Lauren Book screws the rules in a last ditch effort to save face after she pulled her own sex trafficking bill. Winning through losing 101

Ah yes, Lauren Book must've gotten a lot of heat for her mysterious pulling of a popular (though admittedly flawed) sex trafficking bill.

To save face, and most likely in time to use it as an advertisement and talking point for her annual walk across Florida, Lauren Book then tries to revive her bill in the most Lauren Book rules possible-- by completely screwing the rules of the legislature. Looks like daddy Ron taught his daughter quite well.

I didn't believe the bill she proposed was helpful in the first place, but this odd behavior simply shows she is simply unfit to be a state senator.

For those of you still confused, yet me point this out to you. Lauren Book is the daughter of Ron Book, one of South Florida's most powerful lobbyists. He represents, among other things, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, aka the hotel insurance lobby. This created a conflict of interest. However, seeing as how this maneuver started costing her in terms of her main source of income and support, money from sex crime victims, and knowing she can't lose support for her annual march across Florida, Lauren Book came up with a face saving measure. She knew that she would not be able to get a last ditch effort to pass so she put on a performance so the sex trafficking victim-advocates would think Book was doing all she could to help them. The bill fails, and Lauren saves face while a problematic bill bites the dust, and Senator Book comes out smelling like a rose. The sex crime victims buy it hook, line, and sinker.

http://www.bradenton.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article204274949.html

Senator’s last-ditch effort to revive human trafficking bill is successful
BY LAWRENCE MOWER

Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

March 09, 2018 08:39 AM

Sen. Lauren Book's human trafficking bill was brought back to life on Thursday, after she used a clever bit of legislative maneuvering to bring it before the Senate for a vote.

It was a dramatic turnaround for a piece of legislation that had sailed through both chambers of the Legislature, but appeared dead last week, after Book, D-Plantation, mysteriously postponed her own bill.

The bill would allow victims to sue the hotels and motels that turn a blind eye to human trafficking.

Her decision last week left trafficking victims furious and fellow lawmakers scratching their heads, wondering if Senate leadership and the powerful hotel lobby, including Disney, was working behind the scenes to kill the bill.

But on Thursday, with two trafficking survivors looking on, Book revived it in dramatic fashion.

She used an amendment to sneak the bill's language onto a different bill, a tactic that violates Senate rules.

And Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, was quick to point out that it went against the rules. The decision about whether Lee was right went to the Rules committee chair, Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers.

After a few minutes to look it over, Benacquisto came back and told her colleagues that Book's amendment did violate the rules.

But then, Lee, surprisingly, alerted Book that she had a way to veto the rules: she could call for a 2/3rds vote from her colleagues.

Lee later said in a text message that he wasn't sure if Book was aware that she could override the rule.

"I felt it was important that we follow our rules, but it's a very sensitive issue," Lee said. "I didn't want it to die without giving Sen. Book a fighting chance to pass it."

Book did ask for the 2/3rds vote, and it prevailed. Her new bill – the unrelated one with the human trafficking bill attached to it – then passed overall.

It still faces an uphill battle, however. It needs to pass the Senate again today and then pass the House.

But Book's move gave new hope to the two human trafficking survivors watching from the gallery, who had made multiple trips to Tallahassee to tell lawmakers, in public and on television, their stories.

"Two-thirds of the Senate was on our side, so it's good to know they're standing with us," said Savannah Parvu, 31, of Umatilla.

Former Seminole County prosecutor Lisa Haba, who traveled to Tallahassee multiple times to talk about how motels and hotels turned a blind eye to human trafficking, praised Book afterward.

"She has been a tremendous advocate for survivors of human trafficking," Haba said.

Linsey Ruth, who told lawmakers this session how she was trafficked by her ex-husband, also praised the senator who has sponsored the bill in the House, Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover.

"There are a lot of really good people behind it, and we're happy to see that," Ruth said. "In our past lives, it's just been us. We've been all on our own."

ULTIMATELY, HER BILL FAILED. 

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2018/march/human-trafficking-bill-killed-in-late-night-fla-senate-session

Human Trafficking Bill Killed in Late Night Fla. Senate Session
03-10-2018
CBN News

The last effort to keep a human trafficking bill alive in the Florida state senate failed Friday night when the state house decided to remove a part of the proposed measure that would have created a fund for victims.

When it was left for the senate to consider changes to the measure, Republicans said the bill should be killed because the house "did not do the right thing."

"Our friends in the House stripped that out in an attempt to say that they did something in the face of these women, all for political glory," said state Sen. Rene Garcia (R).

