Robert Asencio’s office is in what he jokingly refers to as the nosebleeds—on the 14th floor of the Florida Capitol building. A poster for the Miami Book Fair is propped against a couch, not much has made it onto the walls yet.
When the 2017 legislative session kicked off Tuesday, the freshman House Member says other things were on his mind.
“Oh my goodness there's all kinds of rules,” said Asencio. “Protocols on submitting bills, amending bills, what to say in committee. Because if you say the wrong thing you can inadvertently kill the committee bill.”
Asencio represents District 118—part of southwest Miami Dade County—and the past few weeks have been a crash course on how to actually do what he was elected to do.
“There was an orientation and they said you're going to get lost, 20 minutes later, I was lost,” said Asencio, chuckling. “It reminds me of college. I often say hello to the same person and reintroduce myself two, three, four, times because you meet so many people a day.”
Asencio is a retired police captain with the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department. It’s funny for him to feel like he’s back in school, but he says there’s a lot to learn.
For the first day of session, he wanted to make sure he could keep everything straight.
But first, breakfast: “Cornflakes: breakfast of champions,” said Asencio. “It was a little throwback to when I was a child. You know like every year before we get to school, I never thought about this till just now, that my mom would serve me cornflakes.”
9:30 – Session Open
Flowers topped the desks of each of the legislators – sunflowers and lilies were common– along with Florida flags and cards from well-wishers. The color of the arrangements offset the mostly dark suits of those on the floor. Asencio’s seat is in the second to last row. One of his flower arrangements was shaped into a teddy bear.
At 9:30, the Senate kicked things off with its opening ceremony, closely followed by the House at 10:00, with a very similar order of events: prayer, pledge of allegiance, national anthem and presentation of guests.
And then speeches, which highlighted some of the tensions that have been bubbling up between House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Governor Rick Scott in particular.
“A robust civil debate is a sign that our democracy is working,” said Corcoran during the opening ceremony. “When we get lazy and we start rubber stamping bills and we refuse to engage in intellectual, honest debate, that’s when the people should worry.”
Corcoran has been especially critical of Enterprise Florida, the state’s agency that works to encourage businesses to move to Florida, and Visit Florida, the state’s tourism agency. Through these programs, Corcoran thinks too much money has gone towards what he calls “corporate welfare,” giving tax money from working Floridians to wealthy business.
11:00 – State of the State
About an hour later, Governor Scott reacted to Corcoran’s ongoing criticism during his annual State of the State address.
“For our state to simply say – we are not going to compete with other states, we are not going to make it easier to incentivize job creators to grow in Florida – that’s just a big mistake for our state and for our families,” said Scott.
The governor also talked about the tragedies Florida has seen over the past year - the shootings at Pulse Nightclub and Fort Lauderdale International Airport, and destruction from two hurricanes.
“While heartbreaking, these tragedies have given me a new perspective. I am now more convinced than ever that the future of our state is even greater than our past accomplishments,” said Scott.
Most of his speech, though, Scott focused on jobs, saying Florida needs to diversify its economy so the next recession doesn’t hurt as badly recognizing a few Florida business owners in their work creating jobs in the state. One of those recognized was David Alfandary, who owns the Colombian bakery Hot Pandeyuca and Co.
Scott said Alfandary would be able to expand his business more if the Governor’s plan to cut taxes on commercial leases stays intact.
12:15 – Rebuttal
After Scott’s address, Democrats and a coalition of labor, environmental and LGBT-rights groups gathered in the atrium of the capital to push back on some of the ambitions of the House, Senate, and Governor, all of which are controlled by Republicans.
Freshman House member Robert Asencio stood with that group.
“It’s obvious there’s a lot of work to do,” said Asencio. “There are a lot of differences and we’re going to have to sort through those differences.”
"It's like the foxes are in the henhouse when it comes to this administration," said activist Barbara DeVane, who believes the administration is failing to fight for the state’s most vulnerable.
Before the rebuttal speeches are over, Asencio has to go to the first of his two subcommittee meetings of the afternoon: the Pre K-12 Innovation Subcommittee and Justice Appropriations Subcommittee.
7:00 – Events
By 7:00, Asencio didn’t have enough time to do what he really likes keep on top of: calling constituents back in South Florida. And his day isn’t over - two more events, prep for the presentation of a bill he’s co-sponsoring and tomorrow’s committee meetings. But, he says he’s glad to be doing this work.
“Being in the gallery, looking around at those who came before me, the leadership, you know it truly brings home the fact that this is bigger than me. This is bigger than 160 people in the legislature. This is about representing 20 plus million people in the state of Florida,” said Asencio
The clock set for 60 days, is starting to count down.
