Virtual Tour

The Florida Senate

The Florida Senate has 40 members. The even numbered districts sit on one side of the Chamber floor and the odd number districts sit on the other. The viewing galleries of Senate are open areas. Visitors must pass through metal detectors and a guard station to enter the galleries. The galleries operate on first come; first serve basis, though occasionally a Senator may reserve a section. In addition, the ceiling is designed quite differently. This ceiling is designed to reflect sound to the center of the Chamber. This enables Senators to be heard throughout the Chamber in a normal tone of voice. However, the Senators still use their microphones so that people out in the hallways can here them and recording purposes. Instead of having a pile of bills on their desk each morning, each Senator brings a laptop that they plug directly into the desk. Now whenever a bill comes up for discussion, a copy that bill is sent to each Senator's desk ensuring that they are looking at the same version of that bill. There are four buttons on each desk. The red and green buttons are used for voting. Under each viewing gallery is a voting board. Whenever a vote is held, each Senator's vote is registered and tallied on those boards. The yellow button is used to call a Senate page or messenger to perform an errand for that Senator. The white button is used to tell the Senator that there is a phone call from their office. Each desk comes with a telephone that is direct line to that Senator's office. The paintings that surround the Senate Chamber are portraits of former presidents of the Senate and it goes back for about a hundred years. The glassed in area above the Senate entrance is for the press. The areas in the balconies with the black metal posts are where the television cameras go. The Florida Channel films the Senate whenever they are in chambers. The screen above the Senate seal can be used for video presentations, displaying the text of a bill, or as a welcome screen. The areas on each side of the screen are for support personnel.

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