How are laws made in Florida? How do you track a bill as it moves through Legislature ?
Tuesday is opening day for the Florida Legislature. Ready to keep up with lawmaking?
Expect a flurry of bills making their way through the House of Representatives and the Senate. Many, if adopted and signed into law, could change the way Florida’s 21.5 million people live.
Among the expected discussion points as the Legislature reconvenes amid the pandemic: House Speaker Chris Sprowls’ measure (HB 9) that aims to crack down on scammers who give fraudulent information about COVID-19 vaccines.
Every year, the state Legislature meets for its 60-day session on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March of each odd-numbered year. On even-numbered years, for instance 2022, it will be the second Tuesday after the first Monday in January.
Here is a guide to help you keep up with all the action:
Who are the players?
Senators and Representatives are elected to represent the districts of the state. Senators serve four-year terms, Representatives serve two-year terms.
There are 40 senators and 120 members of the House of Representatives in Florida.
How a bill becomes a law
Bills are filed by either House, meaning representatives and senators can put their ideas forth for consideration during the 60-day session.
When a bill is filed, it gets reviewed by several smaller committees of legislators. The public and those the bill will affect can also comment and hope to fine tune it to better serve their needs. Bills can be tracked by signing up on Florida’s legislative sites at either www.myfloridahouse.gov or https://www.flsenate.gov/Tracker.
Committees can approve, defeat or amend a bill. If the bill is defeated in the committee process, that’s it, the bill is dead for the rest of session. If the text of the bill is revived as an amendment to another bill, it has to be substantially different than the language that was struck down or the amendment can be challenged as violating the rules.
Otherwise, the bill is brought before the full chamber of the House and Senate for voting. The bill can bounce back and forth between the two houses like a pinball in hopes of achieving a consensus.
What has to happen for bill to pass
▪ 1. Majority of the votes in each chamber, House and Senate, say yes? The bill can advance to the governor. But it has to pass before both chambers before it can become a law.
▪ 2. The bill is in the governor’s hands? The governor can sign it and it becomes law. The governor can also allow it to become a law without a signature. Or, the governor can veto.
▪ 3. If vetoed, the Legislature can vote to overturn the governor’s decision but it would take a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate. In 2020, for example, 3,578 bills were filed and 210 bills passed, according to the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
▪ 4. The bill has to go through all of the processes before the end of the 60-day session. If it does not, the bill dies and would have to undergo all of the steps from scratch at another year’s session.
One bill they better pass? The state’s budget. That bill has to pass annually by the time the session ends — this year on April 30.
How to track a bill
Head over to Flsenate.gov and its Tracker Help page. You can sign up there for a free Senate Tracker account by filling in a few questions such as your name and email. You willbed asked to create a password.
It’s relatively easy to track a bill as it makes its way through the legislative process. Every filed bill has a web page link with current information about the bill and links to official documents associated with that bill.
Once you have an account, you can then track bills throughout the website, view updates on the Tracker tab and receive email notifications — if you opt to receive them.
A Senate Tracker account also lets you track committees, senators, publications, press releases and other associated items.
The Florida House of Representatives also has a tracker page at myfloridahouse.gov that functions similarly and lets you track bills, representatives, committees and schedules.
Mary Ellen Klas, the capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
