Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed two more bills Friday night.
The first (HB 325) would have extended commercial driver’s license training to nonviolent inmates with two years or less left on their sentences, building on eligibility already available to work-release inmates.
The bill passed unanimously in both chambers, but DeSantis said lawmakers overlooked unintended consequences, calling the program “unnecessarily burdensome” to the Department of Corrections — a break from legislators, who argued it would add no new costs or strain to the prison system. He also warned that training inmates to drive creates “significant public safety concerns.”
According to the House bill analysis, the measure was driven largely by the national shortage of commercial truck drivers, estimated at about 80,000 and projected to deepen as the industry works to replace some 1.2 million retiring drivers over the coming decade.
That shortage of American drivers has put more foreign-born drivers behind the wheel — sometimes with deadly results, as was allegedly the case with Harjinder Singh. Singh, who was trained and licensed outside Florida, is accused of making an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike that killed three people, drawing triple vehicular homicide charges and national coverage after he was allowed to leave the state. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins flew to California to extradite him — a task State Troopers would ordinarily handle without the LG’s involvement.
DeSantis also vetoed legislation (SB 688) that would have created a Board of Naturopathic Medicine within the Department of Health to set guidelines for practitioners. He said doctors and dietitians can already prescribe or recommend naturopathic remedies, and that the bill would saddle current practitioners with new “bureaucratic hurdles,” including post-graduate education not yet available in the state.
The Governor previously vetoed a bill to track e-bike and scooter crashes, along with a measure making it easier for high school students to volunteer as poll workers.
More vetoes are coming — specifically line items in the budget, which DeSantis is expected to sign Monday, just ahead of the new fiscal year July 1.
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