A construction project to expand a busy stretch of Interstate 75 known for traffic jams is getting sped up, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference in Ocala.

DeSantis had previously announced his Moving Florida Forward plan to spend $4 billion over five years to tackle more than 20 road constructions in congested areas across the state.

“With Moving Florida Forward, we are able to infuse $541 million to accelerate this I-75 project, where we are creating more lanes on I-75 between State Road 44 and State Road 326. That is going to make a difference for people,” DeSantis said at Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. “I saw the traffic and I’m like, ‘I’ve got money in the kitty. We can’t wait 15 years. We’ve got to get going now.’”

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue called the area “one of the worst sections of interstate in the entire state of Florida.”

“We’re super excited about this investment, and you’re going to start to see a lot of work happening out there,” Perdue said.

DeSantis’ infrastructure plan targets several interstate and major roadways that are increasingly more congested as Florida’s population has exploded in recent years. Packed roads can also impede hurricane evacuations, DeSantis said at the press conference.

DeSantis used the press conference as an opportunity to clap back over social distancing rules other states had at the height of the pandemic. The remarks came when he mentioned one of the road constructions is to widen U.S. 98 in Bay County to give more access to Panama City Beach.

“You were in the Panhandle, you didn’t even know COVID existed,” DeSantis said offhandedly. “And their Summer of 2020 was the bestSummer for them in terms of revenue.”

Redoing the I-75 interchange will create an opportunity to bring a Buc-ee’s convenience store by the exit, DeSantis said.

“Who has been to a Buc–ee’s before? OK, most of you,” DeSantis asked the crowd during his press conference. “It’s like the Shangri-La of service stations. It is unbelievable. It’s merchandise. You want beef jerky, they make it onsite. Barbecue, ice cream, baked goods, I mean, you name it.”

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The “eyeball wars” between ophthalmologists and optometrists will flare up again this year after Rep. Alex Rizo filed new legislation (HB 449).

Opposed by ophthalmologists, the measure again seeks to allow optometrists in advertisements to call themselves a Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) or an “optometric physician,” despite significant differences in medical training and education.

Ophthalmologists complete medical school and a required residency, which typically represents a decade or more of medical training and more than 17,000 hours of patient contact training before such medical doctors are permitted to practice on their own. By contrast, optometrists complete a four-year course in optometry, and not all of the programs require a college degree. The training does not include a residency nor surgical training.

Rizo’s bill would, among other provisions, allow optometrists to advertise themselves as an optometrist, licensed optometrist, a doctor of optometry, optometric physician, board certified optometrist, American Board of Optometry certified, a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, a Fellow of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, residency-trained, or a diplomate of the American Board of Optometry.

It also includes revisions to existing law that would broaden an optometrist’s scope of practice to include additional surgical procedures and prescribing authority.

Ophthalmologists and their advocacy groups, as they have in past years, oppose the measure, arguing it is dangerous and unnecessary and that it would lead patients to assume optometrists are on the same level as ophthalmologists, despite lesser medical and academic training.

Opposition groups point to peer-reviewed medical research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing increased incidence of necessary follow-up surgery when procedures are performed by an optometrist rather than an ophthalmologist. That includes a 189% increased risk of additional necessary treatments following laser treatments performed by optometrists compared to the same laser treatment performed by an ophthalmologist.

Optometrists, meanwhile, argue the scope of practice legislation is needed to expand access to eye care by increasing the number of practitioners available. But ophthalmologists argue that most Floridians live within a 30-minute drive to an ophthalmologist, and that there is currently no backlog of patients seeking ophthalmologic care in the state.

Rizo has fired back against critics.

“What exactly this bill does (is make it so) you don’t have to go to an ophthalmologist, necessarily, if there’s a condition that calls for this particular procedure or pain medication,” he previously told Florida Politics. “No surgery, nothing like that. It’s basically an advanced first-aid procedure to release inter-corneal pressure.”

Rizo carried a similar bill in 2021, but it and its Senate analogue died before reaching a floor vote.

The “eyeball wars” date back years, at least to Sen. Don Gaetz’s reign as Senate President, a leadership role he held from 2012 until 2014.

Gaetz coined the term “eyeball wars” and in 2013, he believed he resolved the turf war between ophthalmologists and optometrists. The two sides settled on a compromise allowing optometrists to prescribe oral medications, but not to perform surgery.

But the fight resurfaced a few years later.

A similar bill to this year’s effort (SB 1112) died last Session after a failure to reconcile between the House and the Senate. Then-Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, whose father was an ophthalmologist, filed priority legislation that would have blocked the use of the term doctor or physician in certain circumstances, including for optometrists.

The House amended the bill to allow optometrists to use the terms in advertisements. Passidomo had been successful in ushering the measure through (2023’s SB 230), but Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it. Rizo voted that year against efforts to allow optometrists to refer to themselves as doctors of optometry.

Rizo filed this year’s bill on Feb. 6. It’s been referred to two committees: the Health Professions and Programs Subcommittee and the Health and Human Services Committee. It’s awaiting its first hearing in Health Professions and Programs.

A Senate companion has not yet been filed.

If passed and signed by the Governor, the measure would take effect July 1.

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