Florida House

The lower chamber — long at odds with the DeSantis administration — would also ban the purchase of aircraft, boats, or motor vehicles through the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, a trust set to expire next week unless reauthorized by the Legislature.

Florida’s House voted late Wednesday to establish the American flamingo as the new state bird, a step toward knocking the mockingbird off its perch after nearly a century. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Senate will go along with the plan.

Florida physicians can treat minors for sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse, and mental health problems without first obtaining parental consent. Those rights, scattered throughout Florida statues, would be eliminated, and the Parents’ Bill of Rights expanded, under HB 173.

HB 127 would put in state law a requirement to test elementary students on their ability to write and read cursive. Existing state law does not require cursive writing, but State Board of Education curricula do. The board, however, does not require students to prove proficiency.

While Florida’s top GOP leaders now all say they expect to put just one constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall on cutting property taxes, a joint resolution approved by a House committee Thursday is now set to go to the full House — the second such joint resolution to pass all of its assigned committees in the chamber this session.

Nixon says her decision is based on an affordability crisis that Florida's leadership has ignored. She claims politicians, including Moody, aren't listening to the people.

The vote was 74-37, with five Republicans joining the majority of Democrats in opposing it and one Democrat (Jose Alvarez from Osceola County) supporting the measure. But for the fourth year in a row, the likelihood of the state repealing the law is doubtful, as a companion bill in the Senate has yet to be filed.

The issue centers on people who pursue lawsuits over injuries caused by government negligence.

A proposal that would lower the minimum age requirement to purchase a long gun in Florida from 21 to 18 won approval in its first committee stop in the Florida House on Tuesday.

On "The Florida Roundup," Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, digs into reducing property taxes. He said the House is trying to get ideas out there to stir a conversation.

Last week, House Speaker Daniel Perez touted the idea of offering multiple proposals to voters in November 2026.

Floridians may see these property tax proposals on the 2026 ballot.