Rep. Dean Black highlights bills on public worker protections, banning lab grown meat

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, highlighted bills he sponsored during the 2024 Legislative Session including a bill expanding the ease for unions to comply with financial transparency as well as legislation banning lab grown meat.

“It’s another historic session in the books,” Black said. “Once again, Florida leads the nation. We are the hope of America.”

Public Employees Protection

Black said he has been “leading the charge” with protecting public workers from “corrupt union bosses.”

Last year, Black sponsored legislation, dubbed as “The Paycheck Protection Act,” which he said banned the automatic deduction of dues from teachers and other public workers’ paychecks.

That bill also requires that a copy of the financials of public workers be provided to the workers so “they would know how their money was being spent if they chose to join a union.”

This session, Black carried HB 1471, which he said is a follow up of the Paycheck Protection Act. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, sponsored the Senate version, which was signed by the governor in late March.

“Our workers ought to have confidence in how their money is being spent,” Black said. “They ought to have transparency. And we made it clear through passage of this act this year, that we’re gonna stand with our workers, not with corrupt union bosses.”

Banning Lab-Grown Meat

Gov. Ron DeSantis will consider official approval for a bill that bans lab-grown meat amongst other measures as part of an agriculture legislative package.

As a cattle rancher, Black said he knows “very well where actual meat comes from and it doesn’t come from a vat in a laboratory.”

“Humans evolved to need to eat meat, we have a shortened digestive tract because of that,” Black said. “And we know that there are certain constituents of real meat, certain flavonoids, omega threes, various bioactive molecules that come from the plants that animals eat, and which we can get no other way that are not going to be in cultured meat.”

SB 1084 was sponsored by Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa. The House version was sponsored by Rep. Danny Alvarez, R-Riverview.

The legislation prohibits and creates penalties for the manufacturing, sale or distribution of cultivated meat in the state.

“Cultured meat is not meat at all,” Black said. “It’s some sort of a nitrogen based synthetic protein paste.”

Black said research and development on cultivated meat is allowed under the bill, but the manufacturing, sale or distribution of it will be prohibited because “the safety is in question.”

“There needs to be more research and study before we just put this in school lunch programs,” Black said.

Gender and biological sex

Black carried HB 1639, which he called the “What is a Woman Act.” Rep Doug Bankson, R-Apopka, also sponsored the bill and it passed through the House, but did not make it through the Senate.

The bill defines the term “sex” and outlines the two biological genders, male and female, that the state recognizes on legal documents.

It would have required Floridians to identify on their driver’s license by their biological sex rather than their gender.

“You’re born a male, you’re born a female,” Black said. “And this bill, which actually passed in the House, would have made it illegal for people to go in and change things on their driver’s license based on a feeling because at the end of the day, we really believe that your sex is about biology, not ideology.”

Furthermore, it would have also required health insurance providers that cover gender transition surgery to also cover de-transition surgery.

Black said the “truth that it’s about biology and not ideology,” will “continue to exist next session” and he is hopeful that the next Senate will take up the bill in the future.

Protection of historic monuments and memorials

Black and Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona, sponsored legislation, which did not pass its needed committees that would have ensured protection and preservation for all historical monuments and memorials in Florida.

Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, filed the Senate version of the bill. Black said they had the bill in a “really good posture” in the House, but “unfortunately, some folks came and said incendiary things in the Senate [and] it completely undermined its chances in the Senate.”

Previously, both Black and Martin defended their positions on the legislation during an interview on Florida’s Voice with Brendon Leslie, calling out media headlines by NBC 2. The outlet made claims the bills “protect Confederate monuments.”

“The headline is misleading because this is a bill that protects all history,” Black previously said. “It’s truthfully a history bill, and it protects our monuments and memorials wherever situated in Florida, and for whatever purpose.”

“It’s not mostly or predominantly about Confederate memorials, it’s about all of our historic memorials,” he said.

Black said he is “not interested” in carrying a bill so he can “make speeches and maybe get news time.”

“I’m really interested in doing things and spending my time where I can really move the ball down the field and get things done,” he said. “And there was really no point in continuing what then had become a pointless conversation in the House, given that the Senate was not going to hear it.”

Black said the debate on protecting historic monuments and memorials is “ongoing” and to “stay tuned.”

Further remarks

The representative said it is the “honor of a lifetime” to serve in the Florida Legislature.

“I’m happy to report your government works really well in Florida and it gives me hope for the future,” Black said. “Because if our government can work well in Florida, and we’re a big state, we’re a busy state, and if we can get it pretty close to right here most of the time, well, then that gives hope to the other states in this country, and by extension to the nation.”

Black represents District 15 and said he wants to hear from people who may have a problem or concern.

“If you have a good idea, if you see a problem, and you think there might be a good solution to that problem, I want to hear from you,” Black said. “I would like for you to reach out to any of my district offices and let me know what problems you see. And if you have a solution, let me know that too. I work for you and I don’t have to have all the good ideas. There are a lot of really smart people in Northeast Florida and I want to hear from you.”