Capitol Connection
2021 LEGISLATIVE SESSION: WEEK 5
The 2021 Florida Legislative Session is well underway. These eight weeks move quickly in Tallahassee, and we appreciate your interest in monitoring issues that may impact Florida’s children and families. The Florida Children’s Council hopes that the content provided in this digest and the subsequent issues will help inform your advocacy efforts until session ends (sine die) on April 30th.
 
Each week the Capitol Connection will provide a brief summary of relative events from the executive and legislative branches. The update will also include information on legislation that has moved that week and provide updates on presentations, press conferences and conversations that may be of interest.
 
The first column lists the bill number, name and sponsor and provides a hyperlink to the bill's text and history. The numbered circles represent the number of committees of reference for each bill, and the final column provides a brief description of the bill(s). Here is a key to help guide you in your review of where each bill is:
This week the Senate and House chambers met for Week Five of the 2021 Legislative Session. While a few substantive committees met this week, most meetings centered around each chamber's budget proposals and conforming bills. The Governor’s Budget Recommendations for 2021-2022 totals $96.6 billion, while the Senate’s Budget Recommendations totals $95 billion, and the House’s Budget Recommendations totals $97.1 billion. In the coming weeks budget conferences will begin to take place to negotiate and finalize the state’s 2021-2022 spending plan. Outside of the budget, it’s important to note that many if not all of the policy committees completed their final week of meetings. With this in mind, many of our policy priorities have passed through their committees of reference and head to appropriation committees or the floor. The House and Senate Juvenile Diversion Program Expunction bills passed through their respective committees and are now both ready for the floor. House actions supporting Medicaid expansion for postpartum mothers, multiple child welfare bills, and Early Learning policy have also moved this week. 

Below are links to news articles published this week that may be of interest to you. 


Until next week!

Sincerely,
The Florida Children’s Council
Economic Self-Sufficiency
Economic Self-Sufficiency
Early Learning
Early Learning
Out of School
Out-Of-School Time Programs
Healthy Development
Healthy Development
Children With Disabilities
Children With Disabilities
Child Protection
Child Protection
Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice
Equity
Equity
K-12 Education
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For more information, contact: Jenny Foltz - jfoltz@floridacsc.org