florida law

Last year’s extended session that featured a lengthy standoff between the Florida House and Florida Senate over spending and taxes cost slightly more than $259,000, according to figures compiled by the Office of Legislative Services.

For more than a century, Miami-Dade’s public servants — from teachers to transit operators — have shaped the county’s labor landscape through collective bargaining. Now, local labor leaders say that foundation faces an existential threat.

The Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund can’t be used to purchase any more boats, aircraft, or motor vehicles, but they can be leased for a “short-time,” SB 7040 says. The Republican-dominated Legislature approved these new guardrails after the state’s emergency managers spent more than $573 million on immigration enforcement in three years.

Florida is finally eligible for a $608 million federal grant to help pay for the state’s migrant lockups after the Trump administration lifted an environmental funding hold that had stalled the dollars for months.

Florida will soon be able to legally designate groups as “domestic terrorist organizations” under a bill headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk. The Republican-controlled House voted 80-25 on Thursday on the measure (HB 1471) which backs up DeSantis’ executive order in December that named two Islamic groups as terrorist organizations.

As concern over e-bike crashes surges across the state, the Florida Legislature passed a bill to collect data on and create a regulating body for micromobility, an umbrella term for small, human and electric-power vehicles like e-bikes and e-scooters.

Florida has a population of over 22 million residents, and more than 13 percent of those residents receive SNAP benefits monthly to buy groceries.

A bill that would expand vaccine exemptions for public K-12 schools is headed to the Senate floor. The bill (SB 1756) would create a new “conscience” category for parents to opt their children out of immunizations typically required for students to attend public K-12 schools.

The legislation passed through the House on Tuesday. State law lists China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria as foreign countries of concern.

Florida lawmakers approved a bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump. The Florida Senate passed the bill Thursday and it now awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis' signature. On Friday, his office said he has not received the bill yet. The plan also needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Local governments would be severely restricted from implementing measures to reduce the effects of climate change under a bill approved Thursday by a Florida House committee. The measure (HB 1217) comes nearly two years Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation declaring that the state would no longer be required to consider climate change when crafting energy policy.

Anti-abortion conservatives have long sought to force Planned Parenthood’s clinics to close their doors and to make it harder, if not impossible, to get abortion pills as part of a two-pronged approach to limit access to abortion.