F E L I C I A F O R F L O R I D A
STATE REPRESENTATIVE
FELICIA ROBINSON
2023
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
CHILDREN FAMILIES AND SENIORS SUBCOMMITTEE
STATE ADMINISTRATION & TECHNOLOGY APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
INFRASTRUCTURE STRATAGIES COMMITTEE
STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
ETHICS, ELECTIONS & OPEN GOVERNMET SUBCOMMITTEE
INFRASTRUCTURE & TOURISM APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
FASHION ON EVERY PAGE
DISTRICT 104
VOLUME 1 MARCH 2O23
pg. 4 New Years Celebration 5 Committee Week # 1 (Special Session) 6 5000 Role Models of Excellence 7 Swearing In Ceremony 8 Remembering Rosewood 100 yrs. 9 Committee Week #2 10 Committee Week #3 11 Nicklaus Children's Hospital 12 Committee Week # 4 13 Red Dress Red Wine Table of Contents
pg. 14 Resource Fair/Leg. Summit 15 5th Committee Week 16 Miami-Dade and Broward 17 Upper Room Ministries Black History Celebration 18 6th Committee Week 19 Legislative Summit/Delta's 20 Sponsored Bills - Rep. Robinson 21 Committee Assignments 22 Black History Resolution Table of Contents Continued
New Year's Day My Mom's 85th Birthday
1st Committee Week
On January 2, 2023 we headed out to Tallahassee to for the 1st Committee week. The 1st week was light. No appointments, just committee meetings and getting the Tallahassee Office organized.
5000 Role Models of Excellence
The 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project is a dropout prevention, mentoring program committed to closing the minority male achievement (access) gap by guiding minority male students along a carefully charted path through grades K-12 and college or ensuring the attainment of other post-secondary credentials, and increasing their employability in higher wage, high skills jobs within high demand industries.
Swearing In Ceremony
On January 10th 2023 Representative Felicia Robinson, along with Representative Christopher Benjamin, Representative Dotie Joseph, Representative Ashley Gant, and Senator Shevrin Jones hosted a Ceremonial Swearing-In Program for their constituents and family. The ceremony involved a united color guard from every city represented by the elected officials. The Floridia Memorial Gospel Choir sang, and the young family members said the pledge of allegiance. The Lou Rawls Auditorium located at Florida Memorial University was standing room only. This was a night to remember!
Representative Robinson and members of the Black Caucus attended the 100th Celebration commeratering the Rosewood Massacre. The next day Rep. Robinson and Rep. Hart (Tampa) visited the Lawtey Prison to check on the living conditions of inmates.
Remembering
Remembering
Remembering
Rosewood 100 Years
Rosewood 100 Years
Rosewood 100 Years
2nd Committee Week
3rd Committee Week
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital received a $25 million gift from Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth C. Griffin. It will support the new five-story, 127,000-square-foot surgical tower opening in 2024. In recognition of this historic gift, it will be named the Kenneth C. Griffin Surgical Tower. The donation will enhance pediatric care for children in Florida and beyond for generations to come.
4th Committee Week
The 4th Committee Week in Tallahassee was very busy. Representative Robinson had over 15 appointments in addition to her committee meetings.
Red Dress Red Wine
If you missed Red Dress Red Wine, you missed a treat! This is one of Rep. Robinson's signature events! This event highlights the importance of heart health. It was held at Hollybrook Gulf Course, and everyone enjoyed it immensely. We danced, drank red wine, ate delicious heart healthy food, and received lots of educational information about the most important organ in your body; the Heart! Don't miss this event next year.
Resource Fair & Legislative Summit
The Resource Fair & Legislative Summit featured more state agencies than we can share on one page. On the spot jobs, on site Drivers Licenses and state ID's, Snap benefits, housing authority, Family and children's services, Community Action Network, just to name a few. We also had a the Legislative Summit that shared pertinent information about appropriations, Insurance, and the housing crisis in Florida.
5th Committee Week
Miami-Dade Delegation
Broward Delegation
Upper Room Ministries Black History Program
6th Committee Week
Legislative Summit with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
Representative Robinson partnered with her Sorority Sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., to host a pre-legislative summit. The entire Miami-Dade Delegation was invited to participate and share their legislative agenda for the 2023 session. The ladies learned a lot in this session and were encouraged to get involved in the legislative process.
My Bills for 2023
HB 1235 Restoration of Voting Rights : Requires Florida Commission on Offender Review to develop & maintain database containing certain information for certain purpose; requires certain governmental entities to provide certain information to commission; requires DMS, acting through Florida Digital Service, to provide certain technical assistance to commission; requires commission to make database available to public on Internet website by certain date; requires commission to update database monthly & publish certain information on website; requires commission to provide comprehensive plan to Governor & Legislature by certain date; provides that person who takes certain actions in reasonable reliance on database may not be charged with certain violations of criminal law.
