HB 857 Florida House · 2025 Regular Session

Assault or Battery on a Utility Worker

Summary

Assault or Battery on a Utility Worker; Defines "utility worker"; provides for reclassification of certain offenses committed against utility workers.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Last action Apr 30, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

H 857 Filed → H 857 c1 · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill amends Florida's assault and battery laws to strengthen protections for utility workers by adding them to the list of personnel covered under enhanced penalties. The changes update the definition of 'utility worker' and modify the list of protected personnel to include those engaged in work on critical infrastructure as defined in another state statute.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope of protected personnel to explicitly include utility workers engaged in critical infrastructure work, aligning the definition with a separate state statute (s. 812.141(1)).

DEFINITION

Updated the definition of 'utility worker' to clarify that the person must bear identification marking that identifies the employing utility and clearly identifies the entity owning or operating the facility.

ELIGIBILITY

Added utility workers engaged in work on critical infrastructure (as defined in s. 812.141(1)) to the list of protected personnel when committing assault or battery offenses.

REQUIREMENT

Removed references to section 921.0022 from the list of statutes being amended, while keeping other statutory references intact.

TECHNICAL

Minor formatting and spacing adjustments throughout the document, including changes to page numbers and document identifiers.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 8, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Judiciary Committee

lower

Apr 8, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable by Judiciary Committee

lower

Apr 4, 2025

Lower · Passed

Added to Judiciary Committee agenda

lower

Mar 31, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Judiciary Committee

lower

Mar 31, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee

lower

Mar 31, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable by Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Lower · Passed

Added to Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee agenda

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Committee

Referred to Judiciary Committee

lower

Mar 27, 2025

Committee

Referred to Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Criminal Justice Subcommittee

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable with CS by Criminal Justice Subcommittee

lower

Mar 24, 2025

Lower · Passed

Added to Criminal Justice Subcommittee agenda

lower

Mar 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Now in Criminal Justice Subcommittee

lower

Mar 2, 2025

Committee

Referred to Judiciary Committee

lower

Mar 2, 2025

Committee

Referred to Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee

lower

Mar 2, 2025

Committee

Referred to Criminal Justice Subcommittee

lower

1 primary · 3 co-sponsors