2024 Legislative Session

After dozens of resignations and two lawsuits, a Florida House panel Wednesday supported providing reprieves from a 2023 law that requires local elected officials to disclose detailed information about their personal finances.The House State Affairs Committee approved revamping a bill to push back the effective date of the requirements to 2025 and to exempt mayors and members of local governing boards in communities with 500 people or fewer.

The Senate sponsor of the monuments bill, Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, argued that his bill and intentions have been mischaracterized as protecting the Confederacy.

Florida’s annual 60-day legislative session reached its halfway point Wednesday. The top 10 big issues in the session range from the budget to education, insurance to health care.

Senate and House panels this week approved bills that would revamp the state’s defamation laws, potentially exposing media organizations to increased liability and addressing the use of artificial intelligence to portray people in a false light.The Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee approved similar bills (SB 1780 and HB 757) that are drawing opposition from many First Amendment advocates.

A proposal that would prevent public schools, colleges and universities and other governmental entities from displaying flags that represent a “political ideology viewpoint” stalled Monday in a Senate committee. Under the proposal (SB 1120), flags that represent a “politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint” would be prohibited at government facilities.

A proposal designed in part to keep “identity politics” out of teacher-preparation courses began moving forward Monday in the Senate, with opponents arguing it could drive teachers away from Florida.The Republican-controlled Senate Education Postsecondary Committee voted 5-3 along party lines to approve the bill (SB 1372).

A proposal that would prohibit minors younger than 16 from creating social-media accounts is poised to pass in the Florida House, after a change Tuesday that its sponsor said helps target platforms’ addictive features. The bill (HB 1) is a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, who has decried what he and other bill supporters say are detrimental effects of social media on children’s mental health.

City and county boards would face a higher threshold for approving property-tax hikes, under a proposal that started moving forward Monday in the Legislature.In a 15-7 vote, the House Ways & Means Committee backed a bill (HB 1195) that would require two-thirds votes by city, county and special district governing boards to approve increases in millage rates, which represent dollars assessed per $1,000 in property value.

Less than a year after passing a measure that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Republican lawmakers are pursuing an effort to allow parents to file civil lawsuits seeking damages for the wrongful death of an “unborn child.”The proposal, sponsored by a Fort Myers Republican lawmaker and approved Thursday by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, would add “unborn child” to a law that allows family members to seek damages when a person's death is caused by such things as wrongful acts or negligence.

Carrying out parts of a controversial 2023 law, the State Board of Education on Wednesday approved rules that will prevent colleges from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and remove a sociology class from a list of “core” courses.The rules stem from a law (SB 266) approved in May by the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor, who has been traveling the country for months in his presidential campaign, has made fighting against diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives a pillar of his education agenda.