(TALLAHASSEE, FL.) - After the Emergency Preparedness and Relief Fund(ERPF) expired, legislators scrambled to recreate the fund.
The ERPF is a state trust fund, which means the bill will automatically expire after four years and needs to be recreated.
On Mar. 13, Senate Bill 7040 passed, giving the governor access once again to the funds. The bill passed retroactively, meaning any spending or cost incurred by programs active by the governor during the lapse period is covered and legal.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law on Mar. 19, with the legislators agreeing on new provisions for his continued state funding.
The State of Florida has been in a declared state of emergency since Jan 2023, where the governor has spent over $573 million.
Previously, the governor could declare a state of emergency for two months at a time and immediately apply for an extension, allowing him continuous access to emergency funds.
The new fund will not operate as freely.
(Photo Credit: Lobby Tools/ Speaker Daniel Perez)
“We have a fundamental disagreement on what the budget should look like for the state of Florida. Fast is not on the menu this session."
Although the governor can keep Florida in an indefinite state of emergency, DeSantis will only have unsupervised spending for the first sixty days, or the first declared emergency.
If the governor chooses to extend the emergency, he will still have access to emergency funds but will have to go through the Joint Legislative Budget Commission (JLBC) for approval.
Photo Credit: Florida Senate/ Senator Lorie Berman/ JLBC Member
"I want our governor to be able to respond quickly to emergencies, whether they’re natural, technological, or man-made. But I can’t approve offering a blank check to the executive branch”.
“We are not doing the people’s money the right way when we don’t put guardrails on how money is being spent."
The JLBC will be a fourteen-person council, which will use a majority vote to approve spending towards natural disasters.
SB 7040 separates natural disasters and man-made emergencies.
Natural disasters will utilize the majority vote, but man-made disasters, such as immigration is considered, may follow a different protocol. The new Senate bill allows the chair and vice chair to approve spending without a commission vote for man-made emergencies. The governor needs to convince only two people, not the majority of fourteen, to approve his immigration spending.
Senator Ed Hooper and Representative Lawrence McClure are the chairman and vice chairman, respectively.
The original house bill would have prevented emergency funds from going towards man-made emergencies, but legislators agreed upon the resolution, which adds some oversight to the process.
In addition to oversight, there are more restrictions on the emergency funds. Emergency funds can no longer be used to buy any kind of vehicle, a common practice for transporting arrested immigrants. Although vehicles can no longer be bought through the fund, leasing is still considered legal.
Legislators have also limited the self-replenishing trait of the fund.
Now, when federal reimbursement funds no longer go directly to discretionary spending. SB 7040 forces reimbursements, such as from FEMA, to go towards debt, no longer adding to the project funds.
The Division of Emergency Management will now be responsible for delivering quarterly reports,
The Senate Bill gave the ERPF an extra $250 million, which brings the estimates for the current fund to around $700 million, significantly less than the four billion dollar peak.
The fund is depleting, with reports that Alligator Alcatraz alone is using over a million dollars per day.
If you have any input or questions, please comment and email me at jason.f@lead4earth.org.
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