Danny Alvarez’s counterterrorism unit proposal clears its third House Committee

A proposal by Riverview Republican Rep. Danny Alvarez to create a first-of-its-kind statewide counterintelligence and counterterrorism unit within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has cleared its third House Committee.

The House Budget Committee cast a 20-8 vote to advance HB 945. Alvarez told Committee members the bill would create a new statewide counterintelligence and counterterrorism unit within the FDLE to bolster the state’s ability to confront foreign adversaries and terrorist threats without relying on federal agents. 

The unit’s primary goal would be to “conduct statewide counterintelligence and counterterrorism activities to detect, identify, neutralize, and exploit adversary intelligence entities, international and domestic terrorists, insider threats, corporate threats, and other foreign adversaries to protect this state and the United States of America.” 

“Criminals and terrorists do not understand where Sarasota begins and Tampa ends,” Alvarez said. “The idea is that we need someone looking statewide formally, that can’t be pulled off for a DUI or can’t be pulled off for a body guard. They are dedicated to a CI counterterror mission.”

The bill would direct the FDLE to create a 10-person leadership team by July 2027 to serve as the organizational core of the full unit, which must ultimately include at least seven teams statewide. Each team would include a team leader, intelligence analysts and counterintelligence agents, with specified experience requirements in intelligence, counterintelligence or counterterrorism. The Department would be required to request additional positions and funding each fiscal year to achieve full staffing by Dec. 30, 2033.

The proposal drew criticism from opponents who raised concern about potential First Amendment violations, vague statutory language and the absence of explicit guardrails or independent oversight governing how the unit would operate.

“We have grave concerns that the current provisions of HB 945 could easily be used to silence dissenting voices under the guise of security,” ACLU of Florida Strategist Abdelilah Skhir said. “Florida has the tools to actually prosecute actual criminal conduct, including violent crimes. The vague and overbroad language could easily be weaponized against everyday Floridians engaged in First Amendment protected activity.”

Civil liberties advocates and several Democratic lawmakers warned the bill’s definition of “adversary intelligence entity” was overly broad and could sweep in protected speech. Opponents pointed to language authorizing the use of counterintelligence “tradecraft” and the ability to analyze “patterns of life,” questioning how those powers would be limited in practice and whether they could be used to monitor lawful political activity.

Alvarez pushed back on those concerns, repeatedly emphasizing that criminal activity would be required before any investigation could begin and that FDLE would remain bound by existing constitutional protections and warrant requirements. He added that First Amendment rights would be protected by an amendment to the bill that will be introduced at a future Committee stop.

“We are very, very aware of the questions regarding (the) First Amendment, questions regarding any sort of political risks of speech,” Alvarez said. 

“We’re going to address that in an amendment that comes to the next Committee, because this is a budget Committee and we can’t present those policy kinds of talks. But just understand this is going after terrorists, nation state bad actors, not political speech. A criminal predicate is required prior to any law enforcement activity. We don’t have intelligence authorities, we’re in law enforcement, and that’s how this begins.”

Alvarez argued that constitutional protections already serve as sufficient safeguards and that Florida should not rely solely on federal authorities for protection.

“Your guardrails is that four-cornered document called the Constitution,” Perez said. 

“It’s the same guard rail that literally today, law enforcement has to abide by every single day. I want you to realize something. The reason that we’re codifying this, or that we’re trying to, is so that when you have an issue on a statewide level our borders don’t protect us anymore.”

HB 945 now heads to its fourth and final Committee stop at the State Affairs Committee before reaching the House floor. An identical bill (SB 1712) filed by Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin has cleared its first of three Senate Committee stops on Feb. 11. If ultimately approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, the legislation would take effect July 1.