House Speaker Daniel Perez is having his say after days of attacks from Gov. Ron DeSantis.

After Wednesday’s floor session, Perez responded to “lies and stories that never happened” and “temper tantrums” from the Chief Executive, in the latest indication that the bad blood flows both ways.

“It seems that we’re getting into this regularity where he has a temper tantrum. He gets in front of a camera and he starts to do one of two things,” Perez said. “Willingly choosing to lie about what he is telling the people in front of a camera, or he is choosing not to read the bills or look at our budget.”

Perez took issue with DeSantis claiming that the House refused to meet with Amanda Gerhardt and Kat Turner, two wives of cops who were upset by the House’s budget proposals.

Perez said they in fact did meet and had a “great conversation” about what the House has done for cops, which “ended cordially.”

“The meeting request was made by the two women that I met with, and we had a phenomenal meeting together. And I’m thankful that they took the time to come to Tallahassee and to meet with members of the House,” Perez said, before going back on the attack against DeSantis.

“But what you have is a Governor that is speaking one way and acting in a completely different way. And I’m okay, I’ll play the part. You can go on TV and do what he does. It’s okay. We’re big boys, we’re big girls. We have thick skin. But I’m not going to allow him to lie.”

The Speaker also discussed First Lady Casey DeSantis’ charity, Hope Florida, suggesting the unfolding scandal about the $10 million that Centene gave the charity — that ultimately ended up in a political committee helmed by DeSantis’ former Chief of Staff and current Attorney General James Uthmeier — was the tip of the reform iceberg.

“The House is definitely trying to restructure and rewrite the way that Tallahassee functions today. Just because it’s functioned a certain way for the last several decades doesn’t mean that it’s been functioning in the proper posture,” Perez explained.

“We are looking to change the House, of course. That is the No. 1 priority. But there is more that is involved with this process that doesn’t involve the House. But whatever we control, whatever comes through the legislative process, we are considering change on — not for the sake of changing something, but for the sake of making something better, more transparent and more accountable.”

Perez suggested there could be “a way to claw back the money and give it back to its intended purpose,” though it’s not clear how, given that it was programmed during the 2024 campaign cycle.

Regardless, he expects “more of that information when we start to receive responses from the agencies that we’ve requested documents from.”

DeSantis has called the House probe into the charity a “total flop,” a “hoax” and a “manufactured fraud.” But it’s clear the bully pulpit tactics have not intimidated Perez and his colleagues, who seem intent on reversing six years of legislative passiveness and reasserting the prerogatives of their branch of government.

Post Views: 0

Legislation aimed at safeguarding minors from online predators is heading to the Senate floor after clearing its last committee hurdle.

The Senate Rules Committee voted 21-0 for SB 868, which would require social media companies to provide Florida law enforcement authorities with tools to decrypt encrypted messages if the user is underage.

Police and prosecutors would have to present the companies with a subpoena or warrant to gain access to messages. The bill would also require companies to grant a minor’s parent or legal guardian access to all the child’s accounts, and the platforms would be forbidden from allowing minors to use or access messages designed to disappear, like those on Snapchat and Instagram.

The bill, sponsored by Spring Hill Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, faced opposition Wednesday from more than a dozen youths and tech advocacy groups like NetChoice and TechNet. Many contended that decryption would compromise the online security of all users, citing examples of governments and private companies being breached in recent years, including several in Florida.

GrayRobinson lobbyist Chris Carmody, representing Facebook parent Meta, said that when it comes to end-to-end encryption, it’s an all or nothing equation.

“If you create a key to unlock it, you’ve now unlocked everything or potentially unlocked everything,” he said. “The way this bill is drafted right now, that would do just that. It would create a backdoor.”

Ingoglia rejected that assertion as an “industry talking point” that social media giants are using to skirt what in every other situation would be a clear black-and-white issue. He also balked at claims that conforming to the bill’s dictates is too tall or expensive a task to be possible for them.

“We are now in an environment today where we’re talking about AI micro-nano-computers moving through the bloodstream of humans, being able to potentially detect cancer cells in people. That’s how advanced we’re getting,” Ingoglia said.

“They cannot tell me with a straight face that they cannot code something that can decrypt something on a one-time basis for the purpose of retrieving the evidence needed in court to put sexual predators away and then close the door right behind them.”

