{"id":2615,"date":"2017-03-14T20:11:47","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T00:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2017-03-15T13:33:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T17:33:45","slug":"lots-and-lots-of-bill-updates-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2615","title":{"rendered":"Lots and lots of bill updates today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"senate\"<\/a>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a bit to talk about today. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start with the Religious Liberties bills that we oppose on the grounds they can negatively impact science education. One passed the Senate judiciary committee this afternoon on a narrow, party line vote of 5-4.<\/p>\n

I spoke at this meeting but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I performed all that great. The committee chair was impatient as the meeting was running long and he started to impose a time limit on speakers that he hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t for the hour leading up to this bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discussion. So, by the time I got up there I had already chopped two paragraphs from my planned remarks but I still felt pressure while standing before the committee chair to speed things up even more. So, I wound up stumbling and pausing a bit as I tried to make sure my most important points were covered. You can watch the video here<\/a>. The Religious Liberties bills portion starts at 52:04. Sen. Dennis Baxley, the bill sponsor, irritated me a bit when in his closing remarks he said he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to chase rabbits and red herrings, which I believe meant, at least in part, my arguments about evolution.<\/p>\n

\"house\"<\/a>I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t attend the House committee meeting that was considering that chamber\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s version of the bill because it was being held the same time as the Senate meeting. But according to the news articles, there was overwhelming support for the bill. The vote was 14-0.<\/p>\n

There are a few news articles popping up already this evening about the bill. I and Florida Citizens for Science do get good mentions in some of them.<\/p>\n

Miami Herald:\u00c2\u00a0Plan to fortify religious expression in public schools quickly advancing<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunshine State News:\u00c2\u00a0Religious Liberties Act Heading to the Senate Floor<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida Politics:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcReligious expression in public schools\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ready for full Senate vote<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The other bills we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tracking about Instructional Materials got some press today. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re, fortunately, still stuck in the starting gate with no scheduled committee meetings yet.<\/p>\n

NBC, Channel 2, Fort Myers: Creationism, evolution optional in Florida classrooms with new bill<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll close for now with my interview with the Tampa Bay Times\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Gradebook blog podcast that was published today:\u00c2\u00a0Can science and religious expression coexist in Florida public schools?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a bit to talk about today. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start with the Religious Liberties bills that we oppose on the grounds they can negatively impact science education. One passed the Senate judiciary committee this afternoon on a narrow, party line … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[32,33],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Gb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2582,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2582","url_meta":{"origin":2615,"position":0},"title":"Religious Liberties bill passes Senate education committee","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A bill that is potentially harmful to science education in Florida schools was reported favorably (in other words, it passed) by the Senate education committee today. The Religious Liberties bill was passed on a party-line vote of 5-2. The Senate bill still has to get through a judiciary committee meeting,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2620,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2620","url_meta":{"origin":2615,"position":1},"title":"Religious Liberties bill on Senate floor Tuesday","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a few quick updates on the\u00c2\u00a0Religious Expression in Public Schools bills that we're opposed to. First, the Senate version has been approved by all of its assigned committees and is now scheduled to be debated on the Senate floor tomorrow (Tuesday). If I understand the procedure, this is an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2594,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2594","url_meta":{"origin":2615,"position":2},"title":"Religious Liberties bill on a fast track","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00c2\u00a0Religious Expression in Public Schools bill filed in the Florida Senate is now scheduled to be heard by the judiciary committee March 14 (Tuesday) at 2 p.m. We need you to contact the senators on the committee and urge them to amend or stop this bill due to concerns over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2586,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2586","url_meta":{"origin":2615,"position":3},"title":"Science is not poetry","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino has a few things to say about Religious Liberties bills sponsored in the Senate by Dennis Baxley:\u00c2\u00a0Getting liberated from science in Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreligious liberties\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bill. Cerabino brings up a bit about Baxley's past consternation over science education: Back when the Ocala Republican took a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2579,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2579","url_meta":{"origin":2615,"position":4},"title":"Religious Liberties Bill: Analysis and Fasting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I know. It's the weekend. You're recharging for the week ahead. But I have to ask you to do something on behalf of science education. I have to ask you to send some emails and make some calls. Yes, your voice matters and right now we really need it. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2639,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2639","url_meta":{"origin":2615,"position":5},"title":"Quick Bills Updates","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a quick update on the Religious Liberties and Instructional Materials bills we're watching in the Florida legislature. Religious Liberties: The bill successfully passed through all Senate committees and the full Senate approved it on a 23-13 vote. The House version successfully passed through all committees and is awaiting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Old_and_New_Florida_State_Capitol_Tallahassee_East_view_20160711_1-212x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2617,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions\/2617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}