The Florida Legislature: 2021 session in review

The Florida legislative session ended earlier this month, marked by efforts to suppress the vote, undermine freedom of speech and stoke anti-LGBTQ sentiment against transgender youth. 

However, it was also marked by the passage of criminal justice reform and children’s rights legislation. 

Overall, the SPLC Action Fund actively tracked over 120 bills. Three bills supported by the SPLC Action Fund await the governor’s signature. As is typical, a significant portion of our time was spent opposing bad bills, which flooded the Legislature this session.

The following is an overview of the session: 

Criminal Justice Reform

• One of our achievements this legislative session included the passage of a bill package (SB 166 and SB 274) that would reduce recidivism and incarceration through felony diversion programs for minors. Current law allows a one-time diversion opportunity for misdemeanor offenses, yet this bill package would change that and include not only felony offenses, but also charges beyond a first offense. The bills are estimated to impact more than 26,000 Floridians each year. The bill package offers programming to participants to avoid incarceration and an opportunity to affirm the lack of a criminal record on college, military, job and housing applications.
   
• A chokehold/policing reform bill (HB 7051) is now on the governor’s desk and includes the addition of the minimum age of arrest language sought by the SPLC Action Fund. This bill limits the use of chokeholds, creates a database for police officers fired for misconduct allegations, enacts training standards, mandates certain data collection and prohibits the arrest of children under age 7. While imperfect, this bill and a bill package for expunging records have opened the door for conversation about criminal justice reform during future sessions.
   
• In contrast, the anti-protest bill (HB 1) was signed into law and sparked a massive opposition campaign by both progressive advocacy organizations and conservative coalitions alike. The original idea for the bill was rolled out in September by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was flanked by over a dozen law enforcement officers after a summer of largely peaceful demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd. The new law threatens to chill the rights of speech and assembly and has been widely criticized for its broad definitions, new criminal offenses, enhanced penalties, denial of bail until a first appearance and preemption of municipal control by a governor should law enforcement budgets be reduced. Senate leadership ensured its passage by stripping it from the Criminal Justice Committee after enough votes had been whipped to defeat its progression. The bill ultimately passed in the Senate largely along party lines as only one Republican lawmaker joined Democratic lawmakers.
   
• More robust parole reform measures, our gain time bill for up to 65% earned credits off an incarcerated person’s sentence, and other reform bills did not advance. However, notable progress was made this session, with these bills making it through two out of three Senate committee hearings.

Voting Rights

• The SPLC Action Fund and coalition partners were able to defeat Senate Joint Resolution 1238, which would have effectively eliminated citizen-initiated ballot amendment campaigns by requiring a supermajority of voters to approve any proposed ballot amendment, and to do so in two subsequent election cycles.
   
• Unfortunately, HB 699 was signed into law by the governor. It places a $3,000 contribution limit from a person or political committee to any group sponsoring a citizen initiative to change the Florida Constitution. The SPLC Action Fund opposed the bill, which was an attempt to quash citizen-led initiatives – the primary avenue for advancing progressive policies in a state where the Legislature has been slow to address social justice issues.
   
• SB 90, the voter suppression bill now law, restricts who can collect and drop off absentee ballots, adds strenuous vote-by-mail requirements, places restrictions on who can distribute water to voters standing in line and limits the use of ballot drop boxes. It also imposes a $25,000 fine on election supervisors who do not comply with its restrictive requirements. The bill faced widespread opposition, with every election supervisor in Florida voicing outrage in a stunning break with Republican leadership.

LGBTQ rights

• Perhaps the most outrageous and demoralizing moment of this session came with the passage of the anti-trans athlete bill. Republican lawmakers revived legislation that had been thought dead and rammed through the ban on transgender female athletes competing in girls’ and women’s high school and college sports (SB 1028.) They did so by adding it into a charter school bill. This heartless act occurred despite protests from Democratic lawmakers such as Sen. Victor Torres, who made an impassioned plea on behalf of his trans granddaughter. The NCAA has warned that it would strip Florida of future tournament opportunities if the bill becomes law. Gov. DeSantis has said he plans to sign the bill.
   
• SB 718, the gay/transgender panic legal defense bill, would have forbidden the legal strategy of asking a jury to find that a crime victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is an excuse to justify violent criminal conduct. The bill made progress this year and passed out of one committee, and it is expected to return next year.
   
• HB 241, the so-called parental bill of rights, passed the Legislature. A primary concern is the practical impact of its requirement for written parental consent for any health care practitioner to provide health care services to minors, and whether this language conflicts with existing statutes that expressly allow minors access to health care options without parental involvement. There is concern that school-based providers may “out” LGBTQ students; school providers are often their only source of support and advice, especially where a youth’s caretakers are hostile to the child’s LGBTQ status.

Immigrant Justice

• HB 6037, a bill aimed at eliminating in-state college tuition for Dreamers, meaning children who came to the U.S. as minors with parents who were undocumented immigrants, did not receive a committee hearing.
   
• SB 1706, SB 1928 and HB 6089 would have repealed the 2019 legislation (SB 168), which prevents local municipalities from acting as “sanctuary cities,” or local law enforcement from declining to detain immigrants on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. None of these bills advanced.
   
• SB 1848 and HB 1415 did not receive a committee hearing and would have removed the proof of citizenship requirement for obtaining a Florida driver’s license.

Children’s Rights

• This session continued the decades-long tradition of defunding Florida’s public schools with the most expansive voucher bill to date, HB 7045, passing out of both chambers. The bill expands eligibility to include families of four earning nearly $100,000 per year. This initiative, which could cost up to $200 million includes up to 60,000 more students. More than 160,000 students now use vouchers at an annual cost of about $1 billion.
   
• There was positive reform this session to Florida’s Baker Act, which allows for the involuntary commitment of children to a psychiatric hospital. The passage of SB 590 brings changes that include mandatory school resource officer training in child mental health and de-escalation strategies, certain data collection, telehealth options aimed at reducing the number of children leaving school grounds and parental notification when the Baker Act is invoked. More attention, however, is needed on the issue of parental notification, including the traumatic impact and right of caregivers to make major medical decisions on behalf of their children.

Economic Justice Reform

• One of the biggest missed opportunities by the Florida Legislature was economic justice reform, including the failure to pass a fines and fees bill that would have created a centralized database for returning citizens to easily identify and pay their court costs, as well as enact payment plans and provide statewide funding for such reform. The amended version of SB 838 as passed provides for certain payment plan options through the circuit clerk system, yet no other reforms were included.
   
• Despite billions of dollars available from the Biden administration, lawmakers refused to raise Florida’s jobless benefits or fix the broken online unemployment system that routinely prevents application submissions due to alleged technical errors. Florida is among the states with the lowest unemployment benefits, which will remain capped at $275 a week for a maximum of 12 weeks.
   

Carrie Boyd is policy counsel for the SPLC Action Fund.

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