With no debate, the Florida Senate quickly and quietly approved an immigration measure, keeping alive for now the issue the GOP-dominated legislature is unlikely to ultimately agree on.

The Senate measure, finalized yesterday after an emotional floor debate, would require work force boards to use E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential workers before referring them to employers and prohibit undocumented residents from receiving state or federal benefits. It would also allow nonviolent criminals to serve shorter sentences if they agree to be deported. And it would require law enforcement officers to make a “reasonable effort” to ascertain immigration status after someone has been arrested and detained.

The Senate approved the bill (SB 2040) by a 23-16 vote as dozens of immigrants and their children sat in the public gallery overlooking the chamber. The immigrants, a continuous presence in the Capitol who have stepped up pressure on lawmakers to abandon the issue over the past two weeks, left singing a song about freedom.

Despite the Senate’s action today, chances of the two chambers reaching agreement on the thorny issue remain close to nil.

House GOP leaders said they do not believe they have the votes to take up the Senate’s much weaker version of their proposal (HB 7089) that would require businesses to use E-Verify and give sheriffs, deputies and police officers the authority to ask for immigration documentation when they are pursuing a criminal investigation.

The Florida Senate may “the most conservative Senate ever,” as President Mike Haridopolos boasted at the onset of the legislative session.

But it’s apparently not conservative enough to pass House Speaker Dean Cannon’s sweeping overhaul of the Supreme Court that would, among other things, split the court in two.

As the clock winds down until lawmakers sine die on Friday, the Senate plan today is to remove at least that part of the proposed constitutional amendment, keep the provision allowing the legislature to have control over the court’s rules and send it back to the House for another vote.

“Our members have felt pretty strongly about splitting up the Supreme Court,” Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, said. “What you’re going to see is an option sent back to the House.”

Senate GOP leaders (who have a 28-12 majority) won’t say out loud that they don’t have the 24 votes needed to pass the proposed constitutional amendment.

But Gardiner, whose job is to count votes and corral the GOP caucus, conceded the speaker’s priority measure wouldn’t pass as is.

“You never count out votes until you sine die but I do think there’s a strong sense amongst our members about the Supreme Court piece,” Gardiner said.

As budget talks on health and human services appropriations stalled, the Senate is moving forward with its Medicaid overhaul. Senate GOP leaders have not scheduled the immigration bill for Saturday, although only two hours of notice are required to add it to the agenda.

The Senate will take up its proposal (SB 1972) on Saturday along with dozens of local bills and Senate confirmations of Gov. Rick Scott’s appointees. But no word yet on whether the chamber will address immigration reform, still in flux as Senate Budget Chief J.D. Alexander, now shepherding the bill (SB 2040), weighs his options.

The House and Senate are both looking to put most of the state’s 2.9 million Medicaid patients into HMO-style plans. But differences abound between the two approaches. The Senate would divide the state into 19 regions, based on state court circuits; the House proposes eight.

The chambers are far apart on immigration reform as well. The House’s Arizona-style plan is on hold as the Senate considers a more moderate approach.
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On the second day of the legislative session, the Florida Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment allowing Florida to opt out of the federal health care law, the chamber’s President Mike Haridopolos’ top priority.

The Senate approved the measure, (SJR 2) by a 29-10 vote, with just one Democrat – Bill Montford of Tallahassee – voting in favor.

The amendment, which would go before the voters next year, bans the federal government from forcing Floridians from having to purchase health care coverage, the “individual mandate” that is the subject of several federal court cases, including one in Florida. A Pensacola federal judge struck down the law as unconstitutional. President Obama’s administration appealed that ruling yesterday, and the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide on the case.

Lawmakers attempted to put a similar measure on the ballot last year, but the Florida Supreme Court struck it down saying it was confusing to voters. Haridopolos tweaked the language to try to meet the court’s muster this time around.

Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican, is running for U.S. Senate, and could possibly on the same November 2012 ballot as the amendment.

“This is about freedom. This is about federalism. This is not a unitary government where everything just comes on down high from government,” Haridopolos said before the vote. “This is about choice. This is about freedom and respecting the U.S. Constitution and…mostly, respecting individual rights.”

Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston argued that the federal law already allows states to opt out if they come up with another way to make sure its citizens are insured.

“The fact remains that this is the law of the land and it is our duty to take the appropriate steps to implement this law,” Rich said. “Whether you like it or not, we have a federal system of government…Federal law remains the supreme law of the land.”

The proposed amendment would require 60 percent approval from the voters to pass. The House has not yet voted on the measure.

Arguing against the bill, Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, took umbrage at Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, calling the law “Obamacare.”

“Sen. Gaetz mentioned Obamacare,” Hill said. “At least somebody care.”