HB 659 Sexually Transmissible Diseases : Reduces degree of criminal penalty for certain persons infected with HIV & who donate blood, plasma, organs, skin, or other human tissue for use in another person; revises prohibitions relating to intentional transmission of certain diseases through sexual conduct; revises penalties; revises requirements for HIV testing in cases involving criminal transmission of HIV.
HB 651 Human Trafficking : Revises criminal penalties to include fines of certain amounts; requires prosecution of specified offenses under Florida RICO; requires DOE & DOH, in conjunction with Statewide Council on Human Trafficking, to establish an awareness training program; requires each state attorney to ensure prosecutors receive certain mandatory training; requires each state attorney to adopt pro-prosecution policy for human trafficking offenses.
HB 649 Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking : Specifies authorized uses of funds from Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking.
HB 647 Trust Funds/Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking/DLA : Creates Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking within DLA; provides for funding sources & purposes of trust fund; provides for future review & termination or re-creation of trust fund.
HB 361 Municipal Water and Sewer Utility Rates : Requires municipality to charge customers receiving its utility services in another municipality same rates, fees, & charges as it charges consumers within its municipal boundaries.
HB 103 Taxpayer Delinquencies : Requires DOR to convene informal conference regarding delinquencies in payment of tax, interest, or penalties; requires DOR to compromise taxpayer's liability for taxes & interest under specific conditions; creates rebuttable presumption if taxpayer does not provide specified records; authorizes DOR to settle or compromise penalties; requires DOR to give notice of amount of delinquency to informally resolve delinquency; specifies taxpayer may receive assistance from taxpayers' rights advocate; requires DOR to issue notice of intent to garnish.
Committee Assignments
Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee
Ranking Member
State Administration & Technology
Appropriations Subcommittee
Ranking Member
Infrastructure Strategies Committee
State Affairs Committee
Ethics, Elections & Open
Government
Infrastructure & Tourism
Appropriations Subcommittee
R e s o l u t i o n
THE NEED TO DEVELOP A CURICULUM FOR K-12 THAT GIVES AN ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF BLACK HISTORY DEVELOPED BY BLACK ORIGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE NAACP, NCNW, AFRICAN AMERICAN SORORITIES, FATERNITIES, AND HBCU’S, AND HISTORICALLY BLACK CHURCHES
WHEREAS, in the majority of classrooms K-12 across the U.S. students receive a Eurocentric view of black history for one month of an academic school year with censorship of topics of oppression, and or privilege
WHEREAS, this month of learning generally begins with slaves and those fighting for their freedom and therefore misrepresents the rich heritage of a people who came from a continent where diverse empires thrived for thousands of years, with large scale civilizations that had tax systems, irrigation systems, vast education systems, and traded gold, ivory and salt with other civilizations
WHEREAS, the current curriculum fails to inform that the enslavement of African Americans in the U.S. was systematically designed to erase the identity of the enslaved and treated them like property, and systemic racism still exist today as a byproduct of these historical events;
WHEREAS, the African American history taught in K-12 curriculum fails to mention the mob of white people in Ocoee, Florida on Nov. 2, 1920 who were so infuriated when a Black man showed up at the polls to vote that they set fire to the homes of black residents driving them from their homes killing over 60 people during this two-day streak of terror;
WHEREAS, the African American history taught in K-12 curriculum fails to mention that in 1921, white mobs in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attacked the city's affluent African American community, killing as many as 300 people and injuring hundreds more. The attack, which took place over the course of 16 hours, destroyed the Black business district, known as Black Wall Street, and left thousands of people homeless.
WHEREAS, the civil rights movement, an unprecedented fight for equality, spanning two decades, often gets boiled down to "lessons about a handful of heroic figures and the four words 'I have a dream,
WHEREAS, there is tremendous pressure from the political right to teach a wholly false history that ignores the nation’s blemishes and misrepresents struggles for social justice,
WHEREAS, this revisionist version, the framers worked tirelessly to end slavery, the nation was perfect at birth, and states’ rights, not slavery, was the motivation behind Southern secession. Together, these interpretations deny the everyday reality of millions of today’s students that the nation is not yet perfect and that racism and injustice still exist,
WHEREAS, this revisionist version narrative ignores the agency of people of color and denies the need for group action to promote social justice
WHEREAS, the standard U.S. History course doesn’t humanize the African American experience
THERFORE BE IT RESOLVED, there needs to be a shift on the national level to contextualize the Black experience in the U.S., so that students see how it relates to issues of police brutality and systematic racism Black people deal with today
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Black History curriculum needs to come from a Black perspective with topics that cover Black History in its totality including narratives of victimization, oppression, perseverance, resistance, creativity, and determination
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Black History curriculum should contextualize issues of the past that connect with the present and future
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Black History Curriculum should emphasize that African Americans were more than slaves, they made substantial contributions the United States, and that the entire Unites States benefited from slavery, not just the South
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this curriculum will be developed through partnerships with the NAACP, NCNW, African American Sororities & Fraternities, HBCU Historians, and Historically Black Churches
