Sine Die 2026: Legislators End Session, But Have Unfinished Business

By Gray Rohrer, Jim Turner, Ana Goñi-Lessan, The News Service of Florida

The legislative session that began with a handshake snub ended Friday with a whimper, without a budget and without the traditional hanky drop ceremony.

Despite the GOP’s supermajority and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push for aggressive conservative bills, House and Senate leaders clashed over several issues and haven’t entered formal budget negotiations.

House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, have agreed to return in mid-April to finish the spending plan for the next fiscal year, but they haven’t agreed to much else.

“Because we met for a 60-day session and there’s no budget, that’s not the end of the world,” Albritton told reporters. “There’s still plenty of time to be able to get the budget accomplished, make sure that it’s fair and equitable.”

Perez, whom DeSantis avoided shaking hands with on the first day of session, continued his clash with the Governor, opting not to pass a pair of DeSantis’ priority bills. 

Last year DeSantis and Perez feuded on tax cuts and a House probe into a scandal involving Hope Florida, an initiative championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis. 

Besides the budget, lawmakers will also return to the Capitol in April for a special session to redraw congressional districts. That session has already been called by DeSantis. And another session on property tax cuts, a priority for DeSantis, is likely to be called as well.

DeSantis also saw his top priorities to ban mandates for vaccines for children entering public schools and to impose regulations on artificial intelligence companies falter in the Legislature.

The Senate passed both bills but they didn’t make it through the House. DeSantis chided Perez and House leaders for not taking up those measures, as well as pushing cuts to Everglades restoration projects and eliminating funding for the State Guard.

He pledged to veto the budget and call lawmakers back to the Capitol if they passed a major cut to Everglades restoration projects. The budget, he said, should be done quickly, possibly by “cutting and pasting” what has been done in the past.

“This isn’t rocket science at this point,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also took note of several other bills he championed that will head to his desk for his signature.

Legislation to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies in local governments; require proof of citizenship to register to vote; allow DeSantis to designate groups as “domestic terrorist organizations”; and raise the threshold for teacher unions to be recertified all cleared the Legislature over the objections of Democrats.

And although DeSantis’ ‘AI Bill of Rights’ proposal didn’t pass, lawmakers on Friday approved bill putting restrictions on data centers, which are needed to power the burgeoning technology.

The measure was part of DeSantis’ agenda and received Democratic support, although some bemoaned the removal of a provision in the bill that restricted non-disclosure agreements between local governments and tech companies over the placement of data centers, shielding the proposals from the public for up to a year.

Perez has insisted on spending less than the current $114.8 billion spending plan, and the House passed a $113.6 billion budget. The Senate prefers a $115 billion budget, and Perez and Albritton haven’t agreed to topline spending numbers, the first step before formal negotiations between the chambers can begin.

Democrats decried the Republican dysfunction, claiming little was done to address cost of living concerns of residents.

“Floridians don’t care about the infighting. They don’t care. They’re not following that. All they know is that they have an affordability crisis,” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa. “Gas is too expensive, housing is too expensive, groceries, the cost of that is high, utilities as well, and they want solutions. They want a legislature that focuses on them, and that’s not what happened this session.”