WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida lawmakers are not seeing eye-to-eye with Gov. Ron Desantis' announcement on Monday calling for a special legislative session.
Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are pushing back, so what would an unpopular special session look like?
Rules governing special legislative sessions are laid out in Florida's Constitution. Lawmakers are obligated to convene if the governor calls for it, but constitutional experts told WPTV the requirements end there.
The governor called for the special session to begin Jan. 27, asking lawmakers to prioritize several issues including:
- Immigration policy
- Funding for hurricane relief
- My Safe Florida Home program
- Changes to getting proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot
- Adjustments to the condo reforms passed in 2022 following the Surfside building collapse
Attorney Dennis Eisinger represents condo owners and spends a lot of time lobbying lawmakers in Tallahassee for policies that would benefit those owners.
"In my opinion, having a special session right now would be really meaningless," Eisinger said.
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Many lawmakers are already in Tallahassee for committee weeks, where potential bills are workshopped and prioritized in preparation for the regular session, which is scheduled to begin March 4.
In a joint memo sent to all legislators following Monday's announcement, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Sen. President Ben Albritton called the special session "premature."
"While the Governor discussed fragments of ideas for a special session he plans to start in just 14 days, he did not release any actual bill language or even meaningful details for legislators and our constituents to consider," the leaders wrote Monday.
DeSantis' official proclamation (read below) outlined his legislative priorities.
Robert Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern University's Broad Shepard College of Law and expert on Florida's Constitution, told WPTV that lawmakers have limited obligations under the governing document's section on special sessions.
"The legislature does have to go to Tallahassee," Jarvis said. "They could literally go to Tallahassee, meet for one minute, adjourn and go home, so they don't have to do anything except show up."
Jarvis and Eisinger both pointed out that there are no penalties for lawmakers who do not show up for a special session, although Jarvis believes that's highly unlikely.
"A special session costs somewhere around $20,000-$25,000 a day, and so that's just a terrible waste of taxpayer money. So, the one thing the legislators want to do is get out of Tallahassee as quickly as possible," Jarvis said. "I suppose you could have state troopers going around and rounding up the legislators and dragging them feet first to Tallahassee, but that would not be a good look."
For that reason, Eisinger predicts some lawmakers won't even go to Tallahassee for the special session.
"These issues will likely be discussed in very detail and with committees when the legislative session starts in early March," Eisinger said.
The joint memo from legislative leadership acknowledged lawmakers' obligation to go to Tallahassee, as well as their lack of obligation to take on the governor's agenda.
"Florida's Constitution compels our attendance at a special session unilaterally called by the Governor. However, the power to convene a special session also resides with the presiding officers. As the people's elected representatives, the Legislature, not the Governor, will decide when and what legislation we consider," the memo said.
