‘Farm bill’ would let the governor auction off conservation land to agribusinesses

A recap of the fifth week of the Florida Legislature's 2026 session, plus a preview of week six.

Photo by Thais Schmidt 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 is underway, so we have temporarily turned our weekly “Florida in Five” feature into a roundup of news, notes and bill movements from the session.

An unusual alliance that melded fishing guides and Everglades activists with wellness influencers and the Make America Healthy Again movement scored a surprising victory in the Florida Capitol last week, when they persuaded senators to abandon a measure that would have made it easier for the state’s Big Sugar companies to sue critics for defamation.

In front of large crowd that quickly turned celebratory, the Senate Rules Committee stripped the controversial provision — which would have expanded a 30-year-old “food libel” law — from the Senate version of the so-called “Florida farm bill,” a package being pushed through the Legislature this session by Republican Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and sugar-funded lobbying groups like Associated Industries of Florida.

This battle is by no means over. The proposed food libel expansion remains in the House version of the legislation, and Senate President Ben Albritton, a Republican from Wauchula and a longtime ally of the ag lobby, hasn’t ruled out reconsidering the issue in the Senate.

But it’s not the only poison pill in the farm bill, either.

Though it has been somewhat obscured so far by the food libel fight, another section of Senate Bill 290 and House Bill 433 would enable the DeSantis administration — or whoever succeeds him next year as governor — to sell off state conservation land to agricultural companies.

As first reported by Max Chesnes of the Tampa Bay Times, the proposal would require the Department of Environmental Protection to evaluate whether lands purchased for environmental preservation may instead be “suitable” for commercial agriculture — from grazing cattle to growing sugarcane.

Any conservation land deemed suitable could then be sold for agriculture. The sale would have to include what’s known as a “rural lands protection easement,” to prohibit any future development of the property for housing or any other non-ag use.

The proceeds from a sale of state conservation land would not go back to whichever government agency originally acquired the property. The money would instead be given entirely to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — the agency that Wilton Simpson runs — to spend paying more agribusinesses not to develop their land

That’s not all. The legislation would also block cities, counties and towns from fully selling off surplus land they own, if state officials deem the property suitable for agriculture. Local governments would be forbidden from transferring the development rights to any such land, effectively forcing them to sell only to agricultural buyers.

The new rules would be backdated by more than a year. That means any conservation land purchased since the start of 2024 could be auctioned off.

Land in state parks, forests or wildlife management areas would be exempt and could not be sold for agriculture. But other conservation lands could be — including, for instance, properties purchased for Everglades restoration, water recharge or smaller preserves, and land that could be turned into a state park in the future.

Julie Wraithmell, the executive director of Audubon Florida, told senators on the Rules Committee that the proposal is an “attempt to make state conservation lands into a land bank for agriculture.”

This is part of a larger pattern in Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature, where lawmakers have shifted away from preserving ecologically important land in favor of protecting working agriculture.

For instance, another bill moving through the state House this session would force state agencies to lease conservation lands for cattle grazing anywhere grazing is feasible. House Bill 1421, which will be heard by this week by the House State Affairs Committee, is being pushed by the Florida Cattlemen’s Association.

Meanwhile, GOP leaders in the House and Senate just rolled out proposed budgets that both try to claw back $200 million they gave to the Department of Environmental Protection in 2023 to buy land for a long wildlife corridor running nearly the lengthy of the Florida peninsula.

The House would hand the entire $200 million to the Department of Agriculture and Consumers Services to spend on more rural lands protection easements (see section 94).

The Senate would give $185 million to the agriculture department, with the money to be split between easements and wildfire management (see section 121). The environmental protection agency would get to keep $15 million — but it would have to spend the money on “less-than-fee” acquisitions like conservation easements, rather than buying conservation land outright.

Billtrack

In honor of the best show on TV, here’s a look at some of the bills on the move from the past week of session:

