Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) expressed frustration on Tuesday after Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) blocked some of his agenda items in the state legislature.
DeSantis had called a special session on vaccine exemptions and artificial intelligence, among other items. But Perez this week discarded two bills related to those polices, declaring them dead on arrival when the session started. The development comes after the two men have long feuded over policies and strategy, as they vie for dominance in Florida’s political scene.
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“Will be interesting to see these guys campaign as Big Tech enthusiasts and guardians of the medical industrial complex,” DeSantis said in a social media post rebuking Perez’s latest move.
Perez’s decision to sideline the bills means lawmakers in the state House will solely focus on redistricting during the four-day special session.
“Our work here will be finished, and all of you will be free to return home tomorrow afternoon,” Perez said, as the body looks to vote Wednesday on redrawing Florida’s political maps, another item on DeSantis’s agenda.
The vaccines bill, called the Medical Freedom Act, would have enacted a number of reforms, including creating a “conscience exemption” from vaccine requirements for children attending K-12 schools, requiring parents to be provided with specific material before a vaccine can be administered to a child, and allowing pharmacists to sell Ivermectin without a prescription.
Perez worried it would allow children in schools without vaccinations against measles, polio, and chickenpox.
“That is something I was uncomfortable with,” Perez said. “But I’ve stated that fairly clearly over the past several months.”
DeSantis said it was needed to protect patients against the “medical industrial complex.”
“Example of why protections for informed consent are so important,” the governor said in a post linking to apparent guidance from Kaiser that said to avoid framing vaccines for newborns as optional in discussions with parents. “The medical industrial complex does not want people fully informed, but instead to do what they’re told.”
The second piece of legislation centers around the “AI Bill of Rights” that DeSantis wants to pass, which would impose significant restrictions on chatbot platforms.
It would require AI chatbots to repeatedly remind users they aren’t human, mandate that they share information with parents on all interactions their children have with AI, and receive notifications if children share any thoughts about harming themselves or others. It would also require that political advertisements disclose whether they used AI and would prohibit state agencies from contracting with AI firms tied to China or any other “foreign country of concern.”
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Perez blocked it, as he has signaled support for a competing national AI framework that President Donald Trump backs, and expressed confidence Congress would pass such guidance in the near future.
“I understand the governor’s concern of wanting to protect children,” Perez said. “We want to protect children, too. He is not wrong for wanting that. But we have seen very clearly, the president of the United States issued an executive order stating that the federal government should handle the AI policies of this country, that this is a national security concern, that this is bigger than just one state or one part of the country.”
