2024 Legislative Agenda
Protect and Expand Democracy
In previous Sessions, SB 90, SB 524, SB 7050 have placed increasing restrictions on voter access to the ballot, and made it harder for eligible voters to register.
We need a comprehensive Florida Voting Rights Act:
- Make registration eligibility clear for returning citizens seeking to have their voting rights restored.
- Allow voters to register and vote on the same day
- Vote by Mail registration never expires
Election Day is a holiday
More Language Access for non-English speakers - Create a security deposit cap on what a landlord can charge to new tenants.
- Florida was recently ranked the least affordable state in the US. We are in an out of control rental market with no ability for local governments to stabilize prices, and security deposits with no cap or payment plan.
- Allowing new tenants to pay down a security deposit over several months would get them shelter faster.
- Excessive security deposits are mostly found in low income Black and Brown communities.
- Authorizes landlord to offer tenant option to pay fee in lieu of security deposit.
- House Sponsored by Mooney and Senate Sponsored by DiCeglie
- Latest Event: Passed its House Second Committee on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 2:00 PM & Passed its Senate Second Committee on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 11:00 AM
- Deleting the authority of local governments to adopt or maintain laws, ordinances, rules, or other measures that would have the effect of imposing controls on rents.
- House Sponsored by State Affairs Committee and Senate Sponsored by Calatayud and Rouson
- Latest Event: Passed its House Second Committee on Monday, March 20, 2023 2:30 PM & Passed the Senate Chambers on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 6:00 PM
- Preempts regulation of residential tenancies & landlord-tenant relationship to state; specifies that act supersedes certain local regulations; revises how much notice is required to terminate certain tenancies.
- House Sponsored by Esposito and Senate Sponsored by Trumbull
- Latest Event: Passed its House Second Committee on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 3:00 PM & Passed its Senate First Committee on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 12:00 PM
- Creates Department of Housing & Tenant Rights; provides for secretary be appointed by Governor & confirmed by Senate; revises provisions relating to residential tenancies, landlords, & tenants, including requirements for rental agreements, security deposits, notices, evictions, rights to purchase, rent control, impact fees, & documentary stamp taxes.
- House Sponsored by Eskamani and senate Sponsored by Torres
- Latest Event: Introduced
Tell your elected representatives:
Reproductive Justice
When reproductive rights are under attack, we fight back!
Defend our right to plan and provide for our families:
- Evictions during pregnancy cause higher infant death rates, lower birth weight, and premature labor. Give pregnant tenants and tenants with children (under 18) 90 days to relocate after eviction!
- Protect access to healthcare! Lawsuits against reproductive providers will drive healthcare providers from the state, fearing unjust repercussions for doing their job.
- Legislators are trying to pass one of the strictest total abortion bans in the country! Victims of rape, incest, and human trafficking shouldn’t be forced to carry their attacker’s baby to full term.
- Evictions during pregnancy cause higher infant death rates, lower birth weight, and premature labor.
- Mothers who are evicted are more likely to report poor health for themselves and their children, an effect that remains two years after the eviction.
- Chicago Journal of Community Health found in a 2020 study that
- Households with children were at far greater risk for eviction.
- Having children made families more vulnerable to eviction than race or gender.
- Poor housing conditions are related to poor health outcomes.
- Black and brown families are more likely to experience eviction, dangerously low infant birth rates, and higher infant mortality rates.
- Provides that each person has certain fundamental rights relating to reproductive health care and repeals the 15 week abortion ban.
- House Sponsored by Harris and Senate Sponsored by Berman
- Latest Event: Introduced
- Requires landlords to provide certain tenants specified amount of time to vacate premises after delivery of notice to terminate rental agreement before bring specified action.
- Sponsored by Gantt
- Latest Event: Introduced
- Prohibits physician from knowingly performing or inducing termination of pregnancy after six weeks and the use of state funds for person to travel to another state to receive services to support abortion.
- House Sponsored by Persons-Mulicka and Senate Sponsored by Grall
- Latest Event: Passed its House Second Committee on Thursday, March 30, 2023 8:00 AM & Passed its Senate Second Committee on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 8:30 AM
Tell your elected representatives:
Housing Justice
The Rent is Too D**n high!
We will fight to bring down the cost of rent.
- Predatory corporations and greedy landlords collect enormous fees, neglect the property and their tenants, and raise rent without warning.
- Florida was recently ranked the least affordable state in the US. We are in an out of control rental market with no ability for local governments to stabilize prices, and security deposits with no cap or payment plan.
- Statewide average rent has increased 22.6%, much greater than the 14% nationwide.
- From March 2020 to March 2023 rents have overall risen 45.77% across the state of Florida.
Tell your elected representatives:
- In recent Legislative Sessions, SB 90 and SB 524 have increased fines on non-profit organizations trying to help people who are interested in registering to vote.
