Florida Legislature

Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Florida Legislature. Democrats say they can break both this November — and gain more legislative leverage.

Legislators approved $250 million for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Some will go toward hurricane relief, but a large portion will pay vendors for completed work at "Alligator Alcatraz."

State lawmakers received an accounting less than an hour before a budget meeting to decide whether to hand over more tax dollars.

Florida workers would remain without government oversight at any level if federal heat policies are watered down. The Legislature banned cities and counties from creating such protections in 2024.

Rep. Kevin Steele sent a resignation letter to House Speaker Daniel Perez after he posted a photo on social media of him voting at a Tampa library. Florida law requires lawmakers live in their districts.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the state's fiscal year 2026-27 budget on June 29, and it took effect July 1. The budget allocated just over $63 million to Florida's state parks.

Florida's first post-Surfside collapse condo inspection report found dozens of unsafe or uninhabitable buildings. But reporting problems and disputes over some findings are complicating things.

The provision was part of HB 757, a package designed to prevent another tragedy such as the campus shootings at FSU in 2025, when two people were killed and more were injured. Most notably, that package arms trained college and university faculty.

As of July 1, public high school students are required to receive electrocardiogram tests to participate in school-sanctioned sports.

Said Chris Latvala about his father Jack, the longtime Pinellas County lawmaker who died last week at age 74: “He would be proud of what his friends said about him in death, and also his political rivals.”

Latvala, a voice of bipartisan political change, was a power broker in Pinellas County who retired in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations after announing a 2017 run for governor.

The longtime St. Petersburg Democrat will serve as a presidential scholar and professor of trial litigation at the conservative-leaning Sarasota school.