The one thing lawmakers are required to during their yearly legislative sessions is pass a balanced budget. At 74-and-a-half-billion dollars, the budget is bigger than it’s been in recent years. Lawmakers say that means there’s a little more room to fund some of their biggest priorities. But, what many Democrats say is missing from the budget is a healthcare expansion that will use federal dollars available under the Federal Affordable care Act. Regan McCarthy has more….
Florida lawmakers are now sending their election reform package to Governor Rick Scott. And, as Sascha Cordner reports, the bill passed the full legislature with bipartisan support.
The question of whether Florida would expand its Medicaid program to cover more low-income people has been answered. And the answer is, “no.” The legislature failed to reach an agreement on expanding access to the program under the federal Affordable Care Act, but as Lynn Hatter reports, that opposition may not last forever.
Measures aimed at speeding up the home foreclosure process, keeping college students from dropping out and increasing the amount the State of Florida must pay into public employee retirement accounts…those were among the many matters the Florida Senate passed on the final day of the lawmaking session. Jessica Palombo reports a flurry of bills ping-ponged back and forth between the two chambers right though the session’s last moments.
Among the many bills that did not make it through the 2013 lawmaking session was one banning Sharia Law from being used in the state’s court system. More from Ronald J. Ebben.
The fourth floor rotunda of the Florida Capitol is always a bustling place during session. And it’s at its busiest during the session’s final day. That’s where lobbyists, reporters and other folks interested in the legislative proceedings often gather to keep up with the action inside the two chambers whose big brass main doors are at the opposite ends of the fourth floor rotunda. Stan Jastrzebski (jast-REB-skee) reports the lobbyists, just like the lawmakers they’ve worked for months to sway, seemed happy to wrap things up and go home.