2023 Florida Legislative Session Bill Tracker
[updated 5/16/2023]
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
HB 1187 / SB 1216 Campaign Finance Reform. These bills would prohibit transfers of money between Political Committees (PC) and would bring a measure of transparency to campaign financing. Election law in Florida allows candidates and elected officials to open and operate a “political committee”. These political committees can accept unlimited contributions and spend unlimited amounts of money. This has made the traditional candidate campaign account with limits on contributions meaningless. Political Committees can make contributions to each other without having to divulge where the money came from originally. This amounts to the “legal laundering of campaign cash in Florida politics.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Has not been heard
ELECTIONS
HJR 31 / SJR 94 Partisan Elections for Members of District School Boards. These bills would require that elections for school board members be partisan, currently, the Florida constitution requires school board elections to be non-partisan. If passed by the Florida Legislature, it would be placed on the next general election ballot as a proposed state constitutional amendment and would require sixty percent of voters to pass.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Passed House and Senate – Sent to Governor
HJR 131 / SJR 1066 Recall of County Officers and Commissioners. These bills propose an amendment to Florida’s Constitution which would provide that any member of governing body of a non-charter county may be removed from office by the voters of the non-charter county. Currently, only twenty charter counties in Florida have the ability to recall an elected county official. If passed by the Florida Legislature, it would be placed on the next general election ballot as a proposed state constitutional amendment and would require sixty percent of voters to pass.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Rules
HB 477 Term Limits for District School Members. Lawmakers last year passed a measure that included 12-year term limits for school board members. The RLCFL supports 8-year term limits for all elected offices in Florida and we opposed the 12-year Term Limits language last session. HB 477 corrects the legislature’s mistake last session and would change it to 8-year term limits for members of School Boards.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Passed House and Senate – Signed by Governor
SB 1110 Term Limits. Part of this bill mirrors HB 477 by revising school board term limits from 12 years to 8 years. SB 1110 also creates 8-year term limits for all county commissioners in Florida.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Rules
HJR 129 / SJR 1410 Requiring Broader Public Support for Constitutional Amendments or Revisions. These bills would require a 66.67 percent of voters on a constitutional ballot amendment to pass. Currently it takes a minimum of 60 percent of voters to pass. If the Legislature passes this bill, it would be on the 2024 ballot to be approved by the voters.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Rules
HB 411 / SB 444 District School Board Elections. These bills would require candidates for the school board to live in the district upon the date they assume office instead of the date of qualifying.
RLCFL OPPOSES – Passed House sent to Senate – Presented to Governor
FIRST AMENDMENT
SB 1316 Information Dissemination. This bill would require bloggers that write about the Governor, Cabinet members and the legislature to register with the state. Bloggers must file monthly reports that list what posts mention those officials, along with disclosing any individual who paid for the posts and the amount paid. This bill is a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. The idea that bloggers criticizing a politician should register with the government sounds more like something you would see in China.
