{"id":134891,"date":"2026-01-28T13:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134891\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:04:20","slug":"senate-committee-advances-bipartisan-bill-to-save-kids-from-drowning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134891\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate committee advances bipartisan bill to save kids from drowning"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a more unusual move, a Republican\u2019s and a Democrat\u2019s bills were merged together to create one beefed-up piece of legislation meant to save kids from drowning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith\u2019s<\/a> SB 608 and Sen. Danny Burgess\u2019<\/a>s SB 658 adds new regulations for pools.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s targets licensed vacation rental properties Burgess\u2019 bill is similar except that it is tailored at residential long-term rental homes.<\/p>\n

The two bills \u2014 a \u201ctwo-headed dragon,\u201d the two senators joked \u2014 were combined into Burgess\u2019 legislation and advanced with a 9-0 vote through the Senate Regulated Industries Committee<\/a>. Committee Chair Sen. Jennifer Bradley<\/a> urged them to work together under one bill.<\/p>\n

The stronger bill must pass two more committee stops before reaching the full Senate floor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Under the legislation, a landlord whose property is within 150 feet from a body of water that\u2019s not a swimming pool would be required to choose between exit alarms on doors and windows with direct access to the water or a self-closing, self-latching, locking device on all doors by the water.<\/p>\n

Those same landlords and vacation rental owners with swimming pools must have at least one pool safety feature out of the following choices: a pool cover, pool fence, flotation alarm, self-latching locks or exit alarms on the doors and windows by the pool.<\/p>\n

The goal is to prevent children\u2019s drownings which is\u00a0 the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 in Florida.<\/p>\n

In 2025, 119 children died in Florida, a place with beaches, hotel pools, thousands of lakes and a million backyard swimming pools, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, last year Florida not only led the nation for the number of fatal child drownings, we shattered our own previous record,\u201d said Smith, an Orlando Democrat. \u201cI believe 100% of these tragedies are preventable. And the solutions are right in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Burgess, a Zephyrhills Republican, added their legislation is meant to help save children with autism who can feel overwhelmed and go to water to escape, leading to tragic results.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Florida Swimming Pool Association<\/a> supported the bill which carries some teeth for enforcement. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation could suspend or revoke a vacation rental license or issue fines while a landlord could get charged with a criminal second-degree misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

Another one of Smith\u2019s efforts about water safety is advancing this Legislative Session.<\/p>\n

Smith also co-sponsored a bipartisan bill requiring the Department of Health to give practical child water safety information to parents. That bill, SB 606<\/a>, cleared its first committee stop last week with a 11-0 vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a more unusual move, a Republican\u2019s and a Democrat\u2019s bills were merged together to create one beefed-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2507,2806,5186,2805,28,30,29,5894,66094,66095,66096,66097,15651,66098,8919],"class_list":["post-134891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-carlos-guillermo-smith","tag-child-deaths","tag-danny-burgess","tag-drowning","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jennifer-bradley","tag-landlord-laws","tag-sb-606","tag-sb-608","tag-sb-658","tag-swimming-pools","tag-vacation-rentals","tag-water-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}