Gov. Ron DeSantis delayed a long-anticipated special session on Wednesday to redraw the state’s congressional maps, pushing it back by one week and expanding the call to address artificial intelligence and vaccine mandates.
The new session — which includes two of the governor’s top bills that failed during the regular session — will take place between April 28 and May 1, amending DeSantis’ previous special session scheduled for this coming Monday.
“[I am] calling the Legislature of the State of Florida for a Special Session relating to consideration of legislation for the drawing of congressional districts for the State of Florida and any legal challenges thereto, including the appropriation of additional funding for such litigation,” DeSantis wrote in his Wednesday evening proclamation.
There will also be legislation “relating to (1) protecting Floridians from the dangers of artificial intelligence including an AI Bill of Rights for Floridians, and creating, as necessary, public records exemptions related to investigations of alleged artificial intelligence harms and (2) medical freedom,” he added.
The delay came a day after Punchbowl News reported that DeSantis was considering pushing back the redistricting session until Florida can see how Virginia’s redistricting special session — scheduled for April 21 — fares. Although DeSantis said that was “false,” he acknowledged a short pause may be necessary.
Some Florida GOP Congress members, meanwhile, have worried that a mid-decade redistricting would backfire and accidentally give Republicans fewer seats than they started with.
In a memo to senators, Senate President Ben Albritton said Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough of Jacksonville will file an identical version of his vaccine bill and Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford will file identical legislation to the AI Bill of Rights he carried through the regular session.
Both bills passed the Senate but failed in the House without a committee hearing. This followed a larger theme of the lower chamber’s resistance to pro-DeSantis legislation and symbolized the overall friction between the House and Senate. That tension has been clearly reflected in budget chairs’ failure — for the second year in a row — to agree on a spending for the coming fiscal year.
Yarborough’s “medical freedom” bill would create a “conscience exemption” from certain vaccine requirements for kids, and allow ivermectin to be sold without a prescription. Its a weaker version of the legislation DeSantis wanted, which would have repealed all vaccine mandates for kids in school.
Brodeur’s AI Bill of Rights, initially sponsored by Republican Sen. Tom Leek of Ormond Beach, would ban companion chatbots for minors and require AI interfaces to remind users that the tools aren’t human.
A parent would have the ability to opt-out their child from using AI tools at school, and elementary schools would be banned from providing access to AI unless school personnel supervised the use, it is for translation support for English learners, or for disability accommodations.
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