What Happened During Florida's Legislative Session?

Sal Nuzzo, with Consumers Defense, went deep on a few topics, snapshot on others as we talked over the consequential happenings. 

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
And we began the third hour ofthe Morning Show with Preston Scot Good morning,
He's grand I'm Preston and this isSalnuzo with Consumer's Defense. Have you
gotten used to it yet? Ihave, yeah, about two months in
it's it's getting acclimated. Was ittook a couple of good weeks, sure,
but really thrilled with a lot ofthe work that we're doing in other

(00:31):
states. Really, I have gottenacclimated to how other states do their legislative
processes and it's given me a newfoundappreciation for how tight Florida has it and
also for a part time legislature.Oh yeah, absolutely, that meets once
a year. I was in thestate of Missouri, which is not Missouri.

(00:55):
I found out that there is onlyone corn or tell that to doctor
ed Moore. There is only onecourt of the state that calls it Missouri,
and they are made fun of bythe other seventy five percent of course
state. And they have roughly afive to six month legislature and they're going
through some of the bills that Florida'sdone in a couple of sessions ago related

(01:19):
to combating ESG. They're doing itdifferently some are good, some are not
so good, and trying to navigatethat with them has been eye opening.
Our talk with Justin Haskins last weekleads me to believe that there's ground being
gained. However, Yes, indeed, what we're finding is that more states

(01:41):
are going on the offense to combatBlackrocks, State Street Vanguard and there it's
kind of battle tactics. You seethem kind of retreating, countering in different
ways, calling different things by newnames. The state of Texas just divested
I think it's eight and a halfbillion dollars from their school system retirement fund

(02:05):
out of black Rock. It wasmore than a couple of bucks. Yeah.
Yeah, So when you go throughthose things and you see the impact
that they can have, and knowingthat you're doing a good thing by pushing
it gives it encourages even other statesthat may be on the fits with some
of these things. One of thethings we endeavor to do in our monthly

(02:25):
visits now is to kind of helpFloridians people listening to the program from the
Sunshine State understand what just happened,sure, or what just didn't happen.
Yeah, And we want to starthere with you know, we had Paul
Renner on the show. He dida post mortem on this session and House
Bill one that basically became House Billthree. Correct, So let's let's talk

(02:47):
about where where does this now stand? Quote online protections for minors? So
Governor DeSantis signed HB three, whichhad been HB one. He vetoed HB
one because he was very concerned aboutthe litigation prospects of it. So HB
three, what does it do?What doesn't it do? So? HB

(03:08):
three requires anyone in the state ofFlorida who is fourteen or fifteen years old
who would like a social media account, Facebook, Instagram, all of the
things the kids are using, requiresthem to have parental consent in order to
open that account. It also requiresanyone over the age of fifteen to prove

(03:35):
that they are over the age offifteen, and that is done by age
verification methods. How does how doessomeone prove that the approval of a parent
actually came from a parent and thatjunior didn't just grab mom and dad's driver's
license, et cetera. And thisis where a little bit of the nuts

(03:55):
and bolts of this are gonna kindof be challenging. In both the enactment
and the litigation over it, becausedespite the Governor vetoing HB one and signing
HB three, HB three is stillgoing to be subject to a federal court
challenge. They're going to and it'slikely going to come from a group called

(04:18):
net Choice, which is the tradeassociation for all of the major technology platforms
out there. They recently were beforethe Supreme Court on the social Media bill
from three years ago. They're challengingit, claiming that requiring an adult to
verify their age and submit to aless than anonymous mechanism for social media access

(04:43):
to protected speech is government intrusion ina way that violates the First Amendment.
And so that is going to bethe crux of the litigation. It's likely
going to be stayed while it's beinglitigated. So the bill, I'm not
sure, is going to get fullyenacted in that until the Supreme Court kind

(05:03):
of hears it and it goes throughthe process. Talking about House Built three
that was signed by the governor,We've talked about the challenges and where it's
going to come from and why sure, what about the defense? What is
the State of Florida going to arguein return yeah, absolutely, and that's
equally as important. The state isgoing to argue that they have a compelling

(05:25):
state interest to regulate this form oftechnology, and the Supreme Court president from
years ago does allow for the stateto step in when there is a state
when there is a compelling state interest. So they're going to argue that social
media as they have defined it inthe law, and they were very clear

(05:47):
about defining the features of the platformversus the platforms themselves exactly, and it
may come down to something like this, which I think would be incredibly for
the House as they drafted this bill. So the compelling state interest is that
the features inherent in these technologies areaddictive to kids. They are damaging to

