Legislators are back in Tallahassee for the first, mostly organizational committee week.
Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, advised his committee chairs on Tuesday that the second week of committee meetings, after the end-of-year holidays, must focus on actual bills.
If agency heads want to come in and do a slide show on what they did on their summer vacation, and youre interested in knowing about it, then schedule a meeting in your office," Gaetz explained.
If you want to know what their organizational chart looks like, thats important for new senators, but as committee chairs, lets not do that and burn time that we could spend on bills your colleagues have worked on.
Gaetz, meeting with the chairs on the Senate floor, outlined what they can expect from him in the 2013 session on Tuesday, and that included his philosophy that the committees must be chair-driven to steer the 300 good bills that on average reach the Senate floor out of more than 3,000 bills that are proposed annually.
He noted that he doesnt want the presidents office to have to determine what is a good bill, and noted that bills that dont have a House companion or deal with an issue such as secession may not be the best use of time.
He also advised the chairs not to advance bills in which there is a companion, but after four weeks into regular session have yet to be put before a House committee.
He also directed senators and lobbyists to go to the chairs, rather than the presidents office, regarding any bill's advancement.
Gaetz also advised members to step down from committee now if they arent interested in serving, because he set a rule that two unexcused absences from a committee meeting means automatic expulsion from that panel.
If youre from an agricultural area, and you were kicked off an agricultural committee because you werent interested in attending, that sometimes is hard to explain back home, Gaetz cautioned.
Future committee weeks are scheduled for the weeks of Jan. 14 and 21 and Feb. 4, 11 and 18.
The 60-day regular session begins March 5.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
