Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

After a few Special Sessions, lawmakers are back to regularly scheduled business, advancing several bills proposed for the Regular Session kicking off next month.

Tuesday saw the Senate Health Policy Committee move forward on Sen. Tracie Davis‘ proposal (SB 152) requiring certain health care facilities to install fume extractor systems for surgical smoke, and the same committee OK’d Sen. Jennifer Bradley’s prescription hearing aids bill (SB 126).

Bradley’s proposal continues a yearslong effort to rewrite obsolete state regulations blocking access to mail-order hearing aids — Florida is currently one of only two states in the nation, along with New York, that places a blanket restriction on delivering hearing aids by mail.

The 2025 pitch would allow prescription hearing aids to be delivered by mail so long as an audiologist or hearing aid specialist tests the device before it is sent.

Meanwhile, the Senate Community Affairs Committee cleared legislation by Sen. Jason Brodeur (SB 118) giving the state preemption powers over local governments regarding a future Donald Trump presidential library.

The bill reserves to the state “all regulatory authority over the establishment, maintenance, activities, and operations of presidential libraries.” It blocks “counties, municipalities, or other political subdivisions from enacting or enforcing any ordinance, resolution, rule, or other measure regarding presidential libraries unless authorized by federal law.”

Evening Reads

—“U.S. and Russia pursue partnership in a head-spinning shift in relations” via Anton Troianovski and Ismaeel Naar of The New York Times

—“Marco Rubio is walking into a trap” via Mark Hertling of The Bulwark

—”Donald Trump’s revenge now includes his takeover of the Kennedy Center” via Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times

—“This won’t end well” via Ron Fournier of Convulsions

—”Senate Democrats see ‘flashing red warning’ from DOJ ethics memo” via Ben Penn of Bloomberg Law

—”The Trump administration told a judge Elon Musk does not head DOGE. Huh?” via Andrew Prokop of Vox

—”How COVID pushed a generation of young people to the right” via Derek Thompson of The Atlantic

—“An open letter to Congress” via Ana Maria Rodriguez and Toby Overdorf for Florida Politics

—”High-ranking D.C. federal prosecutor resigns after order to investigate EPA grants” via Carol D. Leonnig and Spencer S. Hsu of The Washington Post

—”My radical proposal to save the NBA All-Star Game” via Chris Cillizza of So What

Quote of the Day

“For three years, no one else has been able to bring something together like what we saw today because Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that can.”

— Secretary of State Macro Rubio, on discussions to normalize U.S.-Russia relations and end the war in Ukraine.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Pour shots of Russian Standard for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who spent the day working to normalize relations with Russia.

Send a Smoked Manhattan to Sen. Tracie Davis, whose surgical smoke amelioration bill receives strong support from Florida nurses.

Tell them not to hold their breath, but Floridians still waiting on insurance payouts from hurricanes Helene and Milton could use a Wait For It.

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

Gators riding high as regular season hits homestretch

The Florida Gators host Oklahoma tonight, and they have a chance to further solidify their spot as one of the top teams in the country (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Florida (22-3, 9-3 SEC) has earned the program’s highest ranking since ending the 2013-2014 season ranked atop the Associated Press Top 25. The Gators have won four straight games, including road victories over #1 Auburn and #22 Mississippi State.

In the latest Bracketology projection by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, the Gators are listed as one of four number-one seeds in March Madness. Florida has entered the NCAA tournament as a number-one seed twice before. In 2014, Florida advanced to the Final Four before losing to Connecticut. In 2007, Florida went on to win a second consecutive national championship.

After tonight’s game, Florida has five regular season games remaining, including three against ranked teams: Texas A&M, Alabama, and Ole Miss.

Oklahoma (16-9, 3-9 SEC) opened the season with 13 consecutive victories in nonconference play. Since opening play in the SEC, the Sooners have struggled. Oklahoma has lost five of the last six games. Tonight’s game is one of 10 against ranked teams in an 11-game stretch. The only unranked team Oklahoma has faced since Jan. 28 was LSU, who beat the Sooners on Saturday 82-79.

All 16 SEC teams make the conference tournament, but seeds nine through 16 play opening-round games. Seeds five through eight enter the second round, while the top four seeds receive byes through to the third round.

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to study how to expand access to in vitro fertilization and make it more affordable.

The order calls for policy recommendations to “protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments,” according to the White House. On the campaign trail, Trump called for universal coverage of IVF treatment after his Supreme Court nominees helped to overturn Roe v. Wade, leading to a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states, including some that have threatened access to IVF by trying to define life as beginning at conception.

Trump, who was at his Florida residence and club Mar-a-Lago, also signed another executive order as well as a presidential memorandum. The second executive order outlined the oversight functions of the Office of Management and Budget, while the presidential memorandum called for more transparency from the government, according to White House staff secretary Will Scharf, whom Trump called to the podium to detail the orders.

The order called for “radical transparency requirements” for the government, requiring it to detail the “waste, fraud and abuse” that’s found as the Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by Elon Musk, looks to cut government spending.

DOGE has often fallen short of the administration’s promises of transparency. Musk has taken questions from journalists only once since becoming Trump’s most powerful adviser, and he’s claimed it’s illegal to name people who are working for him. Sometimes DOGE staff members have demanded access to sensitive government databases with little explanation

According to a fact sheet provided by the White House, Trump’s IVF order will focus on prioritizing whether there are any current policies “that exacerbate the cost of IVF treatments.”

