A dream for developers, a nightmare for women: Florida lawmakers start a new session

Here's what to watch as Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature gavels open the 2026 session.

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

This is Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast devoted to producing original journalism — and lifting up the work of others — about Florida politics, with an emphasis on the ways that big businesses and other special interests influence public policy in the state. Seeking Rents is produced by veteran investigative journalist Jason Garcia, and it is free to all. But please consider a voluntary paid subscription, if you can afford one, to help support our work. And check out our video channel, too.

Editor’s note: The 2026 session of the Florida Legislature begins Tuesday, so we are temporarily turning our weekly “Florida in Five” feature into a roundup of news, notes and bill movements from the session.

Florida lawmakers return to Tallahassee this week to open their 2026 session, and the Republican-controlled Legislature is starting off in a rough spot.

Hard feelings between House and Senate leaders haven’t yet mended following an ugly budget dispute that led to last year’s session dragging on more than a month longer than planned. And neither side seems to care much for Ron DeSantis, who is in his eighth and final year as Florida governor and is spending much of his remaining time casting about for ways to make himself nationally relevant again.

Who knows how it will all look 60 days from now? But at this point, it seems likely that many of the priority political issues — a ballot measure cutting local property taxes, a partisan redistricting plan meant to help national Republicans maintain control of Congress, yet another shrunken state budget — could end up punted to one or more special sessions in the spring.

Now, a session of the Florida Legislature in which nothing much gets done could be a fantastic outcome, all things considered — especially for all the workers, consumers and taxpayers who so often wind up on the wrong end of rent-seeking lobbying by a few billionaires and big corporations.

But that’s probably not how it’s going to play out. Instead, it’s far more likely that we’re staring down the barrel of a session in which legislators will end up spending even more of their time and attention than usual on a handful of issues dictated by special interests that have spent big to open doors in Tallahassee and extremist ideological groups that wield outsized influence in a gerrymandered Legislature where the vast majority of members never face a competitive general election.

Against that backdrop, here are a few of the early storylines and bills filed so far that we’ll be following at Seeking Rents over the next two months:

A dream for developers

Maybe the most far-reaching law to pass during last year’s legislative session was Senate Bill 180 — a bill that was ostensibly about helping communities recover from hurricanes but that real-estate developers (and the DeSantis administration) have instead used to gut local development rules.

Several bills have been filed that could roll back some of the allegedly unintended consequences of the law (House Bill 217, Senate Bill 218, Senate Bill 840). But so has an astonishing array of legislation that would permanently weaken the power of cities, counties, and towns to manage growth in their communities.

The big one — figuratively and literally — is the so-called “blue ribbon projects” bill, which would enable owners of giant tracts of largely rural land to have their properties rezoned for future development without any local hearing or vote in the communities where the projects would occur (House Bill 299, Senate Bill 354)

But that’s just one idea among many. The Senate is rapidly advancing legislation that would force cities and counties to approve any housing development up to 100 acres if half the property borders existing residential areas (Senate Bill 208). The House, meanwhile, is about to begin moving a bill that would essentially forbid local governments from enforcing strict wetland buffers that keep new development away from environmentally sensitive watersheds (House Bill 479).

Other bills would let lawyers for developers and local government leaders do more negotiating in secret (Senate Bill 332, House Bill 655), make it easier for homebuilders to construct subdivisions on farmland surrounding cities (Senate Bill 686, House Bill 691), and set the stage for the potential elimination of all local urban-service boundaries (House Bill 399).

Just to emphasize: Not every pro-development bill or growth-management preemption is automatically bad. For instance, I’m personally intrigued by another pair of bills proposing the “Starter Homes Act” (Senate Bill 948, House Bill 1143).

It’s a sweeping package of changes that would make it harder for local governments to block high-density housing through mechanisms like minimum lot sizes, setbacks and parking spaces and building height limits. It appears to be based on model legislation drafted by the American Enterprise Institute — a conservative think tank in Washington that hasn’t melted into something ideologically unrecognizable during the Trump era.

But a nightmare for women

A little over one year ago, 57 percent of Florida voters supported a proposed constitutional amendment that would have overturned a near-total abortion ban in the state and prohibited any further government interference with abortion access.

That was just short of the 60 percent supermajority needed to pass — in part because Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis commandeered close to $40 million in taxpayer money to advertise against it and a second ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana.

Now come the consequences — not of the governor’s potentially illegal spending but of the narrow election loss.

As early as this week, the Florida House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill that would grant fertilized eggs and embryos some of the same legal rights as living human children. It’s part of a long-term legal strategy to make a fertilized egg the equivalent of a living person in the eyes of the law — and to then use that theory to completely ban abortion under any circumstances (Senate Bill 164, House Bill 289).

