To our readers: Welcome to the Capitol Buzz. You're receiving this email because you've subscribed to the Buzz newsletter. Every Saturday morning, members of the Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau will round up the biggest stories from the 60-day legislative session until it's over. |
[PHELAN M. EBENHACK | Associated Press] |
Is COVID-19 still happening or not? |
For the better part of a year, Florida’s Republican leaders have been moving on from COVID-19. Gov. Ron DeSantis let the state’s emergency declaration expire last June, weeks before the worst surge of the virus on record hit the state. In December, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo released guidance encouraging only those who are showing COVID-19 symptoms to get tested. And going into the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers removed many of the protocols aimed at slowing the virus’ spread — including mandatory weekly testing for lawmakers, staff and the press. But this week’s action in the Florida Legislature showed that the virus is still very much a factor for lawmakers to grapple with. In the House, at least two lawmakers confirmed to the Times that they had contracted COVID-19: Rep. Carlos Smith, D-Orlando, and Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood. Both lawmakers were vaccinated and got their booster shots. Plakon said he received monoclonal antibody treatments for his infection, and both men hope to be back next week. Three House lawmakers who had excused absences this week said they had not contracted the virus. But another three lawmakers did not respond to questions, hinting the issue may have been more widespread. At least one senator, Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, missed much of the last week after contracting the virus. (He was vaccinated and boosted, and he’s feeling fine.) Two other senators who were out did not respond to questions from the Times about where they were. Another senator was excused for non-COVID-related reasons. Still, the sheer number of absences gives a pretty good hint about COVID-19’s toll on the Legislature. Near the peak of the wave of the most infectious variant we’ve seen yet, state senators racked up 22 total excused absences this week. During the second week of the 2021 session, there were just 12 such absences. In the House, committees saw 38 total reported absences, compared to 32 in the second week of last year’s session. That disparity came despite the fact that during the second week of the 2021 session, House lawmakers held more than twice as many meetings as they did this week. These absences happened during a week when the Capitol was buzzing with activities. Hundreds of people from all over the state swarmed the halls — the vast majority of them maskless. The only tangible hint toward the pandemic appeared to be the periodic sanitization of public furniture by Capitol custodial staff. But when lawmakers don’t show up, it affects state business. Smith missed a committee meeting at which a controversial 15-week abortion ban was debated. He’s the ranking Democrat on that body. The Senate Ethics and Elections committee, which would have been forced to run without two Republican lawmakers, canceled its meeting. Had the meeting gone as scheduled, Democrats would have comprised a majority of those present. That committee’s chairperson, Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said he didn’t cancel the meeting to duck a rare moment of Democratic rule. He said he just didn’t want the committee to run into any quorum issues. The committee had been slated to approve a series of appointments to various state boards and departments. “I just don’t like to run so thin that if somebody’s out of the room, you’ve got a problem,” Baxley said. “If we had urgent matters to get out, we would have met.” |
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