Florida Legislature
The Florida Legislature is the state's bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Entries naming it record bills and appropriations it passed, several cited by session, generally alongside the governor who signed them. Its measures in the archive range across school instruction, ballot measures, and the naming of public infrastructure.
2026 Events (6)
Florida renamed Palm Beach International Airport for President Trump under a law giving his company perpetual free use of the name
On July 9, 2026, Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida — a county-owned public airport serving more than 8 million passengers a year, minutes from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate — officially became President Donald J. Trump International Airport, the first U.S. airport renamed for a sitting president. The renaming was carried out under a Florida law that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in March 2026, which requires an agreement granting Trump and his organization "perpetual and unrestricted" use of the name at no cost. Trump's trademark-licensing company, DTTM Operations, had filed multiple applications on the new name in February 2026, before the enabling bill became law.
Florida Legislature enacted property-tax ballot measure with misleading title and summary drafted mostly by DeSantis's office
On June 16, 2026, Florida officers signed and filed with the Secretary of State CS/HJR 1F, a joint resolution the Legislature had passed June 2, 2026 (75-26 House, 30-9 Senate), placing a homestead-exemption property-tax amendment titled "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" on the November 2026 ballot. The ballot title and summary language was drafted initially by Gov. Ron DeSantis's office and then altered by legislative leaders. On August 4, 2026, a Leon County circuit judge ruled the title and summary unconstitutionally misleading and ordered a rewrite.
Florida judge lets DeSantis-drawn mid-decade congressional map stand for 2026 elections
On May 26, 2026, Leon County Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes -- a DeSantis appointee -- denied a preliminary injunction sought by Equal Ground, Common Cause Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, LULAC and other plaintiffs challenging Florida's new mid-decade congressional map, leaving the Republican-friendly map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis's office in place for the 2026 elections. The map redraws the state's 28 U.S. House districts to produce roughly 24 Republican-leaning seats, flipping about four seats from Democratic to Republican-leaning and helping the GOP defend its national majority. Plaintiffs argued the map violates Florida's 2010 voter-approved Fair Districts Amendment banning partisan gerrymandering; they filed notices of appeal and have signaled the case will likely reach the Florida Supreme Court, where DeSantis appointed six of the seven justices.
Florida Legislature, FDLE steered $6M budget earmark and $16M in grants to Peregrine Technologies without competitive bidding
On May 15, 2026, the Florida House Justice Budget Conference Committee inserted a $6 million appropriation for a law-enforcement data-integration platform into state budget negotiations, wording that mirrored FDLE's own January 2026 budget request naming Peregrine Technologies directly. Peregrine's head of business development, Matthew Melton, is married to Rep. Fiona McFarland, a member of the conference committee that added the funding, and the company's lobbying firm donated $225,000 to Republican leadership PACs in the months before. FDLE's State Board of Immigration Enforcement separately granted more than $16 million from a $250 million immigration-enforcement trust fund to over two dozen local agencies earmarked to buy the same Peregrine software.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida SB 1134 barring local governments from DEI and Pride-related activity
On April 22, 2026, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed CS/CS/SB 1134, barring counties and municipalities from funding, promoting, or taking official action related to diversity, equity, and inclusion — including activity referencing sexual orientation and gender identity, such as funding Pride events, displaying Pride flags, or issuing Pride Month proclamations. The law voids conflicting local ordinances, resolutions, and policies, and provides that a local official who violates it commits misfeasance or malfeasance in office, the constitutional standard under which the governor may suspend elected officials without a court hearing. It takes effect January 1, 2027.
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote
On April 1, 2026, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation — Florida's version of the federal SAVE Act — requiring voters whose eligibility is challenged via motor-vehicle record cross-checks to provide a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization certificate as proof of citizenship. The law also bars credit cards, student IDs, and retirement-community IDs as voting identification and requires driver's licenses to reflect citizenship status starting July 2027. Civil rights organizations immediately filed a federal lawsuit arguing the law will disenfranchise eligible voters who lack access to required documents, including people born without birth certificates in the segregated South or whose documents were destroyed by hurricanes.
