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What Happened During Florida's Legislative Session? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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And we began the third hour of the Morning Show with Preston Scot Good morning,
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He's grand I'm Preston and this is Salnuzo with Consumer's Defense. Have you
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gotten used to it yet? I have, yeah, about two months in
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it's it's getting acclimated. Was it took a couple of good weeks, sure,
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but really thrilled with a lot of the work that we're doing in other
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states. Really, I have gotten acclimated to how other states do their legislative
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processes and it's given me a newfound appreciation for how tight Florida has it and
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also for a part time legislature. Oh yeah, absolutely, that meets once
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a year. I was in the state of Missouri, which is not Missouri.
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I found out that there is only one corn or tell that to doctor
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ed Moore. There is only one court of the state that calls it Missouri,
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and they are made fun of by the other seventy five percent of course
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state. And they have roughly a five to six month legislature and they're going
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through some of the bills that Florida's done in a couple of sessions ago related
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to combating ESG. They're doing it differently some are good, some are not
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so good, and trying to navigate that with them has been eye opening.
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Our talk with Justin Haskins last week leads me to believe that there's ground being
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gained. However, Yes, indeed, what we're finding is that more states
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are going on the offense to combat Blackrocks, State Street Vanguard and there it's
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kind of battle tactics. You see them kind of retreating, countering in different
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ways, calling different things by new names. The state of Texas just divested
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I think it's eight and a half billion dollars from their school system retirement fund
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out of black Rock. It was more than a couple of bucks. Yeah.
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Yeah, So when you go through those things and you see the impact
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that they can have, and knowing that you're doing a good thing by pushing
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it gives it encourages even other states that may be on the fits with some
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of these things. One of the things we endeavor to do in our monthly
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visits now is to kind of help Floridians people listening to the program from the
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Sunshine State understand what just happened, sure, or what just didn't happen.
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Yeah, And we want to start here with you know, we had Paul
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Renner on the show. He did a post mortem on this session and House
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Bill one that basically became House Bill three. Correct, So let's let's talk
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about where where does this now stand? Quote online protections for minors? So
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Governor DeSantis signed HB three, which had been HB one. He vetoed HB
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one because he was very concerned about the litigation prospects of it. So HB
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three, what does it do? What doesn't it do? So? HB
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three requires anyone in the state of Florida who is fourteen or fifteen years old
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who would like a social media account, Facebook, Instagram, all of the
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things the kids are using, requires them to have parental consent in order to
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open that account. It also requires anyone over the age of fifteen to prove
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that they are over the age of fifteen, and that is done by age
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verification methods. How does how does someone prove that the approval of a parent
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actually came from a parent and that junior didn't just grab mom and dad's driver's
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license, et cetera. And this is where a little bit of the nuts
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and bolts of this are gonna kind of be challenging. In both the enactment
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and the litigation over it, because despite the Governor vetoing HB one and signing
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HB three, HB three is still going to be subject to a federal court
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challenge. They're going to and it's likely going to come from a group called
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net Choice, which is the trade association for all of the major technology platforms
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out there. They recently were before the Supreme Court on the social Media bill
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from three years ago. They're challenging it, claiming that requiring an adult to
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verify their age and submit to a less than anonymous mechanism for social media access
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to protected speech is government intrusion in a way that violates the First Amendment.
