Brevard Republican State Senator Randy Fine is running for Congress and that means he’ll leave the Florida Legislature in the middle of this year’s legislative session. But that’s not keeping Fine from filing controversial bills capturing the news cycle.
Fine is one of three Republicans who have entered the special election for former congressman Mike Waltz’s seat, but he has president-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement. So, if he’s hoping to switch jobs, why is Fine still working on legislation? He said he owes it to voters.
“I plan to run through the tape on every one of the 100 plus days that I remain in the state senate. The voters elected me to do this, and I'm going to do it. There is plenty of time to pass these bills. I will be in the Senate for all five committee weeks and the first four weeks of session. So really, two thirds of the time available in the session to consider policy,” he said.
The three bills Fine has filed so far are also not easy lifts. One would lower the gun purchasing age in Florida to 18. Another would rescind a program that allowed undocumented minors, often called Dreamers, to pay in-state tuition at Florida public universities. The third bill bans flags the legislation deems political, like LGTBQ pride, Black Lives Matter, and Palestine flags from being displayed in or on public buildings.
All those bills are issues Fine has pushed before as a Representative in the House.
“None of these should come as a surprise to anyone. None of these are new positions. They're all things that I have done in the past,” he said.
And Fine says he plans on filing more measures. State representatives can only file seven bills, while state senators don’t have a limit. Since this is his first and likely last year as state senator, Fine says he wants to take advantage of that.
“I could file 200 bills if I so chose. I'm not planning to, but I could if I wanted. So why would I not file every. Good policy idea that I know of and see what I can get across the finish line, because there's no limit. I don't it's a completely different paradigm than the house,” he said.
University of Central Florida Political Science Professor Aubrey Jewitt said he believes Fine’s commitment to his constituents is likely part of the reason Fine has filed these measures, but he also believes there’s another reason-- boosting his congressional bid.
“By filing these conservative, controversial bills, he's getting A lot of news, and he'll be able to run on that issue, those issues, when he's running for Congress, and that's something that his opponents won't be able to do because they don't have a high profile Florida Senate seat,” he said.
It’s unclear what will happen to Fine’s measures if he leaves office. Florida Senate President Ben Albritton said during a press conference this week he’s unsure what that process would look like.
“We have to take a look at that and figure out how the process is going. I don't think it's usual. It's not business as usual. So we need to, we need to take a look at what, what the rules say and and, you know, there's lots of other senators and committee chairs and other folks that are either interested or disinterested in in the bills that he's filed,” he said.
Fine said he checked the rules, and as long as there is a co-sponsor to a bill, they can pick up the legislation as it makes its way through the legislature. So far, only one of Fine’s bills has a co-sponsor.
“If there's not another senator who wants to pick up and run with them, they weren't going to pass anyway. So, I'm fairly optimistic, and I'm I will be pushing hard to try to get them passed in the time that I have available,” he said.
Albritton has expressed uncertainty whether he would back Fine’s bills. He said he needs to speak with the state’s law enforcement agencies about lowering the gun buying age to form his perspective.
“Most of you probably remember during my speech, measure three times cut once. That applies here. So we're gonna, we're gonna be doing a lot of measuring on this to understand where we're going and what we're doing,” he said.
On removing the college funding for Dreamers, Albriton said he opposed it when it was first passed a decade ago, but now that it’s in place he would want to find a way to give people a chance to prepare for its potential repeal.
Fine isn’t the only lawmaker who is filing bills they may not be able to shepherd through the full session. Representative Joel Rudman has filed several bills despite his plans to leave office Jan 1 to run for Congressman Matt Gaetz’s now open seat.
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