Hospital to offer 10 obstetrics beds.

-HB 1159: Creating a prescription drug monitoring database

-HB 1159: Requiring insurers who offer IV cancer drug coverage to also cover oral cancer medications

-HB 1129, requiring medical care for newborns who survive botched abortions and penalizing abortion providers who don’t provide medical care for infants born alive after a failed abortion.

-SB 1520, gradually revamping the state’s system of billing counties for Medicaid care.

-SB 1844, revising enrollment period for the Florida Health Choices Program, a marketplace program linking up Florida residents with health plans. It includes $900,000 for the program.

- HB 239, relating to practice of optometry. The bill will allow optometrists to start prescribing oral medications and reflected a compromise between optometrists and ophthalmologists. It allows optometrists to go beyond prescribing “topical” medications, such as drops and creams. – SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

ETHICS AND ELECTIONS

- SB 2, relating to ethics. The bill makes changes to state ethics law, such as barring elected officials from taking advantage of their positions to get taxpayer-funded jobs. Also, it includes blocking lawmakers from lobbying state agencies for two years after they leave office.

-HB 569, relating to Florida Election Code. The bill makes changes to the campaign-finance system, such as eliminating a type of political funding vehicle known as “committees of continuous existence,” or CCEs. It also ups limits on individual contributions to candidates.

-HB 7013, the elections bill that allows county supervisors to increase early voting days, among other things.

EDUCATION

-SB 1108, giving parents of exceptional students more say in their education

-SB 1076, the CAPE bill, attempting to tie educational goals to the job market

SMALL BUSINESS

-HB 623, relating to wine. The bill would allow the sale of wine in 5.16 gallon canisters which can be tapped like a keg, allowing easier sale of wine by the glass in restaurants and bars. Florida is one of only a couple of states that still requires wine to be sold in gallon or smaller wine bottles.

-SB 160, requiring the Department of Health to waive license fees for veterans

-HB 423, creating a sales tax break on dyed diesel fuel used by commercial fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen and clammers.

-HB 347, allowing craft distillers to sell small amounts directly to consumers.

LAWSUITS/TORTS

- HB 7015, relating to expert testimony. The business-backed bill that would tighten standards for expert witnesses in lawsuits. It would lead to Florida adopting the same standards that federal courts use in deciding whether expert testimony will be admitted.

-SB 1792, making changes to the medical malpractice lawsuit rules, including tightening requirements for expert witnesses.

- HB 55, relating to deceptive and unfair trade practices. The bill would require that customers give demand letters to auto dealers at least 30 days before filing lawsuits. Dealers could avoid litigation if, within that 30-day period, they pay the amounts sought in demand letters, along with surcharges of $500 or 10 percent of the amounts of damages claimed.

CRIMINAL LAW

-HB 7083, speeding up the death penalty appeals process

- SB 92, relating to searches and seizures. The bill will restrict the use of unmanned aerial drones by law enforcement. It bars law enforcement from using the automated surveillance aircraft unless a judge issues a warrant, there is a “high risk of terrorist attack” or officials fear someone is in imminent danger. SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

-HB 1355, closing a loophole in an effort to prevent people who are mentally ill but have committed themselves for treatment and then left from purchasing guns.

-SB 964, preventing a convicted rapist from suing for parental rights if a child is conceived as a result of the rape.

-SB 390, prohibiting businesses from claiming to be veterans service organizations when they’re not

- HB 95, relating to charitable contributions. The bill says that if a Ponzi schemer gives money to a charity, later that charity won’t have to surrender the money after a criminal prosecution, if it took it in good faith.

-HB 217 requiring check cashing companies to report checks over $1,000 to the state to try to prevent workers compensation-check cashing scams.

-HB 15, preventing protests at funerals

HOUSING

-SB 1852, setting out spending from the National Mortgage Foreclosure settlement

-HB 87, a bill aimed at speeding up the foreclosure process.

GAMING

- HB 155, relating to electronic gambling devices. The bill outlaws the types of electronic games used in Internet cafes, effectively shutting down the controversial industry. Lawmakers rushed to pass the bill after raids on Internet cafes across the state, charges of racketeering and illegal gambling and the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll because of her past ties to the industry.

SIGNED BY GOVERNOR


TAXES
-HB 7007, contained an elimination for three years of the sales tax on manufacturing equipment, a key issue for Gov. Rick Scott.

-SB 406, the three day sales tax holiday on some items in August. Passed as part of a broader economic incentives bill.

-SB 342, which allows someone with a homestead exemption to rent their property out for 30 days without losing their homestead exemption

FAMILY LAW

-SB 1036: extending foster care to age 21, rather than 18 as is currently the case. It also has some independent living training language, and provides training and support for foster parents.  The bill was named the Sen. Nancy C. Detert Common Sense and Compassion Independent Living Act.

