A legislative session that began with all of the hope of spring training has now arrived at crunch time, as bills that appeared to have early momentum may fall victim to the tight schedule of the last two weeks.
Tuesday was the last day for regularly scheduled committee meetings, but legislators can still get bills through the Senate Rules Committee, which is allowed to meet after the deadline. The Senate Budget Committee will also meet Thursday, but the slate of bills to be taken up during the meeting was not available Tuesday evening.
One of the more contentious bills that could make it onto the agenda is the immigration bill. The House version would allow law enforcement officials to investigate the legal status of individuals during routine traffic stops and require employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check new hires. The Senate version includes the option of checking a drivers license.
Pro-immigration activists have swarmed the Capitol in recent weeks to protest the bill, but having previously made it through the necessary House committee stops and two Senate committees, it has yet to come up for a vote in its final stop in the Senate Budget Committee.
Lawmakers say the bill is not dead, but the clock is ticking.
Its a very, very challenging issue in my view, one that balances, I think, some significant issues that impact some hard-working people with other concerns about making sure we uphold the laws of our nation and our state. I dont yet have an opinion, but I am looking at it very hard, said Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who chairs the Budget Committee.
Meanwhile, other bills are fighting for space and time on the remaining committee agendas.
Insurance bills that include a rate hike for Citizens Property Insurance and allow private property insurers to raise rates as much as 10 percent without regulatory approval, that already face an uphill battle, have also yet to be heard in their final Senate committee.
The unemployment compensation reform bill, another piece of legislation that has sparked a statewide fight, was on the Budget Committee agenda Tuesday, but was temporarily postponed after a clash over amendments. Still, an amendment bringing SB 728 more in line with the House version was tacked onto the bill, even though it refrains from cutting six weeks offstate unemployment benefits, as does the bill that passed through the House earlier this month.
Bills that appear on the fast-track include an elections bill preventing voters from changing their address at the polling place on the day of an election and reducing the early voting period by one week. That bill made it through the Senate Rules Committee Tuesday, its final hurdle before heading to the full Senate. A slate of abortion bills also moved Tuesday through the House.
One bill that looks beyond resuscitation is the renewable energy bill, which allowed electric companies to raise rates without regulatory approval in order to recover costs associated with investments in renewable energy. Alexander said as much Tuesday.
Making it through the committee process is paramount for supporters of legislation languishing on the dockets, because House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, appears prepared to clamp down on anyone who attempts to tack amendments onto bills moving, as a way to get their bill through. He sent a memo to House members Tuesday warning against the practice.
This session our committee and subcommittees were allotted sufficient meeting time to complete their work, obviating any need for a withdrawal process. If a bill has not been reported out of its final committee of reference this week, then neither that bill nor its Senate companion will be heard on the floor this session, Cannons memo reads in part.
With a budget deal in place after some verbal sparring between Cannon and Alexander, the regular session is less likely to go into overtime, meeting after the scheduled end of the session on May 6. That doesnt mean, though, that there wont be some awkward meeting times in order to get some of the bills to the floor and through the Legislature.
Theres a possibility well need to meet Saturday, said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, chairman of the Rules Committee.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.