Press Release
By Florida House of Representatives
01-08-24
The following Memo was distributed to Members of the Florida House announcing the convening a floor session to honor and commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of Florida’s Capital city/county to be held in the Historic Capitol’s House Chamber promptly at 9:00 a.m on Thursday, January 11.
Due to space constraints, attendance is limited to invited guests and credentialed press for this event only. Session will be broadcast on the Florida Channel (thefloridachannel.org).
| On Thursday, January 11, the Florida House of Representatives will convene a floor session to honor and commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of Florida’s Capital city/county. In recognition of the historical significance of this occasion, we will convene the floor session in the Historic Capitol’s House Chamber promptly at 9:00 a.m. We encourage all members arrive at the Historic Capitol by 8:45 a.m. The lone item of legislative business for the day will be HR 8001, Tallahassee-Leon County Bicentennial by Rep. Tant, and we anticipate the session adjourning by 10:00 A.M. Entry into the Historic Capitol For security purposes, the Historic Capitol building will be closed to the public the morning of the floor session. Only Members of the House and authorized staff and press will be permitted to enter the building. For this particular floor session, Legislative and District Aides are not authorized to enter the building, as your laptops will not be needed for the day’s House business. Due to a lack of seating in the House Chamber of the Historic Capitol, members are not able to bring guests with them to the floor session. The House has set up Reed Hall, 102 House Office Building, as a viewing room to watch the proceedings, which will be broadcasted live on the Florida Channel. | |
| There will be two doors to the Historic Capitol that you can use to enter the building, both of which will be secured by Sergeant’s Office staff. Both doors are on the ground level as you walk to the Historic Capitol from the House Office Building or from the Capitol tower. The first door is located at the northeast corner of the building, and the other is next to the stairs that lead to the building’s main entrance facing the courtyard. House staff will be in the Capitol courtyard to help guide you to the appropriate doors. | |
Each door leads to the Historic Capitol’s basement, where there will be a coat check for your convenience. To get to the House Chamber on the second floor, you can take the elevator or the stairs. However, the elevator in the Historic Capitol is not as large or fast as the elevators in the Capitol tower.
Member Seating
Since the arrangement of member seats in the Historic Capitol is vastly different than the seating in our House Chamber, we will not be using the seating chart we traditionally use for a floor session. Other than a few reserved seats for members with speaking roles or leadership positions, there will be no assigned seating, and you can sit anywhere you like. Since member desks in the Historic Capitol’s House Chamber are limited, additional member seats will be set out at the front of the room.
Laptops and Legislative Aides
As it was stated earlier, the House business for this floor session is largely ceremonial in nature, so member laptops are not needed. To that end, Legislative and District Aides will also not be permitted into the Historic Capitol.
