The Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 7040 on the final day of the session, requiring Gov. Ron DeSantis to obtain Legislative Budget Commission approval for continued spending from the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund after extending emergency declarations. The legislation targets DeSantis’ controversial use of emergency funds to build an immigration detention center in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by critics.
The new law allows DeSantis to continue declaring emergencies and accessing the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, but continued spending after an extension now requires additional legislative permission. DeSantis declared immigration an “emergency” in 2023 and extended that declaration more than 20 times to fund the Everglades detention center using money typically earmarked for natural disaster response. The facility was built in the heart of the Everglades at extraordinary expense to taxpayers while harming the ecosystem.
Several potentially damaging environmental bills died during the session that ended March 13. House Bill 479 and Senate Bill 718, known as “Land and Water Management,” sought to prohibit local governments from enacting their own rules regarding water quality, water quantity, wetlands and pollution reduction. HB 479 was overhauled with an amendment that removed most of the bad provisions, while SB 718 never received a hearing.
The controversial “Blue Ribbon Projects” legislation, HB 299/SB 354, also failed to pass despite generating significant headlines. The bills sought to create a framework for more easily approving huge developments of 15,000 acres and up that devote 60 percent of the land to a reserve area. If projects satisfied legislative requirements, they could be developed over 50 years into towns and cities regardless of underlying comprehensive planning and land use allocations. The proposal ran into significant opposition from key Republican legislators, particularly rural legislators worried about impacts on their districts.
Another failed bill, HB 105/SB 588 titled “Local Government Enforcement Actions,” would have prohibited local governments from taking enforcement actions deemed “arbitrary or unreasonable.” Violators could have faced up to $50,000 in damages, along with court costs and attorney fees, which likely would have chilled necessary and prudent enforcement action. The legislation died without passage.
Two controversial bills passed after having their worst provisions stripped out. The state’s “farm bill,” SB 290/HB 433 titled “Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,” originally contained a “muzzle clause” allowing producers of non-perishable products like sugar to sue over disparagement of crops or farming methods like burning sugarcane fields prior to harvest. These sections were removed after pushback from Friends of the Everglades and other groups, though another damaging provision remained allowing the state to determine if publicly owned conservation lands are suitable for “bona fide agricultural” use.
Several beneficial environmental bills failed to advance. HB 669/SB 1042 would have required the state to post signs identifying polluted waterways sooner and more prominently, but HB 699 was amended with most beneficial language removed and SB 1042 never moved. The “fix” to controversial 2025 Senate Bill 180 never materialized as SB 840/HB 1465 didn’t make it past the House, leaving in place a three-year freeze on local planning authority.
The Legislature will soon return to Tallahassee to hash out the budget, creating the possibility that some of the “dead” bills could be resurrected and attached to budget implementing bills, as has happened in recent years.