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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has until Feb. 24 to decide whether to sign, veto, or ignore legislation that protects health care providers from lawsuits related to COVID-19.

 

Florida lawmakers delivered SB 7014 to his desk late on Feb. 17, according to a statement from his office. Under the Florida Constitution, DeSantis has seven days to act on the measure. If he doesn’t address the legislation by Feb. 24, it will become law, taking effect immediately. That has put the Republican governor in a tight spot, forcing him to choose between aligning with his party or appeasing a growing number of constituents who are demanding a veto of the measure.

 

Support behind a letter stating why he should block the legislation has swelled to include signatures from 35 leaders of organizations representing a combined total of hundreds of thousands of people in Florida and beyond, according to the letter’s author, attorney R. Shawn McBride, of the American Freedom Information Institute.

 

The letter was hand-delivered to DeSantis’s office on Feb. 14. The organization updates his office daily on the growing number of people calling for his veto on the legislation.

 

The Republican-led effort on the measure seeks to extend a law that grants near-immunity to health care providers for, among other things, their treatment of COVID-19, as long as they follow “government-issued health standards relating to” the disease.

 

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