Last Call for 3.5.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

Strap in — Session is going long.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ed Hooper said today that budget talks are moving too slowly for lawmakers to adjourn Sine Die next Friday.

Hooper told Florida Politics that it’s “possible” budget allocations could be finalized by the end of the 60-day Regular Session, but the full spending plan will not be completed by next Friday.

Hooper’s read is more optimistic than the House’s — budget writers in the lower chamber told Florida Politics the current negotiations are “a thousand miles from nowhere.”

House Speaker Daniel Perez said as much Wednesday, when he acknowledged there was a “fundamental disagreement” between the chambers.

The comments confirm that the chasm everyone knew about heading into the 2026 Legislative Session remains.

As it stands, the task over the next week (or weeks) is to close a $1.4 billion gap between the Senate’s $115 billion proposal and the House’s leaner $113.6 billion budget. There’s also the $117.4 billion plan Gov. Ron DeSantis pitched in December, but we wouldn’t recommend adding any more variables to the equation unless you bought travel insurance.

And that’s just topline allocations — it doesn’t take a magnifying glass to spot the myriad discrepancies between the two spending plans.

Evening Reads

—“‘Decapitate and delegate’: Donald Trump tests new model of U.S.-led regime change” via Vera Berengruen and Alexander Ward of The Wall Street Journal

—“How a DHS shooting of a third U.S. citizen went unnoticed for months” via Robert Klemko of The Washington Post

—”Trump ousts Kristi Noem from DHS” via Josh Dawsey, Tarini Parti and Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal

—“Iran had a plan to fight Israel and the U.S. It all collapsed after Oct. 7.” via Joshua Keating of Vox

—“Senate votes to ban local governments from spending on DEI” via Mitch Perry of the Florida Phoenix

—”Senate temporarily postpones ‘Blue Ribbon projects’ bill, but it’s not dead yet” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics

—”Marsy’s Law may expand to shield crime victims, officers’ identities” via Gabriel Velasquez Neira of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

—“UF law school bent its own rules in hiring Attorney General Uthmeier” via Garrett Shanley of the Tampa Bay Times

—“Wyman Duggan’s House farewell: gratitude, Shakespeare and a Ferris Bueller nod” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics

—“How a music streaming CEO built an open-source global threat map in his spare time” via Lilian Wagdy of WIRED

Quote of the Day

“Leadership requires integrity. Racism disqualifies you.”

— U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, on the ‘Nazi heaven’ group chat.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Rep. Wyman Duggan gets an El Fiero for working a Ferris Bueller reference into his farewell speech on the House floor.

Rep. Tyler Sirois gets a Lift Off for carrying his aerospace bill to unanimous approval in the House. Whether he gets an Escape Velocity is up to the Senate.

Is the “Blue Ribbon projects” bill ready for a PRIME TIME or not? The ice is melting …

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

Gators close out regular season on Saturday

The freshly crowned Southeastern Conference champion Florida Gators conclude the regular season on Saturday on the road at Kentucky (4 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Florida (24-6) is ranked fifth in the most recent Associated Press Top 25 poll. The Gators clinched the outright conference championship on Tuesday with a 108-74 win over Mississippi State on senior night. It was the 10th straight victory for Florida.

Florida is among the top-scoring teams in the nation, averaging nearly 88 points per game, ranking 14th. Only two teams grab more rebounds than Florida’s 45.7 per game. After winning the national championship last season, Florida got off to an uneven start, losing to Arizona, Duke, and Connecticut. But since the loss to UConn on Dec. 10, the Gators have won 19 of 21 games, including the first meeting of the season with Kentucky, a 92-83 victory in Gainesville on Valentine’s Day.

Florida will be the top seed in the SEC Tournament that tips off on Wednesday. As a top-four seed, the Gators will not play until the tournament’s quarterfinals on Friday, March 13.

Saturday’s game could impact Kentucky’s seeding. As of now, they are in line to be the eight-seed. However, the Wildcats are one of four teams with a 10-7 conference record, so the results of games involving Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M, and even 11-6 Tennessee, could find teams moving up into the top four seeds.

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.