2023 Events (5)
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed HB 1521 restricting facility access to birth sex and mandating birth-sex prison placement
On May 17, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1521, the "Facility Requirements Based on Sex" act, requiring restrooms and changing facilities in schools, colleges, and government buildings to be designated for exclusive use by a person's sex assigned at birth. The law makes willful entry into a facility for the opposite sex, plus refusal to leave when asked, a criminal trespass, and requires domestic-violence shelters and correctional facilities to house people by birth sex rather than gender identity. Enacted as Chapter 2023-106, it took effect July 1, 2023.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1069, extending classroom gender-identity restrictions through grade 8 and mandating sex-based pronoun rules
On May 17, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed CS/CS/HB 1069 into law, expanding the state's 2022 "Parental Rights in Education" law by extending its restriction on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity from grades K-3 through grade 8. The law defines sex in the state education code as an immutable biological trait, bars teachers and school employees from providing students their preferred pronouns or titles when inconsistent with their sex, and prohibits requiring students or staff to use pronouns that do not correspond to a person's sex. It also broadened the process for challenging school library and instructional materials.
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed SB 254 banning gender-affirming care for minors and letting courts seize custody over such care
On May 17, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed CS/SB 254, "Treatments for Sex Reassignment" (Chapter 2023-90), prohibiting gender-affirming prescriptions and procedures for patients under 18 and barring public entities from spending state funds on such care. The law also grants Florida courts temporary emergency jurisdiction over a child present in the state who has been or may be subjected to such care, and defines being subjected to it as "serious physical harm" for child-custody enforcement. DeSantis signed the measure alongside related bills at a ceremony at a Tampa evangelical school.
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed SB 1438 restricting minors' access to drag and 'adult live' performances
On May 17, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 1438, the "Protection of Children" act, creating criminal penalties and business-licensing sanctions for admitting minors to "adult live performances." Though facially neutral, the law was framed and widely understood as targeting drag performances and LGBTQ+ expression, and Orlando's Hamburger Mary's sued within days. DeSantis signed the measure at a Christian school in Tampa during the 2023 regular legislative session.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed medical-conscience law excluding LGBTQ+ patients from anti-discrimination protections
On May 11, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed CS/SB 1580, the "Protections of Medical Conscience" Act, at a news conference in Destin, Florida, giving health care providers and payors a right to opt out of any health care service on the basis of a conscience-based religious, moral, or ethical objection. The law's anti-discrimination clause bars providers from refusing care based on a patient's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin but omits sexual orientation and gender identity. It took effect July 1, 2023, as Chapter 2023-57.
2022 Events (2)
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed HB 7 restricting classroom and workplace speech on race and sex
On April 22, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 7 (Stop W.O.K.E. Act), barring K-12 schools, public colleges and universities, and employers from teaching or requiring training that endorses specified concepts about race, color, sex, or national origin. Federal courts subsequently blocked the law's workplace and higher-education provisions as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in separate lawsuits; the K-12 classroom provisions were not enjoined and remain in effect.
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed HB 1557 barring K-3 LGBTQ instruction and mandating parental notification enabling forced outing
On March 28, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557, "Parental Rights in Education," barring classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and requiring schools to notify parents of changes to a student's mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing while barring procedures that would let a student withhold that information from a parent. Critics said the notification mandate risks forcing schools to out LGBTQ+ students to parents without consent, and the law became widely known as the "Don't Say Gay" law.
2021 Events (1)
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed SB 1028 enacting the Fairness in Women's Sports Act banning transgender athletes
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed CS/CS/SB 1028 on June 1, 2021, an education omnibus bill whose Section 12 created the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act," requiring public school and university athletic teams to be designated by "biological sex at birth" and barring students of the male sex from female-designated teams. The bill passed the Florida Senate 29-11 and House 79-37 largely along party lines.