2025 Legislative Session

Legislative leaders have not reached agreement on key initial budget details, as lawmakers prepare to return to the Capitol to hammer out a spending plan for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which will begin July 1. The House and Senate did not pass a budget before Friday’s scheduled end of the annual legislative session, requiring an extension.

With Democrats calling the changes an “assault on the very spirit of Florida’s democracy,” the Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday finalized a plan that will impose additional hurdles on the ballot-initiative process and heighten penalties for wrongdoing.Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed lawmakers to crack down on the process after highly contentious and expensive battles over proposals last year that sought to place abortion rights in the state Constitution and allow recreational marijuana for adults.

The Florida House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would prevent local governments from adding fluoride to water supplies and take aim at labeling of plant-based products as milk, meat and eggs.The Republican-controlled House voted 88-27 to pass the bill (SB 700), which also includes a series of other issues related to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The Senate passed the bill April 16, which means it is now ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A proposal to carve an exemption in the state’s voter-approved minimum wage isn’t expected to pass during this year’s legislative session, Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, told reporters last week.

Amid ongoing scrutiny of First Lady Casey DeSantis’ signature welfare-assistance program and an affiliated foundation, the executive director of the Hope Florida program is poised to step down from the job.Erik Dellenback, who also serves as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “liaison for faith and community,” is leaving to pursue a post as CEO of Florida Family Voice, a Christian nonprofit affiliated with national groups such as the Family Policy Alliance, Focus on the Family and the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Ron DeSantis’s latest salvo with the Florida House of Representatives unfolded in Southwest Florida Wednesday with the governor accusing the House of trying to defund the police.While the House is far from calling for the defunding of law enforcement agencies, millions of dollars separate it from the its counterpart in the Senate as the two sides hammer out the upcoming state budget.

An effort to keep students off cell phones throughout the school day passed the Florida House on Wednesday, though differences remain with a Senate proposal.The House unanimously approved a bill (HB 949) that would expand a law that prohibits the use of wireless devices at schools during “instructional time.”

A bill aimed at preventing a return of efforts to build golf courses, pickleball courts and resorts in state parks is ready to go to the full Florida House.The House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday unanimously supported the measure (HB 209), which sponsor John Snyder, R-Stuart, said seeks to prevent “unintended development within the state park system.” It came after widespread opposition last year to a plan dubbed the “Great Outdoors Initiative” by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.