Florida Senate - 2016                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 708
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì918106ÂÎ918106                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  01/26/2016           .                                
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       The Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability
       (Bullard) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete lines 52 - 87
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. (1) Any historical resource, record, archive, or
    6  artifact and any human remains that are recovered from the
    7  Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys must be transferred to the
    8  Department of State. The department shall retain and preserve
    9  such historical resources, records, archives, and artifacts.
   10         (2)The Department of State shall reimburse the next of kin
   11  or pay directly to the provider up to $7,500 for funeral,
   12  reinterment, and grave marker expenses for each child whose body
   13  was buried and exhumed at the Dozier School. The department
   14  shall identify and locate eligible next of kin of such children
   15  by December 31, 2017.
   16         (a)To receive reimbursement, the next of kin must submit
   17  to the department receipts for or documentation of expenses.
   18  Reimbursement shall be made pursuant to s. 215.422.
   19         (b)If expenses are to be paid directly to the provider,
   20  the funeral home or other similar entity shall submit an invoice
   21  to the department for the cost of the child’s funeral,
   22  reinterment, and grave marker expenses. Payment shall be made
   23  pursuant to s. 215.422.
   24         (c) A charitable donation made toward funeral, reinterment,
   25  and grave marker expenses is not eligible for reimbursement.
   26         (3) By February 1, 2018, the Department of State shall
   27  report to the Legislature on the status of payments and
   28  reimbursements required by this act.
   29         (4)(a) A task force, as defined in s. 20.03, is established
   30  adjunct to the Department of State to make recommendations to
   31  the department regarding the creation and maintenance of a
   32  memorial and the location of a site for the reinterment of
   33  unidentified or unclaimed remains.
   34         (b) Task force members shall be appointed by the secretary
   35  of the Department of State and shall serve without compensation,
   36  but are entitled to reimbursement for per diem and travel
   37  expenses in accordance with s. 112.061.
   38         (c) The recommendations of the task force must be submitted
   39  to the Department of State by October 1, 2016, at which time the
   40  task force is abolished.
   41         (5) The department may adopt rules necessary to administer
   42  this section.
   43         Section 2. For the 2016-2017 fiscal year, the sum of
   44  $500,000 in nonrecurring funds is appropriated from the General
   45  Revenue Fund to the Department of State for the purpose of
   46  implementing this act. The unexpended balance of such funds
   47  shall revert immediately on July 1, 2017, and is appropriated
   48  for the 2017-2018 fiscal year for the same purpose.
   49         Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming law.
   50  
   51  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   52  And the title is amended as follows:
   53         Delete lines 5 - 36
   54  and insert:
   55         artifacts; directing the department to reimburse the
   56         next of kin of children whose bodies are buried and
   57         exhumed at the Dozier School or to pay directly to a
   58         provider for the costs associated with funeral
   59         services, reinterment, and grave marker expenses;
   60         providing a process for reimbursement by the
   61         department; providing that a charitable donation made
   62         toward funeral, reinterment, and grave marker expenses
   63         is not eligible for reimbursement; establishing a task
   64         force to make recommendations regarding a memorial and
   65         a location of a site for the reinterment of
   66         unidentified or unclaimed remains; providing that
   67         members of the task force shall serve without
   68         compensation but are entitled certain per diem and
   69         travel expenses; requiring the task for to submit its
   70         recommendation to the department by a certain date, at
   71         which time the task force is abolished; authorizing
   72         the department to adopt rules; providing
   73         appropriations; providing an effective date.
   74  
   75         WHEREAS, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, or the
   76  Dozier School, operated from 1900 until it was closed in 2011
   77  after allegations of abuse were confirmed in separate
   78  investigations by the Department of Law Enforcement in 2010 and
   79  the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of
   80  Justice in 2011, and
   81         WHEREAS, official records indicated that 31 graves had been
   82  dug at the facility between 1914 and 1952, and
   83         WHEREAS, a forensic investigation by the University of
   84  South Florida found that there are no records of where children
   85  who died at the Dozier School are buried and that a second
   86  cemetery is likely to exist, and
   87         WHEREAS, exhumations of bodies began in August 2013, and
   88  the excavations yielded 55 burial sites, 24 more bodies