TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida House heard two bills Tuesday attempting to combat foreign influence and intellectual theft in the state.
The two proposals arose from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ demand for the state to get tough on China.
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House Speaker Chris Sprowls is concerned with foreign influence and intellectual property theft in Florida, especially in the state’s universities.
“We found that there were researchers at the University of Florida, one of which was working on artificial intelligence, who had a secret relationship with China,” Sprowls said.
That example and others from the Moffitt Cancer Center and UCF are the driving force behind State Rep. Cord Byrd’s legislation, which requires more transparency from universities about foreign partnerships and donations.
“We need to do this at the state level to make sure that they aren’t getting in by the back door,” said Byrd, R-Neptune Beach.
There’s also an effort to protect business trade secrets from foreign actors.
State Rep. Mike Beltran, R-Lithia, worries not enough is being done at the federal level.
“It’s going to hurt our economy, especially if it’s done by foreign governments,” Beltran said.
He’s sponsoring legislation that would beef up penalties for corporate espionage and modernize state statutes to include virtual data theft.
“Almost all the intellectual property theft is done without actually appropriating a tangible object and we close that loophole that a lot of wrongdoers have used in order to escape liability,” Beltran said.
Both bills have moved quickly through the legislative process, receiving bipartisan support.
In the Senate, the corporate espionage legislation is ready for a floor vote. The legislation dealing with universities and local governments has one final committee stop in the Senate.
And it’s no secret, the main target of both bills is China.
“They are trying to gain not only an economic, but military advantage over us,” Byrd said. “And you know this is just the first step, and if this doesn’t solve the problem, then we will go further.”
That could potentially mean severing all ties between Florida’s universities and adversarial foreign governments.