Last year, Trump declared public support for IVF after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. The decision, which some Republicans and conservatives cheered, touched off immediate backlash.

On the campaign trail, IVF quickly became a talking point for Trump, who said he strongly supports its availability.

In vitro fertilization offers a possible solution when a woman has trouble getting pregnant. The procedure involves retrieving her eggs and combining them in a lab dish with a man’s sperm to create a fertilized embryo, which is then transferred into the woman’s uterus in an attempt to create a pregnancy. IVF is done in cycles, and more than one may be required.

“I think the women and families, husbands, are very appreciative of it,” Trump said in brief remarks on the order, before he took questions on a variety of topics.

Barbara Collura, President and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, said that what the White House put out “looks extremely promising.”

“The biggest barriers for people to building their families are the out-of-pocket costs, the lack of insurance coverage for this care,” she said.

Trump took more than 30 minutes of questions on a range of topics and bashed the Biden administration throughout, highlighting issues including its handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and Venezuela policy to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump said he thought he had a “good chance” to end Russia’s war in Ukraine but bristled at suggestions that the U.S. and Russia had begun negotiations to end fighting without Ukraine playing a role. He even seemed to suggest that Ukraine was to blame for a war that began only after Russia invaded that country.

“Today I heard, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump said of Ukraine’s leaders. “You should have never started it.”

In anticipation of questions about his administration’s efforts to slash federal spending, the President said he wrote down examples of government programs around the world which he then listed off at length. They included everything from funding to promote voter turnout in India to social cohesion initiatives in Mali – all of which Trump suggested collectively amounted to fraud.

Asked about the White House arguing in a court filing that Musk wasn’t the head of Trump’s government efficiency efforts, Trump said, “You could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot.”

Trump, who spent the morning at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, spoke to reporters hours before his first joint TV interview with adviser Musk airs in prime time.

Trump and Musk gave their first joint interview to Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel. The interview was taped on Friday at the White House and is set to air as Musk leads Trump’s effort to cut federal spending and slash the federal workforce.

Musk has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress and others for the methods he and his team at DOGE are using to cut spending, including foreign aid, and eliminate jobs across the bureaucracy.

The Fox News interview also follows Musk’s appearance with Trump in the Oval Office last week, when both defended Musk’s approach to federal cost-cutting.

In an excerpt from the interview that Fox News released on Sunday, Musk said he “used to be adored by the left” but “less so these days” because of the work he’s doing at Trump’s direction.

“They call it Trump derangement syndrome. You don’t realize how real this is until you can’t reason with people,” Musk said, adding that normal conversations with Democrats about the President are difficult because “it’s like they’ve become completely irrational.”

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club is the setting Tuesday night for an awards program by America’s Future, a conservative group led by Mike Flynn, who briefly served as national security adviser in the Republican President’s first term. The program aims to preserve individual rights and promote American values and traditions, according to its website. The event, celebrating American exceptionalism, will honor one member from the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and the Space Force.

The event includes a poolside reception, musical performances and dinner in Mar-a-Lago’s Grand Ballroom, where other award presentations are expected from a lineup that includes such names as Russell Brand, Ted Nugent and Mike Tyson.

It’s unclear whether Trump will participate in the event.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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A new measure aims to enhance flexibility and autonomy for charter schools.

Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez filed the bill (SB 822), which amends several provisions and outlines the duties and responsibilities of charter schools and their sponsors to achieve their education goals.

Sponsors would be able to approve a charter for a charter school before the applicant has identified a space, equipment or personnel if the applicant indicates approval would be necessary for it to raise funds. However, a sponsor would be prohibited from imposing its policies on a charter school unless mutually agreed by both parties.

If any agreements in policies are amended by a sponsor, the version of the policy in effect at the time the charter school was executed would remain until the revised policy is mutually agreed on. The sponsor would further be prohibited from holding a charter school responsible for any amended provisions until that happens.

State education goals would be the responsibility of the sponsor, who would be required through state law to ensure the charter school participates in the state’s education accountability system, and any failings to meet performance standards would be required to be reported to the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).

The bill states that sponsors would not be liable for civil damages for personal injury, property damage or death resulting from an act or omission of an officer, employee, agent or governing body of the charter school. Sponsors would also not be liable for any civil damages, and the bill notes that the sponsors’ duties to monitor the charter school do not constitute the basis for a private cause of action.

Imposing additional reporting requirements would be restricted, as long as the charter school has not been identified as having a deteriorating financial condition or a financial emergency. Sponsors would be required to submit an annual report to the FDOE.

Charter school governing boards would be authorized to adopt their own student conduct codes. These codes must meet or exceed minimum standards set by the sponsor’s code of conduct, and the governing board would resolve any complaints or appeals related to the code.

Board members and school employees would be required to undergo background screenings, and if an individual is on the disqualification list maintained by the FDOE, they would be unable to serve on the governing board or work at the charter school.

High-performing charter schools would be required to notify its sponsor in writing by March 1, if it intends to increase enrollment or expand grade levels the following school year. High-performing charter schools would be able to request to assume an existing charter, of which the sponsor would have 40 days to respond and provide an initial draft.

The sponsor and charter school would have 50 days thereafter to negotiate and write up the charter contract for final approval by the sponsor.

A Florida College System institution may work with the school district or school districts in its area to develop charter schools that offer secondary education, requiring that these charter schools include an option for students to receive an associate degree upon graduating from high school.

If passed, the bill would come into effect July 1.

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