Dear Friend
We have officially passed what should be the halfway point of the 2026 Legislative Session.
After some gamesmanship, the House and Senate both released their proposed budgets for the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1. There are already big and important differences over issues like funding for AIDS medication and the fate of the slush fund that Gov. Ron DeSantis used to build an inhumane and environmentally destructive immigrant detention facility in the middle of the Florida Everglades.
A significant portion of the second half of the session will be spent addressing those differences and negotiating a final budget, which is the one bill we are constitutionally required to pass each year.
But obviously, a lot of other important bills are moving now, too. The House just passed a far-reaching book-banning bill. The Senate introduced a ploy meant to pressure communities like Orlando into privatizing public power companies like OUC and selling to corporate giants like Florida Power & Light. And both chambers are moving forward with a dangerous plan to let the governor designate opponents as “domestic terrorists.”
The so-called “blue ribbon projects bill,” which would let the state’s biggest landowners get their properties rezoned for development without any local county commission vote, also keeps inching forward.
But it’s important to remember that grassroots advocacy really does matter – even on bills backed by the most powerful special interests in the state. Just last week, a coalition of environmentalists and MAHA activists teamed up to stop a Big Sugar-backed bill in the Florida Senate.
We’ve got lots more details on those bills and many others in our Week Five update below. Please remember to connect with us on our social media channels for real-time updates throughout the week. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
We’ve still got time to make a big difference this session, as long as we work together.
Onward,
The House and Senate roll out proposed budgets amid a battle over the governor’s slush fund
After a few fits and starts, the House and Senate introduced their proposed budgets for the state’s next fiscal year, which begins in July.
There are already some big differences between the two chambers, over funding for everything from AIDS medication to a baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. The House and Senate are also split on whether New College of Florida should be allowed to take over the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus
One of the biggest budget battles will be over the fate of an emergency response fund that the Florida Legislature created in 2022 to help the Division of Emergency Management respond more quickly to disasters like hurricanes. We’ve since put billions of dollars into this fund, which the governor gets to spend during a state of emergency without any oversight from the Legislature.
But Ron DeSantis has repeatedly abused it – burning more than half a billion dollars that was meant to be spent on hurricane response and recovery on anti-immigrant publicity stunts. This is the fund the governor used to rush construction of the inhumane, environmentally destructive – and, I would argue, illegal – immigrant detention facility in the middle of the Everglades.
This fund was set up to automatically expire after four years and now we have to decide whether to extend it – and whether to add any guardrails on a governor who has proven he cannot be trusted to be a good steward of taxpayer money.
The Florida Senate passed a bill last week that would extend this slush fund until the end of 2027 with no strings attached whatsoever. That is, obviously, a terrible idea.
Fortunately, the House of Representatives wants to make some actual reforms. The House unveiled its own bill last week that would continue the fund until 2030. But the governor would only be permitted to spend this money responding to natural emergencies, like hurricanes, floods and wildfires. He would also be forbidden from spending the money on things like airplanes, and he would have to disclose far more details about his spending to the Florida Legislature.
We’re going to have to resolve all of these budget issues over the next few weeks, because the budget is the one bill that the Legislature is constitutionally required to pass each session.
The House just passed a bill that would lead to far more book banning across Florida
As we get deeper into session, we’re going to start spending more time on the floor passing bills out to the Senate and on to the governor.
Unfortunately, we passed a really bad one last week: House Bill 1119, which is essentially a book-banning bill on steroids. This bill would empower fringe activists to get more books removed from school libraries by forbidding school district officials from considering the literary or artistic merits of the works.
Basically, it says schools cannot consider the full context of a book when deciding whether to ban it.
Among other things, this legislation would give enormous leverage to the DeSantis administration to pressure local School Boards into banning more books.
House Bill 1119 passed the House on an 84-28 vote. It now goes to the Senate.
Everglades advocates and MAHA activists take down Big Sugar, at least for now
There was a surprising and positive development last week, when Florida senators removed a controversial provision from this year’s “farm bill” that would have given Big Sugar more legal leverage to threaten environmentalists, activists and journalists with litigation.
The Senate Rules Committee pulled the proposal out of Senate Bill 290, the Senate’s version of the farm bill. The provision would have made it easier for the sugar industry to sue critics for defamation, drew fierce blowback from Everglades advocates, fishing guides, wellness influencers ,and Make America Healthy Again activists.
