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ALISA ULFERTSHouse and Senate leaders will try to negotiate differences while other lawmakers cool their heels at home.
TALLAHASSEE - Lawmakers on Thursday gave themselves another week to solve the state's medical malpractice problem, but few hold out hope a solution will be found and are preparing to spend a long, hot summer in the Capitol.
"You'd probably better look at coming up here more often," Senate President Jim King warned senators.
King and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd told lawmakers to return home while House and Senate leaders negotiate a compromise. If they get a deal, lawmakers will return late next week.
Normally, a joint House-Senate conference committee would meet in public to negotiate the differences, but King said he first needs a sign from the House that it's willing to negotiate.
The Senate dropped its opposition to capping pain-and-suffering awards. Now the debate focuses on the size of the cap. Informal telephone negotiations will illuminate whether there's any point to formal, open negotiations, King said.
But Byrd was more optimistic.
"I am confident there has to be a way to reach agreement on caps," Byrd said.
Although they failed to agree on a medical malpractice fix, both chambers did pass legislation dealing with the FCAT, restored $3.5-million in biomedical research and fixed a glitch in election law to qualify the state for federal money.
As for medical malpractice, the House and Senate remain far apart on how much to cap pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. The House wants a maximum $250,000 cap, while the Senate favors a $6-million cap for the most egregious cases.
Gov. Jeb Bush has said he will continue to call lawmakers back to the Capitol until they pass a bill that will lower physicians' liability insurance, which Bush has said can only be done with a cap.
"It's a sincere effort but not enough," Bush said of the Senate's cap.
"We have to get closer to the $250,000, and it has to be a hard cap."
Senators are increasingly frustrated by Bush's stance.
"I resent that we are being told we have to create policy or we are coming back," said Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale.
"If the governor wants to be a senator, he should run."
Several senators repeated their distaste for caps on noneconomic damages but said they would grudgingly vote for the Senate cap as a compromise.
"This is a cap that is going to work; this is a cap that is going to bring certainty, and it will help the people who have been forgotten in this, the victims," said Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie.
But both King and Senate Majority Leader Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island, said the Senate cap was the most they were willing to give.
"I urge you to pass this bill and then stick to our guns if it takes all summer," Jones said.
- Times staff writer Lucy Morgan contributed to this report.