A candidate who wants to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Gov. Ron DeSantis, claiming multiple violations of the Constitution because the governor hasn’t scheduled a special election to fill the vacancy created by Hastings’ death.

The candidate, Elvin Dowling, wants a U.S. district judge to order DeSantis to schedule election dates no later than this fall.

Hastings died on April 6 and the governor, who has the power to call special elections to fill congressional vacancies, hasn’t set primary or general election dates. Some political insiders believe he’s waiting to sign legislation that would change election laws and alter procedure for replacing current elected officials who resign to run for other offices.

The Florida legislature passed a bill Thursday that would ban schools from requiring students to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, despite the fact that the state already requires students to receive a long list of shots.

The bill, which now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis' office for signing, was aimed at updating protocols for emergency planning and management, including public health emergencies. A brief section towards the end of the bill outlaws schools, businesses, and government entities from requiring coronavirus vaccine documentation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shortly before President Joe Biden's speech urging Congress to pass his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, fellow Democrat Senator Joe Manchin told reporters he was "uncomfortable" with the vast sums of money Biden was proposing to spend.

Back in Manchin's home state of West Virginia, several elected officials, including Republicans, have a different message: The more money the better to draw new workers to the state, especially with high-speed broadband services.

Despite the push from activists, corporate leaders and Democrats to reject legislation imposing new restrictions on voting, late Thursday, the Florida legislature passed an omnibus election bill that, among other things, limits ballot drop boxes compared to current law.

The state Senate removed a provision the state House added Tuesday that would have required voters to present a photo ID to an election official when returning a mail ballot via drop dox. Democrats in the state House blasted the ID requirement since a voter is never required to show one when using a Postal Service mailbox.

No Democratic lawmakers supported the bill, and one Republican state senator opposed it as well. The bill, SB 90, now heads to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk. A spokesperson for the governor said DeSantis supports the bill, saying it "will ensure that Florida remains a national leader in election security, integrity and transparency."

Following the 2020 general election, which former President Donald Trump and allies falsely but repeatedly claimed was illegitimate and filled with fraud, there has been an unprecedented effort among states to enact legislation with new hurdles to casting a ballot. According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, nearly every state has introduced bills like this and at least five have already been enacted.

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In addition to new drop-box provisions, the Florida bill also bars local agencies from accepting outside money for nearly all election-related expenses and from mailing unsolicited ballots to voters; expands the no-solicitation zone outside polling facilities by 50 feet; reduces the number of elections a single vote-by-mail application covers; imposes new voter ID requirements for updating one's registration record and applying for a mail ballot; allows counties to begin canvassing returned mail ballots sooner pre-election; sets up a state-run "live turnout data" dashboard for Election Day turnout and election night mail ballot processing; and gives poll watchers, candidates, political parties and committees, or their designees, more access to certain election processes and materials.

The Senate on Wednesday voted to reverse the Trump administration's rollback of a crucial Obama-era climate regulation, delivering a bipartisan victory for President Joe Biden’s lofty goals of curbing heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

The 52-42 vote, including three yeas from Republicans, would restore the Obama administration's 2016 restrictions on the potent greenhouse gas methane. Democrats passed it using a legislative maneuver that allows them to get around the Senate's filibuster rules — and had unusually robust support from many oil and gas industry companies, which now support direct methane regulations amid mounting international pressure for cleaner production.

The measure is now expected to move to the House for a vote, which would then send it to Biden's desk upon passage. A vote in that chamber has not yet been scheduled.

WASHINGTON — A year after a Connecticut company was awarded almost $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt.

ApiJect Systems Corp. positioned itself as the company that would make the difference between a stumbling rollout and delivery of lifesaving vaccines. But as the U.S. vaccine rollout hits full stride, with about half of adults in the U.S. having already received at least one injection, the need for ApiJect's device has waned, leaving the contracts and loans in question.

President Biden hosted another bipartisan group of 10 lawmakers on Monday to discuss his infrastructure proposal, and once again everyone said the meeting was cordial and respectful, Biden and his guests expressed a willingness to compromise on the size and scope of the bill, and the Republicans said they won't support raising the corporate tax rate to pay for the package.

Biden wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, from 21 percent, to fund $2.25 trillion in spending. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has suggested a 25 percent rate, and there's speculation Democrats will settle around that number. "You could see a 2 or 3 percent increase — maybe not all the way to 28 but 25," Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who was at Monday's meeting, told The Wall Street Journal. GOP lawmakers were "more in favor of user fees so that whoever was benefiting from that particular infrastructure project would be paying for it in the long run," said Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.), another participant.

Mitch McConnell had an unusual request for Senate Republicans this week: Say nice things about two Democrats.

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are under lots of pressure from liberal activists and their Democratic colleagues to buckle on the filibuster, McConnell told Senate Republicans on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the party meeting. That’s why the GOP should keep the moderate pair close and publicly praise them, the party leader explained, because they could “save this institution.”

McConnell is modeling his own advice, lauding Manchin for almost “single-handedly” preserving the Senate and expressing admiration for him back home in Kentucky. In a brief interview, the often-reticent Republican leader was, by his standards, effusive about both Democrats.