In a rare move by a member of the majority party, Miami Republican Rep. J.C. Planas has filed a rules complaint against his chamber's/party's House Speaker, Larry Cretul. Planas says Cretul "showed a complete disregard" for the rules by combining two budget committees into one. That, Planas said, is a structural change that requires a vote of the membership.
From the complaint:
Under the Rules of the Florida House of representatives, the Speaker does not have the power to abolish those committees without first amending the committee structure contained in the House Rules under Rule 13 . A historical evaluation of past House Rules dating back to the 1968 adoption of the modern Florida Constitution clearly illustrates that the Committee Structure is deliberately attached and intertwined to the rest of the procedural rules. This is further evidenced by House Rules Chairman Bill Galvano’s explanation of the Rules during the 2008 Organizational Session where he states clearly:
'And then also the budget crisis that we are in. You know, we don’t put together rules in a vacuum, so we took an extra hard look at that, at what are the things we need to do in both the structure and in the process itself that will help us address some of the most difficult challenges that we will be addressing over the next two years.'
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