PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Friday morning at a veterans’ nursing home in Port Charlotte, where he signed three bills that seek to help veterans living in such places, navigating the benefits process, or seeking to participate in some VA programs and services.
DeSantis, also marking 81 years since D-Day in his remarks, said that while there’s no better state than Florida to be a veteran, more still needed to be done within the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) to show that commitment.
The governor signed the following bills:
- SUMMARY TEXT: “Authorizes certain licensed skilled nursing facilities to request to designate or alter designation of certain beds as veteran & spouse nursing home beds if specific criteria are met; authorizes executive director of DVA to approve such requests if specific criteria are met; authorizes DVA to adopt rules; specifies conditions under which certain state veterans’ nursing homes or certain licensed skilled nursing facilities are exempt from having to receive certificate of need from AHCA (Florida Agency for Health Care Administration).”
- GOVERNOR’S STATEMENT: “(HB 797) removes government red tape to help veterans and their spouses across the long term access the long-term care that they’ve earned through service to our country. This legislation allows qualifying skilled nursing facilities, nonprofit retirement campuses to designate specific beds for veterans and their spouses without having to navigate through the burdensome certificate-of-need process. This empowers FDVA to approve these designations as long as these facilities are meeting the high standards for care and the bill also allows veteran-focused nursing homes under shared ownership to consolidate or transfer beds between facilities as long as they’re within 100 miles of each other,” DeSantis said.
- EFFECTIVE: July 1, 2025
- SB 116: ”Veterans"
- SUMMARY TEXT: “Requiring the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to conduct a study that includes a survey evaluating the extent to which specified persons are aware of certain existing programs or services; requiring the department to ensure coordination to the greatest extent possible with the United States Department of Defense for a specified purpose; revising the purpose of the Veteran Suicide Prevention Training Pilot Program to include specialized mental health training; requiring the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to develop a plan to establish adult day health care facilities across this state to serve veterans and their families, etc.”
- GOVERNOR’S STATEMENT: “(SB 116) requires our Department of Veterans Affairs to audit its own outreach in order to recommend real, actionable ways to ensure our veterans understand the services to which they’re entitled,” DeSantis said. “(...) It expands our veterans suicide prevention training program and it directs FDVA to deliver a statewide plan for building adult health care centers to the legislature later this year."
- APPROPRIATION: $350,000 (General Revenue Fund, FY 2025-26 nonrecurring)
- EFFECTIVE: July 1, 2025
- SB 910: ”Veterans’ Benefits Assistance"
- SUMMARY TEXT: “Prohibiting a person from receiving compensation for referring an individual to a provider for advising, assisting, or consulting on any veterans’ benefits matter; requiring that persons who advise, assist, or consult on veterans’ benefits matters for compensation provide a specified oral and written disclosure before entering into a business relationship with a client; prohibiting a provider who advises, assists, or consults on veterans’ benefits matters from charging certain fees; requiring a provider to ensure that individuals who directly assist a veteran in a veterans’ benefits matter complete a specified background screening before entering into an agreement with a veteran for veterans’ benefits matters, etc.”
- GOVERNOR’S STATEMENT: “(SB 910) cracks down on bad faith actors who seek to exploit veterans navigating the often complicated benefits process,” DeSantis said. ”(...) Veterans, to get US Department of Veterans Affairs benefits, a lot of times they gotta hire people to be able to do. Like, you hire some attorney, then you get it and you got to cut and give them a cut of it, and it’s just like, that’s not right and some people are taken advantage of. So this legislation creates strong new protections for veterans by placing clear limits on unaccredited individuals who charge a particular price to help with VA claims."
- EFFECTIVE: Immediately
[OTHER BILLS SIGNED: DeSantis signs ‘Trooper’s Law’]
DeSantis was joined in speaking at the Douglas T. Jacobson State Veterans’ Nursing Home by Florida Department of Veterans Affairs Executive Director Gen. James “Hammer” Hartsell and several others.
Watch Friday’s news conference in the video player below or by clicking here.