House and Senate lawmakers aren’t yet seeing eye-to-eye — or hearing ear-to-ear, perhaps more appropriately, if that idiom existed — on a proposal to spend millions to protect the auditory reception of Florida’s sworn law enforcement officers.

A week into the budget Special Session, the two chambers have moved considerably closer on a unified spending plan for the 2026-27 fiscal year. But one of many disagreements that remains centers on pricey earplugs for Sheriff’s Department officers.

The argument is relatively sound, so to speak: Loud noise from gunfire, police sirens and other sources is a significant and not uncommon hazard for police. A review published through the National Institutes of Health found officers are 1.4 times more likely to have noise-induced hearing loss than workers who aren’t regularly exposed to loud noises.

Another study published by the National Library of Medicine found the prevalence of hearing loss among police was 34.2%. Most cases (93%) were classified as mild, while the remaining cases were evenly split between moderate and severe hearing loss.

Then there was a particularly worrisome 2018 study by the University of Northern Colorado, which found 71% of officers reported hearing loss “of some kind.”

The civilian rate of aural degradation, meanwhile, is 13-15%.

So, this year, St. Augustine Republican Sen. Tom Leek and Miami Republican Rep. Mike Redondo filed substantively identical appropriation requests seeking $4 million to buy pricey earplugs for Sheriff’s Offices across the state.

They’ve already identified a product: Starkey’s SoundGear Shield, which is advertised as delivering up to 26 decibels of noise reduction while still offering clear hearing otherwise.

Starkey was also named as the proposing vendor last year, when lawmakers set aside $2 million for purchases.

As of Friday, the House is offering the same sum — $2 million — toward a follow-up purchase. The Senate, so far, is offering nothing.

If approved at any dollar level, the “state of the art protection will be provided … on a first come first serve basis,” Leek and Redondo’s requests say.

Michael Scholl, Chief Business Development Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations at Starkey, is listed on the forms as the “requester.”

Capital City Consulting owner and co-founder Nick Iarossi lobbied for the allocation.

Neither last year’s appropriations requests nor those Leek and Redondo filed this year mention any request-for-proposals process that might result in a lower per-earplug set cost.

Leek’s form for last year’s request, which came in at $3 million before lawmakers reduced the award, estimated that “more than 2,000 officers” would receive the Starkey earplugs with full funding — a rate of $1,500 per earplug set.

That form didn’t specify which of Starkey’s products the state would purchase. The most expensive earplugs on Starkey’s SoundGear website, Phantom, are priced at $1,599, followed by the $999 Silver earplugs.

A set of Shield earplugs, the third-most expensive hearing protection product on Starkey’s SoundGear website, retails for $399.

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