Committee Week Loophole

Florida recognizes that campaign fundraising and lawmaking can create a troubling combination.

State law restricts legislators from soliciting or accepting campaign contributions during the regular legislative session. The principle behind that restriction is important: lawmakers should not be raising campaign money from people and organizations that may have business before them while they are actively making decisions in Tallahassee.

But Florida’s legislative process doesn't begin on the first day of the regular session.

Months before the Legislature officially convenes, lawmakers return to Tallahassee for interim committee weeks. During these weeks, legislators attend committee meetings, hear presentations, debate policy, consider bills, and cast votes that can determine whether legislation continues moving through the legislative process.

Yet the regular-session fundraising restriction does not apply in the same way during these committee weeks.

This creates a troubling situation.

During committee weeks, legislators can participate in fundraising events in Tallahassee while simultaneously conducting legislative business.

A legislator could attend a political fundraiser one evening where donors, lobbyists, corporations, political committees, and other interested parties contribute money, then return to the Capitol the next morning and participate in committee proceedings involving legislation important to some of those same interests.

There does not have to be an explicit exchange of money for a vote for this arrangement to raise legitimate concerns.

The proximity between fundraising and policymaking creates the appearance, and potential for, financial influence over the legislative process.

Calling these weeks “committee weeks” can make them sound preliminary or procedural. They are much more important than that.

Committees are one of the primary gateways legislation must pass through before reaching the full House or Senate.

During committee meetings, legislators can vote to advance bills, amend legislation, shape policy, or prevent proposals from moving forward. A committee vote can effectively determine the future of legislation long before lawmakers cast a vote on the House or Senate floor.

That means lawmakers are exercising genuine legislative power during the same period in which political fundraising can occur.

Florida’s restriction on fundraising during the regular legislative session recognizes an underlying concern: campaign contributions should not be intertwined with lawmakers actively conducting the people's business.

But that concern doesn't suddenly disappear because the calendar says “committee week” instead of “legislative session.”

If a legislator is debating legislation, considering amendments, meeting with interested parties, and casting votes that determine whether bills advance, the potential conflict between campaign money and policymaking remains.

The calendar changes.

The influence of the vote does not.

Consider how close the two activities can become:

Tonight: A legislator attends a Tallahassee fundraiser and raises campaign money from individuals, political organizations, and interests with business before the Legislature.

Tomorrow morning: That same legislator walks into a committee meeting and casts votes affecting legislation moving through the Florida Legislature.

Even when every contribution and vote complies with the law, voters have a right to question whether those two activities should occur so close together.

Come Clean Florida believes Florida's campaign-finance safeguards should reflect when lawmakers are exercising legislative power, not simply whether the Legislature is officially in its regular session.

If lawmakers are casting votes that determine the future of legislation, voters should be able to trust that campaign fundraising is not happening alongside those decisions.

If fundraising and legislating shouldn't mix during session, why should they mix during committee weeks?