Soon Florida cities and counties will be banned from funding or promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and enacting net zero policies that cut down on greenhouse gases.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills barring local governments from supporting those policies and programs at an event in Jacksonville on Wednesday.
One measure (SB 1134) prohibits municipalities from funding or passing a resolution in support of programs deemed diverse or inclusive. It also bars cities and counties from having a DEI office or an inclusion officer and gives the governor the power to remove local officials who violate the law.
“What I’ve found in this business is when people know there’s accountability, they’re much more apt to toe the line and do what the law requires,” DeSantis said.
The sponsors of the anti-DEI bill, Jacksonville Republicans Sen. Clay Yarborough and Rep. Dean Black, said in a statement they saw “a need to preserve the American ideals of merit, individualism, and character in Florida’s institutions.”
Under the new law DEI is defined as “any effort to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender, identity or sexual orientation other than to ensure that hiring is conducted in accordance with state and federal antidiscrimination laws.”
The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.
In recent years, the Legislature has passed laws limiting how race can be taught in K-12 schools and preventing higher education institutions from spending federal dollars on DEI initiatives.
“With DEI, the disfavored groups, number one obviously, would be white males, and I think they’ve been discriminated against,” DeSantis said Wednesday.
The other bill (HB 1217) signed by DeSantis takes aim at “net zero emission policies by local governments. DeSantis dubbed it an “anti-carbon tax” bill.
Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, the bill sponsor, said the legislation would ban the “green new scam in the free state of Florida.”
When the proposal was before the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee in January, Miami Springs Republican Sen. Bryan Avila, the Senate sponsor, argued that net zero policies from local governments drove up costs for residents and businesses in pursuit of “some goal that they’re never going to reach.”
He added that policies pushing for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions amounted to an unseen tax that would discourage people and companies from relocating to Florida.
Several parts of the state have already adopted net-zero policies, as South Florida is one of the regions in the country most vulnerable to climate change.
Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties formed a compact in 2009, for example, to address climate concerns in the region. The resulting Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact issued a report in 2022 calling for a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“Now is the time for local governments to start looking within and getting their house in order to be fully compliant,” Jacques told the News Service of Florida. “They have plenty of time to start downsizing and phasing out any program that violates this new law.”
The law will take effect July 1.
–Ana Goñi-Lessan, News Service of Florida
Wayne says
Good. Cancel everything, then. No more parades. No more holiday celebrations. Nothing. You can’t celebrate one thing (because you like and support it) and disallow other celebrations (because they get your panties twisted). The second I see the city hold any celebration whatsoever, I will sue because my fe-fe’s were hurt. Doesn’t matter if I believe it or not. Christmas celebrations? Lawsuit. Fourth of July? Lawsuit. Halloween? Lawsuit. Stupid people win stupid prizes. Go ahead and push the next POS legislation demanding the Bible be taught in school. Lawsuit allowing all holy books taught because of constitutional violations. Why would I sue? I’m petty and passive aggressive and sometimes stupid people need stupid lawsuits to see how stupid they really are. Keep moving the goal posts. Who are the real snowflakes again?
Keenan Hreib says
THANK YOU WAYNE!!!!!!
T says
Ron the con stealing millions and weak insecure and wife needs a man
JimboXYZ says
DEI vs Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity & Inclusion. Really the same things we’ve always had. Diversoty = AA, Equity = EEO & Inclusion = LGBTQ & any possible relative Age related discrimination that doesn’t classifiy under D or E. Something employers are going to try anyway & still have to be sued over anyway. How vastly different is it from anything that’s ever been a social movement. And there has never been a “reverse discrimination” as a protected class for anyone that was a victim of that. Employers are going to do what they’re going to do anyway. The legislation has always been there, DEI was easier to rattle off rather than going thru the acronyms of the 20th century. Somehow rebadging as DEI somehow became the extreme of the Liberal Leftist’s protections on steroids that seem to apply to them only. It’s astonishingly funny, how the tunnel vision of being extreme liberal left, that anyone right of that extreme liberal leftism somehow has fewer to no rights under DEI ?
Take the Somali frauds in MN ?how many white Caucasians are involved, other than Walz allowing it to happen. But the ring leader is Ilhan Omar and her filings for valuations going from $ 6-30 million to $ 18-95K. A Ilhan Omar/Husband owned California winery that no longer exists. Like the Quality Learing Centers that have no Daycare or even employees that show up, not to mention the feed the children programs, bilked & milked as fraud & abuse of Federal programs. It’s a good bet that money was laundered & moved off shore ? Here in FL the big ticket fraud & abuse happens in (mostly) South FL for Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP programs. Yet the entirety of FL has fraud & abuses for unaffordable healthcare. How Rick Scott avoided prison time is beyond me, now he’s a Senator in Congress.
Al says
How many of you trust your families finances to a minority advisor knowing they got the job to fill a dei requirement? The ones that say they do are either stupid or can’t bear to tell the truth.
Sherry says
@al . . what a despicable, racist statement! Not surprised. . .
Skibum says
Yes, and whenever you are walking onboard a commercial airliner, be sure to look into the cockpit, right, Al. Whenever you see a black pilot or copilot, or even worse, a (OH MY GAWD!) woman who is going to be fiddling with all of the dials, switches and other complicated thingies that we all know get in the way of her long nails and eyelashes, or trying to find a mirror to put on lipstick… there is ONLY one conclusion to make. DEI gone wrong!!! Diversity mayhem!!! Inclusion catastrophe!!!
We must know they only got their jobs for one reason because otherwise, they are known to be totally incompetent and could NEVER measure up to a white guy’s ability! Everyone on that plane will die because Al tells us that ONLY white men are technologically capable and intelligent enough to master the complicated art of taking off and landing a commercial airliner without killing everyone abord. Same for most other career professions and college acceptances.
Where, oh where did America go so wrong? Where’s the KKK when you need them?
Now for a dose of reality… the idiots are among us, and are astoundingly morose!
Deborah Coffey says
So much for “All men are created equal.” But, Fascists hate the Constitution of the United States and all laws that don’t support their hateful, immoral, unethical ideology, and fake Christianity. On the upside, they will all be treated the same way into eternity because as “Christians” they must know that they should “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” i.e. What you give us what you get.
Dean Gallberry III says
Short, angry White men with unresolved feelings of inadequacy needing to rein in those they fear might actually get a chance to move forward. But at least the Legislature took care of the real important issues facing the state, like passing a budget, right?
Sherry says
Thank You Dean!
Atwp says
Hi, read the paragraph about white men being discriminated against. White men can discriminate but they can’t take discrimination. People of color we need to arm ourselves because what the government is saying is that white men can do anything wrong and get away with it, in my opinion. Jim Crowe laws is gaining ground. White cops murdering people at will without any consequences. We are going to the slavery days again, but as African American people we have more weapons to defend ourselves. An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. There is no way in hell we as African Americans will allow the white man to treat us like they did during Jim Crowe. I will stand and die before I allow a white man control my life, no way on this earth will I allow that to happen. Much can be said but this entity have rules we should follow. My rule is no white will rule me, no way. People of color it is now time to prepare for slavery and another civil war. The white man will suffer like we did in the past and now, the white man will suffer.