News - March 2021 RSS Feed

In a letter to bill sponsor, Rep. Kaylee Tuck (R-Sebring), the FCCB outlined its support for HB 1475. This important bill protects the rights of female athletes and promotes equality in women's sports by recognizing key biological differences between men and women and requiring separate sex-specific athletic teams or sports. Laws and policies that affirm gender identities not aligned with biological sex overlook the potential for serious, and often irreversible, physical harm to gender dysphoric individuals. HB 1475 passed the House Secondary Education and Career Development Subcommittee (13-4) on March 17. Its companion in the Senate, SB 2012 by Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland), is on the agenda for its first committee of reference, Senate Education, on March 23.

HB 133 (Harding/Beltran), supported by the FCCB, authorizes the installation of newborn safety devices or "baby boxes" to accept surrendered newborn infants at the same locations where newborns may now be surrendered under current law. The boxes would be installed through an exterior wall, with an access door on the inside of the building. An alarm notifies emergency personnel that someone has placed an infant inside the box. The bill also increases the allowable age of surrender from seven days old to 30 days. HB 133 was passed by the full House (108-11) on March 18. The Senate companion, SB 122 (Baxley), is waiting to be heard in its final committee of reference, Appropriations.

Our faith tradition teaches that exploiting people who live in poverty is theft and that usurious practices are the equivalent of indirect homicide (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2409 & 2269). Currently, lenders that provide "installment loans" in Florida can require borrowers to pay back the loan in one lump sum, rather than allowing payment installments. Borrowers are often unable to pay back the borrowed amount in one lump sum and are forced to re-borrow the same principal amount for additional interest and fees, leading to a cycle of debt. Many borrowers then lose the family vehicle on which they depend when used as collateral. In an effort to protect vulnerable consumers, the FCCB supported SB 1478, filed by Senator Audrey Gibson (D-Jacksonville), in the Banking and Insurance Committee where it passed unanimously on March 16. This bill requires a six-month loan term with no prepayment penalty, striking a balance between providing enough time for the borrower to reasonably pay off a loan but not such a long term that the borrower pays an excessive amount of interest.

During a committee meeting on March 15, FCCB indicated its support for SB 1954 (Rodrigues, R.), which establishes the Resilient Florida Program. The program includes spending up to $100 million a year on projects to address flooding and sea-level rise and creates a grant program for local governments to develop resilience plans. The bill passed Senate Environment and Natural Resources, its first committee of reference, unanimously. The House companion, HB 7019, is awaiting placement on the agenda of the House State Affairs Committee.

The suffering and societal neglect of persons with disabilities calls for caring and compassionate solutions that recognize the value of the individual, not for the violence of abortion that seeks to eliminate the disabled as a burden unworthy of our love and protection. HB 1221 (Grall) prohibits a physician from performing an abortion if the physician knows, or should know, that the woman is seeking the abortion solely on the basis of a prenatal test result or fetal diagnosis of a disability or the potential of a disability.

Dual enrollment allows students to take college level courses while they are still in high school. Usually these courses are taken on the college or university campus during the normal school day. Under current law, public school students and homeschool students have free, unencumbered access to dual enrollment courses. Private school students, however, have very limited access to dual enrollment. SB 52 (Rodrigues, R.) / HB 281 (Duggan) establish the Dual Enrollment Scholarship Program, providing access to dual enrollment courses for all Florida students.

The Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act has been in effect since 2008. The Act provides a process whereby an individual may petition the original sentencing court for an order finding the petitioner to have been wrongfully incarcerated and eligible for compensation from the state. SB 1114 (Pizzo) removes a prohibition on receiving compensation for wrongful incarceration for those with unrelated prior convictions and extends the deadline to establish one's status as wrongfully incarcerated and eligible for compensation from 90 days to 2 years.

One of the FCCB’s key priorities for the 2021 Legislative Session is increasing equitable access to dual enrollment courses for private school students. Dual enrollment courses allow high school students to take college level courses while they are still in high school. Usually, these courses are taken on the college or university campus during the normal school day.

The Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Health & Human Services Committee took up and passed SB 582 (Rodrigues, R.) and HB 241 (Grall), respectively. FCCB supports these measures that create the "Parents' Bill of Rights." The bills enumerate a list of rights that a parent possesses, making it easier for parents to readily know their rights in order to better direct the education and health care of their children.

SB 1032 (Perry) increases the amount of rehabilitation credits someone in prison can receive in order to reduce the term of sentence. This incentivizes those in prison to pursue degrees and certificates in addition to participating in programs that prepare them to return to society and reduce recidivism.

One of the FCCB’s key legislative priorities for the 2021 Legislative Session is eliminating the prior-public-school attendance requirement in the Family Empowerment Scholarship and the McKay Scholarship while also continuing to promote educational pluralism and parental empowerment. For the 2021 Legislative Session, Senator Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, has filed SB 48 which addresses both of these issues. The FCCB strongly supports this bill.