On the Florida Legislature's opening day, House leaders scheduled separate redistricting committee meetings at the same time - and critics blasted it as another attempt to limit public input.
Republicans in the Florida House, who control the process of drawing new congressional and legislative district boundaries, held meetings Tuesday, specifically for public comment - but both were at 4 p.m. What was scheduled as a two-hour meeting ended in just eight minutes, after only two county commissioners spoke about the redistricting process.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In his State of the State address Tuesday in the Capitol, Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out a red-meat 2022 legislative agenda on crime and immigration, and he ridiculed COVID-19 restrictions in other states as ineffective and anti-American.

DeSantis, a Republican who is seeking a second term in November and hasn’t ruled out a White House bid in 2024, called Florida the “freest state” in the U.S.“Florida has become the escape hatch for those chafing under authoritarian, arbitrary and seemingly never-ending mandates and restrictions,” he told a packed and largely maskless House chamber in Tallahassee during his 33-minute address.

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As the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates the latest challenge to Roe v. Wade, new abortion laws are already in the works ahead of Florida's upcoming legislative session.

Encouraged by possible federal changes, conservatives are moving full speed ahead in the Statehouse with proposals like House Bill 167, which would require doctors to conduct a test and inform a pregnant person of a heartbeat.