The Florida Legislature is the

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

of the

U.S. State In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, and a lower chamber, the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. Article III, Section 1 of the

Florida Constitution The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the powers, duties, structure, and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state. The current Constitu ...

, adopted in 1968, defines the role of the legislature and how it is to be constituted. The legislature is composed of 160 state legislators (120 in the House and 40 in the Senate). The primary purpose of the legislature is to enact new laws and amend or repeal existing laws. It meets in the

Florida State Capitol The Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, is an architecturally and historically significant building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Capitol is at the intersection of Apalachee Parkway and South ...

building in

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

Titles

Members of the Senate are referred to as senators and members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives. Because this shadows the terminology used to describe

members of Congress A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

, constituents and the news media, using '' The Associated Press Stylebook'', often refer to legislators as state senators or state representatives to avoid confusion with their federal counterparts.

Florida Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the state legislature. It consists of 40 members elected from single-member districts. Senators are elected on a partisan basis, typically to four-year staggered terms, with half of the Senate elected every two years. Senate districts are drawn based on population figures from the federal decennial census. In the first election after the

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

, all seats are up for election. Senators' terms begin immediately upon their election. The Senate Chamber is located in the State Capitol building. As of 2022, Republicans hold the majority in the Senate with 28 seats; Democrats are in the minority with 12 seats.

Florida House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the state legislature. It consists of 120 members elected from single-member districts, on a partisan basis, to two-year terms. Districts are drawn based on population figures from the federal decennial census. House districts are drawn independently of Senate districts; some representatives have districts that include parts of multiple Senate districts. Representatives' terms begin immediately upon their election. The House of Representatives Chamber is located in the State Capitol building. As of 2022, Republicans hold the majority in the House of Representatives with 84 seats, and Democrats hold 35 seats. One seat is vacant.

Terms

Article III of the

defines the terms for state legislators. Legislators take office immediately upon election.

Senate

The Constitution requires state senators from odd-numbered districts to be elected in the years that end in numbers which are multiples of four. Senators from even-numbered districts are required to be elected in even-numbered years the numbers of which are not multiples of four. To reflect the results of the U.S. Census and the redrawing of district boundaries, all seats are up for election in redistricting years, with some terms truncated as a result. Thus, senators in even-numbered districts were elected to two-year terms in 2012 (following the 2010 Census), and senators in odd-numbered districts will be elected to two-year terms in 2022 (following the 2020 Census). All terms were truncated again in 2016, with all 40 Senate seats up for election, due to court-ordered redistricting.

House of Representatives

Members of the House of Representatives are elected for terms of two years in each even-numbered year.

Term limits

On November 3, 1992, almost 77 percent of Florida voters backed Amendment 9, the Florida Term Limits Amendment, which amended the State Constitution, to enact eight-year term limits on federal and state officials. Under the amendment, former members can be elected again after a two-year break. In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not enact congressional term limits, but ruled that the state-level term limits remain.

Qualifications

Florida legislators must be at least twenty-one years old, an elector and resident of their district, and must have resided in Florida for at least two years before an election.

Legislative session

Each year during which the Legislature meets constitutes a new Legislative Session.

Committee weeks

Legislators start Committee activity in September of the year before the Regular Legislative Session. Because Florida is a part-time legislature, this is necessary to allow legislators time to work their bills through the Committee process, before the Regular Legislative Session.

Regular legislative session

The Florida Legislature meets in a 60-day Regular Legislative Session each year. Regular Legislative Sessions in odd-numbered years must begin on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March and on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in January of each even-numbered year. Before 1991, the Regular Legislative Session began in April. Senate Joint Resolution 380 (1989) proposed to the voters a Constitutional Amendment (approved November 1990) that shifted the starting date of Regular Legislative Session from April to February. Subsequently, Senate Joint Resolution 2606 (1994) proposed to the voters a Constitutional Amendment (approved November 1994) shifting the start date to March, where it remains. In recent years, the Legislature has opted to start in January to allow lawmakers to be home with their families during school spring breaks, and to give more time ahead of the legislative elections in the Fall.

