Yesterday marked the exact halfway point of this session. Below is the 30-Day Drill down of what to expect as we enter the last half of the 2025 session.

Halfway Through Session: What's Done So Far?

Lawmakers head into the second half of the 2025 session with 44 bills having passed in one chamber or the other, but no substantive measures having passed BOTH chambers. By the halfway point last year, only12 bills had passed both chambers and by the halfway point in 2023, lawmakers had passed 19 bills through both chambers. 

Among the measures that have passed the Senate chamber are several bills backed by Senate President  Albritton, including the $200 million Rural Renaissance bill, SB 110. Other Albritton-backed proposals that have already passed the Senate include SB 112 that provides additional intervention services to children with autism, and SB 108 that re works the state’s rulemaking process by updating Florida's Administrative Procedures Act, or the APA, to require all state agencies to conduct regular reviews of their existing rules. 

The House has already passed HB 759 to lower the legal age for buying a rifle from 21 to 18, repealing a part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. However, it is doubtful the Senate will even hear such a bill in committee. HB 6017- Med Mal- has also already passed the full House and will repeal a state statute that prohibits adult children and parents of adult children from collecting non-economic damages, such as for pain and suffering in medical negligence cases.

Other bills that have passed in one chamber and have been sent to the other side include Senate-passed bills that prohibit local governments from regulating presidential libraries (SB 118), remove certain restrictions on compensation of the wrongfully incarcerated (SB 130), eliminate out-of-pocket costs for breast cancer exams for those with state insurance coverage (SB 158) and a bill that backs off of an earlier order to school districts to move middle and high school start times later in the day (SB 296). Other House-passed bills so far this session now awaiting Senate approval include "Lucy's Law" (HB 289), which would increase penalties for boating recklessness and a measure (HB 921) requiring school instruction in cursive writing.

Lawmakers appear on schedule for completing the only thing they’re actually required to do, which is to pass a budget. The Senate and House have both put out their respective budget proposals which would give both chambers several weeks to pass the GAA bills and then work out the differences in conference. The potential snag is that the two chambers are farther apart than usual this year on their bottom-line numbers. SB 2500 passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday, adding to it a whopping 100 plus special projects as budget amendments. Likewise, the House also passed out their budget, HB 5001, with a whopping ZERO budget amendments. The budgets continue to be over $4 Billion apart on everything for water projects and tax cuts to education and health care. The Senate produced a $117.36 billion spending plan and the House comes in with a $112.95 billion proposal, creating the need for one or both chambers to move significantly to reach a consensus on the final budget allocation.. By comparison, last year’s initial Senate and House budgets came in at $115.5 and $115.9 billion, an easy gap to bridge. A final budget agreement must be reached by April 29 to meet the constitutionally mandated 72-hour "cooling off" period if the Legislature is to end its session on time on May 2.

Also on the line- lawmakers head into the second half of the session this year is a potential looming battle over tax policy, with House Speaker Danny Perez hoping to cut sales taxes but Gov. Ron DeSantis pushing for possible property tax relief and President Ben Albritton finding the Senate potentially in the middle of the disagreement. 

In terms of other legislation, the focus now shifts more toward floor sessions as House and Senate committees wind down. Over 1,900 bills were filed and more than 800 general bills haven’t been heard in any committee yet. At the halfway point with fewer opportunities for committee approval, many — likely most — of those bills won’t make it to the floor and should be considered DOA.

‘till next time- 29 days today and counting…