Protests planned on tomorrow’s opening day of the 2011 legislative session by unions and tea party activists are “exciting,” Senate President Mike Haridopolos told reporters this morning.

“This is America. People have every right to protest, positively or negatively. I think it’s exciting that people are taking such an interest in their government and they want to be vocal about where they stand,” the Merritt Island Republican, running for U.S. Senate, said. “If there are protests on either side, welcome to America.”

Asked if the protests might reach the heated level as Wisconsin, where union activists have camped out for weeks in the Capitol, Haridopolos shrugged.

“It might happen. If I was a protester and I had the choice of going to Wisconsin or Florida, I’d probably come here too,” he quipped.

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More than 100 members of the tea party movement, many of them county leaders, showed up on the day of the special session to learn more about the state legislature and to remind lawmakers that they’re going to hold them paying close attention to how they vote on tax and spending issues.

“We’re here to send a message to the Florida Legislature that we’re serious about holding them accountable,” said Henry Kelley, leader of the Fort Walton Beach Tea Party and organizer of Tuesday’s event.

Several powerful GOP leaders, including Senate President Mike Haridopolos and Sen. John Thrasher, who’s also the head of the Republican Party of Florida, dropped by the group’s meeting in a Senate committee room.

Haridopolos, who pledged Tuesday that lawmakers “will not raise taxes a single dime,” said he had a good talk with the group.

“That’s the kind of energy we need. As a person who strongly believes in the Constitution, I’m glad that they’re leading the fight to make sure we have limited government,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said later.

“We want to have a two-way dialogue with them throughout the year. We want to hear directly from people because sometimes in Tallahassee you get too isolated,” he said.

Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos tapped John Thrasher, head of the Republican Party of Florida, as chairman of the powerful Senate Rules committee and is keeping J.D. Alexander as budget chief.

Haridopolos, who officially takes over the helm on Tuesday, also assigned Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, to lead the chamber’s reapportionment efforts.

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, called Gaetz’s assignment perhaps “the most challenging committee chairmanship of all” because he’ll have to operate under the new reapportionment system approved by voters on Election Day that prohibits drawing districts that favor incumbents or political parties. One of the two constitutional amendments revamping reapportionment is now being challenged in federal court.

Thrasher, a St. Augustine lawyer and lobbyist who also served as House Speaker, took over the troubled state GOP earlier this year but has said he would step down as chairman after the November elections.

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, has been in charge of the Senate’s budget for the past two years.

Alexander’s task isn’t an easy one either. He’s expected to have a $2.9 billion spending gap to manage, a new governor – Rick Scott – who wants to slash spending on state government and prisons, and no more federal stimulus funds to help plug the budget hole as he has for the past two years.

A bill that would have required septic tanks to be inspected every five years is on GOP leaders’ short list during a special session later this month.

Candidates throughout the state have heard an earful about the septic tank issue, especially from rural residents who complain about the cost of inspections and a blanket approach in the requirement instead of targeting older tanks.

The state health department estimates that more than half of the septic tank systems in use are more than 30 years old and no statewide inspection system is currently in place.

One solution proposed by House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon would be to delay implementation of the inspection program six months beyond the current Jan. 1 start-up date.

That would also give lawmakers time to come up with an alternative proposal during the regular session that begins in March.

Now that they’ve got a veto-proof majority in both the state House and Senate, GOP legislative leaders will override nine bills axed by Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this year as their first course of business later this month.

Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon are holding the special session on the day they officially take over their chambers during the typically ceremonial organizational session beginning Nov. 16.

“We chose issues that had one or two negative votes, most, in the Senate, most of them unanimous,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, told reporters this morning. “Once we take these off the table, we can focus on jobs, jobs, jobs, because that’s what people care about.”

Lawmakers steered clear of two controversial measures – a bill that would have required pregnant women to view a sonogram before having an abortion and a measure (SB 6) that would have done away with teacher tenure.

Instead, most of the nine bills they selected received unanimous or near-unanimous approval.

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UPDATE: Senate President Jeff Atwater called to clarify his position on the decision not to hold a special session on oil spill-related issues. Here’s what he had to say:

“I haven’t changed my mind on anything. I don’t know how I could have tried any harder,” Atwater said about the House’s decision that a special session is unnecessary this year. He said a special session is both “timely and necessary.”

There’s no need for a special session to address the fall-out from BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig blast that pumped millions of gallons of hydrocarbons into the Gulf of Mexico, House Speaker Larry Cretul and Senate President Jeff Atwater have decided.

Despite earlier promises that lawmakers would convene as early as September to try to give a helping hand to fishermen and others in the Panhandle whose finances have crumbled in the aftermath of the April 20 disaster, the pair are convinced those issues can wait until the regular session next year in March.

