The Florida Legislature made a mess. The Florida House refused to clean it up.

A recap of Florida's just-finished (sort of) 2026 session.

Mar 15, 2026

aerial view of island with body of water during daytime — Photo by Luiz Cent on Unsplash

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On the very first day of this year’s legislative session — just a few hours after lawmakers had gaveled open and the governor had delivered his annual State of the State address — the Florida Senate went to work trying to clean up a statewide mess.

That mess was the result of Senate Bill 180, a piece of legislation passed in 2025 that was ostensibly meant to help communities recover from hurricanes and ensure that Floridians could rebuild their homes and businesses after a big storm without interference from local governments.

But the new law was both broad and vague. And it has been widely exploited by developers — with assistance from the DeSantis administration — and used to knock down local growth-management laws across Florida dealing with wetland protection, flood control, rural preservation and more.

Senate Bill 840 was supposed to fix the situation. Sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie — a Republican from Indian Rocks Beach who also sponsored Senate Bill 180 a year ago — the 2026 legislation would have curtailed the most damaging parts of the 2025 law.

The new bill flew through the Florida Senate, clearing its first committee on opening day of the session and eventually passing the full chamber just a few weeks later by a unanimous vote.

Along the way, senators made clear just how much they had heard from angry constituents demanding that they do something.

“When I was campaigning, probably the bill that people complained about most to me — mainly because of their misunderstanding of its intent — was Senate Bill 180,” Sen. Ralph Massullo, a newly elected Republican from Lecanto said during a committee hearing on Senate Bill 840.

“This really caused a huge problem back home in my district,” Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R-Vero Beach) said on the Senate floor.

“Look at what happened with SB 180,” Sen. Tom Wright (R-New Smyrna Beach) added during another debate. The bill “got hijacked and it made my life miserable last year with all of the phone calls.”

But across the Capitol, the Florida House of Representatives flat-out refused to help.

More than that, Republican leaders in the state House — namely, House Speaker Danny Perez (R-Miami) and incoming House Speaker Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island) — did everything they could to kill attempts to fix Senate Bill 180 in such a way that nobody could be held responsible for the decision.

Leaders in the lower chamber made sure that none of their members ever filed a House version of Senate Bill 840. Then they refused to hold any hearings on an even narrower piece of legislation dealing with some of the Senate Bill 180 fallout — even though that bill, too, had passed the Senate unanimously.

And twice in the closing days of session, Perez and Garrison manipulated procedural rules to prevent votes on floor amendments that would have forced the issue.

After one such dodge, reporters asked Perez during a post-session media availability why the House was refusing to address any of the problems caused by Senate Bill 180. The House speaker claimed not to know which bill they were referring to and quickly moved on to the next question.

Whether that convenient moment of confusion was feigned or not, what is now abundantly clear is that House Republican leaders were dead-set this session on avoiding any kind of vote related to Senate Bill 180 — a vote that would obviously have split their caucus and could have passed had the House speaker not stood in the way.

It’s possible there was some gamesmanship here, and that House leaders were holding back in hopes of creating negotiating leverage with their counterparts in the Senate. This is the sort of issue that could be easily strapped to the special session on the state budget that the Legislature will hold later this year.

But more likely, all of the maneuvering was nothing more than the House speaker and his deputies doing the dirty work of a few deep-pocketed developers who want to continue weaponizing Senate Bill 180 — using it to undermine any local rules that might stop them from building whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want.

It’s important to remember that while elected officials in Tallahassee have repeatedly claimed that the many consequences of Senate Bill 180 were unintended, front groups for some of the state’s biggest development companies — like the Florida Home Builders Association and Associated Industries of Florida — began boasting about the bill the moment it passed.

What’s more, the Home Builders Association — whose members include companies like Lennar, Neal Communities, D.R. Horton, Pulte, Taylor Morrison and GL Homes — is currently litigating in court to keep the worst parts of Senate Bill 180 in place.

And while no one ever publicly testified against Senate Bill 840, DiCeglie at one point hinted at intense lobbying happening behind the scenes.

“I have had some conversations with some individuals who are responsible for development in their respective areas of the state and they thanked me for the original Senate Bill 180,” DiCeglie said during one committee hearing. “Because some of these local governments have gone too far. They’ve gone to levels where it’s really made it difficult for these developers to do their job. And I’m sensitive to that, as well.”

Those are the voices that Danny Perez and Sam Garrison chose to hear this session.

