The Senate Rules Committee unanimously passed a measure Monday that seeks to improve the safety and preparedness of public and charter schools when responding to medical emergencies like anaphylaxis.

Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos Smith presented the bill (SB 1514) that is focused on ensuring school personnel are trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis and administer epinephrine during emergencies that happen on school campuses.

“Students with life-threatening allergies face significant challenges in school settings,” Smith said. “Anaphylaxis for example, is a severe life-threatening allergic reaction which can occur rapidly and can be fatal if not treated immediately, and it’s typically triggered by food allergens, insect stings, medications, even latex.”

Schools would be required to have student emergency action plans accessible at all times during school activities with the aim to proactively manage allergic reactions, especially during extracurricular programs, athletic events, school dances, and before- and after-school programs.

“According to the Florida Department of Health, approximately 76,000 students in Florida have these types of life-threatening allergies,” Smith said. “For these students, the prompt use of an epinephrine auto injector can be lifesaving.”

The State Board of Education would be required to consult with the Department of Health to adopt rules needed to implement the legislation if it passes, including an approved training curriculum for staff.

“Under the bill, both traditional and charter public schools in K-8 will be required to be ready and able to implement emergency action plans for students with allergies at all times, while the student is on school grounds,” Smith said. “It requires an adequate number of school personnel to undergo critical, but simple and straightforward training on the administration of emergency epinephrine, or EpiPens.”

Smith added that free training for anaphylactic events already exists and should not have a large fiscal impact on the state budget.

The bill will now move to the Senate Floor.

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The Hope Florida Foundation’s attorney said he likely won’t attend a high-profile House committee hearing. But Rep. Alex Andrade said that may delay his testimony for a day.

Attorney Jeff Aaron told the Orlando Sentinel he could attend on a Wednesday or Friday, but could not go this Thursday. He also stressed health issues within his family.

That’s the day the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee plans to question Amy Ronshausen, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, about money received from the Hope Florida Foundation. Lawmakers also want to ask Aaron about that.

“Rest assured that I am willing to testify,” Aaron wrote in an email to the House.

Andrade requested that time be allowed for an additional meeting on Friday to question only Aaron, and he said many statements already made public by the attorney appear to show conflicting direction and advice passed among the involved parties. Namely, the Committee has testimony that Aaron believed grants could be awarded to agencies without Board approval. Still, it advised that the Drug Free America Foundation must request grants from the Board.

Andrade said an ongoing House investigation of the matter requires representatives to get testimony from Aaron.

“If he doesn’t show up, we have got to subpoena him or accommodate his schedule,” Andrade said. “I’ve already requested we have time on Friday for an extra special meeting just for him.”

The controversy around the grants has escalated tensions between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida House this year. Hope Florida has been an initiative driven by First Lady Casey DeSantis, who continues to mull a run for Governor, but the foundation has come under fire over the grants. After receiving $10 million from a Medicaid settlement, the Foundation awarded the money to two anti-drug foundations, which then donated it to a political committee that opposed last year’s marijuana decriminalization amendment.

James Uthmeier, then the Governor’s Chief of Staff, was Committee Chair. Since then, DeSantis appointed Uthmeier as Florida’s Attorney General; he has maintained that there was no wrongdoing surrounding the transfer of money.

Andrade has yet to question Uthmeier, but said he continues to find new revelations about the management of Hope Florida each day. And he said it will not surprise him if federal prosecutors open an investigation into the redirection of funding.

“Our Attorney cannot with a straight face go after anyone for wire fraud or money laundering,” Andrade said.

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House lawmakers are taking a years-long effort to abolish or defund VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s public-private tourism promotion apparatus, to the local level.

In the most recent iteration of the chamber’s tax package (HB 7033), the House Ways and Means Committee put all 62 tourist development councils in Florida on the chopping block.

Just a single sentence would effectuate the change: “Any tourist development council created pursuant to s. 125.0104 (4) (e), Florida Statutes, as it existed prior to July 1, 2025, shall be dissolved no later than Dec. 1, 2025.”

That targets every tourist development council from Florida’s southernmost county of Monroe to its northwesternmost county of Escambia.

All but five counties in Florida have tourist development councils, and in recent years, the GOP-controlled Legislature has taken aim at them.

In 2023, House leaders proposed cutting state funding for VISIT FLORIDA and filling in the gap with a cut of each county’s tourism tax revenue. Large counties would have contributed 5% of their tourism tax revenues, while smaller, rural counties would have chipped in 2%.

VISIT FLORIDA, in exchange, would have directed 75% of its spending to assist tourism industries in rural counties, state forests and state parks.

Cape Coral Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo, who sponsored the 2023 proposal, told the Miami Herald at the time that Florida’s wide-open policies during and after COVID — not its tourism marketing — made the state among the hottest destinations in the country.

Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon said the change Giallombardo’s proposal contemplated amounted to “Robin Hooding” funds from large counties to smaller ones.

Lawmakers ultimately decided against the move, instead infusing VISIT FLORIDA with a $30 million funding boost.

Now tourist development councils are in legislators’ crosshairs.

So are county tourism promotion agencies such as the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, Visit Orlando and Visit St. Pete-Clearwater — though nowhere near as harshly.

HB 7033 also includes language that would abolish any existing tourism promotion agency, but only if it doesn’t receive approval by its County Commission by Dec. 31, and only for the purposes outlined in a related resolution.

Those purposes must be in accordance with Section 125.012 (25) of Florida Statutes, which state that the objective of such an organization is to “publicize, advertise, and promote the activities and projects herein authorized; to make known the advantages, facilities, resources, products, attractions, and attributes of the activities and projects authorized; to create a favorable climate of opinion concerning the activities and projects authorized; to cooperate with other agencies, public and private, in accomplishing these purposes; and in furtherance thereof, to authorize expenditures for the purposes here enumerated, including meals, hospitality, and entertainment of persons in the interest of promoting and engendering good will towards the activities and projects authorized.”

HB 7033 contemplates several other notable changes, including new considerations for tourism development taxes, affordable housing and how taxes can be levied on parking spaces at RV parks, among other things.

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