Legislators Return for
Committee Meetings
By R. Bruce Kershner
NUCA of Florida Director of Government Affairs
Lawmakers returned to Tallahassee in September to hold their initial round of committee meetings in preparation for the 2016 Legislative Session which will begin, earlier than normal next year, on Tuesday, January 12. They will return the week of October 5th for another round of committee meetings. Legislators are scheduled to meet a total of six weeks before they convene the 60-day regular session. Also sandwiched in their committee meetings schedule is yet another Special Session, the third one this year. This one will address the redrawing of Florida Senate District lines.
State lawmakers have spent a lot of time at the Capitol this year. Earlier this year, the House had walked out on the Senate, abruptly adjourning the spring session three days early when the Senate refused to withdraw a proposal expanding Medicaid coverage. They returned to Tallahassee in June to finish business by approving the budget, the only issue they are constitutionally required to complete each year. Legislators again trudged back to the Capitol in August to redraw congressional district lines after the Florida Supreme Court ordered new congressional map after ruling the maps originally approved by the Florida Legislature were unconstitutional.
That Special Session did not end well. The House and Senate could not reach an agreement, and the Special Session adjourned without the two chambers agreeing on what the maps should look like. The issue is now in the hands of Judge Terry Lewis of the Second Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.