- Returning Citizens are unsure of their eligibility status and risk arrest, even though it is the state’s job to verify eligibility.
- Florida’s Registration website frequently shuts down, unable to handle the quantity of traffic, especially when there is an upcoming voter registration deadline.
- Increases threshold for Ballot Initiatives to pass from 60% to 66.7%.
- House Sponsored by Roth and Senate Sponsored by Gruters
- Latest Event: Passed its Second Committee on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 3:00 PM
- Requires a county to suspend enforcement of an ordinance that is the subject of a certain legal action if certain conditions are met.
- House Sponsored by Brackett and Senate Sponsored by Trumbull and Perry
- Latest Event: Passed its House Second Committee on Thursday, March 23, 2023 8:00 AM & Passed the Senate Chambers on Wednesday, March 8, 2023
- Authorizes Office of Statewide Prosecution to investigate & prosecute election-related specified crimes.
- House Sponsored by Andrade and Senate Sponsored by Martin
- Latest Event: Enrolled on Thursday, February 9, 2023 4:53 PM
Climate Justice
We are fighting for a clean, safe, and healthy planet, and the people on it
Prevent further investment in trash incinerators that pollute the air in our communities, and transition to zero-waste initiatives.
- Florida is currently the country’s trash incineration capital, with 10 facilities combusting over 4 million tons in 2020.
- Poor Department of Environmental Protection data and non-functional air quality monitors means air quality is worsening
- Low-income, Black and Brown communities are at higher risk of premature death from inhalation of particulate matter (particles in the air caused by air pollution)
- Trash incinerators and cane burning stink, pollute the air, and are placed close to historically marginalized communities, where there is a higher rate of asthma, respiratory illness, and breathing problems.
Tell your elected representatives:
- Florida is currently the country’s waste incineration capital, with 10 facilities combusting over 4 million tons in 2020.
- Poor Department of Environmental Protection data and non-functional air quality monitors means air quality is worsening
- Low-income, Black and Brown communities are at higher risk of premature death from inhalation of particulate matter (particles in the air caused by air pollution)
- Solid waste incinerators and cane burning stink, pollute the air, and are placed close to historically marginalized communities, where there is a higher rate of asthma, respiratory illness, and breathing problems.
- Prohibits local governmental entities from requiring or prohibiting certain building materials, vehicles, or home heating elements.
- House Sponsored by Melo and Senate Sponsored by Rodriguez
- Latest Event: Introduced
Criminal Systems Reform
Due to legislation that passed after Amendment 4, returning citizens have no clear way to establish whether they are eligible to register to vote.
We demand a statewide database that can be accessed by returning citizens to verify their voting eligibility.
- 17% of Florida citizens are Black, while the Florida Department of Corrections reports that 47% people in state prison are Black.
- Florida has the largest racial disparity in long prison sentences in the US.
- In 2019, SB 7066 undermined Amendment 4 and added fines and fees for voter eligibility for returning citizens. This affected Black voters the most, but made it difficult for all Floridians with a prior conviction to determine their voting eligibility.
- The process to learn your status is complicated and fractured relying on contacting multiple state and local authorities whose information frequently contradicts each other.
- A database that compiles all this information in one place would allow returning citizens to know if they are eligible to have their voting rights restored.
Tell your elected representatives:
- 17% of Florida citizens are Black, while the Florida Department of Corrections reports that 47% people in state prison are Black.
- Florida has the largest racial disparity in long prison sentences in the US.
- Florida sentencing “enhancements” mean low-level offenses can still mean life in prison.
- Provides sentencing points expire 10 years after time served & cannot be used in calculations; provides for petitions to recalculate sentences due to changes in law in certain circumstances.
- House Sponsored by Rayner-Goolsby and Senate Sponsored by Torres
- Latest Event: Introduced
- Provides for jury recommendations concerning death sentences, rather than jury determinations of sentences; specifies that jury recommends death sentence if at least eight jurors recommend death sentence; specifies that jury recommends sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole if fewer than eight jurors recommend death sentence; requires sentencing court to set forth in writing specified findings if it imposes death sentence.
- House Sponsored by Jacques et al. and Senate Sponsored by Ingoglia
- Latest Event: Passed its House Third Committee on Friday, March 31, 2023 8:00 AM & Passed its Senate Second Committee on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 8:30 AM
- Increases sentencing for controlled substances.
- House Sponsored by Plakon and Senate Sponsored by Brodeur
- Latest Event: Passed its House Second Committee on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 8:00 AM & Passed its Senate Second Committee on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 11:00 AM
Florida Rising builds independent political power that centers historically marginalized communities so everyday Floridians shape the future.
During the 2023 Legislative Session, we will call on our elected representatives to act in the best interest of their constituents, not corporations, by supporting policies that put people over profit, and that advance racial and economic justice.
Our Legislative Agenda is shaped by our members across the state, and their priorities.