The 2026 session: What passed

House Bill 33: Renames a road in Miami after Charlie Kirk and a road in Fort Lauderdale after Donald Trump. Passed the House of Representatives by an 82-30 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 27-10 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 167: Makes it more difficult to sue mining-and-fertilizer giant Mosaic Co. over claims related to radiation exposure on former phosphate mines that have been redeveloped for housing or other uses. Passed the House of Representatives by an 87-24 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 32-4 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 175: Establishes a regulatory framework for issuers of a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoin. Passed the House of Representatives by a 102-2 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 37-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 182: Allows private schools with up to 150 students to open in any area zoned for commercial or mixed-use development and to operate from retail stores, day cares, theaters and other business. Passed the House of Representatives by a 91-11 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 37-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 246: Authorizes an Ultimate Fighting Championship-branded license plate. Passed the House of Representatives by a 109-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 37-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 290: Enables the state to sell public conservation land to agricultural companies. Passed the House of Representatives by a 94-10 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 38-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 302: Imposes new regulatory barriers to a proposed cruise port near the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve at the mouth of Tampa Bay. Passed the House of Representatives by a 109-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 38-0 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 399: Limits the discretion local governments have to deny development applications on the basis of incompatibility with surrounding residential areas, authorize manufactured homes anywhere site-built homes are allowed, and bars local governments from revoking permits from composting facilities. The bill also forces Miami Beach to approve a proposed water park at the Fontainebleau Hotel despite local opposition. Passed the House of Representatives by a 73-27 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 27-11 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 429: Gives prosecutors more ways to designate criminal defendants as gang members, including by citing their use of “gang-related language” on social media. Passed the House of Representatives by a 100-7 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 29-9 vote (vote sheet)
House Bill 441: Requires state official to provide more public notice and detailed justifications for proposed sales or swaps of state conservation land. Passed the House of Representatives by a 109-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 37-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 484: Strengthens the authority of local governments to control land-use decisions on proposed data centers and establishes new regulations around electricity usage and water consumption. Passed the House of Representatives by a 92-16 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 31-6 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 488: Expands laws that force Floridians to buy most new cars from middleman car dealers rather than directly from vehicle manufacturers. Passed the House of Representatives by a 108-1 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 36-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 628: Renames the 124-mile-long State Road 80 — from Palm Beach on the Atlantic Coast to Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast — the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.” Passed the House of Representatives by an 81-22 vote (vote sheet) by a 31-4 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 655: Lets lawyers for property owners and local government leaders hold secret pre-suit settlement talks when the property owner notifies the government of a potential claim under the state’s Bert Harris Act. Passed the House of Representatives by a 116-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 37-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 686: Makes it easier for homebuilders to build residential subdivisions on farmland next to properties that have already been developed or that are zoned for future development. Passed the House of Representatives by an 90-20 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 34-2 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 697: Temporarily blocks proposed cuts by the DeSantis to a program that helps people afford AIDS and HIV medication, maintaining eligibility and funding through the end of the fiscal year. Passed the House of Representatives by a 108-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 38-0 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 755: Extends a ban on drilling for oil and gas around Apalachicola River in the Panhandle. Passed the House of Representatives by a 109-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 38-0 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 905: Ends in-state tuition for international students participating in certain foreign exchange programs, adds new restrictions on surrogacy and pre-planned adoptions, and empowers the governor to immediately suspend state laws restricting trade with Cuba should the U.S. government oust the Cuban government and restore diplomatic ties with the island. Passed the House of Representatives by an 83-17 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 28-11 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 919: Renames Palm Beach International Airport as “Presidential Donald J. Trump International Airport” and requires Palm Beach County government to enter into a licensing agreement with one of Trump’s businesses, which has trademarked the airport name. Also strips the cities and counties that own Florida’s major airports of the chose the names of the facility. Passed the House of Representatives by an 81-30 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 25-11 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 927: Requires cities and counties to let developers use private contractors to review development applications and to issue building permits earlier in the development process for residential subdivisions. Passed the House of Representatives by a 110-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 33-0 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 991: Requires Floridians who are registering to vote for the first time, updating an existing registration, or who get flagged by state officials in Tallahassee to prove their citizenship by providing copies of documents such as a passport or birth certificate. The bill also stops university students from using their student IDs as their photo identification when they vote. Passed the House of Representatives by a 77-28 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 27-12 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 1028: Makes state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. create a program through which surplus lines insurance companies could take over policies covering condo buildings and businesses and forces Citizens to hire a private vendor to manage the program. Passed the House of Representatives by an 88-19 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 33-1 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 House of Representatives by a 77-37 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 25-11 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 1217: Strips local governments of power to enact policies intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. Passed the House of Representatives by an 80-29 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 24-12 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 1279: Enables state universities to obtain their accreditation through a new state-controlled accrediting agency rather than an independent accreditor. Also enables school districts to bypass teacher unions and make unliteral personnel decisions at a greater number of schools. Passed the House of Representatives by an 81-16 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 36-1 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 1296: Imposes new collective-bargaining and labor-organizing restrictions on teachers, bus drivers, utility workers and most other public-sector employees — including blocking new unions and decertifying existing ones unless at least half of all employees in the workplace participate in a certification or recertification election. Passed the House of Representatives by a 73-37 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 20-14 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 1451: Squashes a referendum approved by voters in Gainesville intended to restore local control of the city-owned electric company, GRU, after the Legislature took that power away from the city and gave it to a board appointed by the governor. Passed the House of Representatives by a 79-24 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 30-6 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 1471: Gives the governor and Cabinet the power to designate advocacy groups as “domestic terrorist organizations” and the power to punish people who “promote” them. Passed the House of Representatives by an 80-25 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 25-11 vote (vote sheet).
House Bill 7031: Decouples the state corporate income tax code from large federal corporate tax breaks enacted by President Trump and Congress last year as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” avoiding a multibillion-dollar state tax break for corporations. Passed the House of Representatives by a 109-0 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 34-0 vote (vote sheet).
Senate Bill 7040: Continues an emergency fund originally created to aid in hurricane response but that the governor used to finance construction of an immigrant detention facility in the Everglades — though the legislation imposes new reporting requirements on spending through the fund. Passed the House of Representatives by an 80-20 vote (vote sheet) and the Senate by a 29-7 vote (vote sheet).

