One issue Democrats noticed was left out in Gov. Rick Scott’s State of the State address on Tuesday: Medicaid expansion.
As the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports, Democratic responses from Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, and House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, chastised Scott for not supporting the acceptance of federal money to expand Medicaid to low-income Floridians.
Lawmakers too action on other health issues during the opening day of the 60-day session. They include:
- The Senate approved a landmark package enforcing stricter policing and sentencing of sexual predators, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee passed of a bill that decriminalizes “warning shots,” according to the Scripps Tallahassee Bureau.
- A House committee voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act after hearing tearful testimony of a Tampa woman who was slipped an abortion drug by an ex-boyfriend, the Florida Current reports. The bill would make injury of an “unborn child” a separate felony from attacking a pregnant woman.