Dear Friend,

We’re down to just two weeks to go in the 2023 legislative session. 

Last week, we saw a coordinated assault on the rights of LGBTQ+ families by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Tallahassee Republicans. We also saw last-minute plots launched to supper the vote, slash wages for tens of thousands of workers, and privatize a publicly owned electric company.  

So we need to stay sharp and keep fighting back on every front. While we won’t stop every bad bill from passing, we will stop some – and we’ll make a few others better, too. 

And at least we can enjoy watching DeSantis continue turning himself into a national laughing stock in the midst of all these battles.  

We’re debating bills on the House floor almost every day now. So don’t forget that you can watch hearings and floor sessions live on the Florida Channel. And as always, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for updates in real-time.

Onward, 

Rep. Anna V. Eskamani

A coordinated assault on LBGTQ+ rights

We witnessed a coordinated assault on LBTQ+ rights last week, beginning with the passage of Senate Bill 1438, which attempts to cancel pride parades and drag shows by giving the DeSantis administration the power to target LBTQ+-friendly businesses and communities. 

The bill passed the House of Representatives on an 82-32 vote and the Senate on a 28-12 vote. It now goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it. 

And while this bill isn’t law yet, it’s already having its intended effect – by scaring organizers and sponsors into canceling or scaling back pride events around the state. 

You can see how every member of the House voted by clicking here. And you can see how every member of the Senate voted by clicking here.

And here’s my debate against this bill: 

On the very same day, the House also passed two other bills targeting queer communities. 

One of them was Senate Bill 254, which bans gender-affirming care for people under the age of 18 – and also gives the state government the unprecedented authority to potentially take trans kids away from parents who try to provide healthcare for them. 

SB 254 passed the House on an 82-31 vote. Click here to see how every member voted. Because the House changed the bill, it must now go back to the Senate for another vote in that chamber.

Watch my debate against SB 245 here:

Lastly, the House also passed House Bill 1521, the anti-trans bathroom bill, which not only forbids gender-inclusive restrooms and changing facilities in both public buildings or private businesses – it also threatens criminal penalties against trans people who use a restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

The bill passed the House 80-37. See how every House member voted by clicking here. The bill now goes to the Florida Senate. 

Here’s my debate against HB 1521:

Sadly, that wasn’t the end of the LGBTQ+ attacks last week. The DeSantis administration last week expanded last year’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to all grade levels.

That’s right. After DeSantis and his lackeys in the Legislature repeated claimed that this awful law would only apply to very young children in kindergarten through third grade, the state of Florida is now going to prevent teachers from ever teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity – all the way through the end of high school. 

And then there’s this happening today:

DeSantis has become deranged over Disney

Instead of fighting real problems facing Florida – like affordable housing crisis, still-skyrocketing insurance rights or the unprecedented flooding in Fort Lauderdale – Gov. Ron DeSantis has decided to triple down on his dumb battle with Disney. 

You can’t make this stuff up. First DeSantis called a press conference last week, where he bizarrely threatened to build a prison at Walt Disney World and to raise taxes on tourists to Central Florida. And then this supposedly free-market conservative started trying to ram a bill through Legislature to pass a blatantly unconstitutional bill that tries to cancel private contracts. 

DeSantis’ latest anti-Disney bill, which tries to undo a development agreement that Disney signed with the Reedy Creek Improvement District before DeSantis took it over, surfaced last week in the House State Affairs Committee. I happen to serve on that committee. The entire process was so ill-prepared and rushed that the sponsor couldn’t even answer basic questions about it. 

Obviously, none of this has anything to do with corporate accountability. These are the actions of a sad, desperate politician, whose campaign for president is imploding before it ever begins and who is afraid to look like he “lost” to Disney in a fight he picked with the company that he is doing increasingly deranged things. 

It’s authoritarian. But it’s also embarrassing. DeSantis needs to just let it go. Here’s my interview with Squawk Box about it all.

Here’s what Ron DeSantis would do if he really cared about corporate accountability

Everyday Americans all across the country paid their taxes last week. But every year, the world’s biggest corporations are ducking out on their fair share of the tax load by exploiting loopholes – especially here in Florida, where we have one of the easiest-to-avoid corporate income taxes in the country. 

So to mark Tax Day last week, I and other advocates joined together to call on Florida leaders to support a policy known as “combined reporting,” which would close the tax loopholes that corporations use to dodge Florida taxes.  

