The House worked late into the night Wednesday — mostly on non-binding memorials to Congress apparently designed to burnish the election campaigns of ruling Republican lawmakers.

Measures urging Congress to approve congressional term limits, balance the federal budget, cap federal spending, repeal the Dodd-Frank regulations on financial institutions, repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley standards on investment companies, and eliminate the federal health care overhaul made their way through the House.

The push inspired partisan speeches by Republican lawmakers and angry push-back from outnumbered Democrats.

“Only in Washington is it OK to spend money we do not have,” said House Rules Chairman Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, a candidate for Congress. “That is unconscionable and it must stop.”

Rep. Jimmy Smith, R-Inverness, likened the Florida House telling Congress to get its spending together to a youngster urging parents to rein-in their family credit card spending.

“Every common person in Florida wants it,” Smith said.

Rep. Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, ridiculed Republicans for trying to win political points by attacking the Obama administration’s policies even as “our economy is coming back.”

But Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, dismissed the speeches by Thurston and other Democrats as a “waste of all of our time.”

 

A measure allowing public school students to offer ‘inspirational messages’ at assemblies is set for final passage tomorrow despite objections from Democrats and civil rights groups that the proposal is unconstitutional and could prompt bullying.

After tomorrow’s almost certain passage by the Florida House – the Senate has already signed off on the measure – the bill will go to Gov. Rick Scott for approval. Scott has said he will likely sign the measure into law.

The House spent more than an hour on questions about school prayer before rolling the bill over for a vote tomorrow. Democrats questioned the measure’s constitutionality and raised concerns about putting students of different faiths at odds and potential bullying of students whose faiths makes them a minority.

But the arguments failed to convince the proposal’s House and Senate sponsors – both present during a question-and-answer period on the House floor – to back away from their bill (SB 98).

Sen. Gary Siplin, a Democrat from Orlando, crafted the measure using court rulings outlining constitutional shortcomings in school prayer practices. But the ACLU has said the measure remains unconstitutional and will likely wind up in court.

The proposal would give school boards permission to allow students to offer prayers at mandatory school assemblies as long as adults are not involved in the creation of the prayers and do not participate in the invocations.

School boards can already adopt such policies, argued Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami.

“Why do we need a bill to fix a problem if there isn’t one?” Bullard, a teacher, asked.

School board members are confused about what they are allowed to do when it comes to prayer, said House sponsor Charles Van Zandt, R-Keystone Heights.

And Van Zandt said the measure will give all students the opportunity to practice their constitutional rights to free speech.

Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, asked what the definition of an ‘inspirational message’ outlined in the bill would be and if the Aryan Satanic Manifesto would qualify.

“That would be the student’s prerogoative because of our First Amendment right of free speech,” Van Zandt said.

Some Jewish Democrats asked if the prayers would create divisiveness among students of different religions and might give students with extreme views an opportunity to bloviate about them to a captive audience.

“There is divisiveness in opinions among our students regarding almost any aspect of any message,” Van Zandt said.

The Florida House unanimously approved a measure requiring the Department of Juvenile Justice to pay $5,000 to the families to help cover the funeral costs for children who die in the state’s care.

The bill (HB 173) was prompted by a dispute last year over funeral costs for Eric Perez, who died on July 10. Guards at a West Palm Beach DJJ facility waited more than six hours before calling 911 after Perez began vomiting, hallucinating and complaining of severe headaches, according to official reports of the incident.

In August, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater’s office denied a payment to a funeral home to cover the costs of Perez’s funeral after initially approving the request from DJJ. Atwater’s staff told DJJ to cancel it because the agency lacked the authority for the payment, although DJJ has had a policy for at least two years to provide up to $5,000 for funeral costs of children who die while in their custody whose families are indigent.

The House unanimously approved the measure, which would put the agency’s policy into law and avoid disputes that arose over Perez’s funeral payment.

The Senate has yet to send an identical measure (SB 504) to the floor for a vote.

Senate budget negotiators sided Wednesday with the House and agreed to steer $30 million toward Everglades restoration this year, drawing praise from advocates for the longterm cleanup effort.

Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, even held out the possibility that more cash could emerge as lawmakers continue to wrangle on a roughly $70 billion state spending plan.

“As Senate and House budget conferees continue to negotiate, with strong support from Gov. Scott, we are confident the state will begin to shift back to the historic levels of investment in Everglades restoration made during the Jeb Bush years,” Fordham said.  “Every dollar we invest on Everglades is an enormous benefit for Floridians who depend on this natural resource for their livelihoods.”

Scott has unveiled wide-ranging plans to build reservoirs, unblock flow ways, control seepage and expand man-made wetlands by 2022, as part of the restoration effort. He sought $40 million in state cash for the coming year.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, had indicated a few weeks ago that his side planned to come up to House levels of Everglades funding, after zeroing out spending in its budget plan. The House had recommended $35 million for Everglades restoration and other work.

Counties including Palm Beach would be barred from passing ordinances establishing a way for workers and employers to handle wage disputes out of court under a measure approved by the House along a party-line vote.

The House also shot down an effort to grandfather in Miami-Dade County, the only county in the state that now has a wage theft ordinance that established an out-of-court process to help workers go after bosses they say cheated them out of their pay. That could doom its chances in the Senate, where a similar proposal stalled without a provision allowing Miami-Dade to keep its non-judicial system.

Labor unions and immigrant groups, who oppose the legislation, are pushing Palm Beach County commissioners to approve an ordinance Miami-Dade’s, now being challenged in court. They say undocumented workers in low-paying jobs are vulnerable to unscrupulous employers and loathe to take them to court to recoup uncompensated wages.

The Florida Retail Federation and other business lobbies backing the measure (HB 609) because, they say, the ordinance allows workers to by-pass the courts, thereby making it too easy for workers to accuse employers of wrongdoing. The measure would also bar workers from filing a class action lawsuit against an employee they say is stealing their pay.

Democrats argued that the bill would harm the state’s poorest workers at a time when jobs are scarce and the number of low-paid workers is growing. Critics of the proposal also say it would make it harder for victims of wage theft to seek redress in court by eliminating the right to a jury trial and limiting the amount of damages to the amount of unpaid wages.

“We must give these workers back those wages that are due to them. If we have an employer who is constantly ripping off his employees this bill will prohibit the employees from doing a class action suit.
Theft is theft,” said Rep. Barbara Watson, D-Miami Gardens, before the 77-38 vote approving the bill.

But supporters of the measure, including Senate sponsor David Simmons, says the Florida constitution prohibits any government agency, including counties, from creating a court.

The proposal would allow counties to assist aggrieved workers by providing legal assistance and even helping to pay for attorneys’ fees but would keep the process in the courts.

Lying to the police when a child goes missing would be a felony under a measure unanimously passed by the Florida House this afternoon and almost certain to be approved by the Senate.

“Caylee’s Law” (HB 37) comes in response to Casey Anthony’s acquittal last year of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee. The House approved the measure, identical to a Senate companion (SB 858), with a 113-0 vote.

“This bill assures that we do not have a repeat of the Caylee Anthony fiasco,” Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, said.

The proposal, crafted by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, would make it a third-degree felony for parents or guardians to lie to law enforcement officials during an investigation when a child under the age of 16 is missing and is seriously injured or dies. Each count would be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and up to $5,000.

Under the proposal, Casey Anthony could have been sentenced to 20 years behind bars for misleading police in the investigation into her missing daughter, who was later found dead.

Hager was among other lawmakers who wanted an even stronger law that would have made it a crime for parents or guardians to report a child missing within a certain period of time. But Negron, a lawyer who headed a special Senate committee to look into the issue, rejected such far-reaching proposals because law enforcement officials advised that such a law might confuse parents.

Sen. Joe Negron wants Florida legislators to pay as much for their health insurance as their employees do. But a majority of his colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee voted to keep the perk after arguing that it helps allow regular folks to serve in office.

Negron filed an amendment that would have hiked lawmakers monthly premiums from $8.34 to $50 a month for individuals and from $30 to $180 a month for families. The change would have brought lawmakers’ health insurance costs in line with what state workers, who’ve gone for six years without a pay raise, pay, which Negron called a bargain.

