After one-third of the 2017 legislative session one thing has become readily apparent: House Speaker Richard Corcoran wasn't joking when he talked about how little time he had to accomplish a lot of changes he wanted made.
Because the flow of sweeping new legislation doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon in the House.
Theoretically most legislation to be considered during the 60-day session is supposed to be filed by opening day.
Ah, but there's a big workaround.
Under House rules committees can roll out at any time what are called "proposed committee bills." These aren't ordinary bills because they have to approved by the speaker ahead of time and they usually reflect top House priorities.
And the House has been using this vehicle to unleash a torrent.
Each day brings yet another major overhaul whether it's a big change to charter school laws, deregulating professions, eliminating Enterprise Florida, a cap on local government taxes etc. etc.
There's more coming on Wednesday, including an overhaul of the Florida Retirement System...and wait for it a big change to the state's election law.
The House is going to consider reinstating Florida's resign to run law for candidates who seek federal office.
The state changed the law in 2007 when Gov. Charlie Crist, then a Republican, was in office and there was buzz that he could wind up seeking higher office. In essence the change meant that Crist or any other elected official didn't have to resign from their current office if they planned to run for president, vice president, U.S. Senate or Congress.
The argument at the time - which was when Marco Rubio was House speaker (but after Corcoran had left as his chief-of-staff) was that Florida should do what it could to help its rising stars seek higher office without forcing them to give up their existing posts. This is a practice common in many other states.
It's worth noting that the state's resign-to-run law had previously tripped up many politicians, most notably then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who was forced to resign in the summer of her final year because she didn't properly tender her resignation when she qualified to run for Congress.
Now despite some speculation that Crist was on the shortlist to be vice president, he never got to use the law.
But plenty of other politicians - for example Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto - have. Benacquisto didn't have to give up her state senate seat when she ran unsuccessfully for Congress in a special election to replace U.S. Rep. Trey Radel.
The House, however, wants to go back to future.
And their election bill doesn't just stop there - it has a few other changes sure to draw fire, including a proposal to force cities to have their elections at set times instead of whenever the city wants to schedule it. The bill would also not allow someone to run as a independent candidate (technically NPA - no party affiliation) if they are actually registered with a party.
Now some might view this bill as a possible shot at Gov. Rick Scott, who has said he is considering running for the U.S. Senate next year. There's no doubt that Scott and the House Republicans are locked in a feud.
But Scott is leaving office anyway due to term limits so this bill really wouldn't affect those plans.
Comments