2024 Pre-Session Report

As legislators gear up for the annual 60-day legislative session that runs from January 9^th through March 8^th, some say Florida’s future is on the table. Interim committee weeks for the session began in September with presentations and reports to educate members on policy issues, updates from state agencies on implementation of previously pass legislation and receiving the Governor’s FY 2024/25 budget proposal. Committee chairs will focus their meetings on hearing the priority bills out of the over 1,300 that have been filed to date.

The presiding officers, Speaker Paul Renner and President Kathleen Passidomo, will complete their two-year terms this session. Much of the vison laid out by President Passidomo and Speaker Renner was accomplished last year with the passage of the historic legislation on school choice and affordable housing.

As we look ahead to predictions for the 2024 Florida Legislative Session, it appears that both Chambers are focused on health care and President Passidomo’s “Live Healthy” initiative. Her “Live Healthy” health care reforms are designed to address the health care workforce shortage facing Florida, increase access to health care services for Floridians and incentivize health care innovation.

Speaker Renner has indicated alternative energy, focusing on low cost, reliable, domestically sourced energy solutions as a top priority for the 2024 Session. Renner described his yet to be released energy proposal as offering energy that is “truly safe,” “inexpensive,” and “delivers a reliable grid.”

“I want clean energy. But is there an alternative?” Renner said. “Is it hydrogen? Natural gas? You know, is it nuclear? Do we need to revisit nuclear, which is being done in France, with no downside, no problems?”. He explained that will likely involve insulating utilities here in Florida from external pressures to move towards renewable energy sources on timelines dictated by the Federal government that Renner believes could be unsustainable.

As Renner and Passidomo complete their agendas this session, Speaker-designate Danny Perez and Senate President-designate Ben Albritton will also begin to lay out their preliminary vision of how they will lead each chamber when they take their term of office in the 2025 Session.

This past September and October both the Speaker Designate and the Senate President Designate held their designation ceremonies where they took time to lay out their preliminary vision of how they want to lead and their philosophical beliefs that got them where they are today. Their remarks, although not specific to issues, laid out their approach to governing along with some insight on priorities.

Perez feels that one of the key jobs as a State Legislature is to balance how to best serve all the different communities and the different people. He said, “the problems facing Miami Dade County are not the problems facing Gadsden County, Brevard, Clay, and Pinellas. They all wrestle with different challenges. Even the issues like property insurance costs or affordable housing can look very different from community to community.” Perez stated that we have two paths we can follow. One option is “forcing everyone everywhere to do the same thing every time or we can work to balance all competing needs of our state.” He noted that would require all the legislature to have a voice in their communities needs and to work together to find solutions that work best for them.

Senate President-designate Ben Albritton put more emphasis on his priorities than his political philosophy. He indicated that his political philosophy is governed by a few select principles and that everyone could be reassured that his values would not change. “Faith, family, freedom, opportunity, life and agriculture is what defines me,” he said. “The basic values that are deeply rooted in my spirit, drive everything I do and will drive everything I do.”

Albritton was clear that he plans to focus on the child protection system and efforts to boost Florida’s agriculture industries. He feels strongly that the food supply chain is the DNA of Florida. Albritton believes we need to strike a balance between his advocacy for agriculture and efforts to create affordable housing and said the efforts to fix the insurance system are not over.

With the start of session in clear view and the top priorities of the House and Senate laid out, one unknown is the legislative agenda of Governor Ron DeSantis. He has been a legislative force during his tenure and all indications point to another successful session for Governor DeSantis working with his colleagues in the Florida Legislature.

Without doubt, the next 60 days will be consequential for the solar industry as energy will be at the top of the priority list. FlaSEIA will be in the halls of the Capitol educating members on the value of solar, monitoring all legislation, and working to ensure the solar industry is preserved.