Florida’s annual legislative session wrapped up Monday with lawmakers approving a $112.1 billion budget.
The session went into just a little overtime to get the budget passed. The session was largely dominated by contentious culture-war issues and legislators passed many of Governor Ron DeSantis’ priority bills.
Those include a measure that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
Lawmakers sent DeSantis a bill aimed at keeping migrants entering the country from the U.S. southern border from coming into Florida. It targets companies that transport undocumented migrants into Florida by baring state and local governments from contracting with such companies
The legislature also passed bills limiting how race-related issues can be discussed in classrooms and by employers, and prohibiting discussions on LGBTQ issues with young students in public schools.
Still a number of critical issues were not successfully addressed in the legislative session, signaling the strong possibility for a special session.
Those include ongoing controversy over the once-a-decade process of redrawing Florida’s Congressional district boundaries, as well as the failure of a measure aimed at addressing Florida’s struggling property insurance market.
We’ll get insight and analysis from a panel of Florida political science experts including Assistant Director of the University of Central Florida’s School of Politics, Security and International Affairs Aubrey Jewett, Ph.D., Florida Gulf Coast University Political Science Department Chair Roger Green, Ph.D., and FGCU Political Science Professor Peter Bergerson, Ph.D.