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And so that is going to be the crux of the litigation. It's likely
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going to be stayed while it's being litigated. So the bill, I'm not
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sure, is going to get fully enacted in that until the Supreme Court kind
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of hears it and it goes through the process. Talking about House Built three
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that was signed by the governor, We've talked about the challenges and where it's
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going to come from and why sure, what about the defense? What is
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the State of Florida going to argue in return yeah, absolutely, and that's
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equally as important. The state is going to argue that they have a compelling
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state interest to regulate this form of technology, and the Supreme Court president from
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years ago does allow for the state to step in when there is a state
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when there is a compelling state interest. So they're going to argue that social
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media as they have defined it in the law, and they were very clear
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about defining the features of the platform versus the platforms themselves exactly, and it
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may come down to something like this, which I think would be incredibly for
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the House as they drafted this bill. So the compelling state interest is that
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the features inherent in these technologies are addictive to kids. They are damaging to
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kids in the same way that alcohol and tobacco are. And therefore it is
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a requirement of the state under the age of fourteen to ban it all together,
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and then at fourteen and fifteen because of the way the courts have been
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ruling in some other states to allow it only with parental consent. Let me
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ask you this, and you might not have the answer to this, but
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maybe you know of people and what they've said regarding the low hanging fruit to
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me is in one we've discussed, why not just make it mandatory that kids
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can't pull their phones out at schools. And the reason why I say that
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is, at that point you can take what's already been going on in Orange
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County with the school system mandated across the state, and then you have data
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that you can then use to present your argument that if you go to court,
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you can say we have done this at schools. We've had a reduction
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of this, a reduction of this, reduction of this, an increase of
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this, this, and this. Not only are you one hundred percent accurate,
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I think that regardless of how the court's rule on this bill and other
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bills in other states, I think that is absolutely a an absolutely pitch perfect
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bill for the twenty twenty five legislator legislature to consider. It's something that as
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in my capacity with JMI, as we were engaging and talking with lawmakers about
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it, that was something that I continued to fall back on. They implemented
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a ban on cell phone use during instructional time, but it doesn't capture the
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between class time when a lot of the problems are happening. That's the majority
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of it is happening exactly so if you go that route and extend that ban,
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they've got to be in a sealed container. You can allow them to
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have them in the backpacks for an emergency, that's the only time that it
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can be used. Or if they need to reach a parent, they have
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to go to the front office something like that. What you've done is you
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have captured seven hours of awake time that these kids are engaging in behaviors that
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are destructive. Lastly, here something that was i'll call it a legislative priority
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of mind because I talked about it at nauseum. Squatting Florida kind of leading
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the nation, Yeah, exactly. The legislature passed and it was a governor's
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priority to kind of combat a lot of what has been going on in the
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news in other states where people would show up to properties that they weren't necessarily
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abandoned, but they may have been kind of sitting idle for a few months
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as they were trying to get them renovated, or they were investment properties and
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finding people living there and then illegal procedures to try and get them out were
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anti property owners. So the legislature passed a bill. It's it's called property
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Rights, and it is an anti squatting bill that basically asserts the right of
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a property owner to kick Periodboddy out if they come onto their property and find
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someone who is not supposed to be there, regardless of the timeframe that that
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person has been there. Yeah, folks, in some states they actually consider
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squatters as tenants and entitled do with viction rights and all that. It doesn't
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work that way. I remember a movie back in I think it was the
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eighties called Pacific Heights. Michael Keaton was I remember it well, Scared that
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out of May, yes, exactly, and it's just kind of you know,
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baby steps along the way. Yep. But those types of scenarios are
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not uncommon now and people are dying, yeah, in states like California,
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New York and others. Yep. Morisal news. Oh next, all right,
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let's keep talking. Sal Muzzo, Executive Director of Consumers Defense with US
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Florida Legislative Session. That was I will maintain till my dying days that when
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Governor Desant has left the campaign trail, he returned to being a full time
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governor and it mattered. I think it mattered potentially. I just do potentially.
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I mean just the sheer distance, the level of focus required to mount
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a serious effort at well, we got back to micro not macro probably,
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you know, everything was through the lens of Florida, yep, and not
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the other way around. Correct. Let's talk about bills that have been signed,
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for sure. So there were Yeah, there were a total of three
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hundred and twenty five bills in total past two hundred and eleven of those are
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still awaiting what they call presentation. Is that average? Uh yeah, about
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it's a little lower than I've seen in the past, but not much.
