Just as national Conservative and Christian organizations support SB 1796, the Alimony Reform bill that will be landing on Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk for signing, Progressive groups are expressing their opposition to the measure.
Andrea Reid, who is a member of the Florida Bar’s Family Law Section, was for the bill before she was against it.
"The biggest potential impact is that those contracts those folks entered into, the alimony awards that they were counting on, the budgets that they created based on those existing alimony awards, those are in severe jeopardy," said Andrea Reid.
Reid made her remarks during the closing days of the 2022 legislative session, adding that the new bill would compromise existing alimony agreements.
The fallacy of that position is that the very agreements and judgments to which she refers are already modifiable and terminable. That contingency presently exist for those recipients, just as it would be under SB 1796. The bill does not alter non-modifiable agreements in any way.
The National Organization of Women (NOW), which is one of the loudest national advocates for all forms of abortion, has also come out against the measure through their Florida chapter.
Florida NOW representative, lobbyist Barbara DeVane, recently made the case against the bill, taking a Man’s world approach to qualify her opposition.
“They know these mothers will give up everything to get custody,” said DeVane, adding that men always had the upper hand over women because of the amount of money they wielded.
Considering that Gov. DeSantis’s pro-Family and Conservative bona fides are beyond reproach, Progressive opposition to his bill—a bill that does exactly what DeSantis, House Speaker Chris Sprowls, and other Republican legislators like Sen. Jim Boyd— recently talked about at the recent Fatherhood bill signing in Tampa.
The Fatherhood bill is the latest Family First bill DeSantis has signed into law.
Gov. DeSantis’s office has not announced when and if the governor would be signing the bill, or vetoing it, but all indications point to Florida Family First Gov. DeSantis signing the bill into law.
The Conservative Heritage Action recently praised the bill.
“Divorce is a painful process, emotionally and financially, that too often hurts children and parents while enriching divorce lawyers. SB 1796 is a smart bill that takes an important step towards a simple, fair divorce system that helps children to be raised by both their mother and their father. While the Left and their allies in the divorce bar seek to divide families and sever connections between parents and children, Florida’s legislators are working to keep families together as much as possible and reduce the animosity of the process.”—Heritage Action