December 2005                return to newsletter contents page

Update on Florida Legislative Effort

Your AVDA lobbyist has spent the last month securing co-sponsors for the AVDA Veterinary pedigree exemption bill. To date, we have seven House co-sponsors. In the Senate, we have secured four co-sponsors. In addition, we have re-confirmed that the Fla. Department of Health, AG’s office, Office of Drug Policy and Statewide Prosecutor as well as the Florida Veterinarians Association do not oppose the bill.

We also have spent time with committee staff of both houses to refresh their memory  on this issue. We have not encountered any objections from the staff.

The bill is in bill drafting in both the House and the Senate and we expect the bills to  be ready for proofing next week. After they have been proofed, they go back to bill drafting to be assigned a number. At this point, they are assigned to a committee for review.

The original schedule of committee meetings was changed in late October to prepare the Legislature for a Special Session on Medicaid reform. Committee meetings of the Health Care committees in both the House and Senate were devoted entirely to the discussion of the issues surrounding Florida’s efforts to place more Medicaid patients into managed care. The result of this has been to delay consideration of any other bills January.

We would expect to have the bill heard in late January or early February.

In addition, the language of the AVDA bill has been drafted into a much larger bill dealing with a variety of pedigree issues.