Politics
‘Pro-consumer’ insurance bill flies through first Senate stop with unanimous support
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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Politics
Top House Democrats seek DOGE details, questioning if it operates ‘outside the bounds’ of U.S. law
Top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration’s DOGE Service is operating “outside the bounds of federal law,” The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Gerald Connolly of Virginia are seeking detailed information about the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency Service, including billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and some 40 other people, to carry out firings of federal workers and dismantling of federal agencies.
They also are requesting detailed information about DOGE’s access to sensitive data, its use of artificial intelligence, the resumes and training of its staff and its communications related to Musk-held entities including SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla.
“The Administration and Mr. Musk have hidden behind a veil of secrecy as they systematically dismantle the federal government of the United States,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason accompanying the FOIA request, which was obtained by the AP. “The American people deserve answers, and we are committed to using every tool at our disposal to expose the truth about DOGE’s operations.”
They are seeking expedited review of the request, with a response within 20 days.
The FOIA request is the latest in an escalating confrontation between Congress and the executive branch as President Donald Trump is rapidly slashing routine aspects of the federal government by doing away with thousands of workers and unwinding various longstanding agencies and services.
While generally anyone can file a FOIA request, the Democrats on the panels are utilizing the avenues at their disposal as the minority party to press for oversight of the Republican administration any way they can. It’s also a potential step toward more binding measures, including legal action.
In the FOIA request, Raskin and Connolly, who are the ranking Democrats on the committees, wrote that the information is necessary “to provide answers to the many open questions and an explanation to the public.”
They said, “There exist possible questions concerning the government’s integrity regarding DOGE’s operations, formation, and activity, which form the basis of this request, as many of DOGE’s actions may be outside the bounds of federal law.”
It’s unclear if the Trump administration will respond.
Trump and Musk have shown little regard for the protests coming from Democrats — and some Republicans — in Congress as their teams march across the federal government. Musk has vowed transparency, but the Democrats noted he has met privately with House and Senate Republicans.
The Trump administration is purging employees, shuttering federal agencies and otherwise disrupting operations in the name of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. Some 100 lawsuits have been filed, with judges slowing and stopping some actions, while allowing others.
In the sweeping request, the Democrats seek four main types of information about the authority involved with DOGE’s activity: its access to sensitive data; the guidance and decision-making around its firings of federal employees; the potential conflicts of interest around its leadership; and its internal communications.
They seek the names, job titles and qualifications of DOGE staffers who have “been granted access to personally identifiable or sensitive information” since inauguration day, Jan. 20, and their purpose for doing so.
Additionally, they want to know about the various computer programs, including but “not limited to, artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), your agency is using to store, process or analyze personally identifiable or sensitive information or data.”
The request seeks all DOGE directives, guidance and analyses around the firing of federal workers, including the dismissal of Inspectors General, and the undoing of various government agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education and others.
Democrats are also requesting information about DOGE’s authority to direct and execute these directives as well as details around the funding of DOGE operations.
Musk, DOGE Administrator Gleason and some 40 other employees are listed in the FOIA request, which seeks information about their resumes, salaries, any conflict of interest waivers and any non-disclosure agreements involving their employment.
The request also seeks all communication from those workers, including via text message, and various messaging platforms, and specifically around key words including Musk-related entities SpaceX, Starlink, Twitter, Tesla and others.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
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European companies factor it in. But the Naples Republican says maybe they shouldn’t.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds continues to weigh in on Florida’s insurance market as he runs for Governor, now suggesting that foreign companies and “climate change” analyses are partially to blame for high costs for homeowners.
“A lot of these reinsurance companies, a lot of them who are out of Europe, they’ve been trying to price in climate change risk, which is almost impossible to quantify, but that’s been in the calculations for how insurance companies have to stabilize their portfolios and their risk,” Donalds said on Rich Valdes’ “America at Night.”
The phrase “climate change” has been one that has dogged the current Governor.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation last year striking it from state law.
DeSantis has said he’s “not a global warming person” and has complained about “politicizing the weather” but when he was running for President, he acknowledged the impact of human activities on weather patterns.
Donalds’ interviewer Tuesday night did not ask him if he believes climate change actually exists, but the Naples Republican suggested that it shouldn’t matter to reinsurers in assessing Florida’s market.
In addition to blaming European financiers for Florida’s problems, Donalds also said federal fiscal policy was driving up costs to “rebuild property” because “overspending inflates costs.”
Donalds previously said his goal is to “find a way to stabilize costs” by “reexamining some of our reinsurance capital requirements, reexamining cap requirements on insurance carriers,” along with a “lot of other things that we’re going to have to get into and really figure out how to synthesize the Florida insurance market so it can become a little bit more affordable for the people of Florida.”
The new language suggests that his position on the issue is still evolving.
His position matters to voters.
Polling last month from the Associated Industries of Florida Center for Political Strategy found that a third of voters see insurance costs as the biggest issue facing Florida.
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