The language is still in the House version of the farm bill, though, which is House Bill 433.
Unfortunately, both bills still include problematic provisions, particularly a section that would allow the governor to sell state conservation land to agricultural corporations. A coalition of environmental groups, including the Audubon Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Everglades Trust, are all fighting that language.
That’s not the only anti-environment legislation moving in the Legislature, either. For example, the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee last week passed House Bill 1217, which would restrict local communities’ ability to address climate change and prevent cities and counties from adopting policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation has passed through committees in both the House and Senate, which unfortunately means it has a real shot of passing before session ends
On a more positive note, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 1066, which would set in motion the restoration of the Ocklawaha River. The Ocklawaha, which runs north of Orlando, is the largest tributary of the St. Johns River. But it has been blocked for more than 50 years by a dam that was built as part of a proposed barge canal that was never completed.
The river restoration legislation looks like a good bet to pass this session, too. The real challenge may be persuading Ron DeSantis not to veto it.
Giant landowners could get properties rezoned without public hearings and votes
A plan to let the largest landowners in Florida rezone their properties for development without any vote by the local county commission keeps creeping through Tallahassee.
The Senate version of the legislation, which is known as the “blue ribbon projects” bill, passed its second hurdle last week, when it cleared a Senate appropriations committee. The legislation – Senate Bill 354 in the Senate, House Bill 299 in the House – would allow a landowner with 10,000 acres or more to lock in long-term development entitlements regardless of the underlying zoning or future land use of the property, without ever having to go through a local public hearing and vote in the community where the development would occur.
A bunch of other developer-backed bills kept moving forward last week, too, including House Bill 105, which would give landowners more power to sue a local government that does not approve a development order, and Senate Bill 686, the “agricultural enclaves” bill that would make it easier for homebuilders to build subdivisions on farm land near urban areas.
Bill to let the governor tar opponents as ‘domestic terrorists’ passes another committee
It’s possible that the single most dangerous idea that anyone has proposed this session is giving the governor the power to designate “domestic terrorists.”
Unfortunately, the idea keeps advancing this session. The House version of the legislation, House Bill 1471, passed the House Education & Employment Committee last week. The Senate version, Senate Bill 1632, will be heard by its second committee this week.
Under the bill, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would be given the power to designate “domestic terrorist organizations.” That designation would come with immediate financial sanctions – sanctions that kick in even before an organization has the chance to fight back in court. A group that is about to be tarred as terrorists wouldn’t even be given any advance notice; they’re apparently supposed to find out when a notice appears on the agenda for a meeting of the Florida Cabinet, which would have to approve the designation.
I’m really concerned that Ron DeSantis – or whoever replaces him next year – would weaponize a power like this against political opponents and ideological or religious organizations they simply dislike.
We’re already seeing something similar play out in Washington, where the Trump administration sent armed federal agents into cities and murdered peaceful protestors – and then tried to smear those protestors as “domestic terrorists.”
Bill to prevent accidental drownings among young children clears key hurdle
I’m thrilled to report that a bill I’m sponsoring this session to help prevent accidental drownings cleared its first committee last week.
House Bill 503 would require the Department of Health to develop educational materials on safe-bathing practices and drowning prevention. Those materials would include information on the increased drowning risks for infants and toddlers in bathtubs, pools and other water sources, water-safety measures and best practices for parents, and the importance of early childhood swimming lessons and water-competency programs.
These safety materials would then be distributed to parents and caregivers by hospitals, birth centers, home birth providers, and childbirth educators as part of childbirth or postpartum education.
House Bill 503 passed the House Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee by an 18-0 vote.
This is a big deal because getting through the first committee stop means the bill is “in play” for the rest of the session and there are now a few ways it could potentially pass.
The Senate version of the bill – Senate Bill 606, sponsored by Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) – has already passed all of its committees and should be hopefully receive a floor vote soon.
Senate amendment targets publicly owned power companies like OUC
This is the time of session when we start to see bad amendments pop up out of nowhere.
It happened last week with Senate Bill 1566, which began as an effort to require greater financial transparency from local governments. But an amendment last week during a meeting of the Senate Community Affairs Committee inserted a poison pill that would essentially forbid cities from using revenue generated by municipal utility companies to help pay for police, parks, and other general government services.
