Jesse Scheckner
Senate Democratic Leader-designate Jason Pizzo is heading into another busy Legislative Session. But his schedule won’t be quite as hectic as it was earlier this year.
That’s thanks to minor chamber-wide changes to committee assignments Senate President Kathleen Passidomo unveiled this week. As part of those changes, Pizzo will sit on eight — rather than nine — committees.
He’ll again serve as Vice Chair of the Select Committee on Resiliency, a relatively new panel Passidomo created in December 2022 to focus, at the time, on the “wide-ranging impacts of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.”
With estimated costs of Hurricane Idalia ranging from $12 billion to $20 billion and well over a month to go before the end of hurricane season, the committee — still to be chaired by Wauchula Republican Sen. Ben Albritton — will likely have much to discuss.
Pizzo will also once more be Alternating Chair of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. The committee has broad oversight of government operations, the activities of Auditor General Sherrill Norman and the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability.
Pizzo, a lawyer by training, will have seats again on six other committees: Criminal Justice, Community Affairs, Finance and Tax, Appropriations, Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations, and Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security.
Passidomo removed him from one panel, the Transportation Committee. Pizzo told Florida Politics he believes the one-committee reduction, which his other Senate peers are similarly receiving, did not take into consideration the facilities and industries concentrated in each member’s district.
“Otherwise, why remove a member who has Port Everglades, an international airport, highways and a densely populated coastline?” he said by text.
He added, “I never complained about committee assignments — they could have added more.”
In February, the Senate Democratic Caucus unanimously chose Pizzo, a prominent figure in the party, to lead them during the 2024-26 term. He will succeed Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, who reaches term limits next year.
“My gratitude for the trust Senate Democratic colleagues have bestowed upon me is only exceeded by the sense of duty I am thrilled to undertake,” he said at the time.
He added to his responsibilities earlier this month, when he took over as Chair of the Broward County delegation, succeeding Pompano Beach Democratic Rep. Patricia Hawkins-Williams in the role.
Pizzo has yet to file any legislation for the coming Session. He said he’ll have bills “in drafting by the end of next week.”
Passidomo made changes to committee assignments in response to requests from lawmakers who said they were stretched thin in the previous Session.
“While my purpose was to allow as many Senators as possible to weigh in on issues prior to the Floor, Senators pointed out this also left little time between committee meetings to meet with constituents or work with Senate professional staff on other legislation,” she wrote in a memo accompanying the assignments.
The updated assignments came a day after the House unveiled its committee compositions for the interim weeks ahead of the 2024 Session that begins Jan. 9.
In addition to the new assignments, House Speaker Paul Renner spawned two special committees, one focused on hurricane resiliency and recovery and another on health innovation.
Committee meetings for the Senate won’t begin until the week of Oct. 9, well after the House counterparts first convene on Sept. 18.
Complete assignments are below.
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Peter Schorsch and Danny McAuliffe contributed to this report.
