With the Florida Legislature headed into overtime, House and Senate leaders said they’re hitting the pause button.
On the eve of the scheduled end of the 60-day session, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton told their chambers that lawmakers will not be called back to the Capitol next week for an extended session to resolve deep differences.
“You are obviously not to be here this weekend, nor are you to be here next week,” Perez said May 1, adding that he wanted to give House members the “roadmap for the next week or so.”
But he didn’t provide much detail on how the House and Senate plan to settle a divide over the state budget, tax cuts, and whatever other policy bills may be added to the calendar of a yet-to-be-scheduled special session.
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami (left) and Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula (2024 file photos).
“We continue to have productive conversations with the House,” Albritton told senators.
Both leaders, though, put an end to speculation that lawmakers might extend the session into next week after taking only a weekend break.
Instead, a down-the-road special session will be needed. The state budget year begins July 1, so that looms as the ultimate deadline for crafting a spending plan.
Although a host of policy bills could be added to the agenda of a special session, it’s likely that lawmakers will end work on most routine measures May 2.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left), House Speaker Daniel Perez.
But matters somehow affected by the budget and even the tax cuts being envisioned by both sides could still force a wide array of bills onto the overtime calendar.
Of the 1,951 bills filed for the 2025 legislative session, 215 general and local bills had been passed by noon on May 1, with Gov. Ron DeSantis having signed 18 into law.
A battle over the budget, tax cuts, Hope Florida
Tension has heightened between the House and Senate as budget negotiators try to bridge what had been a $4.4 billion difference between their rival spending plans. Offers have been traded back and forth, but dueling tax-cut proposals have also complicated the discussions over dollars.
DeSantis also has enflamed the legislative clash, bashing Perez for the House’s investigation of the foundation linked to Hope Florida, the social services initiative founded by First Lady Casey DeSantis.
It’s ensnared in a probe centering on $10 million it received as part of a Medicaid legal settlement that ultimately wound up in political committees helping the governor fight a marijuana ballot measure.
A day before legislative leaders took center stage, acknowledging that they needed more time to finish their work, DeSantis was bashing the House at an event in Lake County.
“This legislative session, there’s been a glaring distinction between the Senate conducting business in a way that is mature, that is professional, that is seeking to build off success … whereas I think the House has been more based on personal agendas, vendettas. I think it’s been petty and that is not the way to do business,” DeSantis said.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @JKennedyReport.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida Legislature headed to OT but still TBD on next step
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