Florida's Latest News

Data privacy redux? House, Senate stake familiar positions on suing tech companies

House Speaker Chris Sprowls appears unwilling to bend on giving Florida consumers more control over their private information, allowing them to sue companies that sell their information without consent.

And his counterpart, Senate President Wilton Simpson, appears equally unlikely to change his mind that civil enforcement is not the proper solution for aggrieved consumers whose data has been sold.

Gov. Ron DeSantis gave support to increasing data privacy in his State of the State address, but where the Governor stands on the lawsuit issue is unclear. DeSantis sided with Simpson and the Senate on the issue last year despite appearing at a news conference with Sprowls when the bill was unveiled.

The disparate positions all but guarantee that HB 9 will be one of the more divisive (and heavily lobbied) bills in the next 58 days. Within one day of the bill’s filing in the House, representatives of 56 different companies had registered to lobby on their behalf.

Florida senators look to give DeSantis $1B emergency fund

Senators revived a proposal Wednesday to create a $1 billion fund that Gov. Ron DeSantis could use at his discretion when he declares emergencies.

The Senate Appropriations Committee backed a pair of bills (SB 96 and SB 98), sponsored by Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, to set up an “Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund” so the governor wouldn’t have to wait for the Joint Legislative Budget Commission to convene to approve spending.

The proposals are ready to go to the full Senate. Lawmakers approved a similar proposal last year, but it was vetoed after questions were raised about using federal stimulus dollars for the fund. In this year’s proposal, Burgess would shift the money from the state general revenue fund.

Amid omicron surge, hospitals are stretched thin. What can lawmakers do?

As 2021 turned to 2022, hospital staffers were already stretched thin. Hundreds of their colleagues had left for higher-paying travel jobs during the pandemic. Others had left health care altogether.

Then the omicron variant went on a rampage across the state.

“Given how bad the situation has been and the crisis-level concerns that existed around workforce shortages, this is just salt in the wound,” said Mary Mayhew, the president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association. “The volume of staff who are out sick and having to isolate because of COVID is extremely high.”

As lawmakers gather in Tallahassee for the first week of the 2022 legislative session, they will be forced to reckon with a daunting and deepening shortage of skilled health care workers in the state.

Florida Chamber of Commerce releases ‘Where We Stand’ business agenda for 2022 Session

The Florida Chamber of Commerce released its 2022 Jobs and Competitiveness Agenda, outlining the top priorities for the business community in the 2022 Legislative Session.

The Florida Chamber releases its “Where We Stand” business agenda each year ahead of the Legislative Session. As in past editions, the 2022 agenda focuses on policies that the Chamber believes will help Florida’s economy become one of the 10 largest in the world by 2030.

That does include several priorities that directly benefit businesses, such as efforts to curb litigation in the insurance market, reduce the state’s communications services tax and prevent or offset the scheduled sunset of last year’s cut to the state corporate income tax.

But the agenda also pushes for improvements that, at first glance, seem unrelated to the health of Florida’s business climate.