…And what failed

Blue Ribbon Projects

Pushed by a team of lobbyists hired by a New York investment firm that owns more than 80,000 acres across north Florida, House Bill 299 and Senate Bill 354 would have enabled the largest landowners in Florida to put city-sized developments on rural cattle pastures and timberlands without any meaningful input from local residents or elected officials. Branded the “Blue Ribbon Projects” bill, the proposal made it to the brink of passing — thanks in part to ample campaign contributions — before it was stopped on the Senate floor by a bipartisan coalition of senators.

Sig Sauer

After gunmaker Sig Sauer plowed more than $500,000 into key Florida politicians just before the start of session, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would have shielded the company from a growing number of “ghost firing” lawsuits involving a company-made handgun. But it failed to get through the state Senate.

Food libel

Though supporters initially tried to hide it, a provision buried inside a “farm bill” that would have made it easier for the sugar industry to sue its critics eventually triggered an angry public backlash. An alliance melding fishing guides and Everglades advocates with wellness influencers and Make America Healthy Again activists pressured House and Senate leaders to remove the “food libel” expansion from Senate Bill 290 before passing the legislation

Urban and rural boundaries

Developer-backed bids to weaken an urban development boundary in Miami-Dade County — and utterly eviscerate rural boundaries in Orange and Seminole counties — failed on the final day of session. A pair of high-stakes amendment votes on the floor of the Senate kept both ideas out of House Bill 399.

Medicaid work requirements

A Senate Republican plan to impose bureaucratic “work requirements” on more than 100,000 ultra low-income Floridians who get health insurance through Medicaid passed the Senate but went nowhere in the House. That said, Senate Bill 1758 is also one of the bills most likely to be resurrected during a budget special session.

Other issues of note

One of most striking trends heading into the session was the breadth of bills targeting abortion and reproductive freedom — including proposals to give civil liability rights to fertilized eggs, put $100,000 bounties on people who help women obtain abortion pills, and erect regulatory thickets around alternative family-planning options like in-vitro fertilization and surrogacy. None passed.
While a sweeping union-busting bill targeting teachers and other public employees passed, a smaller bill aimed at stopping private sector unions did not. Nor did legislation to impose more barriers to unemployment benefits and weaken the state minimum wage.
A proposal to create a state counterintelligence unit with authority to spy on Floridians fell flat after objections from First Amendment advocates.
The incoming Senate President turned out to be a villain on the Blue Ribbon Projects bill. But he was a hero in an effort to stop homebuilders like Lennar from locking buyers into “forever fees.” Alas, that bill failed, too.
A bipartisan bill that would have set plans in motion to breach a dam that has blocked the Ocklawaha River for more than 50 years failed to pass after Senate leadership suddenly yanked it from the chamber’s floor schedule. The decision came after Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested he didn’t like the legislation, which otherwise had near-unanimous support across the state Capitol.
The Make America Healthy Again movement, which just may be the most powerful lobbying force in Tallahassee at moment, managed to muscle a bill through the Florida Senate that would have essentially turned mandatory school vaccine requirements into optional policies that anti-vax parents could ignore at will. It went nowhere in the House, however, at least in part because Gov. Ron DeSantis decided to attach himself to the issue. But the governor is already making noises about shoehorning the “medical freedom” legislation into the budget special session.