That may be a bridge too far in the Florida Senate. But even if that legislation ultimately fails to pass this year, there are plenty of other anti-abortion bills coming behind it.

For instance, one new set of bills would put $100,000 bounties on doctors and others who help Florida women obtain abortion medication through the mail (House Bill 663, Senate Bill 1374). Another would extend the state’s existing abortion ban to fetal-reduction procedures performed as part of in vitro fertilization (House Bill 993, Senate Bill 1044).

There’s also quite a lot of legislation this session targeting reproductive freedom more broadly — including bills that would impose restrictions on surrogacy and assisted reproduction technologies like IVF (House Bill 1487, Senate Bill 1680); prevent teenagers from obtaining birth control or treatment for sexually transmitted infections unless a parent approves (Senate Bill 166, House Bill 173); and make it harder for schools to teach students about subjects like safe sex and HIV — while also forcing them to show students anti-abortion cartoons (House Bill 1071, Senate Bill 1090).

Taking David’s slingshot and giving it to Goliath

One new proposal would immunize Tesla from liability following accidents involving its Autopilot driving system (Senate Bill 1616). Another could shield gun manufacturer Sig Sauer from injury claims involving potentially defective safety features on firearms (House Bill 1551, Senate Bill 1748).

And pair of returning pieces of legislation would make it harder to sue pesticide producer Bayer (House Bill 443, Senate Bill 518) for alleged health impacts caused by Roundup weed-killer and mining giant Mosaic for radiation exposure on redeveloped phosphate mines (House Bill 167).

And yet, at the very same time, lawmakers are also advancing a “Farm Bill” that would make it easier for the states’s big sugar companies — U.S. Sugar Corp. and Florida Crystals — to sue critics for defamation (Senate Bill 290, House Bill 433).

A few other corporate issues to keep an eye on: Bills that would let Uber and Lyft buy less insurance for their drivers (House Bill 585, Senate Bill 632); turn tax incentives and public grants into union-busting tools (Senate Bill 1236, House Bill 1387); and forbid cities from using revenue generated by municipal electric utilities to help pay for municipal services like police, parks and garbage pickup (Senate Bill 1420)

That last one is a ploy to pressure cities into privatizing their publicly-owned utilities — and turning them over instead to investor-owned giants like Florida Power & Light.

The battles to come

These are, of course, only a small sampling of the bills that lawmakers will hear, debate, and vote on over the next 60 days.

And there are a whole lot more we don’t yet know about that are hiding behind the scenes, waiting to be sprung as amendments during lighting-quick committee hearings or at the final minute of frantic floor sessions.

With that mind, I have three requests for all Seeking Rents readers.

First, if you see something, say something.

Maybe there’s a dangerous bill moving that nobody is talking about. Maybe there’s one that just strikes you as suspicious or a sudden amendment you don’t understand. If there is, please reach out to me and I’ll do what I can to find answers and sound alarms.

I can’t promise that I’ll be able to figure everything out. But I can promise to try.

Second, we’re obviously going to be doing a lot of writing and podcasting during session. The goal, always, is to spread the word about what’s happening in Tallahassee, and to make sure as many people as possible are aware of what is happening in a state capital that is closer to New Orleans than it is to Miami.

To that end, if you haven’t already, please make sure to subscribe to our Substack, follow our YouTube page, and leave ratings or reviews on our Apple and Spotify podcast pages. Encourage others to do the same. These are the sorts of little things that can help push the content further out into the world — and, hopefully, get more people involved with their own government.

And lastly, as always, if you can afford it, please consider paying for your subscription to Seeking Rents. Your voluntary paid subscription helps keep all of our content free and available to everyone.

Which is especially important this time of year.

Billtrack

In honor of the best show on TV, here’s a look at some of the bills that moved during committee hearings held in October, November and December in advance of the 2026 session:

• House Bill 37: Enables towing companies to charge a separate fee to store wrecked electric vehicles that could be as much as three times higher than the fee to store gasoline-powered cars. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by a 12-3 vote. Passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee by a 15-1 vote. (Intergovernmental Affairs vote, Industries & Professional Activities vote)

• House Bill 103: Forces cities and counties to eliminate local business taxes. Passed the House Ways & Means Committee by an 11-6 vote. (See vote)

• Senate Bill 122: Forces cities and counties to eliminate local business taxes. Passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee by a 5-1 vote. (See vote)

• Senate Bill 164: Gives fertilized eggs and embryos some of the same civil legal rights as a living human child. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 5-4 vote. (See vote)