This would have an enormous impact on communities like Orlando and Jacksonville that operate publicly owned utility companies like OUC and JEA.
Everyone should understand what this is really about. Hamstringing public utilities like this has nothing to do with financial transparency or accountability. It’s a ploy to make it less appealing for communities to own their own power companies – and to pressure them into privatizing their utilities by selling to corporate giants like Florida Power & Light and Duke.
An anti-police bill would protect a gun company whose guns have hurt law enforcement
An anti-police bill that would protect a gun company whose guns have injured many law enforcement officers just cleared its first committee in the Senate.
Senate Bill 1748 is being pushed by lobbyists for Sig Sauer, the German-owned gun company that makes a handgun that is the subject of more than 100 lawsuits around the country brought by people who suffered gunshot wounds when the weapon allegedly went off without anyone pulling the trigger. Many of the victims have been police officers, including a deputy sheriff in Indian River County. This is one reason why many law enforcement agencies – including the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office – have either stopped using or are phasing out the gun in question, which is known as the P320.
This legislation would make it much harder for victims of these “ghost firings” to sue Sig Sauer. And it comes immediately after Sig Sauer has made some enormous campaign contributions just before the start of session to key figures in the Florida Legislature.
A few other corporate favor bills to note this week:
- Senate Bill 632 would let Lyft and Uber spend less money on liability insurance and have less coverage in place during the periods in which their drivers have accepted rides but not yet picked up a rider. The bill passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, though the House version has not moved yet
- Senate Bill 1028 would let Citizens Property Insurance Corporation award a no-bid contract to a vendor to run a clearinghouse through which largely unregulated “surplus lines” insurance companies could take over polices overing condo associations and other commercial properties. The bill passed the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee. The House version, House Bill 943, has passed one committee so far.
- Senate Bill 1506 would allow judges to reduce the amount of money that a defendant in a civil trial was ordered to pay by a jury. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, although there is no corresponding House legislation. At least not yet.
Intentional division and distraction
This past week was a really ugly week one when it comes to the kind of extremist and intentionally inflammatory bills we see every year in the Florida Legislature that are used to harm disadvantaged communities, stoke divisions among working people, and create distractions from other exploitive policies that benefit the few at the expense of the many.
The House, for instance, resurrected an old bill that would block local communities from removing memorials to Confederate Army leaders and other supporters of slavery. House Bill 455 passed its first committee last week, though I’m happy to report that the Senate bill hasn’t moved yet.
Unfortunately, both chambers continue moving forward with a bill that would basically make it illegal for local governments to support diversity programs – and give the governor the power to suspend independently elected local government officials who chose to support diversity anyway. House Bill 1001 and Senate Bill 1134 have now been through two committees, and the Senate bill is about to be heard in its third and final stop this week.
Another House committee also approved House Bill 641, the Don’t Say Gay or Trans at Work bill. It would forbid public employers, like state agencies and local governments, from having policies that stop employees from intentionally misgendering colleagues. Not only that, it would also forbid private employers from requiring employees to attend sensitive trainings around sexual orientation and gender identity. HB 641 will be heard again in its final committee this week; the Senate version of the bill has passed one committee so far.
Meanwhile, House Bill 33, which would rename one road in Miami after Charlie Kirk and another road in Fort Lauderdale after Donald Trump, passed its final committee in the House. So did House Bill 125, which create a state-mandated “Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance.” Similar bills are moving in the Senate, too.
The Senate, for its part, moved Senate Bill 246 through its final committee stop. This bill would create an Ultimate Fighting Championship-branded license plate. The House version of this bill hasn’t moved yet.
The crypto session?
An entire slate of cryptocurrency bills are getting closer and closer passing this session, too. Among the bills that passed committees last week:
- House Bill 175, which would create a regulatory structure to support a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoin. This legislation is moving in both the House and the Senate.
- House Bill 1039, which would create a state fund in which the Chief Financial Officer would be given taxpayer money to invest in cryptocurrency. This is another idea that is moving in both chambers this session.
- House Bill 1415, which would create a pilot program in which the Department of Financial Services could accept stablecoin as payment for licensing fees. Once again, this bill is moving in the Senate, too.
New ploys to suppress the vote among young people
As the founder and executive director of a voter-registration organization – People Power for Florida – I am very suspicious of a new bill that began moving in the House last week.
