TALLAHASSEE – Controversial payments aimed at blocking nearby governments from getting rid of historic monuments and limiting the kinds of flags flown at colleges and other community properties seem to be useless in the Florida Senate.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo explained she doesn’t expect the Senate to move forward on the monuments invoice and that the flags monthly bill is caught in a committee that will not meet up with once again.
The monuments monthly bill seeks to protect against elimination or destruction of historic monuments from public assets and has been controversial since of debate about whether or not it is made to avert the elimination of memorials to the Confederacy.
Passidomo previous 7 days lifted inquiries about the long term of the bill soon after quite a few lawmakers voiced outrage about reviews by speakers who supported the bill at a Feb. 6 committee meeting. Sen. Jennifer Bradley explained some of the reviews as “vile” and “bigoted.”
Passidomo appeared to rule out the invoice Wednesday when asked by a reporter if it was lifeless.
“The bill by itself is benign, if you study it. It can be benign,” she stated. “But it has been weaponized by each sides, and that troubles me. That is not how we run our chamber, that’s not how we go our laws, at least for me. And so, at this place, I really don’t see that monthly bill coming again.”
In the course of the Feb. 6 Neighborhood Affairs Committee assembly, bill sponsor Jonathan Martin argued that his proposal and intentions have been mischaracterized as racist when his purpose is to guard “American monuments” he noticed torn down in current years.
“The purpose is to not take away monuments,” Martin mentioned. “It has no outcome on positioning new monuments anyplace in the state.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis has supported endeavours to avert removal of monuments. The invoice does not point out the Confederacy, but it arrived amid disputes in sites this kind of as Jacksonville about getting rid of monuments to the Confederacy. A Residence edition cleared its original committee previous thirty day period.
The flags invoice, in the meantime, has drawn controversy as opponents contend it is developed, at minimum in part, to protect against the exhibit of LGBTQ pride flags. Underneath the monthly bill, government companies, community educational facilities, colleges and universities would be prohibited from flying any flag that “signifies a political viewpoint” which include any “politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint.”
The Senate bill, also sponsored by Martin, stalled Feb. 6 in the Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee. Passidomo mentioned the committee “ran out of time” and the conference finished as Martin labored on the monuments bill in the Group Affairs Committee.
Passidomo said Wednesday the Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee will not meet up with once again ahead of the scheduled March 8 close of the legislative session.
“Everyone understood that that was the final committee assembly,” she claimed. “So I’m not heading to have another committee conference for a invoice, for any monthly bill for that matter.”
DeSantis also has supported the flags bill. A Property model was permitted by a subcommittee final thirty day period.