RLCFL OPPOSES – Died in Judiciary
EDUCATION
HB 1 / SB 202 School Choice. These bills would expand the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship so that any student eligible to enroll in public school could be in line for a voucher to attend a private school.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Passed House and Senate – Signed by Governor
HB 1463 / SB 1620 Childhood Mental Health, Safety, and Welfare. These bills goes creates age verification measures for commercial entities with more than 33.3% of content meeting the definition of harmful to minors and outlines enforcement measures for those who do not follow proper age verification measures. Additionally, it expands the definition of harmful to minors and removes the Miller Test requirements (s. 847.012). This bill aims to include technology addiction and pornography addiction to child and adolescent mental health assessment services and as required instructions for those seeking certification in the mental health field. Additionally, these bills require a warning label on all digital devices sold in Florida to warn of potential harms, such as addiction and brain damage.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Not Heard in House or Senate – Died in Commerce
HB 1069 / SB 1320 Child Protection in Public Schools. These bills forbid requiring school staff and students to use “pronouns that do not correspond with a person’s sex” and delays education on sexual orientation and gender identity until after eighth grade.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Passed House and Senate – Presented to Governor
HB 1223 Public PreK-12 Educational Institution and Instruction Requirements. This bill forbids requiring school staff and students to use “pronouns that do not correspond with a person’s sex” and delays education on sexual orientation and gender identity until after eighth grade. This bill is similar to HB 1069/SB 1320.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Education and Employment
2nd AMENDMENT
HB 221 / SB 214 Sales of Firearms and Ammunition. These bills would stop the collection of financial data on firearm and ammo purchases and impose fines on credit card companies that collect data on those purchases. Credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express say they plan on categorizing gun shop sales, which were considered general merchandise. Individual codes used to identify firearm purchases opens a backdoor to an unofficial gun registry.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to CS/SB 214 – Signed by Governor
HB 543 / SB 150 Concealed Carry of Weapons and Firearms Without a License. These bills would eliminate the requirement to have a concealed weapons permit to carry a concealed firearm. Legislators are calling this bill “Constitutional Carry”. This is a permit less concealed carry bill. That’s all it is. It is NOT a Constitutional Carry bill. It does not allow open carry and it does not address the long-standing prohibition against carrying on a college or university campus. It does not address the Unconstitutional Red Flag statute passed as part of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas bill. Nor does it reinstate the Constitutional right of 18-, 19- and 20-year-old adult Floridians to be able to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer, which was also abridged by the passage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas bill in 2018.
This bill falls far short of a true “Constitutional Carry” bill which is very disappointing, especially with a supermajority of Republicans in both chambers as well as a popular Republican Governor. If we accept this watered-down bill now, we will likely never see a true “Constitutional Carry” law.
RLCFL OPPOSES – Passed House and Senate – Signed by Governor
HB 1543 Minimum Age for Firearm Purchase or Transfer This bill will lower the minimum age from 21 to 18 to buy rifles and other “long” guns, which would scrap a law passed after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Rules
TAXES AND BUDGET
HB 251 / SB 476 Florida First Production Partnership Program. These bills would create the Film, Television, and Digital Media Targeted Rebate Program and would offer film, TV, and digital media productions a tax rebate by requiring that certain benchmarks are met before tax rebates are awarded. The problem is this is still a form of corporate welfare, with the government picking winners and losers, where certain industries get to pay less in taxes while other industries are forced to carry a higher tax burden.
RLCFL OPPOSES – Died in Regulatory Reform & Economic Development
HB 5 Economic Programs. This bill eliminates Enterprise Florida, the public-private partnership with the state supposedly for economic development. The taxpayer funded organization has a poor record for economic development, instead is a pay-to-play scheme for winning favorable treatment and its repeated practice of picking winners and losers in the marketplace.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Ordered engrossed, then enrolled
HJR 469 / SJR 122 Revised Limitation on Increases of Homestead Property Tax Assessments. These bills would reduce the limitation on annual increases of homestead property tax assessments from 3% to 2%. In 1994, the State of Florida established a 3% Save Our Homes (SOH) Cap assessment limit on all residential properties that receive a homestead exemption. The 3% SOH Cap limits any increase to the assessed value of a homestead exempt property for tax purposes to a maximum of 3% each year. SB 120 would reduce the assessment limit to a maximum of 2% each year. SJR 122 and HJR 469 are constitutional amendments and would require the approval of the Florida Legislature and the voters of Florida.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Local Administration…
GOVERNMENT REGULATION
HB 3 Government and Corporate Activism. This bill is comprehensive legislation to protect Floridians from the woke environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement that continues to proliferate throughout the financial sector. ESG is a direct threat to the American economy and individual economic freedom. This attempt by the corporate elite to discriminate against those who do not follow a particular ideological agenda will be outlawed in Florida with the passage of this bill.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Passed House and Senate – Signed by Governor
HB 1423 / SB 1438 Protection of Children. These bills direct the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to fine, suspend, or revoke the license of any public lodging establishment or public food service establishment that admits children to adult live performance, including drag shows.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 1438 – Presented to Governor
HB 1445 / SB 256 Employee Organizations Representing Public Employees. These bills would prevent public-employee union members from having dues deducted from their paychecks. Members would have to separately pay dues. Under these bills membership in a labor union will not be required as a condition of employment, and union membership and payment of union dues and assessments are voluntary.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 256 – Signed by Governor
HB 1421 / SB 254 Gender Clinical Interventions. These bills would make it illegal for minors to receive gender affirming care, such as hormone replacement therapies and puberty blockers to anyone under the age of 18.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 254 – Presented to Governor
HB 1011 / SB 668 Display of Flags by Governmental Entities. These bills prohibit governmental agencies from displaying to the public any flag that does not follow the protocol adopted by the Governor. The current protocol is based on the United States Flag Code and the Florida Flag Code and directs the public and governmental agencies on how to display the United States Flag, the State Flag, the POW/MIA flag, the Firefighter Memorial Flag and the Honor and Remember Flag.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Constitutional Rights
HB 555 / SB 450 Jury Recommendations in Death Penalty Cases. These bills would require at least 8 jurors (majority) to recommend the death penalty.
