Florida House backs controversial election changes
By The News Service of Florida
Published
Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images
TALLAHASSEE - With two days left to reach agreement with the Senate, the Republican-controlled Florida House on Wednesday approved a major elections package that includes placing additional restrictions on voting by mail.
The attempt to change election laws is one of the most-controversial issues of the 2021 legislative session, which will end Friday. Republicans contend changes are needed to ensure election security, while Democrats say the proposals are a partisan power grab. Why can’t we just let the people vote? Rep. Dotie Joseph, D-North Miami, asked at one point during a lengthy, sometime-heated debate Wednesday.
A late-session push by the Florida House to require new training standards for police officers is ready to go to the Senate floor this week after unanimously passing the House.
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Credit News Service of Florida
A late-session push by the Florida House to require new training standards for police officers is ready to go to the Senate floor this week after unanimously passing the House.
The proposal (HB 7051), in part, would place restrictions on when police officers can use chokeholds and would require officers’ training to include “alternatives to use of force, including de-escalation techniques.”
The Senate Rules Committee held a meeting Tuesday specifically to consider the bill, approving it in a 17-0 vote. Rules Chairwoman Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said the bill likely will be considered on the Senate floor Thursday, the next-to-last day of the legislative session. The House voted 113-0 on Monday to pass the measure, sponsored by Rep. Cord Byrd, R-Neptune Beach, and Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa.
Floridaâs gun preemption law just got more powerful
Are the changes a big deal? Depends on whom you ask.
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Updated Yesterday
TALLAHASSEE â A new bill thatâs poised to become law is the legislative equivalent of a Rorschach test.
Fans of Floridaâs sweeping gun preemption law â which bars municipalities from regulating firearms and ammunition in any way â say the bill, Senate Bill 1844, offers little more than a technical correction. Itâs a âglitch bill,â they say.
Those who detest Floridaâs gun preemption law say the new bill is a dramatic expansion of an already Draconian state policy.