Bill to ban texting while driving passes final committee, heads to House floor

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The legislation which will ban texting while driving cleared its last committee committee in the Florida House and will head to the floor for final passage as early as next week. 

CSHB 13 by Rep. Doug Holder received a favorable vote by the House Economic Affairs Committee. 

Since 2008, legislation has been filed every session in the Florida House to ban a person from texting while driving, but, until this year, the bill was never been given any consideration in committee until now. 

A broad based coalition, called the FL DNT TXT+DRIVE COALITION, consisting of law enforcement, local governments, businesses, trade associations, advocacy networks and the PTA supported Holder’s legislation. 

The companion bill, SB 52 by Senator Nancy Detert still needs to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee, its final committee, before it too could head to the Senate floor for a vote.

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.