“To me there’s just no rationale for it,” Negron argued. “We should all be treated equally. Legislators shouldn’t have richer benefits than the people that we work with.”

But Negron’s Republican colleagues expressed concern that the costs of being in office have increased and the cheap health care is a perk for an otherwise demanding job that pays less than $30,000 although it takes up so much time that some lawmakers have no other employment.

Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, called Negron’s proposal a “political statement” that could make discourage Floridians who aren’t rich from running for office.

“It’s very difficult to vote against it. But I don’t think it’s good policy,” Bogdanoff said.

Negron, a candidate for Senate president in 2016 and chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services budget committee, bristled at the criticism.

“It isn’t a political statement,” Negron said, adding that he left the Capitol after midnight this morning and ran into two janitors, one of whom was working a second job.

The $180-a-month family coverage is a great deal, Negron said, because equivalent coverage in the private sector costs up to $500.

“I can see no rationale why we as legislators should be treated five to six times better than 27,000 of our co-workers,” he said. “We’re saying legislators should lead by example…We’re not entitled to preferential treatment.”

Senate budget chief JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, held a voice vote on the amendment and ruled that it failed to pass. Negron said he agreed with Alexander’s call.

Sen. Marco Rubio has endorsed Adam Hasner’s GOP bid for the Palm Beach-Broward District 22 congressional seat.

Hasner has also been endorsed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, which means he now has the two most popular Florida Republicans in his corner.

The big question is whether all that GOP star power will deter Republican Broward Commish Chip LaMarca from entering the race.

Republican Rick Scott has spent much of the past few years ridiculing President Obama — leading the Conservatives for Patients Rights campaign against the federal health care overhaul and — as governor — refusing millions of dollars in federal grants linked to the effort.

But when the Democratic president proposed cutting the federal corporate income tax rate to 28 percent, he drew rare praise from his Florida antagonist. At the White House last Sunday for a Governors’ Association meeting, Scott gave Obama a letter thanking him for “taking this step in the right direction.”

“Given that the United States currently burdens companies with the second highest tax rate in the world, every tax reduction makes American businesses more competitive,” Scott said.

Scott is pushing legislation that would double the state’s corporate income tax exemption to $50,000, efffectively exempting about three-fourths of the companies that now pay the 5.5 percent levy on earnings. It’ll cost taxpayers about $30 million next year, legislative analysts said.

Lawmakers balked last year on Scott’s initial plan to for a big cut in the tax. But the governor said he remains committed to ending the tax, which formerly pulled almost $2 billion into the state budget.

Here’s Scott’s letter: Tax letter to POTUS

 

After a morning blow-up between the House and Senate, Speaker Dean Cannon announced that by mid-afternoon Tuesday that agreement had been reached that allow budget negotiations to begin between the two sides.

Cannon credited House budget chief Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, with keeping a lid on the increasingly testy talks that preceded setting the budget allocations.

“Chairman Grimsley is the total package,” Cannon, R-Winter Park, told the House chamber.

In a joint statement with Senate President Mike Haridopolos, the two Republican leaders said a conference meeting would meet Tuesday night, kicking-off the session’s final dealmaking.

Former Democratic state Sen. Dave Aronberg — still the only announced candidate for Palm Beach County state attorney — will get fundraising help next month from U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and former Democratic Reps. Robert Wexler, Ron Klein and Harry Johnston.

The congressional quintet and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth are on the host committee for the March 15 event at the Delray Beach home of Aronberg’s parents. Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Shelley Vana and Priscilla Taylor and several Democratic club presidents and municipal officials are among the co-hosts.

With an April 20 candidate qualifying deadline approaching, Aronberg is the only candidate who has opened a campaign to replace State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, who is stepping down March 16 for a private sector job. Gov. Rick Scott will appoint a replacement to fill the remainder of McAuliffe’s term, which ends in January. Scott last week said he hasn’t decided whether he wants an appointee who will also run for the job in the fall.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos and his budget chief JD Alexander aren’t playing games by refusing to sign off on a $200 million permanent cut to higher education, the pair told reporters this morning.