The senate has already passed a trust fund bill.

The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Lauren Book (D), urged lawmakers to pass the measure anyway as she gestured to three trafficking victims sitting in the gallery watching the proceedings.

"They have to drive home because they can't stay in hotels," Book said.

As CBN News has reported, the bill would have allowed sex-trafficking victims to sue hotels for turning a blind eye to the crimes taking place on their property.

Not a single Florida lawmaker voted against the proposed measure as it went through committees. 

"Senator" Lauren Book pulls her own sex trafficking bill because.... reasons?

Lauren Book is the biggest sack of bovine excrement sitting on the FloriDUH legislature. I'm willing to speculate she pulled the bill because daddy Ron likely represents the hotel industry (or at the very least, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America). Going against daddy's wishes would lead to the end of her dubious tenure as a state "senator." It is hard for Lauren to be independent with Daddy yanking on her strings.

I don't have a problem with this bill dying at any rate. I just love seeing Lauren exposed as a hypocrite and a snake in the grass.

http://www.bradenton.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article203049349.html

After unanimous support, human trafficking bill mysteriously postponed

BY LAWRENCE MOWER

Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

March 02, 2018 09:06 AM

The bill was ambitious, allowing human trafficking victims to sue the hotels that turn a blind eye to their plight, yet it was sailing through the Florida Legislature.

After hearing the horrifying stories from trafficking victims, no lawmaker could vote against the bill, and no one did. No one had even spoken against it.

But on Thursday, needing to pass one last committee before making it to the Senate floor, the senator sponsoring the bill pulled the rug out from under it.

State Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, asked that the bill be postponed. With the Legislature in the final days of its session, she effectively killed her own bill, advocates fear.

The move was unusual for Book, herself a victim of child abuse who, until now, had championed the legislation. But her excuse for doing it left one lawmaker and an advocate mystified.

Book said that she postponed the bill because her counterparts in the House, under pressure from the hotel and lodging industry, couldn't pass their own version of it, and she didn't want to waste the Senate committee's time on a losing effort. (Both houses of the Legislature have to pass a bill before it can become law.)

"I'm disappointed that the House won't pass the bill as-is," she said in an interview afterward. She said that she would rather postpone the bill "rather than waste the committee's time."

The state representative responsible for getting the bill through the House, however, said her assessment of its prospects was "not accurate." The bill passed all of its House committees, and as of Thursday night, still had a chance of making it to the House floor for readings and a vote.

"I don't know where she heard that from," state Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover, said.

Dale Swope, who has advocated for the bill as president of the Florida Justice Association, which represents trial lawyers, was infuriated that Book didn't try to get the bill passed.

He said it was "catastrophically insulting to the dignity of these women who paid such a high price to get this bill passed."

"It's actually kind of shocking," he said. "For a committee that passed every bill in front of them and had 25 minutes left over, and for her to say they don't want to take up their time?"

One human trafficking survivor couldn't understand why it happened. Savannah Parvu drove to Tallahassee from Umatilla multiple times to tell lawmakers how she was sold for sex out of a hotel when she was only 12.

"I feel like I was given false hope," Parvu said. "I've done all this work, I've opened up and shared horrible things that have happened to me, and it doesn't even get to be heard at the last meeting."

The bill would have allowed survivors like Parvu to sue businesses that willingly and knowingly turn a blind eye to trafficking. For that illicit industry, that mostly meant motels and hotels, where the trafficking often happens. A few other states have passed similar laws, but lawsuits have been scarce.

The bill also would have created a trust fund for trafficking victims, made up of money won in lawsuits. That was in a separate bill that Book also chose to postpone on Thursday.

Advocates and lawmakers agree with Book that the industry has been lobbying hard against it behind the scenes, however. The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and Disney are registered to lobby the bill. Neither have responded to requests for comment.

But the bills were modified to appease the industry, making it harder to win a human trafficking case against a motel or hotel. It also added incentives to quash lawsuits if the businesses trained its employees to spot signs of human trafficking.

Book acknowledged the industry has been "unhappy" with the bill, but that the victims have been "terribly upset" by it not passing.

"I can promise you, this is not something I'm going to forget, and not something I'm going to stop fighting for," she said.

But Swope believed the bill would have passed the House. He noted that House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, supported the bill, which Corcoran confirmed Thursday night.

Regardless of the motive, Swope said the damage to the bill was done.

"It is killed, dead as a doornail," Swope said. "It was right at the finish line. All she had to do is carry it across the finish line."