The budget is complete. But in a frantic race to finish Friday, the legislature is debating policy reforms to health care, auto insurance and failing public schools. James Call reports an ever-changing bi-partisan coalition is putting up obstacles for all three issues to clear by tomorrow/tonight’s scheduled adjournment.
The sun had yet risen halfway up the 22-story state capitol building when 10 Democratic senators huddled to plan for the final two days of lawmaking. Their daily briefing memo of bills up for consideration numbers 255 pages, they have fewer than 15 minutes to meet. Sunrise Senator Nan Rich is the Democratic leader.
"I’m going to start with one that is not on your list here. It appeared this morning on senate bill 730 it’s a mandatory managed care for the hospitals."
The measure establishing a payment schedule between hospitals and health maintenance organizations was included in messages sent from the House to the Senate. Inverness Senator Charles Dean, a Republican, calls the final 48 hours of a session a mystical time, when bills can suddenly appear seemingly from nowhere or simply vanish as if they never existed.
"I stay on the floor. If I miss something it is my fault. It’s like fairytale time. Your bills they can leave. Now you see them now you don’t. "
It is an especially challenging time for Democrats. In the Senate, they are outnumbered 28-12 by the GOP. To exercise any influence they must form an ever-changing coalition with at least 8 Republican members. That is how they were able to defeat a prison privatization bill favored by Republican leaders died and water down a proposal to reduce the number of policies underwritten by Citizens Property Insurance. Now, Senator Nan Rich is urging her members to stand firm while she searches for one more vote to defeat a parent-trigger bill that Democrats say would give public school buildings to private for-profit charter school companies.
"We have a caucus position. We have a caucus position against the bill. We are not supporting a compromise. Hopefully all is still in agreement with that and we’ll have vigorous questions today. The bill will not be rolled over today. We will have the debate and vote tomorrow and hopefully we will have our 20 votes."
A 20th no vote would kill the proposal for this session. And with term limits and redistricting changing the makeup of the Senate after the November election many proposals may die when lawmakers leave Tallahassee this weekend.
A gaggle of reporters surround the governor in the capitol courtyard:
"Let’s all remember, we are all focused today on getting PIP done. We only have two days left so…."
The Governor is pushing the House for a deal on personal injury protection, a mandated part of automobile insurance. Experts say it is a fraud magnet. PIP may be the biggest item on the Republican leadership to do list. The proposal cleared the Senate with no debate. Outnumbered by more than 2 -1 Senate Democrats pick their fights carefully. Hollywood Senator Eleanor Sobel is a veteran policy maker, having served on a school board, city council and House of Representatives before her 2008 election to the Senate. She says in the final hours of a session her focus turns to a handful of issues whose outcome she thinks is in doubt.
"The bills that we discuss this morning, such as med mal, such as Sharia Law, such as the parent trigger bill they are very contentious, so we’re going to, I’m going to focus on those and so will many members of the Florida Senate."
Sobel notes that it always seems that contentious issues come to the floor during the session’s final hours. That is an assessment shared by Bradenton Senator Mike Bennett, a Republican, whose legislative career ends in November. Bennett says he thinks the controversy surrounding some bills holds them up in the committee process and creates the drama surrounding the end of a session. Bennett says holding a bill’s vote during the final days may actually work against a proposal.
"If you really have something contentious you want to run it real early before the new members have a chance to figure out what you are doing. But by the time it gets here late in the thing it can actually hurt contentious bills if somebody has a particular mission that someone is trying to jam through or something like that actually works better in the early part of the season. Trust me from an old expert."
Lawmakers can vote on a state budget after 4:22 p.m. Friday and then adjourned. It is unclear how long they will be away from the Capitol. There is the possibility of a special session on redistricting and another one on PIP if a deal is not reached by adjournment.