House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-Clearwater) announced his leadership team of twelve representatives and the 2020-22 committee structure. His memo can be found here. Representative Bryan Avila (R-Hialeah) will serve as Speaker Pro Tempore, Representative Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) will be the Rules C Committee chair and Representative Jay Trumbull (R-Panama City) is the Appropriations Committee chair. Representative Michael Grant (R-Port Charlotte) will serve as the Majority Leader. Representative Bobby DuBose (D-Ft. Lauderdale) was selected by the Democratic Caucus to be the Minority Leader.
The Speaker also has substantively revised many of the rules and procedures of the House. His goal is to focus on more member legislation by increasing the number of bills a representative can file from 6 to 7. There also will be more work at the committee level, with subcommittees meeting until the sixth week of the legislative session. A summary of the changes can be found here. Legislators have already started to file bills, which cover a wide variety of topics from COVID-19 liability protection, climate change, carrying guns on college campuses, sales tax collection for on-line purchases and making permanent the ability for restaurants to sell or deliver alcoholic beverages to customers. We will summarize bills of interest in our pre-session eNewsletter.