Legislative leaders are openly defying Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempts to bend lawmakers to his will – and his ability to control the discussion.
For weeks, DeSantis has been pushing for the Legislature to convene ahead of its regular session date of March 4 to deal with issues he insists could not wait — specifically, a crackdown on illegal immigration and making it more difficult to place citizen-led constitutional amendments on the ballot. He also wanted them to provide hurricane relief and deal with condominium safety.
House Speaker Daniel Perez addressed his members at 10:30 a.m. to say that he believes special sessions “should be used sparingly.”
“They should not be stunts designed to generate headlines. I dislike special sessions because they inhibit the very thing the legislative process should encourage: the push and pull of meaningful conversations that lead to the development of good and better ideas. Special sessions should be reserved for those issues that truly cannot be addressed in the normal course of the legislative process,” he said.
The issues DeSantis raised in his proclamation for the special session “simply do not meet that threshold,” Perez added.
Instead, the Legislature will wait to deal with the citizen-initiative process, condos, and hurricane relief during the regular session, he said.
But he said that he and Senate President Ben Albritton were ready act on immigration, now that President Trump had been inaugurated.
“We did carefully consider Gov. DeSantis’ proposal, and he had some good ideas. But many of his proposals are bureaucratic,” Perez said. “We do not need to duplicate the functions of U.S. Immigration and Customs and create a mini-me version of ICE. In addition, his proposals would hijack local law enforcement operations and, at one point, he even proposed arresting local law enforcement officers.”
