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‘Pro-consumer’ insurance bill flies through first Senate stop with unanimous support

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Legislation to more tightly constrain insurers and their executives in Florida while safeguarding consumers from judgments based solely on artificial information is advancing in the Legislature’s upper chamber.

Members of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee just voted 7-0 for SB 1740, which Naples Republican Sen. Kathleen Passidomo described as a “pro-consumer insurance bill” designed to reduce premiums, decrease insurer insolvency and “hold insurers accountable for (their) prior, poor decisions.”

Spring Hill Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia filed the measure, but left the Banking and Insurance Committee meeting, which he chairs, before the bill was heard. Passidomo presented the measure in his absence.

SB 1740 would prohibit an insurance executive whose company went insolvent from holding an executive position in another insurance company for five years. The current prohibition is only for two years.

The bill would more than double the amount of capital needed to start a domestic insurance company in Florida from $15 million to $35 million, among other increases.

It would also require that any money given through Florida’s house-hardening My Safe Florida Home program must be used for a project that results in a mitigation credit from insurers to homeowners that reduce their premiums.

Passidomo introduced — and the committee approved — an amendment to the bill to provide that artificial intelligence cannot be used as the sole determination to deny an insurance claim. An “actual human being” would have to be involved in the process, Passidomo said, crediting Fleming Island Republican Sen. Jennifer Bradley’s bill on AI in health insurance (SB 794) for inspiring the proposed change.

Adam Basford of Associated Industries of Florida told the panel Monday that his group has been working to assemble a coalition of its members and business partners to examine AI and its implications on Florida industries. He urged lawmakers to focus on striking a balance between ensuring safety in “high-risk areas” while being mindful to not obstruct innovation.

“We need to be very careful about allowing for those efficiencies while making sure we regulate it the right way,” he said.

Insurance rates have skyrocketed in recent years, outpacing inflation and driving lawmakers to hold Special Sessions and carry numerous bills to address the issue. Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced premium rate reductions in some areas of the state, but many others still await relief.

Massive costs after severe storms like last year’s Hurricane Milton saw some insurance companies leave the state as Florida’s state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, canceled residents’ policies as part of its “depopulation” program.

But the situation may not be as dire for insurance companies as they’ve led on.

A 2022 study the Tampa Bay Times obtained after a two-year wait for public records found that as Florida insurers claimed to be losing money, their parent companies and affiliates made billions, including $680 million in shareholder dividends. The study’s author concluded most insurance executives in Florida violated state regulations.

The report was never given to state lawmakers.

SB 1740, which Davie Democratic Sen. Barbara Sharief is co-sponsoring, will next go to the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government. It has one more committee stop after that before reaching a floor vote.

Its House companion (HB 1433) by Marco Island Republican Rep. Yvette Benarroch awaits a hearing before the first of three committees to which it was referred.


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Senate bill that could lead to execution of would-be political assassins begins to move

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The bill was inspired by the violence at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania.

Those looking to harm Presidents, Governors and other heads of state may pay the ultimate price in Florida — even if they don’t succeed in killing their target.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia’s measure (SB 776) which cleared the Criminal Justice Committee, contemplates adding to Florida law that the death sentence can be issued when a “capital felony was committed against the head of a state, including, but not limited to, the President or the Vice President of the United States or the Governor of this or another state, or in an attempt to commit such crime a capital felony was committed against another individual.”

Ingoglia noted that “the death penalty is reserved for those convicted of heinous crimes” and that his helps to facilitate that by adding aggravating factors of an assassination of a head of state or the killing of another person in attempting to do so. He described the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the concomitant killing of Corey Comperatore as heinous and worthy of extraordinary sanction in law.

One citizen opposed the bill.

Grace Hannah of Floridians Opposed to the Death Penalty said the bill would fall under federal jurisdiction and that an incident like that contemplated by the bill is “extremely rare.”

The bill is also moving in the House.

Jeff Holcomb’s legislation (HB 653) has one stop to go before the floor.


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Linda McMahon says school choice expansion is ‘a continuing process,’ but will be up to states

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon says she and her boss in the White House are both “strong proponents” of school choice, but the federal government’s role in expanding it will be limited under President Donald Trump.

“It’s a continuing process” that must be pursued at the state level, not mandated by Washington, she said.

“The rub is that teacher unions say it’s going to bankrupt the public schools (and serve only students with no other options). I think we’re clearly proving that is not the case.”

McMahon’s comments came Tuesday afternoon during a roundtable discussion on education at the Kendall campus of True North Classical Academy, a charter network operating in Miami-Dade’s unincorporated Kendall neighborhood. It was one of multiple school visits she had planned in the county that day.

Other roundtable participants included, among others, Interim Florida International University President and immediate past Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega, Miami-Dade School Board member Monical Colucci, former state Rep. Michael Bileca, charter school magnate Fernando Zuleta, and former Collier County School Board member Erika Donalds, a pro-charter education activist whose husband, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, is the presumptive GOP front-runner in the 2026 Governor’s race.

Zuleta, the founder and President of for-profit charter school management company Academica, said that while Florida has been a leader on school choice, many places in the U.S. remain “choice deserts.”

He urged McMahon to look into the matter. McMahon nodded while he spoke, but made no commitment to do so.

While the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) role in implementing school choice policies will be limited, Donalds hinted that the agency isn’t taking a passive stance on the matter. She said people should “be on the lookout” in the coming days for federal guidance on further empowering parents.

McMahon, a 76-year-old former professional wrestling promoter, past Administrator of the Small Business Administration and ex-member of the Connecticut State Board of Education, reiterated that she has a “mandate” from Trump to abolish the USDOE. Last week, the Department announced it was cutting its staff from some 4,100 employees to 2,200.

That was a “first step” toward fulfilling the President’s wishes of shutting down the agency, she said. She referred to the layoffs as “trimming.”

McMahon said she’s tasking the remaining staff at USDOE staff with assembling a set of guiding principles from which state and local governments can take cues.

“We really want to leave best practice in place to provide states with the right tools,” she said, adding that if she is indeed America’s last Education Secretary, “I will have been successful at my job.”


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Derelict vessel bill requiring increased registration sails through second committee

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The proposals would stipulate long-term anchoring permits issued by FWC.

Owners of boats adrift in Florida waters will have to be more careful about keeping their vessels moored if a bill moving through the Senate floor gets approved.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government gave preliminary approval to legislation (SB 164) that calls for increasing regulations on vessels. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Anna Maria Rodriguez, a Doral Republican, would require new registrations for long-term anchoring of vessels through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The bill proposes “requiring the commission to issue, at no cost, a permit for the long-term anchoring of a vessel which includes specified information; requiring the commission to use an electronic application and permitting system; requiring that a vessel subject to a specified number of violations within a 24-month period which result in certain dispositions be declared a public nuisance, etc.”

The bill has one more stop before the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee. There is also a companion bill (HB 1149) moving through the House. Rep. Fabian Basabe, a Miami Beach Republican, is sponsoring that measure, which still needs to navigate its first stop, the House Natural Resources and Disasters Subcommittee.

Derelict vessels have long been the bane of many local waterways. Along the Intracoastal Waterway or any one of hundreds of tributaries that run through the state, errant boats can go adrift and be found aground.

Some municipalities have already taken matters into their own hands. Indian River County, for instance, has a derelict vessel removal program that partners with the FWC to get those boats out of the way and allows residents to report such disabled watercraft.

And municipalities within that county have gotten increasingly aggressive about removing derelict boats, in cities such as Vero Beach and Indian River Shores.

The Senate measure also intends that those boat owners whose vessels go adrift during storms or natural disasters round up those vessels afterward. The FWC issued multiple advisories about derelict vessels in the Fall of 2024 due to hurricanes.


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