Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, was hospitalized Sunday after experiencing chest pain, with emergency physicians discovering a small blood clot in his lung, according to a memo sent Monday to senators.
Florida is poised to join the wave of states debating how they might reshape congressional voting districts, as political parties grapple for an edge in next year’s midterm elections.
A Florida House committee is meeting on Thursday as state lawmakers inch their way toward a possible mid-decade congressional redistricting.
In a top priority of Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, the Senate on Thursday released a wide-ranging bill aimed at boosting such things as health care, education, transportation and economic development in rural areas.
The bill would reverse a decision made by the Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott to increase the minimum gun-purchase age after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, then 19, used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 17 people at the school.
In a major decision, a state appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Florida’s ban on openly carrying guns is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, pointing to U.S. Supreme Court rulings on Second Amendment issues, said the open-carry ban is incompatible with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
After months of contentious debate, some in public, Florida lawmakers passed a budget Monday that included $1.3 billion in state and local tax cuts, but nothing as radical as leaders were proposing.
When lawmakers begin budget conference talks Tuesday, a couple of priorities of Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, and House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, likely will already be off the table, including a plan to bolster rural areas and cut the overall sales tax rate.
Nearly a month after leaving the Capitol without passing a budget, House and Senate leaders said Friday night they had reached an agreement that will clear the way for lawmakers to begin hammering out details of a spending plan Tuesday.
Florida lawmakers are no closer to releasing a budget proposal, and on Friday, state House leaders told representatives that they shouldn’t expect to be in Tallahassee next week.
Legislative leaders have not reached agreement on key initial budget details, as lawmakers prepare to return to the Capitol to hammer out a spending plan for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which will begin July 1.
The 60-day legislative session was scheduled to end Friday, but lawmakers have blown past a budget deadline to make that happen. House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, also advised their members Thursday that lawmakers won’t be in Tallahassee next week.
Student survivors of last week’s deadly shooting at Florida State University are urging legislators to block an effort to reverse a law passed in the wake of the 2018 Parkland shooting that raised the state’s gun-buying age from 18 to 21.
Days after a mass shooting at nearby Florida State University, the state Senate appears poised to scuttle a controversial proposal that would allow people under age 21 to buy rifles and other long guns.
Students who experienced a shooting at both Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 and Florida State University days ago have sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis demanding he reject a law that would lower the firearm purchase age back to 18 years old.
This week, Florida state lawmakers are set to discuss a proposed bill that would get rid of sales taxes for some items that Florida residents use every day.
A bill aimed at preventing a return of efforts to build golf courses, pickleball courts and resorts in state parks is ready to go to the full Florida House.
In a top priority of Senate President Ben Albritton, senators on Wednesday unanimously passed a more than $200 million plan to bolster health care, education, transportation and economic development in rural areas.
Gun rights advocates have been fighting to overturn a Florida law setting the minimum age to buy a gun at 21 since the day the measure was signed, in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
With House Speaker Daniel Perez pointing to an “age of disruption,” Florida Republican legislative leaders opened the 2025 session on Tuesday by voicing support for digging into government spending.
An architect of a controversial bid to fly migrants from Texas to a Massachusetts resort town in 2022 has been named to guide Florida's new state board of immigration enforcement.
The Florida Legislature is going back to Tallahassee starting Tuesday to make changes to recently-passed — and contentious — legislation to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
The Florida Legislature will hold a session this week after all, and tackle only one issue, immigration, with a bill of their own creation. That bill puts immigration collaboration and enforcement in the hands of Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson, taking much of the power from Gov. DeSantis.
On the eve of a special legislative session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican lawmakers Sunday filed a flurry of bills to crack down on undocumented immigrants and place additional restrictions on the ballot initiative process.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency as the Panhandle and other parts of North Florida get hit with frigid weather and face the possibility of snow and ice.
The Florida Senate president and House speaker rebuffed a call for a special session by Gov. DeSantis on immigration, hurricane recovery and more, calling it premature.
Republican state lawmakers in Florida have filed two bills that would roll back gun control measures passed in the wake of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Fiscal belt-tightening is coming in Tallahassee, according to Florida’s new legislative leaders who took their oaths of office Tuesday.
Incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez on Thursday rolled out changes to House committees, while saying lawmakers have “spent taxpayer funds excessively and indiscriminately in the last few years.”
Florida’s emergency-management director wants lawmakers to make changes to help with disaster preparation and response, pointing to issues that have arisen as the state recovers from Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole.
A week after Hurricane Ian stormed across Florida, farmers and ranchers continue waiting for flood waters to recede to get a full picture of the destruction to citrus groves and cattle operations.
