Dear Friend,
We’ve passed the halfway mark of the 2025 Legislative Session.
Week Five (of nine) was another busy week, too. The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill meant to shut down citizen-led constitutional amendments – the process that Floridians have used in the past to raise the minimum wage, create a universal pre-kindergarten program, and put term limits on state legislators.
This is one of the most important battles of this year’s session, and the battleground now moves over to the Florida Senate.
The House and Senate are also about to pass their respective budgets, which are nearly $5 billion apart. That’s largely because the House budget includes a roughly $5 billion sales tax cut – but also corresponding cuts to things like funding for Advanced Placement courses in high schools. Bridging that budget and tax cut divide will be a major focus of the second half of session.
But I’m also thrilled to report that our bill to help Floridians who rely on wheelchairs cleared its final committee last week – which means it’s now ready for a vote in the full House of Representatives.
As always, you’ll find updates on each of those issues – and many more – in our weekly Session Update below.
Just a reminder to make sure that you’re connected with Team Anna on our various social-media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We use those platforms for daily news and updates.
Things are moving fast in Tallahassee now. But we’ve still got a long way to go. And you’re voice still matters.
Onward,
Hearings turn up more property insurance revelations
It’s still not clear what the Legislature is going to do this session on property insurance, which obviously remains one of the most important issues facing all of Florida.
But we learned last week that state regulators failed to follow up on a report that found insurance companies were shifting excess profits into affiliated companies while claiming to be losing money.
We also learned that former Chief Financial Officer – and new member of U.S. Congress – Jimmy Patronis may have buried thousands of consumer complaints against insurance companies that were unfairly stonewalling claims.
So I’m hopeful that we’ll find a way to get some sort of accountability for insurance companies – and helpful changes for consumers – passed before the session ends.
House passes bill to block future citizen-led constitutional amendments
The Florida Legislature is one step closer to shutting down citizen-led constitutional amendments.
The House of Representatives last week passed House Bill 1205, which it incredibly be difficult for anyone other than big corporations or the super-rich to run petition drives for constitutional amendments – a process that Florida voters have used in the past to raise the minimum wage, create a universal pre-kindergarten program, protect the environment and put term limits on politicians, among so many other important issues.
The bill imposes a bunch of new legal obstacles and financial barriers to citizen-led amendment campaigns. To give you one example: It cuts the amount of time groups have to turn in a signed petition by two-thirds – while at the very same time increasing the penalty for turning a petition in late by as much as 50 fold.
This bill would also politicize what is supposed to be the nonpartisan and professional process of “scoring” constitutional amendments before they go on the ballot – which is what happens when a group of state economists review a proposed amendment to determine its financial impact and then wrote a short summary to go with the amendment on the ballot.
HB 1205 would actually remove the state’s chief economist as a voting member from that process – leaving the job of scoring amendments and writing ballot summaries entirely to political appointees.
The bill passed the House by a 76-31 vote. I voted no. Click here to watch my debate against it.
The issue now moves over to the Senate, which will hold a hearing this week on its own bill trying to stop future citizen-led constitutional amendments. That bill is Senate Bill 7016, and it’ll be heard Tuesday afternoon in the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee.
Wasting time on conspiracy theories and boot-licking
One frustrating thing about this session has been how much time legislative leaders on distractions like conspiracy theories and sucking up to President Donald Trump.
Last week, for example, the Florida Senate passed Senate Bill 56, a bill that was filed in response to the “chemtrail” conspiracy theory. The bill passed the Senate on a 28-9 vote.
At the same time, the House of Representatives passed House Bill 549, which will require school districts to begin using textbooks that refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” It passed the House by a 78-29 vote. A bill to ban fluoride in Florida continues to move forward too.
‘Right to Repair’ for wheelchair users is ready for a vote in the full House
In better news, I’m thrilled to report that a bill I’m sponsoring to help Floridians who rely on wheelchairs is headed to the House floor.
House Bill 311 would create a “Right to Repair” for users of powered wheelchairs. It would require manufacturers to share access to critical repair tools, replacement parts, and device documentation with wheelchair owners and independent repair shops.
The goal is to help folks who depend on their wheelchair for mobility be able to make or find affordable repairs if their device breaks down – instead of having to buy a new chair, which can cost as much as a new car.
HB 211 passed the House Commerce Committee unanimously. That was its last committee of reference, which means it can be voted on by the full House.
Bill to help small businesses harmed by construction projects begins to move forward
I’m also excited to share that the Senate just started moving forward with another great bill.
The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee last week passed Senate Bill 324, which would create a financial assistance fund for small businesses who are disrupted by government construction projects – like stores along streets that must be shut down for months because of a utility project.
SB 324 is being sponsored by Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando). I’m sponsoring the House version of the bill – House Bill 215 – which was inspired by some of the small business struggles we’ve seen around Orlando recently because of prolonged road closures caused by government construction projects.
Anti-worker agenda continues
We’ve talked about this in previous newsletters, too, but we’re seeing a lot of ugly, anti-working family bills moving forward this session.
For example, last week the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee passed House Bill 1225, which would unravel many of our child-labor laws and allow companies to put high school students on 40-hour workweeks or overnight shifts even while they are in school.
I serve on this subcommittee and I voted no. Click here to watch my debate against the child labor bill.
At the same time, committees in the House and Senate both passed bills last week that amount to yet another attempt to undermine Florida’s unemployment system, which is already the worst in the nation for workers. This legislation – House Bill 1157 and Senate Bill 1238 – would give businesses and the Department of Commerce even more excuses to disqualify a laid-off worker from receiving benefits.
House and Senate committees also both passed legislation last week that would let corporations handcuff many of their workers to longer non-compete contracts. Those bills are Senate Bill 922 and House Bill 1219.