• House Bill 167: Shields the Mosaic Co. and other phosphate-mining companies against lawsuits over radiation on former mines. Passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 21-0 vote. Passed the Senate State Affairs Committee by an 18-7 vote. (Judiciary vote, State Affairs vote)

• House Bill 191: Adds more ways for businesses and state officials to stop laid-off workers from claiming unemployment benefits. Passed the Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee by a 12-4 vote. Passed the House Commerce Committee by a 15-5 vote. (Housing, Agriculture & Tourism vote, Commerce vote)

• Senate Bill 208: Forces local governments to approve any new residential development project up to 100 acres in size if at least 50 percent of the property borders existing residential areas. Passed the Senate Community Affairs by a 5-0 vote. (See vote)

• Senate Bill 246: Creates an Ultimate Fighting Championship-branded state license plate. Passed the Senate Transportation Committee by a 5-1 vote. (See vote)

• House Bill 289: Gives fertilized eggs and embryos some of the same civil legal rights as a living human child. Passed the Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee by a 13-3 vote. Passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 14-6 vote. (Civil Justice & Claims vote, Judiciary vote)

• Senate Bill 290: Makes it easier for the sugar industry to sue critics for defamation. Passed the Senate Agriculture Committee by a 4-0 vote. (See vote)

• House Bill 299: Enables owners of very large tracts of rural land to have their properties rezoned for development without a public hearing or vote before the local county commission or municipal council. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by a 12-2 vote. (See vote)

Looking Ahead

Monday

• The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear Senate Bill 208, which would force local governments to automatically approve any residential development project up to 100 acres in size if at least 50 percent of the property borders existing residential areas. The meeting begins at 4 pm. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Regulated Industries Committee will hear Senate Bill 754, which would exempt heated tobacco products like Philip Morris’ IQOS from state tobacco taxes. The meeting begins at 4 pm. (Contact committee members)

Tuesday

• The House Natural Resources & Disasters Subcommittee will hear House Bill 479, which would forbid local governments from requiring larger buffers between wetlands and development than the statewide minimum. The meeting begins at 1 pm. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Community Affairs Committee will hear Senate Bill 354, which would enable owners of very large tracts of rural land to have their properties rezoned for development without a public hearing or vote before the local county commission or municipal council. The meeting begins at 1:30 pm. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee will hear Senate Bill 632, which would reduce the amount of insurance coverage that ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft must have in place when one of their drivers has accepted a ride but the passenger is not yet in the vehicle. The meeting begins at 4 pm. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee will hear Senate Bill 838, which would permit car companies to charge processing fees when buyers make car payments by credit card or another other electronic payment systems. The meeting begins at 4 pm. (Contact committee members)

Wednesday

• The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee will hear Senate Bill 290, which would make it easier for the sugar industry to sue critics for defamation. The meeting begins at 9 am. (Contact committee members)

Note: The House notices committee meetings two days ahead of time, while the Senate notices them three days in advance. Click here to find the complete daily calendars in the Florida House of Representatives, and click here for the daily calendars for the Florida Senate.

Reading list

• Florida lawmakers brace for affordability showdown this session (Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald)

• Daniel Perez rattled Tallahassee. What will he do in year two as House Speaker? (Miami Herald) ($)

• Florida lawmaker says literary merit doesn’t matter if books mention sex (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

• What’s on tap in Tallahassee: Labor bills filed for the 2026 legislative session (Caring Class Revolt)

• Officials withheld evidence on Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ funding, environmental groups say (Associated Press)

• With army of loyalists, DeSantis built a conservative higher-ed empire (The Tributary)

• UWF OKs DeSantis favorite Manny Diaz Jr. as president, with $946K pay package (The Tributary)

• Anonymous letter sparks concerns over UWF interim president’s charter school plans (WEAR News)

• CEO who bilked Florida domestic violence program avoids jail time in plea deal (Miami Herald) ($)

• Florida deregulated nursing schools. Scam colleges and failing students followed (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

• Gov. DeSantis proposes a new accreditor for Florida law schools, following Texas’ lead (Central Florida Public Media)

• Court rules Florida Medicaid termination letters fly in face of federal law (Florida Phoenix)

ICYMI

Lastly, in case you missed them, here are recent Seeking Rents stories taking closer looks at some of the issues in play during the 2026 session:

• A New York investment firm with vast land holdings across north Florida wants state lawmakers to greenlight giant developments

• Florida politicians may give Big Sugar legal power to go after activists and silence critics

• Lobbyists for a mining company wrote a bill to block lawsuits over radiation on former mines

• Florida may send bounty hunters after women and doctors

• Companies linked to a Trump appointee are seeking money from Florida taxpayers — and giving money to Florida lawmakers