(The Center Square) – Florida’s special session starts on Monday and cooperation with President Donald Trump’s agenda on the border will be one of the biggest issues.
Lawmakers were resistant to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call for a special session with the regular session looming in a few months. It is supposed to end on Friday.
The second-term GOP governor says the need to help Trump with his deportation plans is too great for the Legislature to wait until the regular session starts on March 4.
“But here in Florida, we lead,” DeSantis said at a recent news conference. “In Florida, we don’t wait, we don’t wait to see what the political temperature is. We get out. We lead. We get the job done. We have an opportunity to make a difference on an issue that the voters have cared about really, really intently for a number of years.
“This is the time how many Republicans have been elected running on the border immigration excesses in the last 20 years? I mean, it’s been like a perennial issue. So now we have an opportunity to make a real difference.”
Immigration isn’t the only item on the agenda, even though 18 of the 22 bills filed as of Monday deal with the subject.
DeSantis said in the proclamation calling the special session that he wants lawmakers to repeal in-state college tuition for undocumented migrants and prohibit undocumented migrants from sending remittances to their home countries.
The governor also wants an increase penalties for election fraud, especially by undocumented migrants.
DeSantis is also seeking reforms to the state’s ballot initiative process to make it a crime for initiative workers to pay for signatures.
Lastly, he wants lawmakers address issues with condominium regulations passed in the wake of the 2021 Surfside condo building collapse that have increased condo association assessments on homeowners and put a crimp on condo sales statewide.
Senate Bill 18-A and House Bill 21A are identical bills that will deal with ballot initiative reform, such as a requirement for political committees to file paperwork with the state before gathering signatures and modifying the criteria that the state attorney general would use when petitioning the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion related to a proposed revision or amendment to the state constitution.
SB20A and HB19A would phase out in-state tuition at the state’s public universities and community colleges for undocumented migrants.