The blow-up over a fraction of the state’s approximately $70 billion spending plan could put lawmakers into overtime and a possible reprise of last year’s ugly session finale.

The final budget agreement must land on legislators’ desks by Tuesday because of a 72-hour “cooling off” period required before a vote.

Alexander said gave his House counterpart Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, an offer at 7 p.m. last night but had not heard back as of about noon.

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said the Senate had made a concession to the House by backing off on health and human services cuts and expects reciprocation on the higher ed issue.

“We are equal chambers. I have gone out of my way the last couple years, walking over to the House last year, working with the House to say ‘This isn’t the old, arrogant Senate,” Haridopolos a former House member, said, growing heated. “This is an accommodating Senate that is always working together with people. There’s always been this thing that the Senate is arrogant and so forth. We’re not going to do that. But we’re not going to sit here and disrespect the members of this chamber who worked hard on this budget and not have some give and take.”

In the otherwise fractured Senate, GOP leaders now have the backing on holding firm on the higher ed issue from both Democrats and rogue Republicans.

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said the permanent cuts to colleges and universities would cause a “dramatic loss of programs”and force lay-offs in an education system already struggling to manage shrunken budgets.

Once that issue is resolved, Alexander said it would take “maybe 10 minutes” to clear up the rest of the budget. But time to get started to finish on time is getting “razor-thin,” he said.

“I’m fearful that they think this is a ploy. But it’s not a ploy,” Alexander said.

Disagreement over a $200 million cut to higher education is keeping House and Senate budget chiefs from starting to negotiate the state’s $70 billion spending plan, Senate budget chief JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, told his chamber this morning.

The stalled budget pre-talks opened the door for lawmakers to run out of time without passing a state budget before the session ends next Friday.

“The last 24 hours or so has not been as constructive as we had hoped,” Alexander said, adding that he and his House counterpart Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, “made a lot of progress” since Friday.

Republicans and Democrats agreed the Senate should hold firm on the higher education cuts, even it means coming back for a special session to deal with the budget.

The hang-up is a $300 million cut to higher education. The Senate backed off from a one-time, $400 million sweep of universities reserves, settling for $300 million. But the House wants $200 million of that to be a permanent reduction for higher ed.

That’s unacceptable, Alexander said before the morning floor session ended.

“We are holding our position there and we did deliver an offer to them at 7 p.m. yesterday,” Alexander said.

Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, backed up Alexander, saying she and her caucus “would be willing to stay here as long as it took.”

Senate President-designate Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, agreed.

“I’ll stay here for a Tallahassee springtime in order to make sure we get the right budget, the right way, for the people of Florida,” Gaetz said.

Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, part of a coalition of moderate Republicans, also gave his support.

“In this particular year there’s no rush to have to get out of here by a certain date. We know we have some responsibilities after session with redistricting anyway,” Latvala said.

Differences about spending on road-building projects and whether to sweep state universities’ savings are the main sticking points in GOP House and Senate leaders’ budget talks, quietly going on before the conference committees begin to meet.

The House wants to take $120 million from the state transportation trust fund and put it into general revenue while the Senate is sweeping $400 million from state universities. And the Senate agreed to create a 12th state university by allowing the University of South Florida Polytechnic to split from its mother school, a priority of Senate budget chief JD Alexander.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos said those are the main kinks in the budget talks thus far.

Haridopolos and Alexander worked with their House counterparts throughout the weekend to try to get to a preliminary agreement, Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said on the floor this morning.

Haridopolos said he and Cannon did not meet in person, and that the talks are “moving us in the right direction” but gave no indication when the budget conference meetings would officially begin. House budget chairwoman Denise Grimsley told her chamber talks are progressing.

“There’s still some work to do,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, told reporters after the morning session. “I expect that to be ironed out hopefully today, maybe over the next few days, but we’re going to get it right…The Senate has some priorities. And we want to make sure those priorities are met.”

Talks are “moving at a good pace,” Haridopolos said, but opened the door for doubt when he added “I’m looking forward to our last couple weeks up here in Tallahassee and if we can get out here on time.”

When pressed, Haridopolos said: “I’d love to get out on time. But we’re going to do it right.”

