Monday, May 6, 2019, Tallahassee – State lawmakers finished their annual legislative session on Saturday afternoon, one day later than their scheduled on-time adjournment set for Friday. Their extension was necessitated by a requirement they allow a 72-hour “cooling off” period before taking a final vote on their $90-billion budget package negotiation previously agreed to by Senate and House leaders on Wednesday afternoon.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019, Tallahassee – Delivering on his promise for transformative health care reform during this year’s session, the Florida House and Senate agreed yesterday to a package of health care bills deemed a priority of House Speaker Jose Oliva (R-Miami). Top billing was given to at least two of the more controversial issues: Relaxing current “Certificate of Need” restrictions regulating the creation of new hospitals and health care facilities, and new provisions aimed at allowing the import of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada.
Monday, April 29, 2019, Tallahassee – Legislators are scheduled to wrap-up their annual lawmaking sojourn at the end of this week, assuming they reach agreement on their one required task: approving a state government budget for the coming 2019-20 fiscal year. House and Senate conferees began working though their differences early last week, with the goal of finishing their negotiations by Tuesday of this week, allowing for a required 72-hour “cooling off” period before they can cast their final votes on the plan on Friday.
Monday, April 22, 2019, Tallahassee – It’s no secret that new Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva (R-Miami) would set his sights set on health care reform, aimed principally at reigning-in the associated costs, during his first legislative session. After all, over half of his opening day remarks were devoted to that subject. Now, it appears the Senate was listening closely. Last week key Senate committees considered the Speaker’s top priorities, moving closer in aligning their positions with those of the House on at least three of his key issues.
Monday, April 15, 2019, Tallahassee – After six weeks of inaction on proposed PIP/No-fault auto insurance systems changes introduced this session for consideration by the House, late Friday the House Health and Human Services Committee released their agenda for this Tuesday afternoon which includes the first public hearing for HB 1317, a proposal including a variety of proposed reforms to the PIP/No-fault insurance system. Unlike a Senate bill on the same topic previously approved by two Senate committees, the House proposal does not include a repeal of the No-fault system, rather a series of reforms to the current system. (A more complete discussion follows below.)
Legislative Updates 