Every horrible bill proposed by DeSantis's Florida GOP this year
Homophobes, racists, billionaires, and white nationalists rejoice?
The Florida Legislature, a body controlled by Republicans for over two decades, has ceased to function as an independent body and instead serves as a rubber stamp for Ron DeSantis. The result of this one party rule now completely steered by the whims of a single right wing fanatic is a slew of unhinged fascist legislation that targets vulnerable communities, diminishes our freedoms and serves special interest groups at the expense of working people.
The barrage of bills filed by Florida Republicans is hard to believe so I will list them below, one by one, to illustrate just how extreme these proposals truly are.
This proposal is designed to continue defunding Florida public schools and in the process hand over $4 BILLION of our tax dollars to unaccountable private charter schools through a voucher program. At a recent committee hearing for the bill, they cut public comment to just one minute in an effort to stifle criticism.
Despite out-of-control housing costs that have resulted in some of the most expensive property markets in the country, Florida Republicans want to take away local government ability to enact rent control during states of emergency. This bill would also silence the voices of 59 percent of Orange County residents, who in 2022 voted to enact a rent stabilization ordinance due to skyrocketing rental prices.
In a transparent giveaway to wealthy special interest groups, this bill puts the financial burden on taxpayers to defend against for-profit corporations for passing local laws that serve the needs of their communities. This bill would permit any private business to sue local governments for damages if the courts deem a new or amended local ordinance to be “arbitrary or unreasonable.” It even allows for local ordinances to be automatically suspended upon initiation of a lawsuit. Basically, deep-pocketed corporations could use litigation to delay the effect of local ordinances by tying them up in court. Similar legislation failed last after intense outcry from the public.
In a truly snowflake move, Florida Republicans want to create safe spaces for themselves by basically fining you $35,000 if you call them racist or accuse them of discrimination.
As Floridians are getting evicted and face a crumbling property insurance market, GOP State Rep.David Borrero decided to use one of his seven available bill slots for an idiotic bill meant to ban pride flags from being flown on public buildings.
Keeping to their theme of undermining the First Amendment, this bill would basically prohibit people from filming police officers by forcing you to be at least 30 feet away if you want to film.
After facing a national outcry when transporting 50 migrants, along with their children, to Martha’s Vineyard under false pretenses and who were given wrong information meant to sabotage their asylum cases, DeSantis decided to double down. The Florida Legislature approved $10 million to continue the plan, attempted to previous language in other bills that prohibited DeSantis to use Florida tax dollars to transport undocumented people from other states to other states, and it gave him approval for previous use of funds for these flights that went to no-bid contracts for companies that gave donations to Florida GOP campaigns.
Cementing attacks on higher education institutions meant to turn them into compliant right wing propaganda machines, this bill would enact the most draconian and censorious restrictions on higher education in the history of the United States. It would ban majors and minors in gender studies, trustees, who are often unqualified political appointees, can call for a post-tenure review of any faculty member at any time, and faculty hiring is now in the hands of those trustees as well.
This is another unhinged preemption bill that would ban local governments from adopting “laws, regulations, rules, or policies” having to do with water quality or quantity, pollution control, and wetlands. Another obvious giveaway to special interest groups that don’t want local anti-pollution ordinances to impact their profit margins.
In yet another giveaway to special interest groups at the expense of the environment, this bill puts restrictions on how state agencies can “regulate greenhouse gas emissions for the purpose of addressing changes in atmospheric temperature,” and preempts local governments from requiring use of energy saving materials in construction.
This is an expansion of Florida’s already infamous Don’t Say Gay bill. It would censor LGBTQ topics through 8th grade and includes charter schools along with the public school system. It also establishes government regulation of pronouns.
Probably one of the dumbest bills filed this legislative session, it would abolish the Florida Democratic Party due to its past support of slavery in the 1800’s. It’s a wildly unconstitutional proposal that its sponsor claims is just to troll, admitting it’s another dumb performative stunt that does zero to help Floridians dealing with out of control housing costs.
