Florida's Latest News

Wilton Simpson: Increased unemployment benefits effort is still alive

The Senate is still pushing for Florida to increase its weekly unemployment benefits by $100 despite opposition from the House and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The House on Monday rejected language to raise benefits to $375 per week. And on Friday, the Governor said the current level of unemployment benefits “is fine.”

Yet Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Trilby Republican, on Wednesday told reporters he hasn’t given up hope on the matter.

“I do not believe the unemployment issue is off the table completely,” Simpson said.

Civil-rights lawyers file federal suit against DeSantis over newly signed ‘riot bill’

Civil-rights attorneys are challenging a new set of state laws that establish a crime of “mob intimidation” and enhance penalties for riot-related violence and looting, arguing in a federal lawsuit that the measures unconstitutionally “seek to arrest the peaceful expression of free speech.”

The challenge was filed Wednesday, two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial package (HB 1), one of his top legislative priorities. The governor laid out a framework for the legislation in September in response to nationwide protests after the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Republican lawmakers gave final approval to the changes last week, ignoring objections by Democrats and civil-rights groups that predicted the proposal would be challenged in court. A nonprofit organization known as the Lawyers Matter Task Force and other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in federal court in Orlando, naming as defendants DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Orange County Sheriff John Mina.

A $12 billion question: Florida’s education budget hinges on COVID-19 relief

A dispute over how to use $12 billion in federal COVID-19 stimulus funds earmarked for education has led to an impasse in budget negotiations as Florida lawmakers work to piece together a near-$100 billion fiscal plan for 2021-22.

House leaders have appropriated some of the funds in their initial education budget offers and House Speaker Chris Sprowls said in an interview Tuesday that the Legislature’s role should be to give the Florida Department of Education spending authority over $7 billion in federal funds to give directly to K-12 school districts.

Senate leaders, meanwhile, have said little about how they want to use any of the money as they say they are still figuring out how they can and cannot use the federal funds on education.

Legislature's Major Health Budget Issues Remain In Limbo

The fate of more than $42 billion in spending on health and human-services programs remained in limbo after House and Senate budget negotiators were unable to reach agreement by Monday night.

Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, told The News Service of Florida late Monday that the health and human services budget had been bumped to top House and Senate leaders to be resolved.

One of the substantial differences is whether Florida will extend Medicaid benefits for postpartum women for up to a year, a priority of House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor.