---
type: "Bill"
title: "Offenses Involving Motor Vehicles"
description: "Offenses Involving Motor Vehicles; Reclassifies offense of driving, moving, or causing to be moved vehicle or equipment with certain lighting on highway as third degree felony in specified circumstance; increases the penalty for knowingly altering a motor vehicle registration certificate, a license plate, a temporary license plate, a mobile home sticker, or a validation sticker or obscuring a license plate from a noncriminal traffic infraction to a second degree misdemeanor; provides criminal penalties if person purchases, possesses, manufactures, sells, offers to sell, or otherwise distributes license plate obscuring device; provides enhanced penalty if person uses license plate obscuring device for specified purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2025"
identifier: "HB 253"
citation: "Florida HB 253 (2025)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2025-36"
primary_sponsors: ["Bankson"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 48
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-01-27"
last_action: "2025-05-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c7395b4e-adfd-42dc-9718-fe5d52cad4dc"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/253/ByCategory"
source_hash: "dfcf6bae8ab29aee74f39bd68fb4aca74a85f8b09f1d8fbf53499b46cc0b450b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-fl"]
---

# Florida HB 253 (2025) — Offenses Involving Motor Vehicles

Offenses Involving Motor Vehicles; Reclassifies offense of driving, moving, or causing to be moved vehicle or equipment with certain lighting on highway as third degree felony in specified circumstance; increases the penalty for knowingly altering a motor vehicle registration certificate, a license plate, a temporary license plate, a mobile home sticker, or a validation sticker or obscuring a license plate from a noncriminal traffic infraction to a second degree misdemeanor; provides criminal penalties if person purchases, possesses, manufactures, sells, offers to sell, or otherwise distributes license plate obscuring device; provides enhanced penalty if person uses license plate obscuring device for specified purposes.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2025-36.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **H 253 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/253/BillText/Filed/PDF)
2. **H 253 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/253/BillText/c1/PDF)
3. **H 253 c2** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/253/BillText/c2/PDF)
4. **H 253 e1** (engrossed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/253/BillText/e1/PDF)
5. **H 253 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/253/BillText/er/PDF)

## Votes

- Passage, Third Reading — **115–0** (pass) · lower
- Third Reading — **36–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bankson — primary (person)
- Criminal Justice Subcommittee — primary (organization)
- Judiciary Committee — primary (organization)
- López, J. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-01-27** Filed `filing`
- **2025-02-06** Referred to Criminal Justice Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-06** Referred to Government Operations Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-06** Referred to Judiciary Committee `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-06** Now in Criminal Justice Subcommittee
- **2025-03-04** 1st Reading (Original Filed Version) `filing, reading-1`
- **2025-03-10** PCS added to Criminal Justice Subcommittee agenda
- **2025-03-12** Favorable with CS by Criminal Justice Subcommittee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-12** Reported out of Criminal Justice Subcommittee
- **2025-03-13** Laid on Table under Rule 7.18(a) `deferral`
- **2025-03-13** CS Filed `filing`
- **2025-03-13** 1st Reading (Committee Substitute 1) `reading-1`
- **2025-03-14** Referred to Government Operations Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-14** Referred to Judiciary Committee `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-14** Now in Government Operations Subcommittee
- **2025-03-21** Added to Government Operations Subcommittee agenda
- **2025-03-25** Favorable by Government Operations Subcommittee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-25** Reported out of Government Operations Subcommittee
- **2025-03-25** Now in Judiciary Committee
- **2025-04-04** Added to Judiciary Committee agenda
- **2025-04-08** Favorable with CS by Judiciary Committee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-04-08** Reported out of Judiciary Committee
- **2025-04-08** Laid on Table under Rule 7.18(a) `deferral`
- **2025-04-08** CS Filed `filing`
- **2025-04-08** 1st Reading (Committee Substitute 2) `reading-1`
- **2025-04-09** Bill referred to House Calendar
- **2025-04-09** Added to Second Reading Calendar
- **2025-04-10** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (4/16/2025)
- **2025-04-16** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2025-04-16** Amendment 779263 adopted
- **2025-04-16** Placed on 3rd reading `reading-3`
- **2025-04-16** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2025-04-16** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2025-04-16** CS passed as amended; YEAS 115, NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2025-04-16** In Messages
- **2025-04-16** Referred to Rules `referral-committee`
- **2025-04-22** Received `enrolled`
- **2025-04-23** Withdrawn from Rules `withdrawal`
- **2025-04-23** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2025-04-23** Substituted for CS/CS/SB 44
- **2025-04-23** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2025-04-23** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2025-04-23** CS passed; YEAS 36 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2025-04-23** In Messages
- **2025-04-23** Ordered enrolled `enrolled`
- **2025-05-16** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-05-19** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2025-05-20** Chapter No. 2025-36

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c7395b4e-adfd-42dc-9718-fe5d52cad4dc`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).