RLCFL OPPOSES – Refer to SB 450 – Signed by Governor
HB 279 / SB 310 Federal Law Enforcement Agency Records. These bills would require federal law enforcement agencies that are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and have a physical office in Florida to comply with the state’s public records requirements.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Ethics…
HB 1607 / SB 1096 Monuments and Memorials. The “Historical Monuments and Memorials Protection Act” (HB 1607/SB 1096) would hold any person or entity that destroys, defaces, or removes any historical monument displayed on publicly-owned property liable for triple the cost to repair or replace it.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in Judiciary
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
HB 593 / SB 376 Automatic Sealing of Criminal History Records. These bills would amend the existing law to align state and local policy by ensuring that records sealed at the state are sealed at the county. Law enforcement, however, will still be able to access those records. An individual can be charged with a crime, but either the charges are dropped, or the individual is found not guilty. According to Fla.Stat.943.0595(a) “The department shall automatically seal a criminal history record that does not result from an indictment, information, or other charging document for a forcible felony. These bills would require local courts to also seal criminal history records for certain circumstances in Fla.Stat.943.0595(a). Old records can be an obstacle to employment and housing for those who were never convicted of a crime, undermining the stability that accompanies economic security. Record sealing would allow people to keep stable jobs, maintain economic security, and to continue contributing to the local economy.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 376 – Ordered enrolled
HB 939 / SB 7014 Florida Scholars Academy. This bill establishes the “Florida Scholars Academy” within the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). If approved, it would offer educational opportunities for teenagers serving criminal sentences in a juvenile residential facility. The goal is for those serving time in a juvenile facility will the education to become productive citizens after leaving the facility.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 7014 – Signed by Governor
IMMIGRATION
HB 1617 / SB 1718 Unlawful Immigration. These bills require private employers to use the E-Verify system and removes provision authorizing unauthorized immigrant to obtain license to practice law.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 1718 – Signed by Governor
ABORTION
HB 7 / SB 300 Pregnancy and Parenting Support. These bills would prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and includes exceptions for rape or incest up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. To qualify, a person must have a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation proving the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. The legislation would also bar the use of state funds to help a pregnant person leave the state to obtain an abortion.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Refer to SB 300 – Signed by Governor
PUBLIC HEATH EMERGENCIES
HB 1487 / SB 1618 Public Health Emergency Actions. Current Florida law allows the state Health Officer to order an individual to be examined, tested, vaccinated, treated, isolated, or quarantined during public health emergencies. HB 1487 prohibits mandated vaccinations and allows an individual to contest being examined, tested, vaccinated, treated, isolated, or quarantined during public health emergencies. SB 1618 is similar, but still allows for an individual to be placed in isolation or quarantine.
RLCFL SUPPORTS – Died in State Affairs
TORT REFORM
HB 837 / SB 236 Civil Remedies. These bills would make major changes to Florida’s litigation environment, such as repealing Florida’s one-way attorney fee provisions for insurance cases, prohibiting contingency fee multipliers for an attorney fee award in most circumstances, providing standard guidelines to help juries accurately calculate medical damages, and modifying the state’s “bad faith” framework.
