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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.

We have partnered with Speaker Will Weatherford and the Florida House of Representatives on a 2013 joint legislative agenda that includes 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 have a solid framework of agreement on issues of key importance, and I look forward to collaboration with the Speaker as we work each of these issues through the legislative process during the coming months.

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.

For additional information and an update on Work Plan Florida, please visit Work Plan Florida.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

  • Learn about PPACA and submit public comment on how Florida should respond to the implementation by the federal government.

Intensive Budget Review

Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) and Senator Joe Negron (R-Stuart), Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, have asked leaders of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees to conduct an intensive budget review leading up to the production of the 2013-2014 General Appropriations Act, including a close review of all recurring Local Funding Initiatives to ensure that the state is getting a good return based on the realities of today's economy. For additional information visit Intensive Budget Review.