JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Thursday morning at an office building in Jacksonville.
DeSantis signed HB 989 — “Chief Financial Officer” — a 159-page Department of Financial Services package, as well as HB 1291 — “Educator Preparation Programs” — which he claimed “prohibits the indoctrination in teacher preparation.”
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“So it’s not going to be DEI, there’s not going to be, you know, any of the bogus history. You know, it’s just going to be standard teacher preparation without having an ideological agenda and I think that’s something that we want to see. Parents want to send their kids to school knowing they’re getting an education. I don’t think they’re interested in an indoctrination,” DeSantis said of HB 1291.
HB 989 is a sweeping bill that makes the following changes, among some others:
- Upon diagnosis of cancer, firefighters are entitled to certain benefits as an alternative to workers’ compensation benefits, such as a one-time payout of $25,000 if said firefighter has been employed for 5 years and has also avoided tobacco products for as long.
- The presumption that property is unclaimed can be rebutted by an apparent owner’s expression of interest in the property, described as any action “which reasonably demonstrates to the holder that the apparent owner knows that the property exists.”
- Defines “virtual currency,” as well as the circumstances under which such currency — if held or owing by banking organizations — will be considered unclaimed.
- Similar provisions on when and how intangible property held by attorneys and fiduciary agents, as well as stocks and other equity interests in business associations, will be considered unclaimed.
- The circumstances under which the state will assume custody of unclaimed property.
The bill also includes a provision that “energy storage systems,” primarily lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries, be added to a list of entities subject to uniform fire safety standards yet to be established by the State Fire Marshal.
The provision made it on the bill after a News 6 investigation revealed there were no state standards for safely storing commercial lithium-ion batteries.
DeSantis was joined at VyStar Tower by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who discussed News 6’s involvement in drawing attention to the provision.
“We learn something from every storm and KMG was an amazing partner with bringing this issue to the forefront after Hurricane Ian,” Patronis said. “It’s not just limited to EVs, but it’s all lithium-ion batteries. Fantastic technology, it’s not going away, but we are putting our first responders in harm’s way; in addition, we’re putting our citizens in harm’s way. With that signature that the governor’s did, that’s enabled rulemaking. So we’re going to lean forward and we’re going to start creating policies that make sense for safe handling, to make sure that our families are safe and our first responders are safe, but KMG was a great partner with all of that, couldn’t have done it without them.”
Watch the news conference again in the media player below:
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