Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday vetoed a bill that sought to regulate the blending of conventional medical science with holistic therapies.
The measure intended to create the Board of Naturopathic Medicine to assist the Department of Health with regulating naturopathic doctors (SB 688).
In his veto letter to Secretary of State Cord Byrd, DeSantis noted that “Florida leads the nation in advancing medical freedom and access to care.”
“If enacted, this legislation may negatively impact Floridians who currently work in alternative medicine by mandating post-graduate education that cannot be obtained in Florida and require them to pay costly licensure fees to do the work they are already performing,” DeSantis wrote. “There is no need to create additional bureaucratic hurdles.”
Naturopathic medicine, which stresses a holistic approach to health care, may provide treatment to patients using psychological, mechanical and other means, such as air, water, light or herbs, to purify, cleanse and normalize human tissues for the preservation and restoration of health.
Organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have historically warned against using naturopaths as primary care providers due to pseudoscientific elements.
Another veto involved an effort to expand current commercial driver license training programs operated or contracted by the Department of Corrections (HB 325).
Currently, the training is available to work-release inmates. The proposal was to provide similar “behind the fence” training only at state correctional institutions and facilities to nonviolent inmates with two years or less remaining on their sentence, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.
In a separate veto letter to Byrd, DeSantis called the proposal “unnecessarily burdensome” to the Department of Corrections and claimed it also would create “significant public safety concerns by authorizing incarcerated individuals to operate commercial vehicles in public thoroughfares.”
From the regular session, DeSantis has now signed 223 of the 237 bills approved by the House and Senate. As of Monday morning, nine bills awaited action from DeSantis.