• House Bill 1119: Forbids school districts from considering the artistic or literary merits of books that activists want to have banned from school libraries. Passed the Florida House of Representatives by an 84-28 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 7040: Allows the governor to continue using the unsupervised emergency management fund that he tapped to finance construction of the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades. Passed the Florida Senate by a 29-10 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 33: Renames roads in south Florida after Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump. Passed the House Commerce Committee by a 17-6 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 105: Empowers businesses to sue in order to stop local governments from enforcing local rules and ordinances. Passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 17-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 125: Orders an annual “Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance.” Passed the House State Affairs Committee by an 18-7 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 173: Prevents teenagers from accessing birth control, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and non-emergency mental health services without permission from a parent. Passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 15-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 175: Establishes a regulatory framework for issuers of a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoin. Passed the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee by a 17-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 246: Creates an Ultimate Fighting Championship license plate. Passed the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee by an 18-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 290: Enables the state to sell land purchased for environmental conversation to agricultural companies. Passed the Senate Rules Committee by a 24-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 332: Lets lawyers for property owners and local government leaders hold secret settlement talks when the property owner notifies the government of a potential claim under the state’s Bert Harris Act. Passed the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee by an 8-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 339: Allows people who have experienced side effects from vaccines to sue vaccine manufacturers who have advertised their products in Florida. Passed the House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee by a 12-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 354: Enables owners of giant tracts of rural land to have their properties rezoned for development without any vote by the local county commission or town council. Passed the Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Committee by an 8-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 437: Requires state agencies and local governments to respond more promptly to public records requests and makes it easier to sue agencies that fail to comply. Passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 16-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 455: Forbids local communities from removing memorials to Confederate leaders during the Civil War. Passed the House Government Operations Subcommittee by a 12-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 485: Allows someone to obtain a domestic violence injunction against their spouse on the basis of “marriage fraud” — an allegation that they were deceived into marriage by a non-citizen in order to evade immigration law or obtain benefits. Also requires a court granting a marriage fraud injunction to immediately alert immigration authorities. Passed the House Budget Subcommittee by a 14-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 632: Allows Uber, Lyft and other ride-share companies to buy less car insurance coverage for the periods in which one of their drivers has accepted a ride but not yet picked up the rider. Passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee by a 6-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 641: Forbids state agencies and local governments from requiring that employees refer to co-workers by their preferred pronouns and bars private companies that receive state funding from requiring employees to attend trainings on sexual orientation or gender identity. Passed the House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee by a 12-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 655: Lets lawyers for property owners and local government leaders hold secret settlement talks when the property owner notifies the government of a potential claim under the state’s Bert Harris Act. Passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 16-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 680: Exempts the sale of electricity from a utility to a retail electric vehicle charging station from state taxes. Passed the Senate Finance and Tax Committee by a 6-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 686: Makes it easier for homebuilders to build new subdivisions on farmland adjacent to land zoned for residential development. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 11-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 725: Empowers the Board of Governors and State Board of Education to restrict voter registration drives and other elections-related activities on college campuses. Passed the House Education Administration Subcommittee by a 13-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bil 959: Allows car-financing companies to charge extra processing fees when someone pays their car loan by credit card or another electronic payment system. Passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee by a 17-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1001: Forbids local governments from supporting diversity programs and enables the governor to suspend local elected officials who violate the prohibition. Passed the House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee by a 12-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1028: Requires state-run Citizens Property Insurance to create a clearinghouse through which private surplus lines insurance companies could take over policies covering condo buildings and businesses and allows Citizens to award a no-bid contract to a vendor who would administer the clearinghouse. Passed the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee by an 18-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1039: Creates a state reserve fund to invest in cryptocurrency. Passed the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee by an 18-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1066: Orders the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to breach the Rodman Dam and restore the flow of the Ocklawaha River. Passed the Senate Appropriations Committee by a 17-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1071: Enables the State Board of Education to make public schools show students an anti-abortion cartoon as part of their health education curriculum, beginning in the sixth grade. Passed the House Education & Employment Committee by a 15-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1134: Forbids local governments from supporting diversity programs and enables the governor to suspend local elected officials who violate the prohibition. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 8-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1138: Requires that cities and counties allow developers use private contractors to review development applications and to issue building permits earlier in the development process for residential subdivisions. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 11-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1139: Helps developers trying to stop a local government from raising impact fees by requiring that the local government pay the developer’s attorney fees if the developer wins a case in court. Passed the House State Affairs Committee by a 25-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1143: Creates the “Starter Homes Act” and restricts the ability local governments to constrain housing density through mechanisms such as building height limits, setback requirements, parking minimums and lot-size restrictions. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by a 14-2 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1217: Prevents communities from implementing policies meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change and eliminates local green energy policies that are already on the books. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by an 11-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1220: Restricts the power of local governments to regulate remote-controlled or autonomous delivery robots and drones. Passed the Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Committee by a 12-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1251: Forbids cities, counties and other local governments from hiring lobbyists to represent them in Tallahassee. Passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee by an 8-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1264: Authorizes small private schools to open in any area zoned for commercial or mixed-use development and to operate from retail store, day cares, theaters and other business. Passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee by an 8-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1279: Caps out-of-state enrollment at the University of Florida and other top-performing public universities to no more than 5 percent of fall freshman classes. Passed the House Budget Committee by a 20-7 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1283: Blocks anonymous complaints against police officers or prison guards unless they come with corroborating evidence. Passed the Government Operations Subcommittee by an 18-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1296: Imposes a number of new collective-bargaining restrictions on teachers, bus drivers, utility workers and other public-sector employees, including a requirement that workers win union certification and recertification votes by a majority of all eligible employees rather than a majority of those voting in the election. Exempts police officers and firefighters from the new collective bargaining restrictions. Passed the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee by a 6-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1307: Imposes a host of financial, licensing, insurance and employment restrictions on immigrants who cannot prove that they are in the country legally or who have had their legal status revoked. Passed the House Commerce Committee by a 20-5 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1387: Forbids companies that receive state tax incentives or grants from voluntarily recognizing new employee labor unions or from agreeing to remain neutral in union elections. Passed the House Transportation & Economic Development Subcommittee by an 11-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1415: Authorizes the Department of Financial Services to accept stablecoin as payment for various licensing fees. Passed the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee by a 17-0 vote. (vote sheet)

