Sine Die 2024: Amid culture war détente, lawmakers focus on social media, health care, homeless

Last year, as Gov. Ron DeSantis prepared to run for President, he rolled out an aggressive legislative agenda and ensured GOP leaders followed through.

This year, his campaign wound down just as the Regular Session was heating up, and DeSantis’ time in Iowa meant his focus was away from Tallahassee, leaving the Legislature to be consumed by priorities of its presiding officers and special interest food fights.

The main drama of the Session centered on a ban on social media for children under 16, a top priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican. Lawmakers passed HB 1, but DeSantis vetoed it after voicing concerns that it could be unconstitutional and didn’t give parents enough of a say over their children’s social media use. It was reworked by Renner and DeSantis in the final weeks as part of HB 3 and passed again.

“We put Silicon Valley and Big Tech’s cronies on alert that our children do not belong to them. We expanded mental health services,” Renner said in a released statement. “We put aside historic reserves to pay down state debts. We supported our first responders and made our streets safer. We gave teachers a raise.”

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican, was also able to shepherd her main priority, a set of bills incentivizing more graduate medical education and aimed at producing more health care workers in the state, through the Legislature.

DeSantis still holds vast influence among Republican lawmakers, and secured key wins such as a $200 million teacher pay hike, a $450 million toll rebate program and a bill banning homeless people from camping on public property. But compared to 2023, when a slew of culture war issues that installed his brand of social conservatism in state institutions were passed, his to-do list for lawmakers was much shorter.

In fact, culture war bills — such as those to prevent Confederate monuments from being taken down by local governments and to ban gay pride flags in government buildings — mostly failed to gain traction this year. And a bill making it easier to sue journalists and news outlets for defamation died for the second year in a row.

One heated culture clash that did pass was a bill to ban “identity politics” and “wokeness” from teacher training courses and certification classes.

As the Session wound to a close, lawmakers were focused on special interest fights.

Credit unions were able to tack on an amendment to HB 989 late on Thursday, the penultimate day of the Session, giving them access to deposits of state and local governments, which currently can only go to banks. The issue hadn’t been heard in the Senate, and bankers had fought hard to kill the bill, arguing that because credit unions don’t pay federal income taxes as they do, it would be unfair competition.

On Friday, the last day of Session, the House and Senate bounced a pair of bills between the rotunda before reaching an agreement. One bill (HB 433) preempts cities and counties from enforcing laws requiring outdoor workers to receive shade or water breaks to protect against the heat. The other (HB 49) softens child labor laws, allowing businesses to require 16- and 17-year-old employees to work longer hours during the day and go longer between breaks.

The bills upset Democrats, who saw them as eroding worker protections, especially since their calls to take aggressive action to reduce property insurance bills went unheeded by GOP leaders.

“This session left much to be desired for Floridians who are facing daily, pressing problems like the skyrocketing cost of property insurance and rising costs of living,” Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book said in a released statement. “With the Governor’s mostly absent voice, we saw the Senate grow a backbone, rise against many of the culture war bills that popped up. I hope that strength continues.”