Ron DeSantis has been dreaming of complete military power for three years. Florida lawmakers may finally give it to him.
As border tensions rise in Texas, the Florida Legislature may hand Ron DeSantis more military power. Plus: Top stories, notable quotes and bills on the move during week three of the 2024 session.
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Just over two years ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stood in front of television cameras and called on the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to resurrect a World War II-era state militia that he could personally command.
Publicly, DeSantis pitched the reconstituted military force — the Florida State Guard — as a means to help the state respond more nimbly to “hurricanes, national disasters and other state emergencies.”
Privately, though, records show DeSantis was dreaming of much more. An early draft of the governor’s state guard plan — written in October 2021 by staffers in the governor’s office and later obtained by Seeking Rents through a public-records request — called for a force of unlimited size that could be activated for a wide variety of reasons, deployed anywhere in the country, and had powerful legal protections from criminal prosecutions or civil lawsuits.
Florida lawmakers quickly gave the governor his military force — but with stricter limits than he’d wanted. The newly reconstituted state guard would have no more than 400 members, could only be activated in certain situations, and was to be used exclusively in Florida.
But just one year later, the Legislature loosened the reins. During last year’s legislative session, Florida lawmakers passed a second bill that records show DeSantis’ staff helped write allowing the guard to grow to 1,500 members, giving DeSantis more freedom to activate it, and allowing him to send his troops to other states.
Now, lawmakers may drop the reins entirely.
A third bill began advancing through the Legislature on Thursday that would allow DeSantis to activate his militia at “any…time deemed necessary and appropriate.” It would give the governor more flexibility to send his troops to other states, too.
What’s more, the new legislation would allow militia members who are charged with a crime or sued in civil court over something they did while on duty to have the Attorney General’s Office defend them — at taxpayer expense. And it would threaten anyone who wants to sue a member of the Florida State Guard by forcing them to pay attorney fees for both the guard member and the state should they fail to win their lawsuit.
Much of this matches the language that DeSantis gave to the Legislature all the way back in the fall of 2021 — which suggests that this latest mission creep may have been planned all along.
But it’s also something that Florida lawmakers perhaps ought to reconsider — given how much DeSantis seems to want to insert himself and his troops into the growing tensions in Texas.
Quotes from the Capitol
“A business owner knows what’s best for his employees.”
— Sen. Jay Trumbull (R-Panama City), while presenting a bill that would block local heat-protection rules meant to ensure that businesses provide employees working outdoors in extreme with cool drinking water and periodic breaks in the shade.
“This is another consumer-focused bill.”
— Sen. Colleen Burton (R-Lakeland), while presenting the Senate version of a bill that would allow loan companies that target low-income people with poor credit histories to charge much higher interest rates.
“HB 1347 is a consumer-focused bill.”
— Rep. Robert Brackett (R-Vero Beach), while presenting the House version of a bill that would allow loan companies that target low-income people with poor credit histories to charge much higher interest rates.
“Now, I will tell you that, if this ever was to come out, the very first thing I would is run a bill that says it’s not allowed to be called meat.”
— Rep. Danny Alvarez (R-Riverview), while presenting a bill that would make it illegal to produce or sell lab-grown meat in Florida.
“When we’re talking about the identity politics, we’re talking about ‘X’ wouldn’t have happened if/but because of ‘Y.’ Well, let’s just understand that ‘X’ happened. Let’s acknowledge it and then take it into consideration. But move on.”
— Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill), while presenting a bill that would restrict what professors can say about subjects such as systemic racism or gender inequality in educator prep courses.
