2021 session
During his first legislative session in the Senate, Rodrigues was appointed chair of the Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability. [45] As Chair of the Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rodrigues sponsored several high-profile pieces of legislation.
Rodrigues was the Senate sponsor for SB 7072 Social Media Platforms. The bill prohibits social media platforms from willfully deplatforming a journalistic enterprise or candidate for political office. It provides that if a political candidate is deplatformed, the Florida Elections Commission may fine that social media platform $250,000 a day for statewide candidates and $25,000 a day for all other candidates. The bill also requires a social media platform to publish the standards it uses to censor, deplatform, and shadow ban users. According to the bill, these standards must be applied in a consistent manner and users must be informed of changes to these standards before they are implemented. The legislation also prohibits standards from being changed more than once every 30 days. [46]
Rodrigues argued that the proposal was necessary to defend freedom of speech against the monopolies that various social media companies hold on online expression. [47] He cited the deplatforming of former Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp by Facebook as an example of a social media platform arbitrarily deplatforming a user without communicating the reason for such an action. [48]
After the bill was signed into law, lawyers representing NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a lawsuit against the State of Florida on that grounds that the new law infringed on the right to freedom of speech, equal protection, and due process.
Following a hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle granted a temporary injunction, preventing the law from taking effect. [49]
Another bill that Senator Rodrigues sponsored as chair of the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee was CS/SB 84 Retirement. The bill would have closed off enrollment into the Florida Retirement System's (FRS) pension plan for most new government employees enrolled in the FRS after July 1, 2022. Instead, the employees would be required to enroll in the FRS investment plan. The bill contained an exception for members of the FRS's Special Risk Class. [50] Rodrigues’ primary justification for the proposal was the need to curb the growth of the FRS's unfunded actuarial liability (UAL), valued at $36 billion as of July 1, 2020. With that valuation, the pension plan was funded at a level of 82%. To Rodrigues, this meant “government has made a promise it cannot keep,” necessitating changes for the pension system. The bill passed the Florida Senate by a vote of 24–16. However, the bill did not have a companion in the Florida House of Representatives and did not pass during the 2021 legislative session. [51]
In 2021, Rodrigues once again filed his bill to prevent government agencies from suing individuals who file public records requests. The bill passed unanimously in both legislative chambers and was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis. [52]
Rodrigues was also successful in shepherding the Parents’ Bill of Rights to final passage in the 2021 legislative session. The bill, HB 241, provides that the state, or any other governmental entity, “may not infringe upon the rights of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of a minor child”. [53] Rodrigues stated that the goal of the legislation was to bring parental rights that exist in Florida statute and case law into one section of statute so that parents can find them more easily. [54]
Rodrigues filed legislation related to gun rights during the 2021 legislative session. SB 1884 Preemption of Firearms and Ammunition Regulation clarifies that the statewide preemption on firearm and ammunition regulations also applies to unwritten policies. Rodrigues and the bill's House sponsor, Representative Cord Byrd, cited examples of local governments enacting unwritten gun policies that resulted in lawsuits against the governmental entities. Ultimately, the bill was passed by both legislative chambers and signed into law by the governor. [55]
Rodrigues also filed CS/CS/SB 908 to create the Strong Families Tax Credit. The legislation was ultimately incorporated into the legislature's 2021 tax package, HB 7061, and signed into law by the governor. [56] Under the law, businesses that donate to organizations that provide services related to child welfare are eligible for tax credits capped at $5 million per fiscal year. [57]
Rodrigues worked on reforming Florida's legal notice requirements as well. To this end, he proposed what would become CS/CS/SB 402 Legal Notices. The bill provides governmental agencies the option to publish certain legal notices on a newspaper website in-lieu of print publication. Additionally, it aims to open legal notice publication to smaller, free publications by removing various statutory qualification requirements. The bill requires all legal notices to be published on the statewide legal notice website maintained by the Florida Press Association. [58]
Rodrigues argued that the bill would modernize the legal notice system by moving notice publications online and expanding competition. Early versions of the legislation were initially met with opposition from groups such as the Florida Press Association and the American Lawyer Media Group who argued that the language would limit access to public notices. After working with these groups and a number of legislators, Rodrigues amended the bill, which lead to its unanimous passage in the Florida Senate. The bill's language was amended on to CS/HB 35 by Representative Randy Fine and passed in the Florida House. It was then signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis. [59]
2021 higher education bill
Rodrigues successfully passed CS/CS/HB 233 Postsecondary Education that will annually assess the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at each Florida College System institution and State University System university through a nonpartisan, objective, and statistically valid survey. In addition to the survey, the bill also prohibits these institutions from shielding students, faculty, and staff from protected free speech. [60]
Rodrigues filed the legislation because students approached him with concerns that they could not express their views on campus. He contended that the legislation was necessary to determine if Florida's college and university campuses present diverse viewpoints and if students and faculty feel free to express their beliefs on campus. The intellectual diversity survey was inspired by similar efforts by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado, among others. [61]
The bill was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, who argued that the bill was necessary to strengthen critical thinking and debate in higher education. [62]
Rodrigues also successfully passed CS/CS/CS SB 52 that clarifies that postsecondary tuition and fee exemptions apply to a student who is currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families or a specified relative or nonrelative, or who was at the time he or she reached 18 years of age. The bill also authorizes a university board of trustees, subject to the approval of the board of governors, to target certain employees for bonuses by implementing a bonus scheme based on awards for work performance or employee recruitment and retention. [63]
2021 environmental efforts
Senator Rodrigues’ CS/CS/SB 1954 Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience was a priority of Governor DeSantis and legislative leadership. [64] The bill created a number of statewide programs to address flooding and sea level rise, including:
- The Resilient Florida Grant Program to provide cities and municipalities with grants for community resilience planning
- The Comprehensive Statewide Vulnerability and Sea Level Rise Data Set and Assessment which directs the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop statewide data sets and assessments to determine flooding and sea level rise risk as well as identify vulnerable infrastructure and geographic areas.
- The Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan, which directs FDEP to develop a plan consisting of ranked projects that address the risks of flooding and sea level rise in communities across Florida.
The bill also created the Florida Hub for Applied Research and Innovation within the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science. This hub will coordinate research funds across state entities, develop data and modeling, establish community-based programs, and assist with training and workforce development.
