• A long legislative committee week kicks off today, with hearings across a variety of subjects, setting the tone for the upcoming 2023 legislative session
• Governor Ron DeSantis will also convene a Cabinet meeting today to install a pair of law enforcement agency leaders among other state business
• Committee meetings will be held across the state capitol complex today through Thursday

Parking will be tougher than usual in downtown Tallahassee this week as lawmakers convene committee hearings that will set the agenda for the upcoming legislative session set to begin on March 7th. Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet are set to meet at 11am in the Capitol Complex, with an agenda that includes installing a pair of agency leaders, and a review of the state’s floundering pension system.

The “science of reading,” a report on state veteran’s nursing homes and a state wildlife corridor are just a warmup for the Florida House of Representatives, as a handful of subcommittees kick things off at 9 a.m.

At 10am, Democrats, who are not just in the minority in both the House and the Senate, but are actually a “super-minority,” will look to make what little noise they can about the agenda being set by Republicans without their input. House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, and Rep. Kelly Skidmore, from Boca Raton, will hold a media availability to “share the perspective of the House Democratic Caucus on issues impacting Floridians.”

Things really start to get cooking at 11am, when Governor Ron DeSantis convenes a meeting with the Florida Cabinet, marking newly installed Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson’s first such event. Topics on the agenda include consideration of Mark Glass as commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and former Palm Beach County Commissioner David Kerner as executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. They will also hear a presentation from the State Board of Administration which oversees the struggling Florida Retirement System.

Education is another big topic slated for today, which will include presentations on performance funding in both K-12 and higher education, student assessments, and consideration of a proposal to allow colleges, universities and their employees to steer endorsement opportunities toward student-athletes through a change to Florida’s athlete-pay law, commonly known as a name, image and likeness (NIL) law, which went into effect in July 2021.