Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has been teasing an ambitious agenda for the state's legislative session after being reelected as the state's executive by nearly 20 percentage points last year.
The Florida Senate and House are set to open for their 2023 session Tuesday as DeSantis looks to make sweeping changes to school choice, gun laws, immigration screening for private employers, and modifying the requirements for the death penalty.
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Emboldened by Republican "supermajorities" in the state legislature, DeSantis sees the makeup of the chambers as a "strong mandate" for his policies.
"Now, we have supermajorities in the legislature," DeSantis said at a press conference last month. "We have, I think, a strong mandate to be able to implement the policies that we ran on."
One piece of legislation DeSantis hopes to get passed is a reform to verification of legal immigration status for private employers and enhanced punishments for people harboring illegal immigrants.
The governor called for "increasing penalties for human smuggling, strengthening statutes for the detention of illegal aliens, requiring universal use of E-Verify, enhancing penalties for document falsification, and prohibiting the issuance by local governments of ID cards to people who are not lawfully in the country" in a press release last month.
Some of the specifics of the proposal include making it a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, to harbor illegal immigrants, with the offense increasing to a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, if the illegal immigrant is under 18. DeSantis said the increased penalties would combat human smuggling into the Sunshine State.
Other proposals DeSantis touted include expanding school choice by seeking legislation that would allow all K-12 students to receive vouchers for schools and expanding gun rights to include constitutional carry, which would permit legal gun owners to carry their firearms without a permit.
The Florida governor is also looking to make reforms to the state's libel law, arguing that media organizations have too much leeway to defame people under current statutes.
"Current law does not provide adequate protection for everyday Floridians to protect themselves from defamatory or libelous speech by news organizations," the governor's office said in a news release last month.
One of the top priorities for the legislative session for DeSantis will be reforms to laws surrounding capital punishment. The governor wants to bring the requirement for the death penalty from a unanimous jury to a supermajority of the jury.
"Fine, have a supermajority. But you can’t just say one person. So maybe eight out of 12 have to agree? Or something. But we can’t be in a situation where one person can just derail this,” DeSantis said, expressing his frustration with the current system while speaking at the Florida Sheriffs Association Winter Conference in January.
Republican state Rep. Berny Jacques and state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia filed identical bills last month reducing the required number of jurors on a 12-person panel to OK the death penalty from 12 to eight.
Outrage over the current standard came after the man who shot and killed 17 people at the Parkland school shooting in February 2018 escaped the death penalty despite the majority of the jury voting 9-3 in favor of execution.
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Another agenda item on the docket for the legislature that has not been as publicized by DeSantis is the proposal to change state law to permit a sitting governor to maintain his job while running for president. Currently, the "resign-to-run" law indicates DeSantis would have to resign as governor to run for higher office, but the state House and Senate will likely revise this law to allow him to stay in office and seek the presidency if he wishes. Laws in the Sunshine State over having to resign when seeking higher office have been on and off the books for decades.
DeSantis is currently seen as one of the favorites for the Republican nomination for president but has yet to announce a bid for the White House. A recent book tour and stops in several key states for the nomination have only led to increased speculation of a presidential run, which he will reportedly announce once the legislative session ends in late May or early June.