This week officially marks the second to last week of the 2026 Legislative Session. Bills that have not moved through all of their assigned committee references are considered dead, while other bills are moving through the House and Senate chambers (with some ping ponging between the chambers). Budget negotiations have officially commenced.  

Following the submission of the budget silo recommendations a few weeks back, these recommendations were then combined into a larger budget proposal from each chamber.  

As a recap, the House and Senate budget proposals are currently $1 billion apart—with the House budget totaling $113.6 billion and Senate budget totaling $115 billion (Source: The Florida Phoenix/Tallahassee Reports). Because the Legislature is responsible forpassing a state budget mutually agreed upon by both the House and Senate, a negotiations period referred to as “budget conferencing” between the two chambers is utilized to help address the gaps between the proposals.  

Budget conference committees are established for corresponding budget silos from each chamber and are comprised of House and Senate members. This process allows members to have focused effort on addressing gaps in each silo.  

Unlike committee meetings, meetings for budget conference committees are considered sporadic (with some happening late at night and weekends) with only a one-hour meeting notice requirement. 

Similar to the budget silo chair recommendations, the chairs for each budget conference committee will be giving their final recommendations for the larger budget proposal over the next week. At that point, the two proposals from each chamber are expected to have worked out their differences and merged into one proposal.  

Once the final proposal is hot off the presses, members are required to have a three-day “cool-off period,” where they must wait three days before voting on the budget. The final budget proposal is usually the final act of business for the Legislative Session, where it is passed in both chambers on the last scheduled day of session before going to the governor for his review.  

Once the budget is passed in both chambers, members can officially sine die (Latin for adjournment), which means business for the Legislative Session has officially concluded for the year. Items proposed to be funded in the budget are pending the governor’s approval.  

In the months following session, the governor has until July 1 (the start of the new fiscal year) to sign the budget and issue a veto item list. Which budget items end up on the veto list—items that are ultimately cut from the budget—will depend on a number of factors, from which items align with the governor’s priorities ($117.4 billion budget proposal) to projects that could obtain funding from another source (such as a state grant program).  

There are rumblings and rumors that session may be extended, and presently the authorized schedule for next week does not show sine die for next Friday (the scheduled last day of session). I’m prepared to work until the job is done.