The Florida legislature is winding down its 2023 session and lawmakers are wrapping up work of the few remaining bills that are pending. Here to give us an update is Rachel Witbracht, director of government relations for the University of West Florida.
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Rachel Witbracht: We are in the last week of sessions. We're just a couple of days away from Sine die, which is the word the legislature uses for the end of session. Session will be ending on Friday. They have a lot going on this week. This week, the legislature finally passed a bill that would tackle big pharma and prescription drug prices. So this was presented to Governor DeSantis, and it's SB 1550, the Prescription Drug Reform Act. So, pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, act as something of a middleman in the healthcare system — they contract with health insurers, self-insured, employers, and governments to play roles, including negotiating drug prices with manufacturers, establishing pharmacy networks and paying claims. PBM critics argue that their practices are anti-competitive and predatory, with just three PBMs controlling 80% of the prescription market here in Florida. So, SB 1550, according to Governor DeSantis, will enhance transparency and reduce the influence of pharmacy middlemen, which will help consumers as well as our small pharmacies. The bill increases registration requirements of PBMs to ensure more comprehensive evaluation is conducted prior to them doing business here in Florida. Right now, PBMs pay a mere $5 registration fee and disclose very limited details about themselves to the state. So, they're subject to what people would say is very little accountability here in the state of Florida. It would also require PBMs to disclose all of organizations they're affiliated with, including any pharmacies or companies within their corporate umbrella. Requires PBMs to disclose any complaints or settlement agreements that they've been party to prior to operating in Florida, and directs the Office of Insurance Regulation, under the Department of Financial Regulation, to take action against PBMs if they violate state law.
Bob Barrett: $5 to register? Really?
Witbracht: Just $5 for them to register, and they control 80% of the market.
Barrett: All right, let's go on to another one that's going to affect an awful lot of people, and that is school start times. What's this about?
Witbracht: SB1112establishes later middle school and high school start times. So, right now, the average start time for Florida high schools is 7:45 a.m., with 46% of high schools starting before 7:30 a.m. The Office of Program and Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (which is) a government program that conducts data research on policy and budget actions, found that there were numerous barriers for earlier start times, such as transportation issues concerning the costs of adding bus routes and buses, bus driver wages being increased and limited bus drivers being available. There are also concerns about child safety in dawn and pre-dawn hours. The bill sponsor, Republican Senator Danny Burgess out of the Tampa area, pointed to the importance of adequate sleep for adolescents as a reason school times should be pushed back. So, it requires school districts to inform parents, students, teachers, school administrators, et cetera, about the health, safety, and academic impacts of sleep deprivation on middle and high school students, and the benefits of a later start time. So, if passed and signed by the governor, it will require middle schools to start no earlier than 8 a.m., and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Districts will be required to implement this by July 2026.
Barrett: Well, let's stay with education and talk about one more bill, a rather controversial bill that has to do with university diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Witbracht: It is the Higher Education Reform Bill, which, of course, has been at the top of my mind throughout session. So, if it's passed today (Wednesday), then it'll be sent to the governor for his signature. And he has had a lot of opinions about this, and he's been pushing very hard for this kind of reform. (It’s) had a lot of considerable changes throughout the committee process. So, the first iteration of the bill would have established a blanket prohibition on diversity, equity, and inclusion practices on college campuses. But as it stands now, the language provides exceptions for those kinds of activities for student groups and programs that are required for compliance with state and federal law, and also accreditation. Each university is required to have an accreditation for the school. There's also smaller accreditation agencies that do things that provide accreditation for engineering schools or medical schools. The bill, as it stands now, would allow DEI activities if it's required for any of those kind of accreditation agencies. It also took out the references to DEI coursework and university missions and replaced it with prohibitions on any activities that's based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States. The ban on critical race theory and other coursework like that was also removed, and instead would ban general education courses with that same language that the United States is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent. So, if this language sounds familiar, it might be because that was some of the language used in last year'sHB 7, the Stop Woke Act. The language in HB 7, after making its way through the courts, is not currently enforceable due to constitutional concerns. And throughout the committee process, we heard from different groups opposing this, saying that, just like the last year's HB 7 Stop Woke Act, they would be willing to take it to the courts as well, because it's currently not enforceable, and they're implementing some of the same language there.
Bob Barrett: There's just a few days left. I bet you can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one.
Witbracht: Absolutely. And they'll be passing the budget on Friday. It's at a record $117 billion which is $7 billion more than last year. The budget tackles a lot of issues like education and environmental resiliency, and also has a historic raise for state employees to the tune of $389 million. So, I think that will be a good pay it forward to our state workers.
Bob Barrett: It'll be interesting to see the line items that the governor says, no, thanks to.
Witbracht:
I've been hearing that it's a potential $5 billion veto list. So we'll wait and see this summer what he does.