Organizational session

On the fourteenth day following each General Election, the Legislature meets for an Organizational Session to organize and select officers.

Special session

Special Legislative Sessions may be called by the governor, by a joint proclamation of the Senate president and House speaker, or by a three-fifths vote of all Legislators. During any Special Session, the Legislature may only address legislative business that is within the purview of the purpose or purposes stated in the Special Session Proclamation.

Powers and process

The Florida Legislature is authorized by the

to create and amend the laws of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

, subject to the Governor's power to veto legislation. To do so, Legislators propose legislation in the forms of bills drafted by a nonpartisan, professional staff. Successful legislation must undergo Committee review, three readings on the floor of each house, with appropriate voting majorities, as required, and either be signed into law by the Governor or enacted through a veto override approved by two-thirds of the membership of each legislative house. Its statutes, called "chapter laws" or generically as " slip laws" when printed separately, are compiled into the ''

Laws of Florida The Laws of Florida are the session laws of the Florida Legislature, a verbatim publication of the general and special laws enacted by the Florida Legislature in a given year and published each year following the regular session of the legislature. ...

'' and are called "

session laws Session laws are the collection of statutes enacted by a legislature during a single session of that legislature, often published following the end of the session as a bound volume. The United States Statutes at Large are an example of session l ...

". The ''

Florida Statutes The ''Florida Statutes'' are the codified, statutory laws of Florida; it currently has 48 titles. A chapter in the Florida Statutes represents all of the relevant statutory law on a particular subject. The statutes are the selected reproduction of ...

'' are the codified statutory laws of the state. In 2009, legislators filed 2,138 bills for consideration. On average, the Legislature has passed about 300 bills into law annually. In 2013, the legislature filed about 2000 bills. About 1000 of these are "member bills." The remainder are bills by committees responsible for certain functions, such as budget. In 2016, about 15% of the bills were passed. In 2017, 1,885 lobbyists registered to represent 3,724 entities. The Legislature also has the power to propose amendments to the

Leadership

The

is headed by the

speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

, while the Senate is headed by the

Senate president President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for ex ...

. The House speaker and Senate president control the assignment of committees and leadership positions, along with control of the agenda in their chambers. The two leaders, along with the

governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, control most of the agenda of state business in Florida. * President of the Senate:

Kathleen Passidomo Kathleen C. Passidomo (born May 19, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician serving in the Florida Senate. A Republican, she has represented the 28th district, which includes Collier, Hendry, and part of Lee County in Southwest Florida, sinc ...

( R) *President ''Pro Tempore'' of the Florida Senate:

Dennis Baxley Dennis K. Baxley (born August 22, 1952) is a state legislator in Florida who has served in the Florida Senate since 2016. A Republican, he represents the 12th district including Sumter County and parts of Lake County and Marion County in Cent ...

( R) *Majority Leader of the Florida Senate: Ben Albritton ( R) *Minority Leader of the Florida Senate:

Lauren Book Lauren Frances Book (born October 12, 1984) is an American politician and former educator who has served in the Florida Senate since 2016, representing parts of Broward County. A member of the Democratic Party, she has been the Senate's minority ...

( D) *

Speaker of the Florida House The speaker is the presiding member of the Florida House of Representatives. The Speaker and his staff provide direction and coordination to employees throughout the House and serve the members in carrying out their constitutional responsibilities ...

Paul Renner Paul Friedrich August Renner (9 August 1878 – 25 April 1956) was a German typeface designer, author, and founder of the Master School for Germany's Printers in Munich. In 1927, he designed the Futura typeface, which became one of the most ...

( R) *Speaker ''Pro Tempore'' of the Florida House: Chuck Clemons ( R) *Majority Leader of the Florida House: Michael J. Grant ( R) *Minority Leader of the Florida House:

Fentrice Driskell Fentrice DeNell Driskell (born March 3, 1979) is an American lawyer and politician who is the Representative in the Florida House of Representatives from the 63rd House district in Hillsborough County. She is Of Counsel at the law firm of Carlt ...

( D)

References

External links

Florida Legislature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Florida Legislature Bicameral legislatures Government of Florida 1839 establishments in Florida Territory