DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Local Governments from Implementing Diversity and Fairness Policies

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