“It would appear that while there are some issues where legislative action may be appropriate, there are no issues that require immediate formal legislative action. Additionally, there are several areas where it is clear that we do not yet possess the information necessary to make informed decisions. Moreover, many of these issues require solutions that would benefit from closer scrutiny during a regular legislative session,” Cretul, R-Ocala, wrote to House members today.

Atwater, who is running statewide for chief financial officer, apparently agreed although he had previously pushed the House to come back early.

Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said he asked his select committee “to continue developing proposals, gathering data, and working with incoming leadership in preparation for the next session” in a memo to the his members today.

The Florida Supreme Court today threw out three proposed constitutional amendments placed on the November ballot by lawmakers.

The court tossed an amendment that would have watered down two other amendments put on the ballot by citizens’ petition dealing with redistricting, another designed to give tax breaks to first-time home-buyers and a third passed by lawmakers opposed to federal health care reforms.

The Supreme Court found that all three legislative proposals were misleading and struck them from the ballot.

The court also today refused to remove two proposed amendments put on the ballot by citizens’ initiative that would revamp the way congressional and legislative districts are drawn.

All constitutional amendments require 60 percent approval by voters to pass.

The Senate approved a last-minute amendment that would carve out a special exemption for the Callery-Judge Groves development in West-Central Palm Beach County allowing builders to bypass rigorous planning requirements for large developments.

The amendment would allow county-created “limited urban service areas,” like Callery-Judge, counties to circumvent the review process for traffic rules and large developments.

The amendment was added by Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, onto a growth management bill (HB 7099) shortly before the Senate passed the measure by a 36-2 vote.

The House could take up the measure as early as Tuesday, and if any more changes are made, send it back to the Senate for another vote before the session ends next Friday.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are putting together a legislative task force to help streamline relief to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The tri-county area is home to the greatest number of Haitian immigrants and has been ground-zero for state and federal Haitian aid efforts.

Newly elected state Rep. Mack Bernard, a West Palm Beach Democrat who was born in Port-au-Prince where the epicenter of the deadly earthquake struck last month, is heading up Palm Beach County’s delegation in the task force, which will include Reps. Juan Zapata, R-Miami, and Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, and up to 9 other South Florida lawmakers.

Bernard wants better communication from Gov. Charlie Crist, who he said telephoned him the night of the earthquake on Jan. 12 but hasn’t spoken with him since.

Bernard visited Haiti last week. His sister and her three children are now homeless as a result of the disaster, Bernard said.

Crist should appoint a “Haiti czar” to streamline efforts that could be an economic boon to financially-strapped Florida, Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, suggested.

Read the story here.

“It’s that lack of communication, especially from the governor’s office” that is creating frustration for representatives from the tri-county area, which has the state’s largest Haitian immigrant population and is now on the front line providing aid and resources to the ravaged nation, Bernard said.

Former Florida Christian Coalition leader Dennis Baxley confirmed he is running for re-election to the state House.

Baxley, a conservative Republican from Ocala, served in the state House from 2000-2008 and as the executive director of the Christian Coalition until May.

The funeral director raised eyebrows prior to the presidential election when he told The Miami Herald how he and other Christians perceived then-candidate Barack Obama: “He’s pretty scary to us.”

Baxley is running for his old District 24 seat because incumbent Rep. Kurt Kelly has jumped into the race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, a liberal Democrat who defeated a four-term incumbent Republican in his election to Congress last year.

Grayson catapulted to national fame with his tongue-in-cheek characterization of the GOP health care reform as “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”

Republicans are hoping to win Grayson’s seat back and the race for Congressional District 8 seat is likely to be one of the most closely watched in 2010.

“It’s a big challenge. Congressman Grayson’s become very visible and very positionable. I’m very proud that Kurt’s willing to take on that challenge to try to win that seat back for the Republicans,” Baxley said in a telephone interview this afternoon. “If he can go and accomplish something that difficult I ought to go back to work and try to help our economy again.”

Baxley said his main priority will be job creation to help the state’s out-of-work residents like the 18,000 in his district.

“We really need a primary focus on making an economic climate change for Florida,” he said.

In another example of legislating by anecdote, House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands filed a bill to let nursing mothers off the hook for jury duty.

Sands filed the bill (HB 79) after hearing from a breast-feeding constituent who wasn’t allowed to bring her baby along to jury duty.

Emily Schmitt sent the Weston Democrat a lengthy e-mail describing her tale of woe after showing up for jury duty in Broward County and being “completely demeaned, disrespected and humiliated” by workers who told her to pump her breastmilk in the bathroom like other nursing mothers have done in the past.

“That’s just plain wrong,” said Sands.

Florida law now currently excuses from jury duty pregnant women and parents who don’t work full time and have custody of children younger than 6 years old.

Sands’ measure, which would add lactating mothers to that list, was approved by a committee yesterday.

The Senate companion bill has yet to be assigned for a committee hearing.