Jan. 30, 2026

Budget Preparation and Environmental Bills Begin to Move

During the third week of Florida's 2026 legislative session, senators tasked with forming the budget heard a warning from the Appropriations Chair, Sen. Ed Hooper, regarding the $3.5 billion in revenue losses that Florida would see from changes made to corporate tax in the federal government’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill passed in July 2025.

Sen. Hooper stated that the “revenue losses are real, and they impact every silo of our budget process.” He went on to say that the Senate will pass a budget that is less dollars than the current budget year — and that’s before the $1 billion in extra Medicaid costs that will also need to be addressed. 

SCCF will closely watch how these budget challenges impact the Governor’s proposed environmental package and will strongly advocate for continued funding commitments made for Everglades restoration and the Florida Forever land acquisition program.

Bills that will impact the environment are starting to move through their respective committee stops. Among those heard this week were several relating the land application of biosolids affecting the water quality of northern and central Florida, and statewide local government preemption bills that relate to comprehensive planning, which we are closely monitoring. Other unique environmental bills that passed were a troubling net-zero policy preemption bill and two favorable green infrastructure and public lands transparency bills. 

Energy

Net-zero Policies by Government Agencies - SB 1628 passed in its first of three committee stops by a vote of 5-3, with a considerable amount of committee member debate and an equal amount of industry support and opposition by clean energy advocates during public input. This local government preemption bill would prohibit all local government entities from expending funds to implement, support, or advance net-zero policies.

The bill sponsor claims that this bill addresses unnecessary taxation, but the senators that opposed the bill pointed out that this bill would severely impact the clean energy industry in Florida that employs thousands of residents and undermines the environmental gains the legislature has spent the last 30 years trying to revitalize.

One senator pointed out that the bill’s own analysis states "There is broad scientific consensus that if the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues, the risk of more severe climate impacts will increase including biodiversity loss, threats to human health, reduced food and water security, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events. In addition, every additional degree of warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards.”

The House version, HB 1217, has not yet been scheduled for its first of three scheduled committee hearings. 

Climate Change/Resiliency/Sea Level Rise

Nature-based Coastal Resiliency – HB 1035, passed unanimously in its first of two assigned committees and was presented as basically a statewide mangrove planting and restoration bill that also requires the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to develop guidelines and standards to address nature-based coastal resiliency and to promote nature-based solutions for coastal resiliency.

The comparable Senate version, SB 302, which adds a required statewide feasibility study regarding the value of nature-based solutions, unanimously passed the first of its three committee stops. 

Public Lands

Conservation Lands – HB 441, passed unanimously in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee, the second of its three assigned committees. The bill sponsor said that she wrote the bill as a result of this past summer’s secretive Guana River Wildlife Management Area land swap proposal that rallied thousands of citizens in statewide opposition. This bill calls for more notice: 30 days instead of the current 7 days, and increased transparency in any future state conservation land swap proposal.

The identical Senate bill, SB 546, has passed the first of its three committees.

BILLS OF THE WEEK

Auxiliary Containers

This week, rather than focus on just one bill, we are taking a look at a set of bills that have been filed taking a very different approach to the same problem, auxiliary containers. Auxiliary containers are typically single-use plastics or polystyrene containers provided by food retailers when a consumer is taking food offsite.

SCCF has closely followed the legislative proposals to ban the regulation of auxiliary containers because of the pollution they generate on our beaches and waterways. If this issue seems familiar, then congratulations on following closely last legislative session! Over the last two legislative sessions, SCCF has stood in opposition to efforts to preempt local governments from protecting their own resourses by regulating auxiliary containers.

This year, there are two sets of competing auxiliary container bills: A set we support and a set we oppose.

House Bill 575/Senate Bill 240

SCCF supports HB 575, sponsored by Rep. Meg Weinberger, and its companion bill SB 240 sponsored by Sen. Ileana Garcia. These similar bills, entitled “Auxiliary Containers,” preempt the regulation of said containers to the state. However, it also requires the Department of Environmental Protection to develop uniform statewide ordinances for the use of these containers to curtail plastics pollution by providing a uniform method of regulation. By enforcing a statewide rule, the bill aims to alleviate some of the concerns of retailers that are worried about having to deal with a patchwork of regulations. While we are not excited about the preemption of our local leaders, ensuring that a statewide rule will be put into force helps with some of our concerns.

The bill welcomes public input on rule development through a series of required workshops and goes even further to prohibit the sale of polystyrene containers in state parks and directs the use and sale of other single use plastics to be eliminated to the greatest extent possible.

House Bill 629/Senate Bill 766

On the other spectrum, HB 629, Regulation of Auxiliary Containers, sponsored by Rep. Tiffany Esposito and SB 766 , Solid Waste by Sen. Jonathan Martin, are primarily preemption bills, similar to the efforts we have seen in previous years. These partner bills preempt regulation of auxiliary containers to the state but do not call for statewide rules to be drafted to prohibit or minimize use of auxiliary containers. Additionally, both bills delete existing law that acknowledges prudent regulation of recyclable materials as important to the state ecology and economy.

Of these four bills, SB 240 is the only that’s been heard in committee. It passed unanimously (8-0) in a pre-session hearing of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee. Since then, none of these bills have been scheduled in any of their respective committees. Even if these bills aren’t heard individually, we may see elements of the bills amended onto other bills as the session moves forward.  

These bills represent a trend we've been seeing where the state attempts to take decision making power away from our local governments. It is our local leaders, those elected officials that work most closely to the resources that they are tasked with protecting, that understand the unique needs of those environments. By preempting local governements ability to govern, Tallahassee risks state agencies attempting to fit a "one-size-fits-all" solution across disparate areas of Florida that have very different needs. While we aren't excited about the preemption contained in either set of bills, if the state desires to take control of all decision-making powers around auxiliary containers, it is imperative that they also enact new protections across the state to help our communities deal with rampant plastic pollution in our waterways and on our beaches.

Check out our Legislative Tracker to see a table of the bills SCCF is following, updated daily during session.

Thank you for your involvement, and we welcome your input and feedback to make these updates more helpful to you as we work together to protect our natural environment.

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in 1967 on Sanibel Island, Florida

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