House rejects Senate rewrite of Fiona McFarland transportation package

The House has refused to accept a sweeping Senate rewrite of a major transportation package proposed by Sarasota Republican Rep. Fiona McFarland, sending the legislation back to the upper chamber in the final days of the Legislative Session.

Representatives cast a voice vote to reject a Senate amendment to HB 543, asking the Senate to withdraw its changes and restore the House version of the measure. The Senate had previously approved the amended bill pushed by St. Petersburg Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie with a 33-0 vote that stripped out several House provisions and replaced them with language reflecting the Senate’s transportation priorities.

McFarland formally moved to reject the Senate amendment Thursday after previously indicating the package was likely dead.

“Mr. Speaker, I move that the House refuse to concur … and request the Senate to recede,” McFarland said to applause from fellow Representatives.

McFarland said the Senate’s rewrite removed several provisions that House members had added throughout the Committee process. While acknowledging that the Senate amendment included substantial policy work, she said the chambers still have unresolved priorities.

“Like any large omnibus piece of legislation, there’s sections that are priorities of our chamber versus their chamber,” McFarland said. “Over the past couple days and hours, we’ve been working closely with our Senate partners on this effort. While their amendment really was a high-quality product, there’s just a few priorities that I know are important to all of us that we’d like to ask them to consider.”

The motion to refuse concurrence was adopted without objection, formally returning the bill to the Senate.

The dispute centers on significant policy differences between the chambers’ transportation packages. HB 543 includes provisions addressing issues such as protections for wheelchair-accessible vehicles that must occupy two parking spaces, expanded use of school bus stop-arm cameras at private and charter schools, digital driver’s license privacy provisions and policies governing seaport property conversions.

The Senate amendment removed those provisions and instead restored several priorities from the Senate’s transportation proposal, including language defining what constitutes a “careful and prudent” right turn on red at intersections with red-light cameras, expanding Florida Department of Transportation funding opportunities for certain rural airports, and adding a requirement that the state conduct a railroad crossing safety study.

For now, the House’s refusal to concur leaves the legislation unresolved as lawmakers attempt to reconcile competing priorities in the final stretch of the Legislative Session.