A bill critics say would disrupt the ability of American citizens to adopt children or use a surrogate from China passed through the House on Tuesday.
A provision banning adoption or surrogacy from any foreign country of concern, which in Florida law includes China, was added to HB 905 on the floor.
The underlying bill, named the Foreign Interference Restriction and Enforcement (FIRE) Act, would “protect” the state from ideologies inconsistent with American principles.
It passed on an 86-20 mostly party-line vote, with a handful of Democrats voting with Republicans. Before the amendment, which prohibits adoption and surrogacy if any party in the contract is a citizen or a resident of a foreign country of concern, the bill carried bipartisan support.
Bill sponsor Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, cited a case out of California, where a Chinese couple, raising 21 children in one home, is under investigation for child abuse. Most of the children were born from surrogates.
“It’s time to act,” Persons-Mulicka said. “I don’t want to wait until multiple babies are born in the state of Florida and shipped to China to be raised under Chinese control before we take action.”
Democrats argued the amendment hadn’t been vetted by adoption and surrogate attorneys and could potentially have unintended consequences for parents trying to adopt children from foreign countries like China.
But Persons-Mulicka said the amendment would not “impact, affect or prohibit any family within the state of Florida who is either a citizen or legally here in the state of Florida from utilizing adoption or surrogacy.”
The surrogacy measure was originally a small part of a bill (SB 1680) filed by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, that would have overhauled the state’s surrogacy and fertility clinic policies but was never heard in committee this year.
State law lists China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria as foreign countries of concern.
Persons-Mulicka called the bill a “comprehensive package” that “tells China and our foreign adversaries that we are paying attention and to think twice before targeting Florida for influence and interference operations.”
The bill bars the state from spending or receiving money from a terrorist organization and establishes a state designation for domestic and foreign terrorist organizations.
It also adds restrictions to K-12 and higher education institutions, prohibiting school voucher funds to go to a school that promotes or that is affiliated with a terrorist organization.
And it would require a public university or college to report to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security if a student on a student visa is “promoting terrorism.” The school would also be required to expel the student.
The bill has gone through several recent changes due to the United States’ rapidly changing international relations with countries of concern like Cuba.
Both the Senate and the House versions were amended to address the scenario if Cuba’s status is changed federally to allow it to be suspended from Florida’s list of countries of concern. Cuba has been ruled by a communist leader since 1959, and many Cubans fled the regime, making their home in South Florida in the decades since.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump recently suggested a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, saying the country was “in big trouble.”