Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced special election dates for Senate District 33, House District 88, and House District 94.

The special primary election will be held on January 11, 2022, followed by the special general election on March 8, 2022.

The three seats became available in July when Sen. Perry Thurston and Reps. Bobby DuBose and Omari Hardy resigned to run for U.S. House District 20, a seat vacated by the late Rep. Alcee Hastings.

This announcement comes after three months of delays and a lawsuit filed two weeks ago seeking to compel DeSantis to set election dates.

The delay will result in the new lawmakers missing preparations and the start of the 2022 legislative session.

Further, if a general election is needed, the new lawmakers will miss out on most of the session, which is scheduled to end on March 11, 2022.

The Florida House and Senate have instituted COVID-19 safety protocols during committee meetings ahead of the 2021 legislative session.

For the month of January, Senate committee meetings will be limiting in-person attendance to individuals invited by the committee leaders.

Rooms at the Leon County Civic Center have been reserved and will be made available to other individuals wishing to remotely appear and provide testimony.

House committee meetings attendance will also be limited.

Individuals seeking to attend and provide public testimony must register online at least three hours prior to the meeting.

Once seating capacity is reached, individuals will be allowed to provide written testimony.

The testimony will then be distributed amongst the committee members prior to the meeting.

The new House protocols will be in effect until February 28.

Senate President Don Gaetz is calling for random audits of lobbying firm compensation reports. Gaetz says funding was never set aside for audits to be performed in the past, so he has asked the Senate general counsel to determine what powers the Legislature has to provide funding to conduct audits going forward.

House Speaker Will Weatherford has already indicated his support for the proposal.

A bill to allow lobbyist expenditures on legislators is pending before the Florida Senate. Currently, almost all expenditures by lobbyists and principals on members and employees of the legislature are prohibited.

Senate Bill 1634 provides exceptions to the ban on lobbyist expenditures, permitting:

• Individual servings of nonalcoholic beverages provided by a lobbyist or a principal as a courtesy to the attendees of a meeting;

• A single meal not solicited by the member or employee of the legislature, served as part of a scheduled meeting of an established membership organization that is also a principal, and attended by the member or employee as a featured speaker, moderator, or participant of a panel discussion; and

• Food and beverages provided as part of a widely attended event hosted by a membership organization or governmental body that is also a principal if the cost per attendee does not exceed $25.

Widely attended event is defined as one reasonably expected to be attended by at least 25 persons other than members or employees of the legislature, open to persons from throughout a given industry or profession, or to a wide range of persons interested in a given issue presented at the event.

The bill requires the houses of the legislature to establish a rule regarding registration and approval of events at which such expenditures may be made.

The new exceptions would take effect on July 1, 2013, and would expire June 30, 2015.