TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida legislature meets for an organization session 14 days after the general election to swear in new members and speak on what the year ahead could look like at the capitol.
WFLA caught up with both sides of the aisle on key issues like the economy and one amendment that may make a return.
Even with a red supermajority in the House and Senate, Senator Jay Collins and Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell say the republican and democratic parties agree on most issues. However, the minority party is ready to play the role of opposition and advocate for Amendment 4, which failed to reach the 60% threshold.
"Majority of bills that will pass this legislative session will be voted on unanimously or near-unanimously. And those are more the kitchen table issues, economic issues, issues impacting communities, and how we move them forward," said Leader Driskell. "Where we start to see that fracture is when we're generating with those social issues and those wedge issues."
Minority Leader Driskell adds that the majority should not be 'gloating' over Amendment 4 and highlights the 57% of voters who voted for its passage.
"I think it's something that we should talk about and as the minority party we're probably going to have to be the ones to push that conversation and let Floridians know, hey, we see you and we hear you," said Leader Driskell.
While there may be back-and-forth over abortion rights, one thing both parties can agree on is the economy.
"It's affordability, right? We saw that economic issues were important to voters during this election cycle. And I think that's not just a national concern, it impacts people locally too," said Leader Driskell.
And that message is the same on the Senate floor as well.
"What we have to do is look at this issue, look at the math, look at this analytically, and solve really complex problems. The last thing we want to do is make it worse because we over-engineer it, but we also aren't going to stand by idly and ignore this either," said Sen. Collins.
While Senator Jay Collins agrees with Minority Leader Driskell on the economy, he doesn't agree on all issues, like Amendment 4.
"If people bring it up then we'll cross that bridge when it comes, comes up, but I'm much more focused on putting money back in the pockets of our constituents," said Sen. Collins.
Next week on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at the organization session, we will be looking to get answers on new committee changes and other key issues the Florida legislature will be focusing on come March.
"I would encourage people to come to Tallahassee and be a part of what we do up there. Many of our best pieces of legislation came from the people, they came from people who were experiencing a problem," said Sen. Collins. "What we don’t know, we can't solve."