SB 868 would build on a law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year that prohibits children under 14 from having social media accounts and requires parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. It is one of the most stringent social media bans in the country and faces an ongoing legal challenge.

Ingoglia decided to file SB 868 after participating in state sting operations to catch online predators and seeing the disturbing activity firsthand. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 1 in 5 children per year receive unwanted sexual solicitation online. One in 33 are targets of aggressive sexual solicitation, which involves pushes by the culprit to make offline contact. And at any given time, some 50,000 predators are on the internet actively seeking out children.

State Attorney Amira Fox of the 20th Judicial Circuit said it isn’t just some social media sites that are contributing to the problem; it’s all of them, it’s getting worse and the companies aren’t helping to fix it.

“This is attracting a lot of people who want end-to-end encryption for nefarious purposes, so when we issue a subpoena now … we get back, ‘We don’t have anything.’ They can’t report this anymore because they can’t see it. … This is incredibly dangerous.”

State Attorney Brian Haas of the 10th Judicial Circuit offered a similar perspective. But when asked by Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor, to say which companies have been uncooperative, Haas declined to offer specifics.

“It’s more than I can name,” he said.

“Name one,” Pizzo retorted. Haas didn’t.

Pizzo also asked Ingoglia whether SB 868 would, in effect, mandate social media companies to acquire more physical space for servers on which the otherwise disappearing messages must be stored, and for how long. He noted that in cases of physical crimes like robbery and murder, CCTV footage prosecutors sometimes use is often on a loop that lasts for a finite timespan.

Ingoglia said it was a good question and would ask law enforcement officials and prosecutors whether there was a time limit that runs “concurrent with the statute of limitations on some of this stuff.”

The bill’s House companion (HB 743) by Republican Reps. Michelle Salzman of Escambia County and Tyler Sirois of Merritt Island has one more committee hurdle to surmount before reaching a full vote by the chamber.

Post Views: 0

Whoever get elected as Lt. Governor next year would instead take on a new Cabinet position tasked with Florida’s own DOGE efforts under a House proposal advancing Wednesday.

With a a 82-32 vote, the House passed a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot to eliminate the Governor’s No. 2 while also creating the Office of Government Efficiency to audit state and local governments or special districts for wasteful spending.

“This is not a sledgehammer; this is a scalpel,” said HJR 1325 sponsor Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican. “Florida is going to take a scalpel to government efficiency. We’re going to look at waste, fraud and abuse. … There is nothing reckless about pursuing value and good customer service for the taxpayers of our state.”

The original bill called for the Legislature to initially appoint the first Commissioner of Government Efficiency (COGE) into the new Cabinet position. From then on, the COGE would be elected. 

But an amendment that passed Wednesday changed the proposal, so whoever the Governor picks as a running mate would automatically be named the new COGE for a four-year term until voters decided on the COGE going forward in future years.

By 2044, voters could repeal the constitutional amendment — “a provision of this bill that we should all take some level of comfort in,” Sirois said.

Democrats raised the concern if the incoming Lt. Governor didn’t possess the right skills as COGE to replace the Auditor General.

The move would permanently get rid of the Lt. Governor’s position which is currently vacant following Jeanette Nuñez’s departure to become Interim President of Florida International University.

Both sides of the aisle brought up concerns during Wednesday’s debate.

Rep. Mike Caruso, a Delray Beach Republican, criticized it as a “useless bill.”

“This bill gives the Office of the Auditor General a fancy new name, promises to spend a bunch of money and then pats ourselves on the back, except when the dust settles, the new law doesn’t actually make a difference,” he argued.

Meanwhile Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, worried COGE was trying to mirror the controversy happening at the federal level with Elon Musk.

“What we’ve seen at the federal government with Elon Musk has been a disaster in creating complete chaos at the federal level, terminating employees with no notice, eliminating departments that focus on research and public health and … national parks,” Eskamani said. 

Sirois argued his bill isn’t copying the federal government since Florida is unique with a lean, balanced budget.

“There is a national conversation that is going on about how we can introduce new efficiencies, new savings,” he said. “Where can we root out government that is not serving the people?”

Post Views: 0