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Office of Senate President

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The Senate President is a constitutional officer who leads the Florida Senate for a two-year term. The President, who is elected by members of the Senate, manages the operations of the Senate and presides over its sessions. The President’s many duties include: selecting a Majority Leader, appointing Senators to standing Senate committees, appointing committee chairs, and appointing citizens to a variety of boards and commissions.

Initiatives

Thank you for visiting our Senate website. We hope you will find the information useful and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

This past session, we partnered with Speaker Will Weatherford and the Florida House of Representatives on a 2013 joint legislative agenda that included bold steps to tackle ethics and campaign finance reform, fiscally responsible changes to Florida’s public sector pension plans, innovations in Florida's higher education system and a review of Florida election laws.

As Florida continues to make job creation a priority, we must rebuild trust and confidence in public officials through ethics and campaign finance reform, improve the fiscal accountability and transparency of public sector pension plans, and tie job creation to the realities of the economy through investments in education. We created a solid framework of agreement on issues of key importance and collaborated with the Speaker as we worked each piece of legislation through the process. Now, we are glad to report that each of the five agenda items has been signed into law by the Governor.  

Again, thank you for visiting and please stay in touch. Your comments, your criticisms and your guidance make me be a better Senator.

Work Plan Florida

  • Ethics Reform: Holding elected officials to a higher standard by addressing a number of reported ethical concerns, including strengthening abstention and disclosure requirements for conflicts of interest and making the process surrounding financial disclosure more transparent and accountable.
  • Campaign Finance Reform: Increasing accountability in Florida's election system by ensuring more dollars are spent to directly influence elections, and increasing transparency through more frequent campaign finance reporting.
  • Higher Education Reform: Initiating high quality, affordable options that will keep our higher education system responsive to the realities of a post-recession digital economy through an expansion of online higher education and continued incentive support for college and university programs that produce high-skill, high-wage, and high-demand occupations.
  • Pension Reform: Ensuring long-term fiscal predictability for Florida taxpayers and retirees. Increasing transparency by standardizing accounting standards and recording requirements across local public sector plans.
  • Elections Review: Comprehensively reviewing Florida's election law to provide local election supervisors the flexibility needed to reduce wait times and ensure accurate and timely counting and reporting.

Visit Work Plan Florida for additional information about the plan. See Work Plan Florida Tour page for updates on the regional tour.

Florida's Appropriations

Appropriations and Implementing bills authorize the spending of public money on an annual basis. The appropriations measures passed unanimously by the Senate comprise the state budget. Information relating to these bills and other bills that have been determined to be part of the budget process is posted at http://flsenate.gov/Session/Appropriations.