Sen. Jason Brodeur

Controlled Substances; Revising the elements that constitute the capital offense of murder in the first degree; providing criminal penalties for persons who unlawfully distribute, deliver, sell, or dispense controlled substances that are proven to be the proximate cause of, or a contributing factor in, the injury or overdose of a user of such substances; providing enhanced criminal penalties for second or subsequent convictions of such offenses; prohibiting specified activities involving controlled substances within 1,000 feet of additional specified facilities, etc.

Reemployment Assistance; Defining and revising terms for purposes of the Reemployment Assistance Program Law; prohibiting the Department of Economic Opportunity from denying a person reemployment assistance solely on the basis of pregnancy; specifying that wages that fall within an alternative base period are not available for reuse in subsequent benefit years, etc.

Vocational Pathways; Deleting a delegation of rulemaking authority to the Department of Education; revising and expanding the department’s duties with respect to apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs; requiring the statewide articulation agreement to establish three mathematics pathways for students by aligning mathematics courses to programs, meta-majors, and careers; authorizing technical centers, Florida College System institutions, and state universities to enter into specified agreements; providing for calculation of full-time equivalent membership for a specified industry certification, etc.

Controlled Substances; Excluding from Schedule I cannabis if it is contained within a pharmaceutical product approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, etc.

Nursing Programs; Defining the terms “average graduate passage rate” and “test takers”; revising requirements for an annual report submitted by approved nursing programs; revising specified information that the Board of Nursing must publish on its website; revising graduate passage rate requirements for approved nursing programs; requiring nursing programs to provide specified information to students who fail to pass a certain examination on their first attempt; prohibiting the board from considering average graduate passage rates from the 2020 and 2021 calendar years when making certain determinations; providing for retroactive applicability, etc.

Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness; Requiring the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Department of Elderly Affairs and the Alzheimer’s Association, to consolidate and disseminate certain information to certain health care practitioners for a specified purpose, etc.

Cottage Food Operations; Citing this act as the "Home Sweet Home Act"; revising the definition of the term “cottage food operation”; increasing the annual gross sales limitation for exempting cottage food operations from certain food and building permitting requirements; authorizing the sale, offer for sale, acceptance of payment, and delivery of cottage food products by mail; preempting the regulation of cottage food operations to the state; prohibiting local governments from prohibiting cottage food operations or regulating cottage food products by cottage food operations, etc.

Agency Contracts for Commodities and Contractual Services; Abrogating the scheduled expiration of provisions relating to certain public agency contracts for services; providing that an agency must issue a request for quote to certain approved vendors when it issues certain requests for quote for contractual services; revising the maximum value of certain contracts that may not be renewed or amended by a state agency before submitting a written report to the Governor and the Legislature; prohibiting certain vendors from submitting bids, proposals, or replies to, or entering into or renewing any contract with, an agency, etc.

Freestanding Emergency Departments; Deleting an obsolete provision relating to a prohibition on new emergency departments located off the premises of licensed hospitals; prohibiting a freestanding emergency department from holding itself out to the public as an urgent care center; requiring a freestanding emergency department to clearly identify itself as a hospital emergency department using certain signage; requiring a freestanding emergency department to post signs in certain locations which contain specified statements, etc.

Public Works Projects; Revising a prohibition relating to any solicitation for construction services paid for with state-appropriated funds; revising the definition of the term “public works project”; prohibiting the state or any political subdivision that contracts for a public works project from taking specified action against certain entities that are engaged in a public works project or have submitted a bid for such a project, etc.