Adding to the session complexity is what the Florida Supreme Court will do with redrawn legislative maps and another court case over the 3 percent state workers must now contribute to their pensions.

The Supreme Court has scheduled until the last day of session to rule on the maps, and a Tallahassee judge was supposed to issue a ruling in the pension case on Friday but delayed that.

House budget chair Denise Grimsley gave House members a Monday morning update on how lawmakers are positioned for end-of-session negotitations with the Senate on a roughly $70 billion state spending plan.

In summary: Not-so-hot.

There’s no sign yet of the House and Senate agreeing on budget allocations — the first step toward working toward a consensus. The Senate approved its budget proposal last week, a plan that spends about $1.5 billion more than the House’s approach and includes dozens of individual spending differences.

But Grimsley, R-Sebring, said there remain plenty of hopeful signs heading into the Legislature’s scheduled final two weeks.

“We are far closer than we’ve been in several years,” Grimsley said.

In an unusual move, Grimsley also addressed Capitol hall-talk speculating that senators might be deliberately foot-dragging, or even looking to postpone budget negotiations until a later special session.  The House and Senate have grown increasingly at odds, nudging along plenty of suspicions.

Her counterpart, Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, is a hardnosed deal-maker. But Grimsley said she has no reason to suspect he’s fueling those rumors.

“I have seen no indication that Senator Alexander shares that view,” Grimsley said.

Amid the threat of a nuclear Iran, Allen West warned at a town hall meeting today that “You’re looking at a second Holocaust” if Israel doesn’t “know they can trust and depend upon the stars and stripes … to provide them support.”

West, speaking to residents at the First Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, said the threat isn’t just coming from Iran.

“What happens if all of a sudden Syria don’t focus on fighting each other, but focus on fighting Israel?” West said. He also spoke of growing “radical Islamism” in Egypt.

If a second Holocaust occurs, West said, “There will be no spiritual homeland for Christians to return back to. There will be no homeland for the Jewish people in the United States of America for their birthright. This is a dangerous situation and we have to take the Iranians for their word.”

West was interrupted several times during his speech by two residents saying the wealthy should be taxed and the current deficit is a direct result of unnecessary wars in the Middle East.

(more…)

The Legislature’s latest bid to revamp personal injury protection (PIP) auto insurance looks like it could collapse amid the same intra-industry squabbles that killed previous efforts over much of the past decade.

Gov. Rick Scott is an ardent advocate for reform — tucking the demand for action into his State of the State address in January.

Now, Capitol hall talk is swirling about the idea of a special session on the subject –that amounts to a rhetorical surrender on the idea of any deal being reached before the Legislature’s scheduled March 9 finish.

But House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said Friday that a special session isn’t part of his plans. Prospects for consensus also looks tough, he conceded.

“I don’t know whether we’ll be able to bring the House and Senate positions together before the end of session,” Cannon said. “But I’m not contemplating a special session on the issue.”

Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, whose district includes parts of northern Palm Beach County, is sponsoring a bill (SB 1860) that would  enact a series of  reforms, including implementing medical fee schedules, licensing medical clinics that provide personal injury protection (PIP) benefits, and requiring insurers to promptly pay claims.

Negron says his approach is closest to that pitched by Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who are pushing hard to rid the system of fraudulent claims and shady clinics who operate to draw on the $10,000 insurance coverage every Florida motorist is supposed to carry.

The House proposal (CS/HB 119)  by Rep. John Boyd, R-Bradenton, would scrap the state’s PIP law, replacing it with a proposed emergency care insurance that maintains the $10,000 medical coverage, but would require all accident victims to be treated in emergency rooms or by their personal physicians — not clinics — within 72 hours.

Massage therapists, accupuncturists and chiropractors would be from receiving PIP payments for medical treatments, under the House proposal.

The two sides are also split over attorneys fees.

An emotional William Dillon looked on Friday as the House agreed to pay him $1.35 million as compensation for spending more than 27 years behind bars from a crime he did not do.

The House voted 107-5 to approve the payment. The Senate, which earlier approved a similar version of the bill, is expected to OK the measure as early as next week.

