Bill > H7071

This bill revises Florida's public corruption laws by broadening the definition of "public contractor" to include individuals working for entities that have contracts with government entities, and it clarifies that bribery and unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior require a "knowing and intentional" act rather than a "corrupt" one, thereby strengthening prosecution requirements. It also expands the offense of official misconduct to explicitly include public contractors, and it revises the definition of "governmental entity" to be more inclusive. Furthermore, the bill updates the prohibition against bid tampering to apply to public contractors and to encompass "competitive solicitations" rather than just "bidding processes," and it makes conforming changes to various statutes to reflect these updates, including amendments to the Criminal Punishment Code to reclassify certain offenses.