RLCFL NUETRAL – Passed House and Senate – Signed by Governor
NOTE: HB 837 / SB 236 are major reforms of our civil justice system in Florida. These bills would make the most comprehensive tort reforms in decades with the stated goal of decreasing frivolous lawsuits and preventing predatory practices of trial attorneys. The concern is that frivolous lawsuits and inflated claims are hurting businesses and raising the costs of various forms of insurance, including medical malpractice, health, disability, and auto policies.
On the other side, are concerns raised by many people including some conservatives that these bills go too far and could make it tougher for low-income citizens to get their day in court if they feel an insurance carrier has unfairly denied or lowered their claim. Some have called these bills a shotgun approach without weighing the unintended consequences.
While we agree that there is much need for tort reform in Florida, we want to make sure the Legislature has considered all possible consequences of their reforms and does not go too far as to hurt Florida citizens, families, and small businesses.
We will continue to watch the progress of the bill and its amendments as it goes through the process and consider taking a position as it nears the finish line.
HEALTH CARE
HB 305 / SB 222 Protection of Medical Freedom. These bills would prevent the Florida Department of Health from requiring any resident enroll in Florida’s immunization registry, Florida SHOTS, as well as require anyone to “submit to immunization tracking,” nor would businesses or any level of government entity be able to require “proof of vaccination or post infection recovery from any disease” in order to “gain access to, entry upon, or service.” Employers would also be legally prevented from refusing employment, discharging employees, disciplining, demoting “or otherwise discriminating” against workers “solely on the basis of vaccination or immunity status.”
RLCFL NO POSITION – Died in Healthcare Regulation
Note: We support the language in these bills that prevent the government mandating any individual being tracked and placed on any vaccine registry. But we have concerns with the language in these bills that infringe on the right of private businesses that could be concerned that unvaccinated individuals could pose a risk to their employees and customers. We do not see this as a civil rights matter, but a principled position for private property rights. Private property rights extend to private businesses.
RLCFL OPPOSES the following firearm bills filed by Democrats. These bills violate our right to own and bear arms. Anti-gun right bills filed by Democrats in the Florida legislature are rarely heard in any committee or brought to the floor of either chamber for a floor vote. We will track these bills and alert you if there is any movement on them. Historically bad gun bills have been filed by Republicans as well, for example, SB 7026 in 2018 and SB 7028 in 2020. Any bad gun bills filed by a Republican will be tracked along with all the other priority bills identified in the main body of the bill tracker.
HB 45 / SB 66 Risk Protection Orders: Redefines term “petitioner” to include individual who has biological or legal parent-child relationship with, who is legal guardian of, or who is spouse or sibling of respondent.
HB 151 / SB 146 Sale or Transfer of Ammunition: Citing this act as “Jamie’s Law”; requiring background checks for the sale or transfer of ammunition; providing exceptions, etc.
HB 187 / SB 208 Sale, Transfer, or Storage of Firearms: Revises standard by which adults & minors may be considered criminally negligent in storage of firearm; revises exception to prohibition on storing or leaving loaded firearm within reach or easy access of minor who obtains it & commits specified violation; revises requirements for safe storage of loaded firearm; requires seller or transferor of firearm to provide each purchaser or transferee with specified information.
HB 215 / SB 456 Possession or Use of a Firearm in a Sensitive Location: Defines “sensitive location”; prohibits possession or use of firearm in sensitive location; provides exceptions.
HB 277 / HB 571 Storage of Firearms in Private Conveyances and Vessels: Prohibits storage of firearms in unoccupied private conveyances & vessels unless done so in specified manner.
HB 579 / SB 462 Assault Weapons and Large-capacity Magazines: Prohibits sale, transfer, or possession of assault weapon or large-capacity magazine; requires certificates of possession for assault weapons or large-capacity magazines lawfully possessed before specified date; limits sales or transfers of assault weapons or large-capacity magazines documented by such certificates; provides enhanced penalties for offenses committed with assault weapon or large-capacity magazine.
SB 1024 Firearm Liability Insurance. This bill requires every firearm owner to maintain liability insurance for property damage, bodily injury, or death that occurs with their firearm.
SB 888 Firearms Without a Unique Serial Number or Other Identifying Mark. This bill would require the destruction of any firearm without an assigned serial number or other identifying mark.
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