Randy Fine wants to try again to bar state agencies and local governments from putting up flags with a “political viewpoint.”
The Melbourne Beach Republican filed the bill as a House member earlier this year and on Monday refiled the bill (SB 100) as a state senator ahead of the next legislative session that starts March 4.
In a news release about the legislation, Fine’s office specified the Palestinian, Black Lives Matter and transgender flags as the main targets of the bill.
“The first flag that should be flown in a government building is the American flag,” Fine said. “Flags that promote Muslim terror or the mutilation of children have no place in taxpayer-funded buildings – whether that government building is our state capitol or a public school classroom.”
The bill itself, however, doesn’t specify those flags. It states local government entities, including public schools, and state agencies can’t put up flags with a “political viewpoint,” including those reflecting “a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint.”
Fine is running for the U.S. House of Representatives for a seat opened when U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz was selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next national security adviser.
When he co-sponsored the bill earlier this year, it advanced through one Florida House committee along party lines, with Democrats opposed, but didn’t gain traction in the state Senate.
The new version of the bill is similar to the prior version, but it contains an added provision allowing active duty military members or veterans to “use reasonable force” to prevent the “desecration, destruction or removal of the United States flag or to replace the United States flag to a position of prominence.”
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Under Florida law, elected officials must resign their current office if they run for another office with overlapping terms. Fine’s resignation from the state Senate is effective March 31, the day before the special election for the U.S. House seat.
If the bill hasn’t yet passed the Legislature, another senator could opt to take it over to push it through to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.
“Supporters of Muslim terror, child mutilators and groomers have no right to taxpayer sponsorship of their repugnant messages,” Fine said. “As I prepare to leave the Senate, I look forward to ensuring the only official place in a government building that you will find their flags is in a garbage can.”
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