-SB 718, overhauling the state’s alimony laws, including eliminating the concept of permanent alimony. It also would have created new legal standards based on the lengths of marriages and would set limits on the percentages of monthly income that could be awarded in alimony based on the lengths of marriages. VETOED BY GOVERNOR

INSURANCE

-SB 1770, setting up a clearinghouse to push Citizens Property Insurance policies into private companies, restricting Citizens coverage in some cases, giving the company an inspector general and changing how its leaders are appointed.

- SB 1842, relating to health insurance. The bill would make insurance-regulation changes as part of carrying out the federal Affordable Care Act. In part, it would temporarily rely on the federal government to do rate reviews for many insurers.

ENERGY

-SB 1472, putting in review benchmarks for power companies that want to collect money from customers in advances of building new nuclear generating plants.

- HB 4001, relating to Florida Renewable Fuel Standard Act. The bill would lift the 2008 state law requiring gasoline sold by a terminal suppliers or wholesalers to be blended with ethanol. The Florida Renewable Fuel Standard Act was created to attract the ethanol industry to Florida, but repeal supporters argued the requirement damages engines and drives up fuel and food costs.

TRANSPORTATION/HIGHWAY SAFETY/MOTOR VEHICLES

-SB 52, banning texting while driving except when stopped.

-HB 7125, keeping local governments from using red light cameras to ticket people for not stopping before turning right on red.

- HB 7059, which repealed a 2012 law that required foreigners to have a special international permit to drive in Florida. The 2012 law caused confusion among tourists, such as Canadian snowbirds. SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

-SB 606, creating the Northeast Florida Regional Transportation Commission, passed unanimously.

GOVERNMENT

-SB 50 guaranteeing people the right to speak before local government boards and commissions.

LABOR/EMPLOYMENT

-HB 655, to keep local governments from setting their own policies on forms of compensation like earned sick leave.

ENVIRONMENT/NAT RESOURCES

-HB 7065, setting up a process for Everglades cleanup

-HB 999, a wide-ranging permitting bill

MISC.

-SB 674, requiring many animal shelters and animal control agencies to keep records about how many animals they euthanize and make the records available to the public.

-SB 142, removing the word “retardation” from statutes in favor of “intellectual disability.”

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BILLS THAT FAILED


HEALTH CARE
Several bills aimed at expanding health care coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act
Several bills aimed at increasing oversight over assisted living facilities

EDUCATION

-HB 867, the so-called “parent trigger” bill that would have given parents the ability to petition school district about a turnaround plan for failing schools.

-HB 1279, a bill overhauling the Florida High School Athletic Association

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/INCENTIVES

-SB 306, giving the Miami Dolphins the ability to get a local hotel tax increase and use it to renovate a stadium. Setting out a process for other facilities to get state money for rehabs.

TAXES/FEES

-SB 1832: Rolling back motor vehicle registration fee increases, lowering the cost by $12. In turn, the bill would eliminate a premium tax credit that out-of-state insurers pay based on payroll in Florida.

PENSIONS/RETIREMENT/LABOR ISSUES

-SB 1932: Changing the default retirement plan for state employees who don’t select a type of retirement plan to the defined contribution system and shortening the vesting period for those workers who choose the defined contribution plan, rather than the defined benefit pension plan.

-SB 1216, pre-empting wage theft regulations to the state.

AGRICULTURE

-HB 761, SB 752, making certain agricultural operations that use alternative energy technology eligible for capital investment tax credits

TOURISM
-SB 140, exempting short term rentals of cars used for 6 hours or less as part of a car sharing service from the rental car surcharge.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

-SB 1350, changing sentencing guidelines for juvenile offenders to deal with Supreme Court rulings preventing life sentences for certain juveniles.

-HB 797 preventing police from searching cell phones of arrestees without a warrant. (A Supreme Court ruling during the session essentially did the same thing, however.)

-HB 159: Increasing the amount of oxycodone and hydrocodone one may be in possession of before being charged with trafficking and reducing prison terms in some cases, therefore, for possession of prescription painkillers.

-SB 874, prohibiting open parties where minors are in possession or are consuming alcohol.

BUSINESS REGULATIONS

-HB 715: Allowing 64-ounce growlers to be filled up at brewpubs.

MISCELLANEOUS

-HB 589: Officially creating in statute the position of State Poet Laureate and providing for how the poet shall be chosen

-SB 634, re-enacting a ban on loud car stereos

-HB 58, a bill barring foreign legal systems from being honored in American family courts

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News