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Jan. 31, 2025 | Legislative Reporter The 2025 Legislative Session convenes on March 4, 2025, and is scheduled to end on May 2, 2025. Governor DeSantis had called for a special session to be held this past week on Jan. 27- 31. The special session was to focus on combating illegal immigration, condominium regulation, agricultural relief in response to natural disasters, replenishing the My Safe Florida Home program, and the citizens’ initiative petition process. The House and Senate convened the session on Monday morning, adjourned and opened their own session, focusing on immigration. Late Tuesday, rejecting Gov. DeSantis’s proposed bills, they passed CS/SB 2B E1 that includes boosting criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants, ending in-state tuition rates for undocumented-immigrant students and creating a state “chief immigration officer.” Gov. DeSantis has indicated he will veto this bill. Gov. DeSantis’s budget recommendations are expected to be released today. He is required to release them at least 30 days prior to the scheduled regular session, per s.216.162, which this year falls on Sunday, Feb. 2. Committee meetings were held this past week, focusing primarily on information briefings and discussions. The Bill Tracking Report, as of Jan. 31, can be viewed here. Please review it to see the bills filed that APA Florida is tracking. Note that if you click on the bill number, you will be linked to more information about the bill. If you would like any bills added to this report or would like more information about a specific bill, please contact Stefanie Svisco at ssvisco@floridaplanning.org. Since Jan. 24 Legislative Reporter, the following bills of interest have been filed: SB 108 (Sen. Grall) makes several changes to Chapter 120, Administrative Procedures Act, including requiring an agency to publish a notice of proposed rule within 90 days after the effective date of the act granting rulemaking authority. HB 217 (Rep. Mayfield) expands property tax exemption provisions for surviving spouses of deceased veterans. HB 247 (Rep. Conerly) requires local governments to adopt an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units, without any corresponding increase in parking requirements, in any area zoned for single family residential use, excluding planned unit developments and master planned communities; amends existing provisions which allow local governments to provide density incentives to landowners who donate real property for affordable housing to explicitly Jan. 31, 2025 | Committee Week | Legislative Reporter
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