House & Senate Bill Resources
About the Bills
For years, the NICA Board of Directors has discussed the need for legislation to address the program’s funding gap. This year, two members of the Florida Legislature agreed to sponsor bills in the Legislature to help close that gap, along with making several other changes to the NICA statute.
The bills:
- Ensure adequate funding
- Make existing benefits permanent
- Add the agreement with the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)
- Provide timeframes to health insurance requirement
- Address fraud
- Clean up current law
The Senate bill, SB 1668, did pass during the 2026 Legislative session. The language that passed is very similar to the filed bills. You can read the language here. This link is to what’s called the “enrolled” bill, which is the language passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives. However, it is not yet a law. The Governor must first decide whether to allow it to become law.
You can read a summary of SB 1668 here.
Questions about the Bill? Contact Us.
Ask NICA! Send your questions to NICA about the bills. Answers will be included in the FAQ’s.
Overall Process
How Does a Bill Become Law?
Each bill must be examined closely by committees–smaller groups of lawmakers who examine the bill’s details and vote on whether the bill should move forward. The bill must successfully pass through all assigned committees before it can be voted on by the entire Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate.
The bills (SB 1668 and HB 1291) will each be voted on by 3 different committees or subcommittees.
- SB1668 will be voted on in these committees in the Florida Senate: Banking and Insurance Committee; Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government; and Rules
- HB1291 will be voted on in these committees and subcommittees in the Florida House of Representatives: Insurance and Banking Subcommittee, State Administration Budget Subcommittee, Commerce Committee
Each bill moves through committees in order, so each committee or subcommittee must vote to advance the bill before it moves to the next committee or subcommittee, until all 3 have voted on the bill. The bill can be amended (changed) in any committee or subcommittee.
After all committees and subcommittees have voted on the bill, it can be voted on by an entire chamber (either the Senate or House of Representatives). After one chamber passes the bill, then it goes to the other chamber for a vote. If both the House of Representatives and the Senate vote to pass the same bill, it goes to the Governor for a final decision on whether to become a law.
Current Status of the NICA Bills
SB 1668 and HB 1291: On Friday, March 13, the Legislature passed the NICA bill! The one that passed was SB 1668 (the House bill has been “laid on the table” and will not have any other action). The full Senate and House of Representatives each amended SB 1668, which meant trading it back and forth between the chambers these last several days. But on the very last day of the regular session, the very last chance we had this year—the House of Representatives passed the same version as the Senate.
Things aren’t done yet, though. Now there is another big step—it must go to the Governor for him to decide whether SB 1668 actually becomes a law or not. This will probably take at least several weeks to happen, so we could be waiting a little while to find out his decision.
Updated on March 17, 2026
Below are links to information about these bills and the Legislative process. The links to the Senate and House of Representatives bill information pages for SB 1668 will have the most up-to-date information, so you can always check there.
Bill Language that Passed the Legislature
Here is a link to the Senate webpage for SB 1668. Here you can get a lot of official information on the bill that is very up-to-date, such as when the Governor receives the bill to start deciding whether to allow it to become law.
FAQs
Read NICA’s FAQs about the bill. These include answers to questions sent to NICA through the form on this page.
Further Resources
Learn about the Legislative process to understand what happens with bills.
Track the Bills
Register on the websites for the House of Representative or the Senate to get alerts when things happen with the bill. Even though we know the bill has passed the Legislature, these websites can alert you about the Governor’s decision about the bill. You’ll need to set up an account and then add SB 1668 to track.