TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — From the war between Israel and Hamas to disaster relief, the 2023 special legislative session in Tallahassee is underway.
The House and Senate convened Monday morning at the same time, just after 10 a.m. The Senate gaveled in and quickly adjourned, heading to committees, while the House opened with a harrowing account from Holocaust survivor David Schachter.
The 94-year-old told House members how the Nazis murdered his family.
"Before they reached the hole, the machine guns shot all of them, and my brother and I watched that," Schachter said.
The atrocities committed by the terrorist organization Hamas against Israeli soldiers and civilians on Oct. 7 took him back to the time of the Nazis. Not a day goes by that he doesn't think about what happened to him.
"Never again is a slogan that once made a strong impact, but that value is fading as never again is now," Schachter said. "As someone who watched marches and protests in Europe that led to gas chambers and mass graves, I am here to tell you that our world needs a rude awakening."
Support for the State of Israel was top of mind for legislators. Several bills were filed regarding hate crimes, antisemitism, condemning Hamas, and support for Israel. Lawmakers will also consider new sanctions against companies that do business with Iran and a $35 million grant program to help secure Jewish schools, synagogues, and other institutions.
On Monday, a bill was filed by Angela "Angie" Nixon (D) District 13 calling for "an immediate de-escalation & cease-fire in Israel & occupied Palestine, supporting protection of constitutional rights of Floridians, & advocating for dignity & safety of residents in every community."
The damage left by Hurricane Idalia nearly wiped out some farmers. Relief could be on the way.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska talked to Sen. Corey Simon (R) Tallahassee about SB2-C, which helps with disaster relief for Hurricane Idalia. It includes funds to support agriculture and aquaculture.
"This will be huge because this will help serve as a match for some of those federal dollars coming down," Simon said. "These folks don't have a lot. But what they may have, we all value, and we want to show our value through this bill."
The bill also allocates $176.2 million to fund the entire waitlist for the My Safe Florida Home program. The program is paused due to an overwhelming amount of applications, causing the original round of funding to run out.
"What we're aiming to do is to lighten the burden. And this bill lightens the burden substantially. And we'll keep working. We've got a whole session that will be working on this. This is not just this bill; this isn't the bill, this is this bill. And so we look forward to to finding out where those gaps are and bring the help necessary in the legislative session coming up in January."
According to the bill, "all grants must be matched on the basis of $1 provided by the applicant for $2 provided by the state up to a maximum state contribution of $10,000 toward the actual cost of the mitigation project."
Paluska asked Democrat Caucus House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell about Simon’s bill.
"The challenge is you have to have the $10,000 to spend in the first place. And so for some homeowners, those types of costs are just out of reach, and they need more practical relief," Driskell said. "But I think the challenge that our caucus is having is that we want to see some real conversations around climate rescue, we want to see some real conversations around manmade impact and what can be done to try to mitigate Florida's footprint with respect to the climate. Try to address some of those underlying issues, because otherwise, it just looks like we continue to come back and just give relief, give relief, give relief, but what are we doing to actually try to impact the power of these storms and you know, sea level rise in saltwater intrusion, Florida is ground zero for all of those things."
Despite a recent shooting in Ybor City that left two people dead, a 14-year-old and a 20-year-old, there were no bills filed to combat gun violence.
"There seem to have been some glaring omissions," Driskell said. "Let's do something on property insurance. Let's do something about this gun violence. Let's do something to help people afford housing in Florida, so those are the issues we want to see us focus on.”
