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Florida's Speaker of The House Joins Preston · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  And here we are into our number three already fast moving Tuesday on the Morning
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  Show with Trustin Scott, I impressed him that is grant. It is Show
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  fifty ninety and no matter where you are listening to us from, no matter
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  how you are listening, whether it's terrestrial radio or iHeartRadio, thank you so
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  very much for spending time with us. We greatly appreciate it as well.
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  We appreciate the time of our guest. He represents District nineteen and the Florida
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  Legislature as its representative. He serves Florida as its House Speaker Representative Paul Renner,
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  mister Speaker, how are you, sir, Trusting, Good morning.
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  Great to be with you. I appreciate your time. Let's get started because
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  there's a lot to talk about. A very busy session. We chronicle it
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  all throughout the legislative session with sal News at the James Madison Institute, but
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  a lot of attention. It has the number one House Bill one. First,
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  give everybody kind of an overview of the intent of House Bill one and
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  then its evolution as it's gone through the legislative process and where we are now
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  sure well, I mean House Bill one in essence says that kids under sixteen
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  years of age should not be allowed on to addictive technology. Platforms that hat
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  use addictive technology as distinguished from the rest of the Internet. It carves out
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  email and text messaging and really the line share of the Internet. But those
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  platforms that use addictive technology es the dopamine hits of likes and hearts and notifications
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  that get kids on, keep them on for hours and hours, and we
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  know that that leads to depression, self harm, even suicide. We're aiming
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  to say, look, stay off it until you're age sixteen, and then
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  you can get on and go from there. And so that's what the bill
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  does. How do you keep it from becoming And forgive me for making a
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  crude comparison, but one of my complaints with the left side of the aisle
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  is they talk about an assault weapons band, but yet they never can figure
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  out how to define assault weapon. How do you define a platform that is
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  a danger versus one that is not sure? Yeah, there's actually five different
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  paragraphs, all of which have to be met, and I can't quote it
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  to your verbatare. Essentially, you'd have to be able to your tracking kids
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  data without their knowledge or consent, you're you're taking that data and targeted target
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  marketing to them again without them knowing. And then these addictive components, it's
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  got to be addictive or deceptive features that lead to you know, addictive kind
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  of habit forming behavior online. We were going to further define that in an
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  upcoming amendment UH in the Senate that says that you've got to be on a
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  certain number of hours. You've got to show that the platforms are capturing a
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  number of kids for a number of hours to evidence that addiction. And that's
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  how we define it. If you if you're not in that window, you're
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  not in the bill. And so the easy thing for the platforms to do
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  is take away the addictive components. But it's so lucrative that the number of
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  hours translates into money. So you have a situation where you have kids,
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  you have addiction, you have harm, and you have money. Kind of
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  sounds like trafficking to me. And so you have this life form of digital
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  trafficking that is happening really without the kids knowledge and understanding, because it's almost
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  imperceptible. They don't know why they have to stay on all this time.
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  But these addictive techniques are keeping them on the platforms, and it's extremely lucrative
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  and also extremely harmful to our kids. What has informed the evolution of the
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  bill has the similar bills in other states that have been enjoined by courts.
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  How is it moving through? What changes have been made from start to where
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  it is now? Yeah, yeah, we have tried to you know,
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  obviously look at what other states have done, including states where the courts have
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  shot their bills down and aim at the technologies here completely clear of content which
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  of course could run a foul of the First Amendment. And so that's really
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  that I think the unique thing. And we're working with lawyers at a national
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  level on the conservative side of the to make sure that this can get through
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  Supreme Court challenge ultimately. And so the evolution we had some language in there
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  that included seventeen and eighteen year olds that had some notifications and this kind of
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  thing, and quite frankly, I and others felt, you know, and
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  looking at it, we want to be a smaller target for the courts that
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  this is probably not what we need to deal with this year. So we
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  took that out and the Senate stopped. That just happened yesterday, so there's
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  nothing to do with seventeen and eighteen year olds anymore. We'll have a few
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  other modifications in the next Senate Committee stop and then they'll vote for it,
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  send it over to us, and we'll vote on that final build the Morning
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  Show with Preston Scott. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the
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  world he didn't exist. On News Radio one hundred point seven double UFLA Florida
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  House Speaker Paul Renner with us this morning on the Morning Show. Mister Speaker,
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  in a similar light, you know, protecting kids. I think a
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  lot of us agree with the inten of what you're trying to do with House
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  Bill one. Similarly, we see ironically Orlando and Orange County School District banning
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  cell phones from the campus other than they can have them in their book bag,
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  but they can only take them out if they go to the office to
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  make a phone call. They're not allowed in between classes, they're not allowed
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  in the lunch room. And you know, I'm looking at stories that are
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  in the news nationwide of kids bullying other kids to set up fights, to
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  beat up kids that lead to that kid's suicide. All because of cell phones
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  and this kind of connects to your social media thing. What about the simple
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  step of banning cell phones in schools other than that circumstance when that phone can
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  be used to make a call from the school office. Yeah, and I
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  know they took credit for that, but we actually did that in a bill
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  last year. Now, what we did is say it can't be in the
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  classroom, so in between classroom periods they could jump on the phone. And
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  maybe we need to go back and just make it from the time you walk
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  inn till the time you walk out. But clearly you shouldn't be on the
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  phone while your teacher's trying to teach you or taking a picture of the smart
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  kids test no doubt and help to your friends, you know. But what
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  we've seen is, as you said, is disciplinary actions are down. Kids
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  are engaging with each other, and you know, when you go and talk
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  about the parental component of this. I was just with a group last night.