Combined reporting has bipartisan support. Most other states have already passed it. And I filed a bill this year to require combined reporting in Florida, too. 

But Tallahassee Republicans refused to give it even a single hearing this session – because of lobbying by big corporations that use the loopholes it would close. Corporations like Disney. 

Maybe instead of building a state prison next to Cinderella Castle, Ron DeSantis could just help us close corporate tax loopholes instead?  

The House passed another anti-renter bill

While President Biden tries to eliminate junk fees charged by credit card companies, hotels and others, the Florida House just passed a bill that will bring even more junk fees to Florida. 

House Bill 133, which was written by lobbyists for out-of-state real estate “tech” companies, will allow landlords to charge their tenants perpetual, non-refundable and uncapped fees instead of upfront-but-refundable security deposits.

This is a really dangerous bill. Because while it might sound good on the surface, there are no meaningful consumer protections and it will lead to more vulnerable renters being exploited for profit. 

HB 133 passed the House on an 82-22 vote. You can see how every member of the House voted by clicking here. 

And you can watch my debate against the bill here: 

A bipartisan show of support for a free Iran

In happier news, my memorial in support of the brave protestors fighting for free and fair elections in Iran passed the House on a unanimous vote!

The memorial calls on the United States Congress to take action to support freedom for the people of Iran. 

You can view the entire discussion on this memorial – including my remarks but also debate in support from some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle – by watching here:

Blunting attacks on academic freedom

In some more good news this week, the Florida Senate made some improvements to Senate Bill 266, which is the bill containing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to take control of what is taught in Florida’s universities – including canceling gender studies programs. 

The Senate has made a series of amendments to the bill that have removed some of DeSantis’ ugliest demands. The bill still isn’t good – but we still have more time to keep fighting to make it better. 

More voter suppression in Tallahassee

Unfortunately, we have to go back to bad news, because the House last week introduced its version of the latest voter-suppression bill. 

Among other things, this bill makes it harder for community groups to help people register to vote – and makes it easier for politicians to hide their campaign donors for longer periods of time. 

I and other Democrats on the State Affairs Committee offered a number of amendments that would have actually help make voting easier and more accessible for Floridians – from making Election Day a paid holiday to allowing same-day voter registration to at least removing the provisions of the bill that weaken campaign-finance reporting laws. 

Republicans rejected every one.

A last-minute plot to slash wages for thousands of Florida workers

Big-business lobbyists and some Republican House members launched a last-minute effort last week to let contractors slash wages for tens of thousands of workers across Florida. 

The measure would eliminate living wage ordinances that have been adopted in places like Alachua, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and the city of St. Petersburg. These living wage ordinances require most government contractors to pay their employees more than the state minimum wage, which is just $11 an hour right now. Many of these living wages require wages that start at $16 an hour plus benefits or $18 an hour without benefits. 

This bill is not only an attack on home rule – it is a direct attack on the pocketbooks of hard-working families in Florida. Lobbyists for corporate front groups like the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida testified in favor of it. 

You can bet we’ll fight like hell against this bill if it makes it to the House floor.

Another DeSantis takeover

We’ve never seen a governor try to grab as much power for himself as Gov. Ron DeSantis. And now he wants even more. 

Last week, another last-minute bill popped on the House that would take control of the city of Gainesville’s Gainesville Regional Utilities away from local elected officials. The bill would instead give control of GRU to DeSantis, via a five-member board that he would appoint. 

It sure feels like this is part of a plan to privatize GRU and sell it to Florida Power & Light. 

Final budget negotiations begin

The House and Senate announced Friday that we will begin final negotiations for a roughly $113 billion state budget on Monday. This process is known as “budget conference.” 

The House and Senate each passed different versions of the budget earlier this session. So now  they appoint joint committees of lawmakers from both chambers – “conference committees” – who try to resolve the differences between those two budgets in each of the major spending areas. 

I’ve been appointed to the higher education conference committee, which means we will help negotiate the part of the budget that funds colleges and universities. 

Conference committee meetings will begin Monday at 9 a.m. The budget is the one bill that the Legislature must pass each session, and the conference process has to wrap up by Tuesday, May 1, for the 60-day session to end on schedule. 

The week in pictures

As always, we’ll end our weekly recap with a look at some of the people we meet with and events we attended in between all our committee hearings and floor sessions.