Top Priorities for the Florida League for the 2021 Legislative Session
- Voting and Election Law
- Natural Resources
- Health Care
- Education
Priorities are Pragmatic: While these are the League top four priorities, advocacy during session will be dynamic as other topics of interest to the League may be Legislative or Gubernatorial priorities. One example is House Bill 1, which the League opposes but the Governor supports.
Other League Positions: The League has positions on other issues, and committees work diligently to develop groundswell support for change, on issues such as Gun Violence, National Popular Vote, Vouchers in Education, and so on. Please contact the committee chair if you are interested in joining the team.
2021 Florida Legislative General Session is from March 2 through April 30
Interim Committee meetings are being held from January 11 to February 15. Florida is one of two states that did not reconvene the Legislature to allocate Federal COVID funds, instead that was done by Governor DeSantis under his emergency order.
Letters to the Editor or OpEd articles: Tips available! If you want to talk for the League, you need the OK from Monica Elliott. If you want to express your own opinion, that’s great too!
Legislative Interviews (Pre-session): Broward residents are represented by 4 Senators and 15 Representatives, some of whom are shared with other counties. After elections and before Session starts, we request interviews (for League use only) to discuss our top priorities. Ideally there are two League participants in each interview, and at least one is a constituent. To date, Broward has conducted and submitted 12 interviews to the Florida League. Three are pending and three (Reps Robinson, Fabricio and Borreo) were delegated to other counties.
Tracking bills in the Legislature: If you want to track specific bills in either the House or Senate, you can sign up for alerts.
Observers: One benefit of COVID is many meetings are via Zoom. Legislative meetings are also posted online a few days later also, if that timing is more convenient. Observers are also wanted for Broward County Commission meetings, Florida League of Cities, Broward Delegation and other meetings. If you’re interested, and willing to summarize issues of interest to the League, please let me know.
Virtual Lobby Day for Florida is April 8, 2021. If you’d like to participate, please say so.
Questions or ideas, please contact Margaret McGrath, Broward Advocacy Chair, mcgrath.mh@gmail.com