Bending the Rules: How the FL Senate Passed Voucher Expansion

On the last regular day of session, 3/13/2020, after an informal recess, with a quorum of just 34 Senators present, Senate President Galvano, called the Senate to order and took up the Third Reading Calendar. First on the list was HB7067. Watch the process at 0:00 (but don’t blink or you might miss it):

Diaz: “This is the bill dealing with the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and the Family Empowerment Scholarship that we reviewed yesterday.”

Galvano: Is there debate? Is there debate? None. Senator Diaz waives close. Madame Secretary unlock the board. Senators, proceed to vote. Have all senators voted? Have all senators voted? Lock the board and record the vote.

21 Yeas, 14 Nays. 

“Show the bill passes.” All in 1 minute and three seconds.

Of note, Senators Lee, Farmer, Cruz, Bracy and Flores were absent for the vote. After the fact, Flores recorded a Yes vote, while Farmer and Cruz recorded no votes. Even if all 5 missing senators had voted Yes, the bill would still have passed.

Our question is: How did we get to this place where a controversial bill, massively expanding directly funded private school vouchers, requiring almost 4 hours of questions and debate on the House Floor (you can watch the second read conversation at 1:23:35 and the debate on third read at 0:16:40), could pass the Senate in the blink of an eye?

The path of SB1220/HB7067 on the Senate floor was a strange one; one which appears to have violated Senate Rules. We are not suggesting that the bill wouldn’t have passed, anyway. Voucher expansion, which will ultimately result in Universal Vouchers, providing families, of all income levels, access to state funding for private (mostly religious) school tuition, has been the clear goal of legislative leadership for 2 decades. Still, the handling of HB7067 by the Senate was unusual.

Lets take a look at what happened to Voucher Expansion once it hit the Senate floor:

Thursday, 3/5/20: Committee Substitute for SB1220, First Reading

Friday, 3/6/20: SB1220 Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading and placed on Special Order Calendar for 03/10/20

Tuesday, 3/10/20: SB1220 is brought up on 2nd read at 09:45:

Bill sponsor Manny Diaz Jr says “This is the bill dealing with the K-12 scholarship program, and I believe we have the House bill, so I’d like to substitute that.” HB7067 is substituted without objection and Senator Lee’s first, late-filed amendment (600908) is introduced. Senator Lee is shown shuffling through his papers. President Galvano says “Show the bill temporarily postponed without objection, Read the next bill.”

The entire interaction took about 30 seconds and most of that was spent shuffling papers. [The Senate Journal claims “On motion by Senator Diaz, further consideration of CS for HB 7067 was deferred” (page 578), but, review of the session recording shows no formal motion was discussed.]

Wednesday 3/11/20: The Senate resumed consideration of HB7067 . Watch at 1:52:25.

Chair Diaz is recognized and spends about a minute explaining HB7067. Senator Lee is recognized to explain his amendment #600908 (at 1:53:49), which is designed to prevent funding for the new Teacher Salary allocation from being shared with private schools via the Family Empowerment voucher (which is funded through the Florida Education Finance Program, the primary funding source for Florida’s public schools). Chair Diaz says the bill does not do that and defers to House Appropriations Chair, Senator Bradley. President Galvano says “Why don’t we show this bill temporarily postponed, you all can get the correct answers and we can take it back up. Read the next bill…” Senators Bradley, Diaz and Lee are seen walking off to confer. (Time spent on Amendment #600908 = 3 minutes).

About an hour later, at 2:53:48, President Galvano says “Lets go back and take up HB 7067.”

They resume questions on the Lee amendment #600908, which Lee withdraws because the necessary “fix” to the problem he had identified “is going to occur in a subsequent piece of legislation.” (This must be what Lee, Diaz and Bradley negotiated when they wandered off earlier.) The Senate moves on to Senator Lee’s second amendment #159850 which would require the FLDOE to compile some of the metrics collected on participating voucher schools into a report to be presented to the Legislature annually. Senator Lee continues to give quite a speech where he reminds the Senate that these are no longer small programs, serving over 171,000 students at a cost of $1.1 BILLION annually. You can watch him at 2:55:40. His speech is followed by 6 minutes of questions on his amendment from Senator Kelli Stargel and then 3 minutes of “debate” by Chair Diaz, explaining why he opposes the amendment. He ends by saying “I ask you to vote down on this amendment.” Then, at 3:07:00, Senator Galvano says “Okay, without objection show this bill temporarily postponed,” postponing any further debate on the Lee’s amendment. They had spent just over 13 minutes arguing against Senator Lee’s amendments.

Thursday 3/12/20 (watch at 0:00:00) Debate on Senator Lee’s Amendment resumes.

Diaz: this is the K-12 Scholarship bill that we discussed “yesterday with several points and I believe that we were at the amendments.” At 0:01:25 they resume debate on the amendment #159850. Speaking for the amendment in debate were Senators Thurston, Montford, Farmer, Cruz, and Rader. Speaking against the amendment in debate: Senators Diaz and Stargel.

Lee closes (you should watch his speech at 0:11:42) on his amendment saying the legislature has a responsibility to the taxpayer and suggesting anyone appropriating $1.1 billion in a business would want some basic information about how those students are doing in those schools.

At 0:17:35 President Galvano: “Madame Secretary, unlock the board. Senators proceed to vote…”

16 Yeas – 21Nays

0:17:52 – Galvano: “Show the amendment fails. Read the next bill.” Clerk: “None on the desk Mr. President.” Galvano: “the next bill. Pursuant to Rule 4.19 show the bill placed on the calendar of bills on Third Reading. Read the next bill…”

If you watch, you can hear the clerk’s confusion. Why? Because the only questions on HB7067 were on Senator Lee’s amendments. After an amendment fails, the President usually asks for the reading of the next amendment. Instead, President Galvano calls for the next bill, meaning there was never a call for questions on the bill, itself. And that is a problem because Rule 4.19 allows bills to be placed on the calendar of bills on third (3rd) reading only after “all questions relative to it have been disposed of.” The clerk appears to have understood that proper procedure was not being followed.

Here is Rule 4.19 as published in the 2018-2020 Florida Senate Rules and Manual:

4.19—Order after second (2nd) reading

(1) After a Senate bill has been read a second (2nd) time and amended and all questions relative to it have been disposed of, it shall be referred to the engrossing clerk to be immediately engrossed. It shall then be placed on the calendar of bills on third (3rd) reading to be considered during the next Senate sitting.

(2) Amendments filed with the Secretary, but not formally moved, shall not be construed as pending and shall not deter advancement of a bill to third (3rd) reading.

(3) A bill shall be available for its third (3rd) reading when it has been read a second (2nd) time on a previous day and no motion left pending.

(4) Bills calendared for second (2nd) or third (3rd) reading shall not be considered on such reading until reached in the proper order and read by title as directed by the President.

https://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/ADMINISTRATIVEPUBLICATIONS/2018-2020_SENATERULESANDMANUAL.pdf page 61

So, on the Senate Floor, senators were never offered the opportunity to ask any questions on SB1220 or HB7067. The bill was moved to Third Reading without questions and then, with key senators absent, passed with no debate in the first 63 seconds after returning from recess. While the House spent almost 4 hours discussing voucher expansion, the Senate spent just over 36 minutes – and almost 34 minutes of that was spent on Senator Lee’s amendments.

Again, we are not suggesting that the bill wouldn’t have passed, anyway. Voucher expansion, towards Universal Vouchers, has been the clear goal of Florida’s legislative leadership for 2 decades. The fix was in. Still, rules are rules and the Senate broke their own rules in their haste to pass the bill.

Shame on them. Floridians deserve better.