A contrived special session to help DeSantis, not taxpayers | Editorial

The Florida Legislature is back at work this week in the sixth special session of the current two-year legislative cycle.

It speaks volumes about the Republican supermajority in Tallahassee that their very first order of business was to reject every Democratic-sponsored proposal that would actually benefit Floridians who need help with health care, housing, safety and other priorities.

Instead, lawmakers will hew to a script and try to put a sheen on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ fading political prospects. The slate of bills includes no legitimate emergency, outside of a servile desire to make DeSantis look tough when he walks onstage in Miami Wednesday for the third GOP presidential primary debate.

Across Florida, families face emergencies that demand swift action, including potential evictions, skyrocketing property insurance premiums and sick kids who are about to lose their health insurance. If the Legislature does anything at all to help these families, it will have to wait until the regular session starts on Jan. 9, 2024.

The Capitol’s cheerleading corps

This shameful performance is playing out on the national stage. We wish DeSantis’ rivals would interrogate him on how he uses the Legislature, a separate, independent branch of government, as his personal cheerleading corps.

Special sessions are meant to be reserved for emergency situations. That’s because, in a compressed schedule of a few days, they can sidestep many of the transparency safeguards that ensure time for detailed analysis of a law’s potential impact, ample public input and time for amendments and debate. In a special session, bills are rushed through a truncated committee process, then hustled to the full House and Senate.

DeSantis and his legislative minions are shoving useless, harmful or deeply flawed legislation into law before anyone can realize what’s going on. Nearly everything under consideration for rapid action this week falls into one of those categories, the only real exception being an expansion of relief (in House Bill 1C) for victims of Hurricane Idalia.

Some bills are a Greek chorus of the same points DeSantis plans to make on the debate stage, such as support for Israel and condemnation of Hamas. Such declarations are timely, but Florida lawmakers are capable of expressing their own opinions.

There are also “sanctions” against Iran that are highly unlikely to have any measurable impact, outside of an opportunity for DeSantis to pretend that he’s already president.

What’s the rush? Iowa, N.H.

Other bills ladle more cash into school voucher programs months after the school year has started and dole out money for security measures at Jewish day schools. It’s nothing that can’t wait for the regular session, which ends in early March.

But by then, DeSantis’ White House bid may have crashed and burned. That’s why these bragging points are so hastily manufactured.

Contrast that to the issues being raised by a handful of Democratic lawmakers who are also using the special session to make points, as they lack the votes to really make a difference.

The critical distinction here is that the Democrats’ fast-action bills, most filed by Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orlando, address real emergencies that impact more Floridians every day. Those ideas were brutally stomped within hours of their filing, with House leaders refusing to add them to the agenda for debate. They included:

• Helping Florida children being shoved, sometimes unfairly, off Medicaid rolls right now;
• Finding ways to assist Florida tenants facing eviction and help workers searching for housing they can afford right now;
• Finding relief for Florida property owners who are receiving massive property insurance hikes (or can’t find insurance at all) right now;
• And something that should be an urgent priority for any lawmaker proclaiming themselves to be pro-life — curbing gun violence in a state that has already seen more than 100 deaths from firearms in 2023 alone.

These sound much more like pressing problems that demand immediate attention.

Add to that short-sightedness DeSantis’ rejection of hundreds of millions of federal dollars, and Florida voters have to ask: Why do their lawmakers care so much about the governor’s political fortunes and care so little about the real threats their constituents face?

It’s a contrived, spineless spectacle, and a deep disappointment to anyone who expected better.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.