BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 266 (Diaz) revises the definition of "law enforcement officer" to specify that time spent on certain activities, such as portal-portal travel in an agency-issued vehicle, is a part of service as a law enforcement officer. (Hughes)

HB 57 (Fine) and SB 242 (Gruters) prohibit municipalities, and other governmental entities, from including in any mandatory employee training "divisive concepts" as defined by the bills.

The bills also require that each municipality ensure that all diversity and inclusion efforts encourage employees not to judge each other on color, race, ethnicity, sex or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law. (Hughes)

SB 1124 (Gruters) creates the "Wage Mandate Preemption Act," which revises prohibitions relating to political subdivisions, including municipalities. The bill prohibits a political subdivision from enacting a wage mandate on an employer in an amount greater than the state minimum wage. This bill does not apply to employees of the political subdivision or if federal law requires the payment of a minimum wage to persons working on projects funded by federal funds. (Hughes)

HB 425 (Fischer) and SB 664 (Bradley) expand workers' compensation coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for first responders to also include correctional officers, part-time correctional officers, part-time law enforcement officers and auxiliary law enforcement officers. PTSD is an occupational disease compensable by workers' compensation benefits. In order to receive benefits under this bill, post-traumatic stress disorder must be demonstrated by clear and convincing medical evidence. (Cruz)

CS/HB 139 (Fabricio) requires an agency that employs law enforcement officers and allows those officers to operate an agency-owned vehicle outside the course and scope of the officer's employment or function to maintain current and valid motor vehicle insurance, including bodily injury, death and property damage liability coverage that covers the time an officer spends while going to or coming from work or any other agency assignment in an official law enforcement vehicle. (Hughes)

HB 645 (Gottlieb) and SB 992 (Book) require employers of full-time law enforcement, corrections and corrections probation officers to extend employer-paid health insurance benefits to the officer's surviving spouse and each dependent child if the officer dies in the line of duty as a result of exposure to a pandemic disease that is the subject of a public health emergency. These bills apply retroactively to March 1, 2020. (Hughes)

HB 49 (Bartleman) and SB 200 (Rodriguez) expand the eligibility for first responder post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) workers' compensation benefits to also include certain correctional officers, 911 public safety telecommunicators, and all volunteer law enforcement officers and firefighters. Current law only covers law enforcement officers and firefighters. The bills require the employing agency to provide at least one hour of educational training related to mental health awareness, prevention, mitigation and treatment annually. (Cruz)

SB 264 (Hooper) and HB 31 (Busatta Cabrera) extend certain provisions of the Firefighters' Bill of Rights to questioning conducted under an informal inquiry. The bills specify that an informal inquiry does not include routine work-related discussions, such as safety sessions or normal operational fire debriefings. The bills require an informal inquiry of a firefighter to be of reasonable duration with permitted periods for rest and personnel necessities and not subject the firefighter to offensive language or offer any incentive as an inducement to answer any questions. During an informal inquiry or interrogation, a firefighter may not be threatened with a transfer, suspension, dismissal or other disciplinary action. (Hughes)

HB 557 (Salzman) and SB 838 (Wright) expand the eligibility for certain cancer treatment benefits to include full-time, Florida-certified fire investigators. (Hughes)

HB 105 (Fine) and SB 224 (Gruters) authorize cities and counties to restrict smoking within the boundaries of any public beach or park they own. The bills specify that municipalities can restrict smoking within the boundaries of a beach or park that is owned by the county but located within the city, as long as it does not conflict with any county ordinance. The Senate bill language prohibits smoking within state parks; the House bill does not contain this language. (Taggart)

SB 262 (Rodriguez) and HB 6011 (Roach) – Damages Recoverable by Parents of an Adult Child in Medical Negligence Actions

HB 295 (Fernandez-Barquin) – Workers' Compensation Coverage by Employee Leasing Companies

HB 335 (Fabricio)  HB 353 (Fabricio)– Satisfaction of Mortgages

HB 383 and HB 385 (Maney) – Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsels

HB 431 (Barnaby) – Office of Financial Regulation

HB 465 (Sirois) – Unites States Armed Forces

SB 438 (Burgess) – United States Space Force

HB 471 (Roth) – Town of Lake Clarke Shores, Palm Beach County

SB 468 (Perry) and HB 503 (Gregory) – Insurance 

SB 560 (Rodriguez) and HB 6039 (Hinson)– Recovery for Wrongful Death

SB 596 and SB 598 (Baxley) – Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsels

SB 610 (Brandes) and SB 7014 (Judiciary)– COVID-19 Related Claims Against Health Care Providers

HB 695 (Stevenson) and SB 1058 (Hutson) – Property Insurer Reimbursements

HB 829 (Bryd) – Civil Actions for Deprivation of Rights, Privileges, or Immunities

HB 7013 (Fabricio) – OGSR/Workers' Compensation/Department of Financial Services

HB 2239 (Smith, D.) – UCF-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinic for Florida Veterans and First Responders