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How many of them are bills that correct things versus bills that maybe break new
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ground. Breaking new ground is going to be the minority. The majority of
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these are going to be things where they open a statute up to kind of
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up too language. One bill in particular, took the labor reform bill from
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the prior year and made some updates to it to clarify intent for the agency
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called perk that implements it in an AXIT. So there's a lot of that
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going on. Okay, So some notable ones that he has signed, the
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big healthcare priority of the Senate President there were two specific bills in there that
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just pump a ton of money into the healthcare infrastructure and career development piece to
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try and recruit a lot of doctors and practitioners, not just doctors, but
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healthcare providers into the state and kind of grow our own We are a heavy
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growth state. We have to keep pace with that growth in terms of the
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number of providers or we're going to have serious challenges. And so that's one
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big one. Like I mentioned, we had some reforms and some cleanup on
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the big labor reform package from the prior session. An interesting one collecting DNA
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samples of all inmates in Florida prisons, which apparently was a practice a while
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ago. It had fallen off and so they're just kind of making it a
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statutory requirement. Now. Congrats to my good friendship Lamarca. Five years and
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he finally got the grapes freed. Individual wine container sizes or the bands are
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no more in Florida. Good job, Chip. Strengthening the laws against human
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trafficking and aiding illegal aliens in the conduct of crimes. That's a big focus
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of the Attorney General as well as some other agencies that kind of came to
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bear on that issue. Would we paraphrase that is making it more difficult for
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people to help illegals be illegal. You got it, among other things,
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but that's a big part of it. A couple of big agency bills have
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been signed the Department of Transportation as well as a Department of Corrections. Fentanyl.
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This is an interesting one. Exposing law enforcement to doses of fentanyl is
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now a much more serious crime. But interestingly enough, and I had to
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look this up because I had an immediate concern on this, it does include
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an exemption for individuals who were actively seeking care for a possible overdose. So
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what you want to make sure is you have a balance where if someone you
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know ingested fentanyl, not knowing that they were doing that, and realizes it
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and calls nine to one one, you don't want to discourage that because someone
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thinks they're going to get charged with a crime. On top of any other
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expanded penalties for organized retail theft, this is a big one because in kind
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of the push to make sure Florida protects itself from other states that where you
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have these runs on CBS, and we were going that way. It was
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happening in a very limited environment, so kind of a frontal assault on that
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kind of activity, three different bills at updated statutes related to violent crimes against
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children, including one that I didn't realize that this was in a bill.
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It's a grant program for local law enforcement organizations to do stings like the catch
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a predator thing, So some money to go that route zone of protection around
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law enforcement twenty five feet you have to kind of if you're warned, you
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have to back up twenty five feet or you can be charged with a misdemeanor.
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I think this is a response to a lot of the BLM riots that
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have happened, and employment regulations preempting the local governments from establishing crazy rules and
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regulations at the local level for employers, including allowing miners to at the ages
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of I think fifteen and six or sixteen and seventeen to work longer than what
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the prior statutes had. The Morning Show at Preston Scott back with Sal Muzzo,
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Executive Director Consumer's Defense or going through the Florida legislature. Do you have
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a question if you have a bill you want us to go over in future
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episodes. We do this once a month where we can take time and explore
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things. We're happy to do it there's a bill you want us to look
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a little deeper at, just send us the bill number. That's all we
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need. You can offer a pithy opinion on if you'd like, but all
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we need is the bill number, and we'll do a deep dive in a
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future episode here. But we're talking now about some bills that did not get
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signed or haven't been signed yet. Sure, so you've got a few notable
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ones that will probably unpack in future segments. Food delivery platforms, the school
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choice program, updates, the tax package, criminal history for employment licenses as
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well as the licensing reform package, the AI bills in political advertisements, and
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then a few large agency bills. Now there's a bunch that were sent to
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him on the I believe April second, So he's got until the seventeenth,
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which is this week. So expect a flurry of signatures or vetos the press
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and we'll get the press releases on those, and there may be some some
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you know, press statements or press conferences where he does those as well.
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Also the budget. He has not been presented the budget, and that's normal
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because he still would have fifteen days to sign and issue the line on a
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veto So if they've agreed to a budget the legislature and adjourned, what are
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they waiting on. I think they're likely waiting on the governor's budget staff,
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who are reviewing every single line item in that to unpack it make sure that
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they're comfortable on everything that he wants to issue line items for, rather than
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because he technically it doesn't take effect until July one anyway, so they're giving
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the governor's office some time to go through and get their light on a veto
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set. Okay, all right, the Hemp built the Hemp Bill. This
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is an important one ahead of the fact that we're gonna have on the ballot
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in November recreational marijuana in the state of Florida, and I would argue there
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is a better than average chance that it is going to pass. The last
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ling I saw on it had it at around sixty eight percent in favor.
