TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — With pre-2024 legislative session committee meetings starting Monday, the Florida Senate committee assignments have been finalized.
REPUBLICAN ASSIGNMENTS
Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Sen. Blaise Ingoglia will chair the Senate Finance and Tax Committee.
In all, Ingoglia will serve on Appropriations, Banking and Insurance, Criminal Justice, Ethics and Elections, and Select Committee on Resiliency. He’s also an alternating Chair of the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee.
Last session, Ingoglia sponsored legislation that cracks down on illegal immigration. He also sponsored a bill that removed the unanimity requirement for the death penalty after one member of the jury in the Parkland shooting trial disagreed with the rest of the members over handing down the death penalty.
State Sen. Nick DiCeglie will serve as chair of the Transportation Committee, Vice Chair of Banking and Insurance, along with the Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development; Fiscal Policy; Judiciary; Rules; and the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.
Last session, DiCeglie pulled his own bill updating regulations for short-term rental properties after the State House changed the language to include more regulating power for the state Department of Business and Professional Regulations (DBPR).
DEMOCRAT ASSIGNMENTS
In the Florida Senate, Democrat leader Lauren Book will take up the mantle for Democrats on some of the top committees. She will join the Appropriations, Judiciary and Rules committees.
While legislation favored by Democrats is usually not taken up – especially with Florida’s Republicans holding a supermajority in both chambers – Book saw a major win on the topic of family-related legislation with Florida exempting sales taxes on diapers and other items necessary for families with young children.
Book has already filed legislation that would shield women from being criminally prosecuted for having abortions.
“The imprisonment of women, girls, sexual assault survivors, and their doctors through dangerous abortion bans is cruel and anti-freedom,” said Book.
Book is also working to get a pro-abortion constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot by working through the Reproductive Freedom Collective of Broward County.
Senate Democrat Leader-designate Jason Pizzo will serve as Vice Chair of the Select Committee on Resiliency, Alternating Chair of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, along with serving on: Criminal Justice, Community Affairs, Finance and Tax, Appropriations, Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations, and Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security.
Pizzo will take over from Book in leading the Senate Democrats during the 2024–2026 term.
Florida State Senator Lori Berman will return as Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government. She will also join the Senate Agriculture Committee and return to the Education Pre-K-12 Committee.
A progressive, Berman has prioritized legislation defending abortion and promoting gun control.
