Legislature's new tack on disputed measures: speed
Bills on hot-button issues are roaring toward passage as lawmakers try to avoid acrimony in an election year.
By ALISA ULFERTS and STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 4, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - In a typical legislative session, not much gets done until the final days.
But this is no typical year. Elections are looming and lawmakers don't want a repeat of the rancor and extended sessions that marked the past two years.
So after just two days of work, legislators already are moving to pass bills on lightning-rod issues like guns, abortion and children's health care.
"Good policy makes good politics," said House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, dismissing talk of election year politics at work. "This is how democracy works."
Senate President Jim King said he doesn't want a repeat of last year, when important legislation got lost in a political tug of war between him and Byrd over money for pet projects.
King said he is pushing lawmakers to pass hot button items early this year.
Senators gave tentative approval Wednesday to a bill that tightens restrictions on a state children's health care program and adds $25-million to serve some 100,000 kids on a waiting list. The bill also eliminates the requirement of keeping waiting lists, which created political pressure on the Republican leadership to do something.
The House debated a similar measure Wednesday. Democrats in both chambers fought the bills, which were given limited hearings in committees, but failed to prevent them from moving forward.
"There's a political motivation to get this bill off the table so the public can stop bashing the Republican Party for failing to do the right thing," said Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.
Senators also tentatively approved a bill that gets the state one step closer to having a public chiropractic school, a priority of Senate Majority Leader Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island. And they named a building at Florida State University after King as well as renamed the Florida Alzheimer's Center and Research Center after Byrd's father, who died of the disease.
Lobbyists say they are surprised by the speed.
Lobbyist Frank Messersmith, a former House member, said he had the impression lawmakers wanted to finish the session ahead of schedule so they could start campaigning for re-election.
"It makes me believe that they want to not just get out of here, but get out of here early," Messersmith said.
The House on Wednesday debated bills to require minors to tell parents in most cases before getting an abortion, and making it a crime for a government agency to keep an electronic database of gun owners. Both measures are supported by two key Republican Party constituencies: abortion opponents and the National Rifle Association.
Underscoring the partisanship, both parties' House caucuses issued statements accusing the other of supporting "radical" ideas.
One bill pulled from Wednesday's agenda would immunize 400 gun ranges from lawsuits for lead or arsenic contamination from bullets. House members said they delayed action on the bill - also an NRA priority - because Gov. Jeb Bush opposes blanket immunity for the ranges.
The pace of lawmaking is dramatically faster than a year ago, when legislators slogged through multiple sessions marked by infighting between the Republican leaders of both chambers. A St. Petersburg Times poll last May found only 16 percent of Florida voters approved of the job the Legislature was doing.
Byrd and King said the fast pace was dictated partly by the fact the Legislature will not be in session the week of April 5-9 because of the Easter and Passover holidays.