The same asshole that filed the bill to abolish the Florida Democratic Party also filed this union busting bill that decertifies public sector unions with less than 60% membership while also making automatic dues deduction illegal for public sector unions. Of course police unions are exempt. It’s meant to undermine workers' ability to collectively bargain and fight for better wages and benefits.
This proposal is backed by out-of-state companies that want Florida lawmakers to allow them to charge perpetual, limitless junk fees on tenants who can’t come up with cash to pay security deposits when moving into a new apartment. It also guts security deposit protections in Florida. It’s obviously meant to squeeze perpetual cash in the form of fees from desperate renters.
This proposal is making national headlines due to it being such a blatant attack on free speech and freedom of the press. Introduced by Jason Brodeur, who was elected through an electoral fraud scheme involving ghost candidates funded by Florida Power & Light, it would require bloggers who write about Ron DeSantis and other members of the state executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines. It has been noted that this law appears to have been modeled by existing legislation previously passed by the authoritarian governments of both Russia and Hungary.
If this passes, Florida's elected school board members would no longer be able to approve materials that are used to teach sex ed to public school students, it would further limit lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity, and would not allow school staff to ask students what their preferred pronouns are.
This is the Florida GOP attempting to ban drag queen shows by seeking to revoke licenses of establishments that admit a child to so-called "adult live performances." What that entails is defined extremely broadly in the proposal and a violation under would constitute a misdemeanor of the first degree.
This bill would make it a second degree misdemeanor for a trans person to not leave a bathroom of their self-identified gender when asked by someone. More anti-trans bigotry funded by our tax dollars.
Probably the most extreme, anti-trans proposal that has been filed so far, it would criminalize parents and health care providers that give gender affirming care to trans youth. It would allow the government to seize control of kids if their parents might seek the care that is supported by all major medical organizations, including from families where the child in question may reside outside of Florida.
This is one of Ron DeSantis priority bills for this legislative session. It would establish permitless carry in Florida and abolish all training and safety requirements to carry a gun in Florida. States that passed permitless carry saw a 22 percent increase in gun homicide for the three years after passage. When Arizona repealed its concealed carry requirement in 2010, there was an 11 percent increase in gun injuries and deaths.
As the United States continues to grapple with gun violence, this bill would slash gun safety regulations established after the Parkland shooting by lowering the age to buy a rifle from 21 to 18.
Ron DeSantis pushed Republican lawmakers to file what would be perhaps the most anti-immigrant legislation filed at the state level ever. It makes it a third degree felony to drive or house an undocumented immigrant, blocks undocumented people from practicing law in Florida, prohibits local funding of community identification programs that allow those who can’t get a driver's license or state level ID card to access municipal level identification cards, expands E-verify to make it harder for immigrants to work and small businesses to hire, and violates HIPPA by mandating healthcare providers to disclose patients’ immigration status. Undocumented Floridians pay more in taxes than Ron DeSantis billionaire donors.
Ron DeSantis spent the better part of last year running away whenever asked if he supported more abortion restrictions after signing into law a 15 week abortion ban. As advocates warned would happen, Florida Republicans have now filed a 6 week abortion ban, because we have in Tallahassee a bunch of extremist right wing theocrats who want to impose their way of life on the rest of us.
If you are pissed off after reading this and want to participate in some sort of peaceful demonstration in the Florida State capitol, the Department of Management Services, which oversees state facilities, is now requiring at the behest of the DeSantis administration that events held in the Capitol “align” with its mission. Meaning that if you want to hold an event in the Capitol critical of DeSantis and Florida GOP policies, good luck with that.
It’s fascism folks, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Heil Demonsantis! All he needs is a cheesy little mustache and some brown shirts. THIS MAN MUST NEVER GAIN FEDERAL OFFICE!!!!
In the past the Legislature tried unsuccessfully to break all the public service unions at once.
This time they have excluded the police and fire fighters in a divide and conquer move.
If they succeed with educators, they will be back later to take out the police and firefighters unions.