Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to ride a wave of popularity among Florida voters, who also support many of his public policy priorities, including the importation of prescription drugs from Canada to reduce costs to Floridians and the creation of a task force to reduce the impact of harmful algae blooms, according to a statewide survey by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative (FAU BEPI).
State employees have been thrown into the drug importation mix.
Amid a push by Gov. Ron DeSantis to allow Canadian prescription-drug imports, the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a bill that would require the Florida Department of Management Services to offer an international prescription-drug program as a benefit to state employees.
The proposal is included in a bill (HB 5009) that would conform state law to the House’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-2020. The Senate has not included the drug-importation option in its budget bills.
Florida patients can now smoke medical marijuana, but some Republican legislative leaders want to put a limit on how high they can get when lighting up.
The House is considering a proposal that would cap THC levels in medical marijuana at 10 percent, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, said in an interview with The News Service of Florida.
No bill has been filed, and Rodrigues, who’s shepherded medical-marijuana legislation in the House since low-THC cannabis was first authorized in 2014, said legislation is still “up in the air.”
This week, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., brought back his proposal to offer employees of small businesses better retirement benefits.
Buchanan introduced his “Retirement Security for American Workers Act” back in February 2017. When he talked about the proposal at the end of 2016, he said his legislation “makes it less costly for small businesses to offer retirement benefits, and could help the more than 76 million Americans who work for companies that do not offer the opportunity to save for a secure retirement.”
After winning a second term earlier this month, Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam has launched a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
It's not often, if ever, I've picked a bone with even-handed News Service of Florida. But the bias in NSF's Tuesday story, "Group Works to Sway 'Sanctuary Cities' Bill," sticks out like a chapel hat peg.
Writer Ana Ceballos "exposed" the interest various groups have shown to help Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, draft SB 168, his red-hot bill to ban sanctuary cities in Florida.
A push by Florida’s business community to tackle the state’s workers’ compensation insurance laws could be poised to fail again this year.
As legislators near the midway point of the 60-day session, the possibility is fading that groups representing major corporations, retailers and small businesses can win changes to the complicated system designed to provide health benefits to injured workers.
A House panel this week unanimously approved a proposal (HB 1399) that could result in a 5 percent reduction in the workers’ compensation insurance rates paid by employers.