Billtrack
In honor of the best way to spend a Friday evening in the offseason, here’s a look at some of the bills on the move this past week:
House Bill 1: The bill would ban Floridians under the age of 16 from some social-media platforms. Passed the House of Representatives by a 106-13 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 3: The bill would require pornography websites to use age-verification software and block access to users under the age of 18. Passed the House of Representatives by a 119-0 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 49: The bill would allow businesses to make 16- and 17-year-old high school students work more than 8 hours a day and more than 30 hours a week during the school year and allow teenagers to drop out of school and become full-time workers. Passed the House Commerce Committee by a 13-5 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 109: The bill would allow city governments to convert traditional public schools into charter schools even if most of the teachers at the school oppose the conversion, and force some school districts to give property to charter school operators. Passed the House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee by 12-5 vote. (Vote sheet)
Senate Bill 742: The bill would allow construction companies building public works projects to ignore local laws that would otherwise require them to do things like pay higher wages, provide health insurance or hire local workers. Passed the Senate Community Affairs Committee by a 6-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 917: The bill would allow homebuilders and construction contractors to use 16- and 17-year-old teenagers on residential construction sites. Passed the House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee by a 16-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 1071: The bill would ban the production or sale of lab-grown meat in Florida. Passed the House Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee by a 9-5 vote. (Vote sheet)
Senate Bill 1122: The bill would prevent a local government from removing statues honoring Confederate Civil War leaders and give the governor the authority to remove any city or county leader who votes for removal. Passed the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee by a 4-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 1179 and Senate Bill 1276: The bills would make it more difficult for someone suing a business to obtain financing for their case from outside investors. HB 1179 passed the House Civil Justice Subcommittee by a 10-7 vote. SB 1276 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 10-0 vote. (House vote sheet, Senate vote sheet)
Senate Bill 1260: The bill would impose more barriers to claiming unemployment insurance, including requiring workers to complete a mandatory skills assessment before receiving any benefits and to complete at least one job application a week in person to continue receiving benefits. Passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee by a 4-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
Senate Bill 1336: The bill would cut funding for legal aid programs that provide legal representation to people living in poverty who need an attorney in a civil dispute. Passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee by a 6-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 1347 and Senate Bill 1436: The bills would allow consumer loan companies that target low-income people with poor credit histories to charge much higher interest rates. HB 1347 passed the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee by a 16-0 vote. SB 1436 passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee by a 7-2 vote. (House vote sheet, Senate vote sheet)
House Bill 1365: The bill would prohibit cities and counties from letting homeless people sleep or camp on public property and would allow private citizens or businesses to sue a local government that fails to stop a homeless person from sleeping in public. Passed the House Local Administration, Federal Affairs & Special Districts Subcommittee by a 14-0 vote. (Vote sheet)
Senate Bill 1372: The bill would place new restrictions on what professors or instructors could say about subjects such as systemic racism or gender inequality in teacher-preparation courses. Passed the Senate Education Postsecondary Committee by a 5-3 vote. (Vote sheet)
Senate Bill 1492: The bill would prevent cities or counties from setting extreme-heat protection rules for outdoor workplaces that would otherwise require agribusinesses, homebuilders and construction contractors to provide employees with safety precautions such as cool drinking water and periodic breaks in the shade. Passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee by a 4-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 1551: The bill would give Gov. Ron DeSantis more freedom to deploy the Florida State Guard and give members of the state military force protections from criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits. Passed the House Local Administration, Federal Affairs & Special Districts Committee by an 11-3 vote. (Vote sheet)
House Bill 1639: The bill would require health insurers to charge higher prices for insurance that covers gender-affirming care for transgender Floridians and require state driver licenses to show the sex a person was assigned at birth rather than the gender with which they identify. Passed the House Select Committee on Health Innovation by a 10-5 vote. (Vote sheet)
Senate Bill 1746: The bill would create more carveouts for a few politically favored unions from an anti-union law that passed last year and made it harder for public employees like teachers, nurses and garbage collectors to organize and collectively bargain. Passed the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee by a 4-2 vote. (Vote sheet)
Reading list
Tampa Bay Times: Opioid sales boomed at Publix while other pharmacies settled suits
Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida environmentalists oppose Senate bills they say could clear way for fuel terminals
Orlando Weekly: Florida Republicans seek to 'fix' confusion around anti-union law they championed last year
Miami Herald: Bills threatening Miami Beach buildings are back. Opponents say history is at stake
Tampa bay Times: Why a bill about wrongful death lawsuits has abortion advocates concerned
Tampa Bay Times: Florida makes it official: Universities to drop sociology as a core course
Bloomberg Businessweek: Shawn Fain Takes On Musk, Trump Over Labor’s Green Future
Arizona’s Family: MLB asks Arizona lawmakers to exempt minor league players from state’s minimum wage
This is the reporting we should have had in Florida for the past decades. The Northwest Florida Daily and Tallahassee Democrat and Pensacola News Journal are so disappointing (that's the nicest thing I can muster saying) . This destruction of our democracy and government has been under-handed for decades because most of us were not aware of it. And, there are many of us who tried.
And don't tell me those above papers were not able to do this level of reporting.
They are allatrocious, but 1122 that allows DeSantis to remove electeds who vote to remove Confederate statues, seems like a REALLY bad idea. Andrew Warren and Monique Worrell as electeds would have been just the start of his purges.