TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida businesses could soon face fines of $10,000 to $50,000 if they require employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine without offering certain exemptions, after the Florida Legislature on Wednesday voted to approve a bill pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The bill, HB 1B, passed the House on a 78-39 vote and the Senate on a 24-14 vote. The votes were mostly along party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, but Rep. James Bush, D-Miami, joined Republicans voting in favor in the House vote.
Many Republicans who debated the bill argued it was a way to push back against the vaccine requirement for businesses issued by President Joe Biden’s administration through an executive order.
“We’re here providing a voice to people who feel powerless in the face of government overreach,” said Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola.
Democrats decried the bill, and DeSantis’ call of a special session to pass it, as a political stunt designed to boost his political ambitions, including a possible run for president in 2024.
“This was all B.S.,” said Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Miami Democrat who is running against DeSantis in 2022. “This had nothing to do with safety and this had everything to do with primary voters in Iowa.”
Other Democrats said the session was a missed opportunity to address other issues plaguing the state – affordable housing, rising property insurance rates and climate change – while at the same time pandering to those who doubt the effectiveness of vaccines.
“Does this session make us safer? No, it doesn’t. Does it address the problems of everyday Floridians? Absolutely not,” said Rep. Kamia Brown, D-Ocoee. “Two years ago we could only hope and pray for a vaccine ... now here we are politicizing something we should be celebrating.”
Under the bill, businesses with vaccine requirements for employees must offer exemptions for medical or religious reasons, or if a worker has previously had COVID-19. Any worker who agrees to wear a mask and be tested regularly must be exempted as well.
A business with fewer than 100 employees is subject to a $10,000 per violation, and larger businesses are subject to $50,000 fines.
Another piece of the bill allows parents to decide whether their child will wear a mask to school. DeSantis has battled with some school boards in the state over his order banning mask mandates in schools, but all school districts that installed mandates previously have withdrawn them or made them optional.
Still, some Democrats fretted the provision takes away a tool that schools can use to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the future if cases surge again.
The bill is effective when DeSantis signs it, which could come as soon as Thursday. The governor’s office said DeSantis had already received the bills Wednesday night. But the Department of Health could take up to 15 days to develop forms for employees to apply for exemptions.
Biden’s executive order was cited by many Republicans as the reason the special session was necessary. They said they needed to push back against what they claimed was an unconstitutional order that could be struck down by the courts.
“No one in congress got a vote on these mandates. We are voting today to stop them,” said Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. “We’re choosing to trust people to make the best decisions for themselves and their families.”
Biden’s order issued in September laid out three mandates that were issued earlier this month by parts of his administration. One rule, issued by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, applies to businesses with more than 100 employees and requires that workers must be vaccinated by Jan. 4. The order has similar exemptions to those newly imposed in Florida, including medical or religious reasons or if a worker agrees to weekly testing and wearing protective equipment.
A federal court has stayed that rule, however, as the underlying lawsuit challenging it makes its way through the courts. Florida has joined Georgia and Alabama in challenging the rule in a separate suit.
Another rule applies to federal contractors, who must have a vaccinated workforce to receive federal contracts. DeSantis has filed suit against that rule as well.
A third rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, however, hasn’t yet faced a legal challenge from DeSantis. It requires health care facilities to vaccinate employees as a condition of receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds. Some Florida groups, such as the Florida Hospital Association, have said if faced with the choice of obeying the federal mandate or the new state law, they must abide by the Biden order because the loss of federal funding would be too great.
House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said the CMS order needs to be challenged in court and the new laws don’t exempt health care facilities because the order could exacerbate the worker shortage in the industry.
“As a result of a federal government policy we could be in a situation where our health care providers could become strained, not because of COVID cases, but because of a decision made through rule by the Department of Labor thru OSHA,” Sprowls said. “That is wrong.”
Democrats, though, bashed HB 1B for imposing restrictions on businesses, especially small businesses, setting them up for litigation and fines they won’t be able to afford. Democratic amendments to remove the $10,000 fine on smaller businesses were rejected by Republicans.
“In this bill you are simply trading one mandate for another, but only one of these mandates is designed to save lives,” said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton.
At times the debate became heated, reflecting the partisan divide over the issues surrounding COVID-19 throughout the country.
Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Howey-in-the-Hills Republican who pushed for a special session to ban vaccine and mask mandates in the summer, said the measure doesn’t go far enough.
“We are living in tyrannical times,” Sabatini said. “Biden is a tyrant, the federal is out of control. What they are doing is completely insane. It’s time to start using the 10th Amendment and it’s time to start nullifying these federal laws.”
He was then cut off in his remarks by Rep. Bryan Avila, R-Miami, who was presiding over the chamber at the time, as Democrats shouted and complained Sabatini was not sticking to the substance of the bill. Some Democrats were cut off for slamming the bill as a political stunt earlier in the debate.
The Legislature also passed three other bills that were part of DeSantis’ special session proclamation, including a bill to strip the Florida Surgeon General of the power to order vaccines during a public health emergency, as well as a measure to require DeSantis to develop a plan to withdraw from OSHA and set up a state-level workplace safety agency.
Although Democrats generally slammed the purpose of the special session, some Democrats joined Republicans to pass another bill, HB 3B, to shield the complaints filed by employees against businesses for violating the ban on vaccine mandates from being disclosed to the public. GOP supporters said they didn’t want complainants’ medical information to be released, but some Democrats who were opposed to the bill noted the companies subject to complaints would also be shielded from exposure.
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