(06:12):
kids in the same way that alcoholand tobacco are. And therefore it is
a requirement of the state under theage of fourteen to ban it all together,
and then at fourteen and fifteen becauseof the way the courts have been
ruling in some other states to allowit only with parental consent. Let me

(06:34):
ask you this, and you mightnot have the answer to this, but
maybe you know of people and whatthey've said regarding the low hanging fruit to
me is in one we've discussed,why not just make it mandatory that kids
can't pull their phones out at schools. And the reason why I say that
is, at that point you cantake what's already been going on in Orange

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County with the school system mandated acrossthe state, and then you have data
that you can then use to presentyour argument that if you go to court,
you can say we have done thisat schools. We've had a reduction
of this, a reduction of this, reduction of this, an increase of
this, this, and this.Not only are you one hundred percent accurate,
I think that regardless of how thecourt's rule on this bill and other

(07:20):
bills in other states, I thinkthat is absolutely a an absolutely pitch perfect
bill for the twenty twenty five legislatorlegislature to consider. It's something that as
in my capacity with JMI, aswe were engaging and talking with lawmakers about
it, that was something that Icontinued to fall back on. They implemented

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a ban on cell phone use duringinstructional time, but it doesn't capture the
between class time when a lot ofthe problems are happening. That's the majority
of it is happening exactly so ifyou go that route and extend that ban,
they've got to be in a sealedcontainer. You can allow them to
have them in the backpacks for anemergency, that's the only time that it

(08:05):
can be used. Or if theyneed to reach a parent, they have
to go to the front office somethinglike that. What you've done is you
have captured seven hours of awake timethat these kids are engaging in behaviors that
are destructive. Lastly, here somethingthat was i'll call it a legislative priority

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of mind because I talked about itat nauseum. Squatting Florida kind of leading
the nation, Yeah, exactly.The legislature passed and it was a governor's
priority to kind of combat a lotof what has been going on in the
news in other states where people wouldshow up to properties that they weren't necessarily

(08:48):
abandoned, but they may have beenkind of sitting idle for a few months
as they were trying to get themrenovated, or they were investment properties and
finding people living there and then illegalprocedures to try and get them out were
anti property owners. So the legislaturepassed a bill. It's it's called property

(09:09):
Rights, and it is an antisquatting bill that basically asserts the right of
a property owner to kick Periodboddy outif they come onto their property and find
someone who is not supposed to bethere, regardless of the timeframe that that
person has been there. Yeah,folks, in some states they actually consider
squatters as tenants and entitled do withviction rights and all that. It doesn't

(09:35):
work that way. I remember amovie back in I think it was the
eighties called Pacific Heights. Michael Keatonwas I remember it well, Scared that
out of May, yes, exactly, and it's just kind of you know,
baby steps along the way. Yep. But those types of scenarios are
not uncommon now and people are dying, yeah, in states like California,

(09:56):
New York and others. Yep.Morisal news. Oh next, all right,
let's keep talking. Sal Muzzo,Executive Director of Consumers Defense with US
Florida Legislative Session. That was Iwill maintain till my dying days that when
Governor Desant has left the campaign trail, he returned to being a full time

(10:16):
governor and it mattered. I thinkit mattered potentially. I just do potentially.
I mean just the sheer distance,the level of focus required to mount
a serious effort at well, wegot back to micro not macro probably,
you know, everything was through thelens of Florida, yep, and not

(10:37):
the other way around. Correct.Let's talk about bills that have been signed,
for sure. So there were Yeah, there were a total of three
hundred and twenty five bills in totalpast two hundred and eleven of those are
still awaiting what they call presentation.Is that average? Uh yeah, about
it's a little lower than I've seenin the past, but not much.

(10:58):
How many of them are bills thatcorrect things versus bills that maybe break new
ground. Breaking new ground is goingto be the minority. The majority of
these are going to be things wherethey open a statute up to kind of
up too language. One bill inparticular, took the labor reform bill from
the prior year and made some updatesto it to clarify intent for the agency

(11:24):
called perk that implements it in anAXIT. So there's a lot of that
going on. Okay, So somenotable ones that he has signed, the
big healthcare priority of the Senate Presidentthere were two specific bills in there that
just pump a ton of money intothe healthcare infrastructure and career development piece to

