Dear Clients and Friends,
Below please find the seventeenth edition of Stearns Weaver Miller's COVID-19 Legal Compass, highlighting government updates, alerts on critical topics, and resources to help you navigate and adapt to this rapidly changing environment.
All actions described below have been ordered or updated between July 10-30, 2020. We have done our best to include significant, timely information, although new orders and actions are being introduced continuously.
View a comprehensive listing of the government actions pertaining to COVID-19 that we have collected to date.
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RECENT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ACTIONS
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Negotiations Over Next Relief Package Begin
: Senate leadership released their $1 trillion proposal for the next round of coronavirus relief funding to the House of Representatives. The HEALS (Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, Schools) Act will be broken down into eight smaller bills for negotiations - liability protections, unemployment assistance, continuation of the Payment Protection Program ("PPP"), supplemental federal spending, social security, personal protective equipment supply, school and workplace reopening, and aid for the restaurant industry. Key features of the proposal include: expanding the PPP by adding $60 billion for small businesses with fewer than 300 employees and demonstrable revenue losses; providing $100 billion in long-term, low-cost loans to seasonal businesses and businesses located in low-income areas with demonstrable revenue losses; shielding businesses, schools, and other organizations from COVID-19 related lawsuits through October 1, 2024, as long as the organization has made reasonable efforts to follow public health guidelines; and creating tax credits to encourage manufacturing of domestic personal protective equipment. Negotiations between House and Senate leadership will take place until Congress commences August recess.
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") and Department of Labor ("DOL") Cite Violations
: Following inspections, OSHA cited three healthcare facilities in Ohio with violations of respiratory protection standards for workers, charging them with a fine in excess of $40,000. Additionally, the DOL cited various companies for violations of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires wage payments to employees that are directed to quarantine by a doctor. Two of these paid wages cases are in South Florida.
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CDC Continues to Provide Guidance
: The CDC has published a new instructional poster for companies that assist workers in considering whether they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. In addition to this visual guidance, the CDC also provides an interactive self-check for symptoms in a user friendly survey format.
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RECENT STATE OF FLORIDA GOVERNMENT ACTIONS
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Local Government Meetings: Governor DeSantis extended the right for local governments to meet virtually and expanded the right to taxing authorities for limited meeting purposes and to value adjustment boards holding hearings under Chapter 194, Florida Statutes. Click for more.
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Extension of Foreclosure and Eviction Tolling: Governor DeSantis extended the suspension and tolling of all foreclosures and residential evictions through August 31. The extension carves out limitations such that the tolling only impacts single-family mortgages and residential tenancies, and only tolls for inability to pay due to direct impacts of COVID-19. Click for more.
View an easy-to-read matrix of the Florida government agency orders that we have collected to date. Highlighted actions are new (July 10-30) since last issue.
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RECENT COUNTY AND CITY GOVERNMENT ACTIONS
Our
comprehensive listing
includes the latest updates on the actions of 59 local governments throughout the state of Florida, as well as permitting information and a virtual meetings database. Grouped by region and with an easy-to-navigate table of contents, the listing is filled with links to each government's orders, organized by date.
FACIAL COVERING ORDINANCES UNMASK FACIAL CHALLENGES
Courts in multiple counties, including Leon and Palm Beach, have recently upheld local ordinances mandating the use of facial coverings in business establishments and other public places, ruling those requirements constitutional from the perspective of each facial challenge brought. Those courts analogized such ordinances as akin to helmet, seatbelt, and smoking safety laws, and emphasized that there is no constitutionally protected fundamental right, whether based in privacy, religious, or due process rights, to subject others to illness and death.
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