• House Bill 1471: Gives the governor, via the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the power to designate advocacy groups as “domestic terrorist organizations” and impose financial sanctions on them. Passed the House Education & Employment Committee by a 16-4 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1506: Gives courts more authority to reduce the amount of money a defendant must by pay following a civil trial if it finds the jury’s award was excessive or arbitrary. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 8-3 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1562: Expands laws that force Floridians to buy most new cars from middleman car dealers rather than directly from vehicle manufacturers. Passed the Senate Transportation Committee by a 7-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee by a 9-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1566: Prevents a city or county that owns a municipal utility from using any revenue generated by the utility to help pay for police, parks and other general government services. Passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee by a 7-1 vote. (vote sheet)

• Senate Bill 1748: Makes it harder to sue Sig Sauer and other gun manufacturers cases where someone is injured when a gun allegedly fires without anyone pulling the trigger. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 8-3 vote. (vote sheet)

The week ahead

Editor’s note: The below schedule has been updated to reflect that the full House of Representatives will vote on its version of the budget on Thursday.

Monday

• The House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee will hear Proposed Committee Bill HEB 26-01, a budget bill that would allow New College of Florida to take over the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus. The legislation would also enable state universities to raise tuition on out-of-state students. The meeting begins at 11:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The House Transportation & Economic Development Budget Subcommittee will also hear Proposed Committee Bill TED 26-02, a budget bill that would stop Gov. Ron DeSantis from using an emergency-response fund to operate immigration detention centers and require the money be spent instead responding to natural disasters such as hurricanes. The meeting begins at 11:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The House Budget Committee will hear Proposed Committee Bill BUC 26-01, the House’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. It will become House Bill 5001. The meeting begins at 3:30 pm. (Contact committee members)

Tuesday

• The House Judiciary Committee will hear House Bill 1551, which would make it harder to sue Sig Sauer and other gun manufacturers cases where someone is injured when a gun allegedly fires without anyone pulling the trigger. The meeting begins at 8:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The House Education & Employment Committee will hear House Bill 173, which would prevent teenagers from accessing birth control, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and non-emergency mental health services without permission from a parent. The meeting begins at 8:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The House State Affairs Committee will hear House Bill 991, which would require first-time voters to prove their citizenship by providing copies of documents such as a passport or birth certificate when they register and prevent university students from using their school IDs as identification when they vote. The meeting begins at 8:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Rules Committee will hear Senate Bill 1506, which would give courts more authority to reduce the amount of money a defendant must by pay following a civil trial if it finds the jury’s award was excessive or arbitrary. The meeting begins at noon. (Contact committee members)

• The Florida House of Representatives will hear House Bill 191, which would give businesses and state officials more ways to deny unemployment benefits to laid-off workers. The floor session begins at 1 pm. (Contact House members)

Wednesday

• The Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Committee will hear Senate Bill 1334, which would require first-time voters to prove their citizenship by providing copies of documents such as a passport or birth certificate when they register to vote. The meeting begins at 8:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee will hear Senate Bill 1632, which would give the governor, via the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the power to designate advocacy groups as “domestic terrorist organizations” and impose financial sanctions on them. The meeting begins at 10:30 am. (Contact committee members)

• The Senate Appropriations Committee will hear Senate Proposed Bill 2500, the Senate’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. It will become Senate Bill 2500. The meeting begins at 1:30 pm. (Contact committee members)

Thursday

• The House of Representatives is expected to hear House Bill 5001, the House’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. The floor session begins at 9 am.

Friday

• The Florida Senate will hear Senate Bill 2500, the Senate’s proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. The floor session begins at 10 am. (Contact senators)

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 blamed Congress for AIDS drug cuts. The DeSantis admin made them worse. (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

• Florida emergency agency ran up $405 million immigration tab in six months (Florida Phoenix)

• Florida state official acknowledges opioid money funded anti-weed campaign (Miami Herald) ($)

• Renaming Palm Beach County’s airport after President Trump could cost $5.5 million (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

• In Tallahassee, a push to change what Floridians can say, write and read (Miami Herald) ($)

• Lyft wants lower insurance minimums in Florida when passengers aren’t in the car (Miami Herald) ($)

• Florida lawmakers not aligned on Rays funding, AIDS drugs (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

• Despite lawmaker moves, Florida’s beach fight continues — this time with a Backstreet Boy (Politico Florida) ($)

• DeSantis competing in California golf tournament this week (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

• New College president Richard Corcoran is awarded a $200,000 bonus – again (WUSF)

• Super PAC backed by AI titans pledges $5 million to boost Byron Donalds’ run for Florida governor (NBC News)

• Big Sugar wants Florida lawmakers to make its critics shut up (Florida Phoenix)

• Florida Should Reject Expanded Food Disparagement Laws (The Daily Signal)