(11:46):
try and recruit a lot of doctorsand practitioners, not just doctors, but
healthcare providers into the state and kindof grow our own We are a heavy
growth state. We have to keeppace with that growth in terms of the
number of providers or we're going tohave serious challenges. And so that's one
big one. Like I mentioned,we had some reforms and some cleanup on

(12:11):
the big labor reform package from theprior session. An interesting one collecting DNA
samples of all inmates in Florida prisons, which apparently was a practice a while
ago. It had fallen off andso they're just kind of making it a
statutory requirement. Now. Congrats tomy good friendship Lamarca. Five years and

(12:35):
he finally got the grapes freed.Individual wine container sizes or the bands are
no more in Florida. Good job, Chip. Strengthening the laws against human
trafficking and aiding illegal aliens in theconduct of crimes. That's a big focus
of the Attorney General as well assome other agencies that kind of came to

(12:58):
bear on that issue. Would weparaphrase that is making it more difficult for
people to help illegals be illegal.You got it, among other things,
but that's a big part of it. A couple of big agency bills have
been signed the Department of Transportation aswell as a Department of Corrections. Fentanyl.
This is an interesting one. Exposinglaw enforcement to doses of fentanyl is

(13:24):
now a much more serious crime.But interestingly enough, and I had to
look this up because I had animmediate concern on this, it does include
an exemption for individuals who were activelyseeking care for a possible overdose. So
what you want to make sure isyou have a balance where if someone you

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know ingested fentanyl, not knowing thatthey were doing that, and realizes it
and calls nine to one one,you don't want to discourage that because someone
thinks they're going to get charged witha crime. On top of any other
expanded penalties for organized retail theft,this is a big one because in kind

(14:05):
of the push to make sure Floridaprotects itself from other states that where you
have these runs on CBS, andwe were going that way. It was
happening in a very limited environment,so kind of a frontal assault on that
kind of activity, three different billsat updated statutes related to violent crimes against

(14:30):
children, including one that I didn'trealize that this was in a bill.
It's a grant program for local lawenforcement organizations to do stings like the catch
a predator thing, So some moneyto go that route zone of protection around
law enforcement twenty five feet you haveto kind of if you're warned, you

(14:50):
have to back up twenty five feetor you can be charged with a misdemeanor.
I think this is a response toa lot of the BLM riots that
have happened, and employment regulations preemptingthe local governments from establishing crazy rules and
regulations at the local level for employers, including allowing miners to at the ages

(15:13):
of I think fifteen and six orsixteen and seventeen to work longer than what
the prior statutes had. The MorningShow at Preston Scott back with Sal Muzzo,

(15:37):
Executive Director Consumer's Defense or going throughthe Florida legislature. Do you have
a question if you have a billyou want us to go over in future
episodes. We do this once amonth where we can take time and explore
things. We're happy to do itthere's a bill you want us to look
a little deeper at, just sendus the bill number. That's all we
need. You can offer a pithyopinion on if you'd like, but all

(16:00):
we need is the bill number,and we'll do a deep dive in a
future episode here. But we're talkingnow about some bills that did not get
signed or haven't been signed yet.Sure, so you've got a few notable
ones that will probably unpack in futuresegments. Food delivery platforms, the school

(16:22):
choice program, updates, the taxpackage, criminal history for employment licenses as
well as the licensing reform package,the AI bills in political advertisements, and
then a few large agency bills.Now there's a bunch that were sent to
him on the I believe April second, So he's got until the seventeenth,

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which is this week. So expecta flurry of signatures or vetos the press
and we'll get the press releases onthose, and there may be some some
you know, press statements or pressconferences where he does those as well.
Also the budget. He has notbeen presented the budget, and that's normal
because he still would have fifteen daysto sign and issue the line on a

(17:07):
veto So if they've agreed to abudget the legislature and adjourned, what are
they waiting on. I think they'relikely waiting on the governor's budget staff,
who are reviewing every single line itemin that to unpack it make sure that
they're comfortable on everything that he wantsto issue line items for, rather than

(17:30):
because he technically it doesn't take effectuntil July one anyway, so they're giving
the governor's office some time to gothrough and get their light on a veto
set. Okay, all right,the Hemp built the Hemp Bill. This
is an important one ahead of thefact that we're gonna have on the ballot
in November recreational marijuana in the stateof Florida, and I would argue there

(17:55):
is a better than average chance thatit is going to pass. The last
ling I saw on it had itat around sixty eight percent in favor.
Rereadfully bad move, but can't stopstupid. I'm gonna you know, this
is where and when we talk offair about you know, I do have
some libertarian tendencies in me. Thelibertarian in me suggests that to my conscience

(18:21):
that if we live in a societythat's going to allow but regulate alcohol and
tobacco. That this is akin tothose I recognize and appreciate every single argument
that others make in opposition, butI'm that's just it's just yeah. So
the Hemp Bill sets some limitations onthe levels of THCHC that are going that

(18:49):
are allowed in both medical marijuana aswell as in any form of non medical
marijuana. So it's kind of gettingahead of it to establish a regulatory guide
for when that kind of constitutional amendmentmight pass. Is that practically applicable though?

