No. HB 687
Filed under Healthcare.
Government Waste and Misconduct; Requires specified parties prepare a report investigating & evaluating specified subjects & identifying certain funds; requires AG to take certain actions to recover specified funds; requires such recovered funds be used for certain purpose; requires specified funds be transferred & used for certain purpose; creates Working Floridians Tax Rebate Program within DOR for certain purpose; requiring the program be funded in a specified manner; granting state funds to certain people who have received federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA joint report from state watchdogs must investigate spending across dozens of programs, including immigration detention contracts, Hope Florida initiatives, and 2024 ballot-measure messaging, then identify funds lost or at risk from fraud, waste, or mismanagement.
The Attorney General must sue to recover any funds found lost to waste, while funds merely at risk are transferred immediately. Both pots fund a new Working Floridians Tax Rebate Program.
People who receive the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and keep Florida residency can apply for a state rebate worth 20 percent of that credit, paid within 30 days of a verified application.
The rebate cannot be counted against eligibility for Medicaid, Kidcare, cash assistance, or food stamps, and the Department of Commerce may adopt emergency rules to start the program quickly.
AIOPPAGA, the Auditor General, and the Government Efficiency Task Force must jointly produce a report examining specified spending, including immigration detention contracts, Hope Florida, ivermectin-for-cancer spending, and 2024 ballot-measure messaging, then identify funds already lost and funds still at risk.
AIOnce the report identifies spent funds lost to fraud, waste, malfeasance, mismanagement, or misconduct, the Attorney General has a mandatory duty to pursue legal remedies to get that money back, rather than discretion to decide whether to act.
AIUnlike funds already lost, which require the Attorney General to sue, unspent funds the report merely identifies as at risk of being lost to waste must be transferred right away into the General Revenue Fund earmarked for the rebate program.
AIThe Department of Commerce must pay Florida residents who received the federal Earned Income Tax Credit an amount equal to 20 percent of that credit, once they apply by June 30 of the year received and document the amount.
AIThe program has no independent appropriation. Its entire budget comes exclusively from money the report identifies as recovered or at-risk waste, so how much it can pay out rises and falls with what the audit finds.
AIReceiving the state rebate cannot be counted when determining a recipient's eligibility for Medicaid, Florida Kidcare, cash assistance, or food assistance, so accepting the rebate does not put other benefits at risk.
AITo stand the program up quickly, the bill deems all normal prerequisites for declaring a rulemaking emergency already satisfied, letting the Department of Commerce adopt emergency rules under the shortened process instead of ordinary rulemaking.