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  They said, you know, when I got my kids and it's a
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  fight, you know, just put your phone down while we have lunch or
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  dinner together. And the difference is they come out of the stupor and they're
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  real kids again. And so you know, you see, you see how
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  this really does put our kids in this almost a trance or stupor sometimes and
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  we've got to get them out of that. It helps them learn better,
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  it helps their mental health, it helps them, you know, do a
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  whole bunch of things that you know I probably did as kids. It didn't
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  involve social media because it didn't exist back then. And so it's been very
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  helpful just to get the school the phones out of the classroom alone. And
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  I think you're going to see increases in academics, You're going to see improvements
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  in mental health and issues that that revolve around the school, and especially in
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  the disciplinary area. But what about the expansion of it, because I mean,
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  it's a no brainer in the classroom, But where the violence is really
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  taking place is in those in between times. It's in those lunch hours.
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  It's when kids are getting picked on the most, and it's being picked they're
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  doing it to videotape, to set up an incident, to videotape. Let's
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  get them out of their hands. Yeah, I'm one hundred percent for it.
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  And you know, we did it in a way we thought was measured.
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  But I think it's it's perfectly appropriate to just say schools for school and
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  you put your phone down. If you have an issue, like you and
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  I I did when we were at that age, you go to the front
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  desk, principal calls your parents if you need to go home, you're sick,
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  or something happens. You know, so you don't need to have a
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  phone in during the school year. And I think that's an appropriate next step
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  along the same lines I have. You know, I was involved in private
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  education for many years, mister speaker, and we had an advantage over the
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  public schools. If we had a kid, a set of parents that weren't
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  doing the right things, we could just put them out. I am of
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  the opinion that we need to do or our public schools what we've done with
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  law enforcement. Let's put cameras in every single classroom a to protect the teachers,
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  making sure that what happened in the classroom is monitored, not live streamed,
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  but recorded. But also now because we do have teachers, we do
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  have staff members that are bucking the prontal Rights and Education Bill that you guys
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  passed, and the fact of the matter is we can record that now,
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  and that can solve all kinds of issues. Your thoughts on possibly putting classrooms
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  in all classrooms, not just some in cameras. I mean, I'll tell
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  you my camera flush on that is. I don't want a camera on my
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  kid or anybody else's kid that may be hacked or live stream somewhere. And
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  I don't know if that would be an issue or not. It's live stream
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  it is. If it's live streamed, if it's recorded, and it's just
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  there as a record so that it can be referred to by the teacher,
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  parent and administrators privately, it is legal. Okay, Yeah, I mean
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  I think we're talking about something that's internal to the school that can monitor you
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  know, disciplinary actions. Yep. You know, going back to the topic
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  we just covered back in my hometown, I don't if you remember last year
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  a guy had as a student, got his phone taken away from him by
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  a teacher. He comes up behind her and pumbles her to the ground and
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  she went to the hospital. She had some severe, I think, some
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  long, long, long standing injuries from that over a cell phone. And
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  so it was captured on video, and obviously from a prosecution standpoint, you
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  could prove what happened, and so you know, there are problems, and
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  you're absolutely right that some of these teachers. You know, we pass a
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  law and they just laugh at it and ignore it. And we're chipping away
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  at that each and every year. And as you know, K twelve,
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  education and higher education for that matter, are super important to me, and
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  we've done a lot in that in that space and will continue to do so.
