TALLAHASSEE — Senate Rules Chair Lizbeth Benacquisto asked her chamber to waive the rules and move Democratic State Sen. Lauren Book’s sexual harassment bill to the Senate floor for a vote.
Senate President Joe Negron (R-Stuart) and his leadership came under fire from House Speaker Richard Corcoran (R-Land O-Lakes) on Thursday for letting the sexual harassment bill die in the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee, which is chaired by state Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala).
In speaking with POLITICO on Thursday, Benacquisto (R-Fort Myers) reiterated Negron’s argument that sexual harassment is already illegal, but added she was still working with Book to try and salvage the bill, FL SB 1628 (18R), that would make sweeping changes to Florida law regarding the issue.
Currently, there is no specific sexual harassment law in Florida. It is regulated through statute 760.01-760.11, a civil rights law that mirrors federal law that says people can’t be discriminated based on race, color, religion or sex. The courts have found sexual harassment to be a form of discrimination.
On Friday, Book filed a strike-all amendment to the bill that would create a new statute, 112.3131, to explicitly prohibit workplace and sexual harassment under Florida law.
That new statute would also require each government agency to develop and publicly publish policies on how to report and investigate sexual harassment that would maintain confidentiality of a complaint and enable an employee to report their harasser to someone outside their immediate supervisor. It would also require each agency to publish a statement that it has “zero tolerance” for workplace harassment, including sexual harassment, a statement Negron has repeated over the last several months.
The statute would also apply to lobbyists. Every lobbyist would have to certify they’ve read the law and could be suspended by the Senate president, House speaker or governor and the Cabinet for violating it.
Book proposed the bill in response to the resignations of two senators, including state Sen. Jack Latvala, who stepped down in disgrace in January after two independent Senate investigations showed evidence he harassed, inappropriately touched and, in one instance, potentially even traded sex for legislation.
Florida lawmakers then advanced legislation to require governmental entities to establish formal rules and policies to combat sexual harassment. In the House, lawmakers on March 1 passed the legislation, FL HB 7007 (18R). But the related Senate bill, FL SB 1628 (18R), had been stalled in the Senate until Friday.