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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