(19:11):
In other words, who gets chargedwith figuring out that some Mary Jane
it's someone's growing is hitting the rightnumbers. Well, there's going to be
an entire regulatory framework for all ofthis in the same way that it's done
for medicinal marijuana. So the milligramsof THC per ouncer and all of the
things that they do, so peoplestill can't grow it at home. That's

(19:33):
correct, as I understand the way. That's the true leaves of the world
are going to be thrilled. Ohthey are they rolling in money, true
leaves spent I think forty million dollarsjust getting the thing on the ballots.
You got to imagine how much thewindfall is going to be for them if
it goes active The Morning Show withPreston Scott, Mother, No you wear

(19:56):
eth herdrepe on News Radio one hundredpoint seven. La. Time flies when
you're cliff diving. That's what we'redoing here, deep diving with Sal Nuzzo
on legislated things here on The MorningShow with Preston Scott. Anything more to
talk about with regard to him?Wait, we're already in segment five.

(20:18):
Yes, Wow, this is crazy. Yes. So there is a big
effort on the part of a numberof business interests to try and persuade the
governor to veto this bill. Ah, you know, the restrictions on it
kind of are a challenge to Imean, is this I mean, is

(20:41):
this a simple thing of you know, this is not your grandpa's marijuana.
I mean, it's a different levelthat we're dealing with. Yes, But
there are also some provisions in thebill that I think would impact a number
of established businesses that are selling certainthings that are currently legal and now those
things are going to be outlawed.So you have some concerned business enterprises that

(21:06):
are urging and I think I've evenseen some billboards in Tallahassee related to that
okay vaping vaping related topic. Sothe legislature passed a bill that would require
if you have a vaping cartridge thataccepts the oil or whatever goes in it,
that whatever goes in that cartridge hasto be approved by the Food and

(21:30):
Drug Administration. Apparently, and I'mnot a vapor so I have some limited
perspective on this, but apparently therehas been a market for non FDA approved
material or liquids that go into thosethings. Rich Marianos, who joined US
last week formerly with ATF said thatthat is the overwhelming majority of the products

(21:53):
that are available, they're not regulatedat all, and likely a huge chunk
of these products are coming from Chinaexactly, which is a problem not germane
to this product, but for thepurposes of regulation, you've got people getting
products that are completely unregulated, comingfrom what many would consider a political and

(22:19):
strategic opponent of the United States.So then they're putting this stuff into their
cartridges and vaping it. Here's oneof the concerns that's been brought to bear
by a number of business interests asthis bill has gone through the process is
that currently, the products that areapproved by the Food and Drug Administration,

(22:45):
there's only a finite number of them, and they are all owned almost all,
if not exclusively, all owned bybig tobacco companies. So as you
could imagine the lobbying and sausage makingon this. The big tobacco companies were
very much in favor of this billgoing through because it presents a potential windfall

(23:06):
for them. Absolutely. But thenon the other side, you have businesses
that are established solely to sell vapingproducts that would lose eighty ninety percent of
their inventory or product availability and wouldhave to shift just over to the limited
number of products. And I canunderstand both perspectives on this. I think

(23:32):
the challenge for me comes, especiallyin my role with consumers Defense, is
the China angle. That is abig deal that, like I said,
it's not just germane to the productin subject to this regulation. It's something
that we're seeing that we've got tobe combating on a number of different fronts.

(23:53):
More to talk about in the comingweeks and months. Yeah, we're
going to have more bills being signedthis week, so next month we'll have
a whole new list of stuff tounpack. Likely also have the budget kind
of signed in the line one ofveto so that we can kind of go
through that as well. Compare thebudget and the veto list with the Turkey
list that tax Watch puts out.Yeah, I'm totally looking forward to the

(24:15):
tax Watch Turkey list and see kindof how the overlap goes on those.
As always, thank you, alwaysa pleasure. My friend, Yep Salnuzo
with Consumers Defense our guest forty sixpast the hour