House Bill 725 would give the Board of Governors and the State Board of Education – both of which are controlled by appointees of the governor – broad new powers to restrict voter registration drivers and other election- and campaign-related activities on college campuses.
This could very easily become yet another tool for the administration to try and suppress turnout among young people. The Senate version of this bill has not been heard yet, though.
In a similar vein, the House is also moving yet another bill erecting more obstacles to voting. The package includes a completely unnecessary provision that would forbid university students from using their student IDs as identification when they vote.
That bill is House Bill 991 – and it will be heard this week in the House State Affairs Committee, where I serve as the Democratic ranking member.
We’ll be ready.
Education update: Fewer out-of-state students in universities, more private schools in empty malls
Some important education legislation to flag:
The House continues pushing forward with its proposal to slash out-of-state enrollment at the state’s top public universities: University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of South Florida, Florida International University and the University of Central Florida.
House Bill 1279, which would require that at least 95 percent of the freshman class at those schools be comprised of in-state students, passed its second of three committees last week. This legislation seems like a priority for House Republican leaders this session, although it’s not clear yet what the Senate thinks of it.
A Senate committee passed Senate Bill 1264, which would basically allow small private schools – schools with 150 students or less – to open up in any commercial or industrial area and in most kinds of businesses, from department stores and daycare centers to movie theaters and meeting halls. This bill is also moving in the House.
Backdoor attacks on reproductive freedoms
It’s looking increasingly likely the House will pass House Bill 173, a bill that would stop teenagers from accessing birth control, treatment for sexually transmitted infections and many kinds of mental health counseling without permission from a parent. HB 173 passed its second of three committees last week and will be heard this week in its third.
This is one of those bills that is really dangerous for young people who live in unsafe family situations, who are more likely to avoid healthcare – or pursue it from dangerous places – than to go to a parent.
But it’s also part of a national right-wing legal movement known as “parental rights,” which is being used to undermine and even strike down all kinds of laws dealing with abortion and reproductive healthcare. Even without this bill passing, for instance, a couple of far-right judges in Florida used a parental rights legal argument to strike down a law that allowed young people in need of abortion to get permission from a judge if informing a parent would be dangerous for them.
The Senate version of the bill – Senate Bill 166 – has not yet been heard by a committee, though.
At the same time, House Bill 1071 passed its final House committee last week. This is a wide-ranging education package. But embedded in it is what’s known as a “Baby Olivia bill,” which is designed to force public schools to make students watch an anti-abortion propaganda video produced by an extremist group called Live Action.
The Senate bill with similar language hasn’t moved yet.
A package of union-busting bills is moving in both the House and Senate
While some anti-abortion legislation seems to be in trouble in the Senate right now, both chambers are sadly working on multiple union-busting bills.
For example, the Senate last week held its first hearing on Senate Bill 1296, which would impose even more administrative burdens on unions representing school teachers, utility workers, custodians, city clerks and many other public sector workers. Among other things, it would set restrictions on the kinds of organizing activities workers can engage in. And it would require pro-union employees certification and recertification votes by a majority of every person in the unit, rather than a majority of everyone voting in the election.
But, as we’ve seen with previous union-busting bills, the Republican sponsors are making sure that none of these new restrictions would apply to unions representing police officers or firefighters, which tend to be more supportive of the governor and the current legislative leadership.
The House version of this legislation has already moved through two committees.
Another anti-union bill, House Bill 1387, cleared its second committee last week. This is a clone of legislation being pushed nationally by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, and it would basically force any company receiving state economic development incentives to make its workplace hostile to unions.
Companies getting tax breaks or grants would be forbidden from voluntarily recognizing a new union. They would even be forbidden from staying neutral in a union election.
This bill is not only anti-union, it is also anti-free-market. The Senate version has passed one committee so far.
A sweeping new anti-immigrant bill
Lastly, I wanted to make sure you aware of a sweeping anti-immigrant bill that just began moving last week.
House Bill 1307 would impose all kinds of financial, licensing, insurance and employment restrictions on people who do not have documentation – or who have had their legal status revoked by the Trump administration. It would stop them from sending remittances to family members in other countries, block them from obtaining occupational licenses, and even presume that they are at fault in a car accident.
It would also criminalize employers with undocumented immigrants and mandate that all licensing tests be administered in English.
HB 1307 passed the House Commerce Committee.
The companion bill in the Senate – Senate Bill 1380 – will be heard this week in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.