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Rereadfully bad move, but can't stop stupid. I'm gonna you know, this
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is where and when we talk off air about you know, I do have
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some libertarian tendencies in me. The libertarian in me suggests that to my conscience
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that if we live in a society that's going to allow but regulate alcohol and
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tobacco. That this is akin to those I recognize and appreciate every single argument
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that others make in opposition, but I'm that's just it's just yeah. So
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the Hemp Bill sets some limitations on the levels of THCHC that are going that
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are allowed in both medical marijuana as well as in any form of non medical
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marijuana. So it's kind of getting ahead of it to establish a regulatory guide
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for when that kind of constitutional amendment might pass. Is that practically applicable though?
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In other words, who gets charged with figuring out that some Mary Jane
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it's someone's growing is hitting the right numbers. Well, there's going to be
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an entire regulatory framework for all of this in the same way that it's done
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for medicinal marijuana. So the milligrams of THC per ouncer and all of the
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things that they do, so people still can't grow it at home. That's
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correct, as I understand the way. That's the true leaves of the world
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are going to be thrilled. Oh they are they rolling in money, true
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leaves spent I think forty million dollars just getting the thing on the ballots.
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You got to imagine how much the windfall is going to be for them if
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it goes active The Morning Show with Preston Scott, Mother, No you wear
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eth herdrepe on News Radio one hundred point seven. La. Time flies when
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you're cliff diving. That's what we're doing here, deep diving with Sal Nuzzo
20:10
on legislated things here on The Morning Show with Preston Scott. Anything more to
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talk about with regard to him? Wait, we're already in segment five.
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Yes, Wow, this is crazy. Yes. So there is a big
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effort on the part of a number of business interests to try and persuade the
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governor to veto this bill. Ah, you know, the restrictions on it
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kind of are a challenge to I mean, is this I mean, is
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this a simple thing of you know, this is not your grandpa's marijuana.
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I mean, it's a different level that we're dealing with. Yes, But
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there are also some provisions in the bill that I think would impact a number
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of established businesses that are selling certain things that are currently legal and now those
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things are going to be outlawed. So you have some concerned business enterprises that
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are urging and I think I've even seen some billboards in Tallahassee related to that
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okay vaping vaping related topic. So the legislature passed a bill that would require
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if you have a vaping cartridge that accepts the oil or whatever goes in it,
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that whatever goes in that cartridge has to be approved by the Food and
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Drug Administration. Apparently, and I'm not a vapor so I have some limited
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perspective on this, but apparently there has been a market for non FDA approved
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material or liquids that go into those things. Rich Marianos, who joined US
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last week formerly with ATF said that that is the overwhelming majority of the products
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that are available, they're not regulated at all, and likely a huge chunk
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of these products are coming from China exactly, which is a problem not germane
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to this product, but for the purposes of regulation, you've got people getting
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products that are completely unregulated, coming from what many would consider a political and
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strategic opponent of the United States. So then they're putting this stuff into their
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cartridges and vaping it. Here's one of the concerns that's been brought to bear
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by a number of business interests as this bill has gone through the process is
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that currently, the products that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration,
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there's only a finite number of them, and they are all owned almost all,
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if not exclusively, all owned by big tobacco companies. So as you
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could imagine the lobbying and sausage making on this. The big tobacco companies were
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very much in favor of this bill going through because it presents a potential windfall
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for them. Absolutely. But then on the other side, you have businesses
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that are established solely to sell vaping products that would lose eighty ninety percent of
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their inventory or product availability and would have to shift just over to the limited
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number of products. And I can understand both perspectives on this. I think
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the challenge for me comes, especially in my role with consumers Defense, is
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the China angle. That is a big deal that, like I said,
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it's not just germane to the product in subject to this regulation. It's something
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that we're seeing that we've got to be combating on a number of different fronts.
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More to talk about in the coming weeks and months. Yeah, we're
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going to have more bills being signed this week, so next month we'll have
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a whole new list of stuff to unpack. Likely also have the budget kind
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of signed in the line one of veto so that we can kind of go
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through that as well. Compare the budget and the veto list with the Turkey
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list that tax Watch puts out. Yeah, I'm totally looking forward to the
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tax Watch Turkey list and see kind of how the overlap goes on those.
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As always, thank you, always a pleasure. My friend, Yep Salnuzo
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with Consumers Defense our guest forty six past the hour