2021 Florida Legislature

Top Senate and House budget negotiators met Wednesday but did not make public offers on health care spending.

The program would be required to use telehealth to coordinate with prenatal home-visiting programs to provide services and education to pregnant women and to provide training to health care professionals.

The state learned this week that it will receive about $400 million in additional federal Medicaid funds, but lawmakers so far haven’t included it in a proposed budget they are trying to finalize.

Under the proposal, public and private colleges and universities would be shielded from lawsuits stemming from campuses being shut down during the pandemic and students being forced to learn online.

The House and Senate proposals deal with the Neurological Injury Compensation Association, or NICA, that was set up in the 1980s to pay for the care of infants with neurologial injuries.

House and Senate differences remain on proposals to extend Medicaid benefits for postpartum women and spending for hospitals and nursing homes.

It was temporarily postponed during its last committee stop, and its sponsor says there may not be enough time to revisit it this session.

The bill's sponsor wants to prevent local governments from banning natural gas as a fuel utilized to power buildings.

House Speaker Chris Sprowls wants to extend Medicaid coverage for mothers after giving birth from the current two months to a year.

House Higher Education Appropriations Chairman Rene Plasencia, R-Orlando, told reporters the stipend was “subsidizing textbook companies.”

More than 20 people traveled more than 600 miles from the Keys to Tallahassee to make their voices heard on a bill that would overturn Key West's limits on cruise ships.

The measure has garnered support from multiple law enforcement organizations.