HB 429 (Goff-Marcil) and SB 532 (Stewart) – Private Schools

HB 619 (Rodriguez) - United States-produced Iron and Steel in Public Works Projects

HB 631 (Grall) and SB 780 (Hutson) - Airports 

HB 719 (Smith) and SB 1044 (Hooper) – Swim-up Bars

HB 894 (Farmer) – Strategic Fuel Reserve Plan

SB 178 (Pizzo) and HB 285 (Benjamin) – Visiting County and Municipal Detention Facilities

SB 162, SB 164, & SB 326 (Brandes) and HB 333 (Williamson)– Physicians Certifications for the Medical Use of Marijuana

HB 467 (Hinson), HB 549 (Omphroy), HB 551 (Omphroy), and SB 776 (Brandes) – Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

SB 556 (Cruz) – Medical Marijuana Identification Cards for Service-disabled Veterans

HB 679 (Learned) – Cannabis Regulation

HB 693 (Drake) and SB 768 (Rodriguez) – Department of Health

SB 704 (Harrell) and HB 479 (Caruso) – Substance Abuse Service Providers

SB 714 (Hooper) and HB 667 (McClain)– Department of Business and Professional Regulation

SB 990 (Diaz) and HB 867 (Rizo) – Towing Vehicles

HB 253 (Killebrew) prohibits a for-profit business from selling domestic cats and dogs. The bill does not prohibit a city or county from adopting an ordinance on the sale of animals that is more stringent than the bill. (Taggart)

SB 1022 (Ausley) and HB 6081 (Hunschofsky) repeal the state preemption on the regulation of tobacco and nicotine products. Current law preempts local governments from regulating the marketing, sale or delivery of tobacco products. (Taggart)

SB 994 (Diaz) and HB 849 (Fernandez-Barquin) create a statewide regulatory scheme for the licensure, regulation and inspection of retail pet stores by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The bills specify that local governments may adopt ordinances that regulate but do not prohibit the operation of retail pet stores or the breeding, purchase, or sale of household pets, provided that the ordinance is not in conflict with the statewide regulations specified in the bills. The bills clarify that ordinances adopted prior to June 1, 2021, are "grandfathered" in addition to ordinances adopted prior to June 1, 2022, which impose a moratorium on new pet stores or are solely regulatory in nature. Additionally, the bills impose new requirements on animal shelters, including disclosing bite history prior to the animal's adoption and a prohibition on intentional breeding of animals for sale. 

SB 996 (Diaz) sets the initial and renewal fee for a retail pet store license by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation at $25 per licensed location. (Taggart)

SB 1142 (Hutson) and HB 827 (Barnaby) prohibit the drawings of districts from favoring or disfavoring an incumbent county commissioner, municipal official or school board member. The bills require municipalities to fix the boundaries of their districts in only odd-numbered years to keep them as nearly equal in proportion to the population as possible. (Branch)

HB 707 (Learned) and SB 1158 (Jones) define "home kitchen operations" as a person or business entity that sells directly from their home to the consumer any food product (excluding raw milk and raw oysters). The bills exempt these operations from the requirements imposed on traditional public food service establishments. Additionally, the bills specify that local governments are preempted from directly regulating these operations; however, they must comply with any applicable home-based business regulations. A home kitchen operation cannot exceed annual gross sales of $250,000. (Taggart)

HB 215 (DiCeglie) and SB 254 (Brodeur) provide that an emergency order may not expressly prohibit a religious institution from regular religious services or activities. (Branch)

SB 828 (Hutson) requires local governments who operate critical infrastructure to have those systems and controls comply with and meet operational standards as defined in the ISA/IED 62443 series of standards as determined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework by July 1, 2024. ISA/IED 62443 standards are an international series of standards for industrial communication networks and systems developed by the International Society of Automation. The bill also requires local governments who operate these systems to conduct an annual risk assessment and create a mitigation plan. Systems that fall under these requirements include, but are not limited to, public transportation, water and wastewater treatment facilities, public utilities, public services subject to jurisdiction by the Public Service Commission, and public buildings. By July 1, 2026, when local governments procure automation and control system components, services, or solutions, or when contracting for facility upgrades for critical infrastructure, the local government must require those new components or services to meet the ISA/IEC 62443 standards. Additionally, the bill specifies civil penalties for non-compliance if a local government does not make a good-faith effort to comply with these standards and an incident occurs. (Taggart)

SB 450 (Jones) repeals the process allowing specified elected officials to appeal a municipal law enforcement operating budget that contains a funding reduction. (Hughes)

HB 117 (Fetterhoff) and SB 774 (Gruters) add COVID-19 and infectious diseases to the list of conditions that, if suffered by an emergency rescue or public safety worker, are presumed to have been contracted while at work for purposes of workers' compensation. Unlike similar presumptions in current law for hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis and tuberculosis, the bills do not require the public safety worker or emergency rescue worker to receive immunization against COVID-19 in order to receive the presumptive eligibility provisions afforded by workers' compensation coverage. (Cruz)