Florida Senate - 2022 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT Bill No. PCS (502578) for SB 524 Ì514084(Î514084 LEGISLATIVE ACTION Senate . House Comm: UNFAV . 02/02/2022 . . . . ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— The Committee on Ethics and Elections (Taddeo) recommended the following: 1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment) 2 3 Between lines 164 and 165 4 insert: 5 Section 3. Section 97.0292, Florida Statutes, is created to 6 read: 7 97.0292 Recovery of public funds; investigation of false 8 claims regarding conduct of an election.—The Secretary of State 9 or the Attorney General may seek recovery in a court of 10 competent jurisdiction of any public funds expended toward any 11 investigations of any knowingly false claims regarding the 12 outcome or the conduct of an election in this state which are 13 disseminated or distributed in this state by any person, 14 organization, media outlet, publisher, or other entity. A court 15 may also award punitive damages to the state equal to an amount 16 treble the full cost of public funds expended if the state 17 demonstrates to the court that a reasonable basis exists to 18 support such an award. The Secretary of State or the Attorney 19 General shall remit any portion of recovered public funds to any 20 affected supervisor of elections, law enforcement agency, or 21 other agency involved in the investigation of such false claims. 22 23 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================ 24 And the title is amended as follows: 25 Delete line 12 26 and insert: 27 certain election-related expenses; creating s. 28 97.0292, F.S.; authorizing the Secretary of State and 29 the Attorney General to seek recovery of public funds 30 expended in investigating false election claims 31 disseminated or distributed by certain parties; 32 authorizing a court to award punitive damages if 33 certain conditions exist; requiring the Secretary of 34 State or the Attorney General to remit any portion of 35 the recovered funds to an affected supervisor of 36 elections, law enforcement agency, or other agency; 37 amending s. 97.057,