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  Tell them u f l A on your phone with the iHeart radio app
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  and on hundreds of devices like Alexa, Google Home, Xbox, and Sonos
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  and Iheart's radio station. Final segments with Florida House Speaker Paul Renner in just
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  a few minutes. Matt Staber with Liberty Counsel. He'll be arguing before the
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  State Supreme Court tomorrow. But final few moments with the House Speaker, Representative
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  Renner. Let's talk for a second. Corrections. Of course, a lot
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  of progress has been made both sides of the aisle. The governor have been
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  very very supportive of correction. Secretary Ricky Dixon, the initiatives inside of Corrections,
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  A lot of progress on hiring retaining staff. What are your thoughts on
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  expanding some of that, like some of those benefits to the teaching and clergy
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  positions something like special risk retirement since they're inside the walls as well and they
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  face risk as well. Your thoughts on maybe expanding some of that to help
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  with hiring and retention there. Yeah, don't know about special risk for those
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  categories, but I'm completely supportive of both. Certainly the clergy. I think
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  I think, you know, hearts have to be changed, souls have to
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  be changed if you're going to reduce recidivism. And as a Christian, I
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  think we understand that that that that's the case if you're going to be getting
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  out of prison. So I'm all for as many clergy touching as many inmates
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  as possible, and the same for teaching. You've got to have a legitimate
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  job on the outside. You're going to turn back to the illegitimate job you
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  had to put you in prison, and so I'm all for that. You
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  know, as far as pay goes, we've got a pay bump in this
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  year's budget that will help our corrections folks, And that was an important thing
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  to me when I came in, and we as you know, we've done
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  a lot in that area to try to keep retention, and we've that's it's
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  worked, but there's more to do. I'm curious when you say I don't
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  know about special risk retirement. Your reason for that, well, because you
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  get a big multiple intension and everything else. It's just, you know,
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  it's it's a it's a it's a big fight, you know, nine to
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  eleven nine one one operators one in there. They've got a fair case to
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  make given that they they're talking to people who are losing their lives every day
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  and the trauma that goes with that. That's I think a little bit different
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  than going in and having a Bible study or teaching you know, math and
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  reading to inmates that they're not at the same risk. Is that a discussion
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  you think can be had though, well, I think pay raises in expansion
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  is being had. I think it's important actually to the president President of Pasadomo
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  and me that we get we do a better job of getting guys ready and
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  ladies ready to get out. On the outside of most of these people are
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  going to complete a sentence and come back, and the question is do they
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  return to crime or do they go and find a legitimate job and have a
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  better second half of their life. In the first half, let's switch to
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  the Convention of States. You recently wrote a piece that was published in The
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  Hill. There's a rally coming up on February twentieth. I'm going to be
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  at it. Your thoughts on Florida being kind of signed on to the Convention
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  of State's idea. Yeah, you know, I've had some people kind of
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  eye roll and this is kind of gimmicky. This is deadly serious today.
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  And there's the reason why I did it on the very first day of session.
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  We normally don't go into session on the first day to do balanced budget
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  and urn moments, which you know we did a decade ago, But because
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  of the spotlight Florida's in, I wanted to really just you know, hit
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  the drum and make sure other state legislatures join on because I truly believe,
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  and I said it in my opening day speech, if we're going to save
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  the country, we need these amendments, we need a balanced budget, we
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  need term limits. The governor and I have talked and he wanted to do
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  line on in veto and also something that says if Congress passes a law,
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  they can't exempt themselves, which I love, and so we're doing that now.
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  I think it's up this week, and you know it's kept on the
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  floor here soon. The Senate's already passed balanced budget and term limits. I
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  expect them to follow on the other two. And these are really If we
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  did these four things, especially the first three, it would be transformative and
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  it's really necessary if we're going to save our country. Yeah, sadly the
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  lawmakers have abused their privilege up in Washington, and I think it's the last
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  resort that we have as citizens is to call the Convention of States. I
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  agree with you wholeheartedly. Lastly, back several years ago. In fact,
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  it's been a few decades the legislature passed that Florida was going to be you
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  know, English is the official language of the state, but it's never been
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  implemented, it's never been enforced. But yet it costs taxpayers a lot of
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  money in the public education space as well as other locations. What's preventing us
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  from from you know, attacking that issue because it helps immigrants to speak the
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  language, it doesn't It doesn't help us at all for them to continue to
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  speak a tongue that we don't know what they're saying. Yeah, I mean,
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  I think it's great to speak multiple language it gives you advantages. But
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  English has been and always should be our official language. There's not a lot
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  that unites us anymore. In a common language is one of those things.
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  Yep, that's important. So I'm certainly supportive of the notion overall that we
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  continue to swim in that direction. We don't let people just do whatever.
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  I think it's important that we continue to find places where we can be united.
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  The one thing, though, is that you know we've said that about
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  the budget nationally. You know, I'm in favor of a balanced budge.
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  I'm in favor of reducing the debt, but we don't seem to do it.
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  What needs to happen for Florida to enforce English as its official language,
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  Yeah, I probably need to talk to you offline about where it's not being
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  enforced because of my knowledge, I mean, official documents, everything we do
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  as official business is always in English. So I probably need to talk to
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  you offline about where we need to increase that enforcement. Gotcha, Well,
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  mister speaker, thanks so very much for the time today. We appreciate it,
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  and hopefully we'll talk again as the session here's completion. Thanks Prestin.
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  Great to be with you. Thank you, sir. He is Florida House
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  Speaker Paul Renner here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott twenty seven minutes after
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  the hour. I mean, we're educating students in public schools in their native
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  language as opposed to teaching them English first. That's one area that we're certainly
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  catering to that problem and not helping anyway. We'll we will circle back for
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  certain and have Speaker Renner back on the program when we come back. Matt
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  stew of Liberty Counsel