“It’s been quite a journey,” said Dillon, who choked back tears following the House vote. “Money doesn’t really take care of what we had to deal with, but it will help me get something.”

Dillon said he considered the claims bill an apology from the state.

“Ultimately, it is about just saying ‘we’re sorry this happened to you,’” he added.

Dillon, 52, who now lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., was convicted for the 1981 murder of James Dvorak, in Brevard’s Canova Beach. Eyewitnesses placed him near the murder scene and his alibi didn’t stand up to a jury. It wasn’t until 2005 that the Innocence Project, which works to free those believed wrongfully convicted, was directed to his case.

DNA testing of a bloody shirt which prosecutors said was worn by the victim showed Dillon was not the killer. After he won a new trial, prosecutors dropped charges against him, saying they didn’t have sufficient evidence or witnesses to pursue the case.

Some of the original witnesses against Dillon testified only after they had been threatened with jail time for other crimes by Brevard County prosecutors, researchers found.

“It’s justifiable,” Dillon said of the settlement. “When something is wrong, it’s wrong.”

 

State Rep. Jimmie Smith isn’t an attorney, as House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders pointed out during an “I’m-a-lawyer-and-you’re-not” debate over Smith’s bill that would require random drug testing of all state employees. In fact, Smith, R-Inverness, has a G.E.D.

But Gov. Rick Scott’s crack legal team has come to Smith’s defense on the controversial measure, similar to an executive order issued by Scott last year and argued in federal court on Wednesday. The ACLU and the union representing government workers sued Scott over the drug tests, and he backed away from his “pee in a cup” policy, limiting the drug tests to Department of Corrections workers.

Scott’s office provided a legal analysis for Smith, which he distributed to members of the House State Affairs Committee Friday morning before the panel approved the bill (HB 1205) by a 9-6 vote.

The 13-page memo, written by Scott’s deputy general counsel and Harvard Law School graduate Jesse Panuccio, outlines the legal arguments Panuccio made in the federal court case defending the drug testing, and refers to several cases in which courts ruled that drug testing government employees was acceptable.

Smith referred to the Scott’s packet several times during question-and-answer period and held his own against Democrats, who insisted the random, suspicionless, drug tests are illegal and an insult to state workers.

The requirement would further demoralize state workers, who have gone without a pay raise for six years and last year were forced to contribute 3 percent of their salaries towards their pensions, argued Rep. Dwight Taylor, D-Daytona Beach.

“Now you want them to prove they’re not doing drugs. In other words, you’re guilty. Now prove that you’re innocent. That’s not the way government should operate,” Taylor said.

Smith said he wants to cut back on Florida’s drug problem and that state workers should be treated the same as those who work for private companies, who are allowed to require drug tests.

“Let me be very clear. Drug abuse is a very real problem in the state of Florida,” Smith said. But, he insisted, “This bill does not suggest state workers are more likely to be drug users.”

Rep. Richard Steinberg, a Miami Beach Democrat, resigned Friday, two days after admitting  he harassed a married Miami prosector with anonymous text messages, at least one calling her ‘sexxxy momma.’

Steinberg, a former Miami Beach city commissioner first elected to the House in 2008, apologized and said he was quitting to “attend to my family’s personal affairs.”

“The events of the past week have been difficult for my family, for me and for everyone involved,” Steinberg said in a statement. “After much consultation with my family, my friends and my colleagues in the Democratic caucus—and after some time for quiet, personal reflection—I have decided to resign from my position, effective today, as a member of Florida’s House of Representatives.

 

“With the support of my family, my friends and my colleagues, I will remain home to attend to my and my family’s personal affairs.  As I did earlier this week, I want to once again, very directly and sincerely, apologize to everyone I have hurt.  I hope that you will respect my and my family’s privacy.

Federal agents tied Steinberg to messages sent for more than three months last year to Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos. The messages were sent under the screen name “itsjustme24680.″

No charges have been filed.  But after the Miami Herald reported that federal documents had been made public in the case, Steinberg left the House to return to Miami.

Just hours before he left, Steinberg had been an outspoken opponent of a bill critics say is aimed at allowing prayer in public schools.