Yet another attack on immigrants
Gov. Ron DeSantis tacitly admitted something recently that we all suspected was true: The reason Republican leaders in Tallahassee and corporate lobbyists want to make school kids work longer hours is to fill a labor shortage they’ve created by driving out immigrant workers.
And yet, this Legislature continues to target and demonize immigrants and make this problem even worse. The last example came last week when the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee passed House Bill 955, which would force even the smallest firms in Florida to use e-Verify – exposing these businesses to potentially devastating penalties.
A big budget gap – but an opportunity for reform
The House and Senate began moving forward last week with each chamber’s version of the next state budget. The House budget (House Bill 5001) comes in at just under $113 billion – which is nearly $5 billion less than the Senate budget (Senate Bill 2500).
One of the main differences is that the House has proposed cutting the statewide sales tax by three-quarters of a point – from 6 percent to 5.25 percent. The bill to cut the sales tax is House Bill 7031, which came through the House Ways & Means Committee, where I serve as ranking member.
I voted for HB 7031 because I think it’s important that we take steps to reform Florida’s tax code, which is the most regressive state tax code in the country. A regressive tax code is especially punishing on working and middle-class families, who end up paying a much higher percentage of their income to taxes than the very wealthy do. And Florida’s heavy reliance on sales tax, which is the most regressive tax there is, is a big reason why our tax code is so unfair for the working and middle class.
But what we cannot do is pay for this sales tax cut by cutting important services and programs that help people – which would undo the good from cutting the sales tax in the first place.
For instance, right now the Florida House budget also slashes funding for would slash funding for Advanced Placement, dual enrollment and other college-level high school classes. Orange County Public Schools alone would lose nearly $17 million – which would force the district to cut offerings and make it harder for our students to earn college credits while still in high school. We cannot let that happen.
That’s why I’m pushing for us to pair this sales tax cut with important tax reforms, too – like combined reporting, which would close long-standing loopholes in our corporate tax code that the world’s biggest corporations are using to duck out on state taxes.
Pairing a sales tax cut with combined reporting would make our tax code much farrier for working families – without also forcing cuts to critical services like public education.
New bill would impose more barriers to voting
It feels like every year, about halfway through the session, the Florida Legislature suddenly starts working on yet another bill meant to make it harder for people to vote.
It’s happening again this session, where, in the fifth week of session, a House subcommittee suddenly held the first hearing on House Bill 1381.
Supporters claim the bill is about ensuring non-citizens can’t vote. But what it is really designed to trip legitimate voters up, with things like requiring a birth certificate or passport just to update your registration or prohibiting college students from using their student IDs when they vote.
The Senate hasn’t moved on an elections bill yet. But, again, this is always one of those issues in which Republican politicians in Tallahassee try to hide the ball until near the very end of session.
More government interference with abortion
More than 57 percent of Florida voters just voted against government interference with abortion. So how is Florida’s gerrymandered Legislature responding? By interfering even more with abortion.
There are two really blatant examples of this. Senate Bill 1284, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and House Bill 1517, which passed the House Judiciary Committee, would someone to file a wrongful death lawsuit following an accident that results in the loss of a pregnancy – seeking money for things like lost future wages of an embryo or fetus.
Supporters claim this isn’t about abortion. But it absolutely is. Because this is part of a far-right campaign to give embryos and fetuses the exact same legal rights as living children – which anti-abortion activists could then use to litigate their way to a complete and total abortion ban.
Then are House Senate Bill 1288, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, and House Bill 1505, which passed the House Health & Human Services Committee.
These bills would prevent teengers from accessing birth control or treatment for sexually transmitted infections without a parent’s permission. But it could lead to a dangerous change to state abortion laws.
Right now, a minor who needs an abortion must first get written consent from a parent. But the law includes an exception for minors living in dangerous family situations that allows them to seek a judicial waiver from a court. But these bills could lead to the elimination of that judicial waiver process – which would put some young people’s lives at risk.
There’s also an anti-abortion provision tucked inside House Bill 1255, a big education package that passed the House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee last week. A piece of that bill is designed to force public schools to make middle and and high school students watch “Baby Olivia,” an anti-abortion propaganda video produced by a far-right group.
A win for the environment
Here’s some more good news, though: A bill that would make it much harder for communities to deal with litter stalled out last week.
House Bill 565 would preempt cities and counties from doing pretty much anything to limit the use of any type of bag or food container, such as by prohibiting plastic bags, bottles or cups or styrofoam boxes or wrappings. It’s being pushed by companies like Publix and lobbying groups like the Florida Retail Federation.
But HB 565 didn’t have the votes to pass the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee last week, so it got postponed without a vote.
Unfortunately, though, the Senate version of the bill – Senate Bill 1822 – managed to slip through the Senate Community Affairs Committee by a single vote.
This legislation sure seems to be in trouble, though.
Roundup: Legal Aid, JetBlue, and secret presidential searches
Lastly, like we do every week, we’ll end up with a sampling of some of the other bills that moved forward last week:
- Senate Bill 132 and House Bill 999, which would authorize gold and silver as legal tender in Florida
- Senate Bill 498, which would cut funding for Legal Aid programs in order to save money for banks
- Senate Bill 585, which would protect the Mosaic Co. from lawsuits brought by people living on formerly mined land with radioactive contamination in it
- House Bill 651 and Senate Bill 700, which tries to hurt plant-based food products by preventing them from using words like “meat,” “milk” or “eggs” on their labels
- House Bill 1485, which would give tax breaks to JetBlue and other airlines
- Senate Bill 1726, which would repeal a public-records exemption that allows universities and colleges to conduct presidential searches in public (this is a great bill!)