With just days left of the scheduled legislative session, the Florida House and Senate remain divided on the governor's emergency spending fund.
The House took a Senate bill recreating the fund and added some guardrails to it on Monday, with bill sponsor Rep. Griff Griffitts, R-Panama City Beach, saying doing so strikes the right balance.
"It prepares us for the worst while respecting the taxpayers and constitutional safeguards,” he said. “Emergencies demand speed, but they also demand discipline. This legislation delivers both.”
The fund expired last month, since the sides couldn't figure out their differences. The Florida House had already passed a bill with guardrails.
Gov. Ron DeSantis' spending sparked a lot of debate, especially from Democrats. He's used the emergency fund to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on immigration enforcement, like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz detention center.
It’s unknown whether the Senate will accept the House’s addition. Senate President Ben Albritton has said he thinks guardrails should be considered in future sessions.
“There’s still ample time for them to have plenty of conversations about how this process is working,” Albritton said last month.
But lawmakers don’t have ample time to figure things out. Friday is supposed to be the last day of session, yet legislative leadership has already admitted the budget won’t be done on time. Technically, figuring out the fund language could be part of any session extension or special session.
The House-amended bill, SB 7040, would allow legislative leaders to object to certain emergency fund spending, including after extended disaster declarations and for “man-made” emergencies, a category DeSantis uses for immigration-related spending.
The governor’s office would have to send quarterly reports about spending to legislative leaders. That money couldn’t be used for aircraft, boats or motor vehicles.
The House also wants to put less money in the fund than the Senate.
But Democrats said the limits don't go far enough. An earlier House proposal would’ve banned spending the money for immigration and other “man-made” emergencies.
“It should not be lost on you that letting a person control unilaterally this sum of money is not good for Floridians,” said Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton. “It is not good for the process. It is our responsibility to control those purse strings.”
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This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
