GOP-controlled Legislature rejects bills on affordable housing, property insurance, Medicaid expansion

TALLAHASSEE — The Republican-controlled House rejected one last time an attempt by Democrats to expand this week’s special session to include bills addressing rising housing costs, the property insurance crisis, expanding Medicare for children and curbing gun violence.

At the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Legislature called a special session to address support for Israel, provide money to boost security at Jewish day schools in Florida and take further punitive measures against companies doing business with Iran.

Tacked onto his requests are property tax breaks and other measures to aid the rural farm communities struck by Hurricane Idalia, increasing the amount of funding for the My Florida Safe Home program, and expanding the state voucher program to include more children with disabilities.

“We’ve been called back to Tallahassee into an extraordinary special session,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said during a House session Monday morning. “And while there are a number of notable topics relating to economic and educational issues in the call, Floridians are facing a number of time-sensitive crises we have ignored in this call.”

Some of the state’s most vulnerable people, “including hundreds of thousands of children, are facing termination of medical coverage through unprecedented disenrollment,” Driskell said.

One bill introduced by Democrats would have canceled the Medicaid disenrollment, which a lawsuit claims will affect nearly 183,000 Floridians in the first year. Other bills would have addressed the current property insurance crisis, rising housing costs and the increase in gun violence in Florida.

Those bills were previously rejected by the Republican-controlled House as outside the call of the special session. Driskell asked that members vote to admit those four bills to the special session call, which requires a two-thirds majority. The overwhelmingly Republican House voted it down 29-76.

The House and Senate both went into committee hearings on the accepted bills Monday, with the House expected to take a final vote on them Tuesday and the Senate to follow Wednesday, the same day the final GOP presidential debate in Miami is scheduled.

“This special session is just a stunt to prop up Ron’s failing presidential campaign,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a prepared statement.

“If Ron actually wanted to address issues affecting Floridians, this special session would be addressing rising housing costs and the property insurance crisis,” Fried said. “Instead, he’s using the legislature to grandstand about foreign policy decisions that he has no real control over.”