---
type: "Bill"
title: "Ethics for Public Officers and Employees"
description: "Ethics for Public Officers and Employees; Revising the definition of the term “relative” to include foster parents and foster children; providing that specified provisions do not prohibit a board, council, commission, or collegial body from appointing, employing, promoting, or advancing elected public officials who are related to a leadership position on the same board, council, commission, or collegial body, etc."
jurisdiction: "us/states/fl"
legislature: "Florida Legislature"
session: "2026"
identifier: "SB 572"
citation: "Florida SB 572 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["(vetoed)", "electors and elections", "insurance", "judicial branch", "veterans"]
status: "enacted"
chapter_law: "2026-22"
primary_sponsors: ["Harrell"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 37
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2025-11-18"
last_action: "2026-04-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/78618b98-9c64-442d-b87f-c0fc7455f70e"
source_url: "https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/572/ByCategory"
source_hash: "2bf7541eb470a15cbfa42d67f717c799cc1fb94dc4d40cb96003bf21f7f8698f"
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 SB 572 (2026) — Ethics for Public Officers and Employees

Ethics for Public Officers and Employees; Revising the definition of the term “relative” to include foster parents and foster children; providing that specified provisions do not prohibit a board, council, commission, or collegial body from appointing, employing, promoting, or advancing elected public officials who are related to a leadership position on the same board, council, commission, or collegial body, etc.

**Enacted** — Laws of Florida, Chapter 2026-22.

## Version chain

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

1. **S 572 Filed** (filed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/572/BillText/Filed/HTML)
2. **S 572 c1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/572/BillText/c1/HTML)
3. **S 572 e1** (engrossed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/572/BillText/e1/HTML)
4. **S 572 e2** (engrossed) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/572/BillText/e2/HTML)
5. **S 572 er** (enrolled) — [source](https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/572/BillText/er/HTML)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable with Committee Substitute — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Favorable — **23–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage, Third Reading — **113–0** (pass) · lower
- Favorable — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Returning Messages — **38–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Governmental Oversight and Accountability — primary (organization)
- Harrell — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2025-11-18** Filed `filing`
- **2025-12-09** Referred to Ethics and Elections; Governmental Oversight and Accountability; Rules `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-08** On Committee agenda-- Ethics and Elections, 01/13/26, 4:00 pm, 37 Senate Building
- **2026-01-13** Favorable by Ethics and Elections; YEAS 8 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-01-13** Introduced `introduction`
- **2026-01-14** Now in Governmental Oversight and Accountability
- **2026-01-21** On Committee agenda-- Governmental Oversight and Accountability, 01/26/26, 3:30 pm, 110 Senate Building
- **2026-01-26** CS by Governmental Oversight and Accountability; YEAS 9 NAYS 0
- **2026-01-27** Pending reference review under Rule 4.7(2) - (Committee Substitute)
- **2026-01-28** Now in Rules
- **2026-01-29** CS by Governmental Oversight and Accountability read 1st time
- **2026-01-29** On Committee agenda-- Rules, 02/03/26, 9:00 am, 412 Knott Building
- **2026-02-03** Favorable by- Rules; YEAS 23 NAYS 0 `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-02-03** Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading
- **2026-02-09** Placed on Special Order Calendar, 02/11/26
- **2026-02-11** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2026-02-11** Amendment(s) adopted (807008)
- **2026-02-11** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2026-02-11** CS passed as amended; YEAS 38 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2026-02-11** Immediately certified
- **2026-02-11** In Messages
- **2026-03-09** Bill referred to House Calendar
- **2026-03-09** Bill added to Special Order Calendar (3/10/2026)
- **2026-03-09** 1st Reading (Engrossed 1) `reading-1`
- **2026-03-10** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2026-03-10** Amendment 187567 adopted
- **2026-03-10** Amendment 620573 superseded by substitute
- **2026-03-10** Added to Third Reading Calendar
- **2026-03-10** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2026-03-10** CS passed as amended; YEAS 113, NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2026-03-10** In returning messages
- **2026-03-12** Concurred in 1 amendment(s) (187567)
- **2026-03-12** CS passed as amended; YEAS 38 NAYS 0 `passage`
- **2026-03-12** Ordered engrossed, then enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-03-31** Signed by Officers and presented to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2026-04-01** Approved by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2026-04-02** Chapter No. 2026-22

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/78618b98-9c64-442d-b87f-c0fc7455f70e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Florida legislature records).