Florida’s tradition of pro-Israel legislation is on track to continue in 2025, as Senate and House measures punishing so-called academic boycotts are moving through committees.

An anti-boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) measure (SB 1678) that would defend Israel against its opponents in schools and non-governmental agencies advanced through the Senate Appropriations Committee with unanimous support. The companion measure (HB 1519) cleared the House State Affairs Committee by a 23-2 vote.

Sen. Tom Leek, the Senate sponsor, said the bill was necessary to stop “attempts to weaken the state’s ability to conduct trade and exchange with Israel” and to “close the loop on prior good work” by the Legislature in combating anti-Israel sentiment that “often amounts to ethnic and religious discrimination.”

Rep. Hillary Cassel, the House sponsor, extolled the “mutually beneficial relationship” and “economic partnership between Florida and Israel” by contextualizing previous anti-BDS laws and making the case for the proposal, which she said would ensure that “this is where antisemitism goes to die in Florida.”

The measures propose that anti-Israeli actions undertaken by “an educational institution, a nonprofit organization, an agency, a local governmental entity or unit thereof, or a foreign government” amount to an “academic boycott.”

They also would mandate cessation of state contracts and grants with those entities on the wrong side of the ideological conflict if they don’t change their ways.

These entities would have 90 days to correct their noncompliance and be removed from what would be called the Scrutinized Companies or Other Entities that Boycott Israel List under this proposal. Otherwise, the state would divest itself of contracts with them.

If the bill is passed, public funds, such as the State Board of Administration or State University System, cannot invest in these companies. Additionally, it requires that arts and culture grants not go to support antisemitic work.

The bill would also target agreements, like foreign exchange programs, with foreign universities deemed to be supporting antisemitism.

In the Senate panel, Leek was asked about “guardrails” protecting free speech, and cited court precedent establishing the right to pass anti-BDS laws.

The House discussion was more lively, with Cassel asked about whether an individual doing a “Nazi salute” would represent a violation of the law, whether “commercial speech” was protected speech, and whether “unscripted” remarks in art installations could merit a grace period for “correction.”

Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich argued that the slippery slope from criticism of Israel to overt antisemitism in today’s culture make this legislation “extremely needed.”

“It now turns to beyond just being Israeli but being Jewish,” the legislator from Palm Beach said. “Many of you have heard this story where I’ve been out of gas station, someone’s seen my Jewish star and wished I crashed and died and called me a Jewish murderer.”

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Four words. That’s all it takes to unravel a parent’s world: “Your child is sick.”

The diagnosis is rare, the prognosis grim. He’s only six, but there’s hope: a new kind of treatment that can be customized to his DNA — a marvel of modern medicine promised for decades that is now a reality.

The potential cure has a gatekeeper, though. While the clock continues to tick, the government won’t allow your child to try this last chance at saving his life.

More than 2 million Floridians suffer from rare diseases, and for thousands of them, outdated federal regulations and the entanglement of bureaucracy continue to block cutting-edge treatments that could mean the difference between life and death. But now, lawmakers in Florida have an opportunity to place life-and-death decisions back in the hands of patients and their doctors, where they belong.

Florida leaders can enact a new law, the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments, that allows Floridians with rare diseases to access innovative, highly personalized treatments without first begging the federal government for permission.

The problem isn’t hypothetical. It’s tragically real.

Take Elijah Stacy, for example. At just 6 years old, doctors gave Elijah a crushing diagnosis. He had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare, incurable, and fatal genetic disease that slowly erodes muscle strength and robs young people of their independence. As they reach adolescence, DMD patients start losing strength in their arms. Eventually, their heart and diaphragm weaken, too. Death typically comes by the mid-twenties.

Waiting on the government to go through reviews and testing, granting approvals, and making recommendations isn’t a luxury someone like Elijah can afford.

When Elijah was only 11, the disease had already taken away his ability to walk. Now, at 23, he’s struggling to use his arms. But that hasn’t stopped him and he’s not saying goodbye. Elijah has led the fight for his life — and the lives of thousands of others — by advocating for the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments.

The reform, which is now law in nine states and currently under consideration in the Florida Legislature with HB 1333/SB 680, defies a federal system that prizes red tape over relief, rules over recovery, and leaves dying patients trapped as they wait for the end to come. It recognizes that those facing debilitating, rare diseases need action now and allows patients to access cutting-edge therapies tailored to their genetic profiles, even if the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve.

“Right now, I can be willing to try a new treatment, the manufacturer of the treatment can be willing to allow me to try it, and a doctor can be willing to administer it — yet Uncle Sam is not willing and stops me from receiving a lifesaving treatment,” Elijah said. “This is completely backwards. After all, doctors know their patients better than a far-off bureaucrat who doesn’t even know the patient exists. Why should I have to beg the federal government for permission to try to save my own life?”

Elijah’s story is far from unique. Tens of millions of Americans, including thousands in Florida, live with rare diseases and want to try anything they can. Although new technology has ushered in an age of personalized care customized to a patient’s unique DNA, regulations have not kept pace, leaving many stranded. Too often, those suffering from degenerative or rare diseases have to wait years for a therapy that could help them today.

By enacting the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments, Florida lawmakers can advocate for some of the state’s most vulnerable, empowering them to fight to save their own lives despite distant regulators standing between them, their doctors, and a treatment.

“The reality for me is that I’m going to die, likely before I reach middle-age,” Elijah explains. “The average lifespan for people with Duchenne is 25. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

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Brian Norman is the director of State Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, where he assists in developing and implementing Goldwater’s national legislative affairs strategy.

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One day after its Senate companion cleared its final committee stop, a House bill allowing Miami Beach to pay the sizable balance of a wrongful death settlement is also headed for a floor vote.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously for HB 6519, which would authorize Miami Beach to pay $1.7 million to the family of Peniel “P.J. Janvier, a 28-year-old city employee who drowned in a community pool last year.

Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras, the measure’s sponsor in the House, presented the bill to the panel Wednesday, but kept his comments short. The bill received nothing but “yes” votes in the chamber.

Its upper-chamber analog (SB 14) by Miami Gardens Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones fared nearly as well; only Pensacola Republican Sen. Don Gaetz voted against the measure.

HB 6519 is known as a claims bill, a special classification of legislation intended to compensate a person or entity for injury or loss due to the negligence or error of a public officer or agency.

Claims bills arise when the damages a claimant seeks are above the thresholds set in Florida’s sovereign immunity law, which today caps payouts at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.

The latter sum is what Janvier’s family has received since May 2024, when the Miami Beach City Commission approved a $2 million settlement.

Janvier, an Army Reserve member and recreation leader with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, was visiting kids he oversaw during Summer camp on Aug. 16, 2022, at the Scott Rakow Youth Center’s outdoor pool.

Video footage recorded Janvier being pushed by a camper into the pool’s deep end. He struggled for 12 minutes as kids tried to save him and a lifeguard on duty was transfixed with his phone.

Miami Beach later suspended two employees and fired a third over the incident and agreed to pay Janvier’s family, who have only seen $300,000 of the agreed-to sum. Janvier’s LinkedIn page features a work history indicative of a civically engaged young man who enjoyed working with people. He worked as an activities coordinator for the Pompano Health and Rehabilitation Center before becoming a youth recreation specialist with Miami-Dade County, a job he parlayed into his recreation leader post with the city that he’d held for three years before his death.

He was also close to marking three years working as a sanitation inspector for the city of Miami and was nearing six years with the Army Reserve, where he was a heavy equipment operator.

His LinkedIn page says he held a master’s degree in health services administration and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Florida International University.

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