‘Outdated and unnecessary’: New DOGE-like law forces Florida agencies to undergo scrutiny

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/7/24-Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, urges the Senate to pass HB 931: authorizing school districts to allow volunteer school chaplains, Thursday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. The bill passed the Senate. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Miles of administrative red tape in Florida are on the chopping block under a new law effective July 1.

Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a sweeping bill (SB 108) to modernize the Sunshine State’s rulemaking process and increase transparency around state-issued licenses.

The measure, which lawmakers unanimously approved in April, mandates a comprehensive, five-year review cycle for all agency rules and imposes stricter timelines and publication requirements on agencies crafting new regulations.

The goal, according to Senate President Ben Albritton, is to reduce bureaucratic delays, increase public engagement and ensure that regulations remain consistent with state law. He described SB 108 in March as conceptually boring, but still one of the boldest and most important proposals the Legislature would consider this year.

“One of the reasons DOGE efforts at the federal level have become so popular is that people have a problem with unelected federal bureaucrats having so much unchecked authority. Florida is not immune from that kind of scrutiny,” he said in a statement.

“Outdated and unnecessary rules can cause burdensome bureaucracy, hindering transparency for Floridians, and creating barriers for citizens and businesses struggling to comply. This bill reduces the administrative state and helps keep our state government accountable to Floridians.”

Of note, national polling on DOGE — President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which implemented since-challenged layoffs and massive cuts to federal and international programs — found people are more fond of it in concept than in practice.

State agencies in Florida have proposed more than 16,000 new rules since 2015, according to Palm City Rep. Toby Overdorf, who carried the House companion (HB 433) to SB 108 this year with Fort Myers Rep. Tiffany Esposito, a fellow Republican.

The rules brought with them “literally hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, application materials and materials that may have been created without (lawmakers’) intent,” he said on the House floor April 29.

Among other things, SB 108 requires:

— Rules for all existing agencies to be reviewed over the next five years at a rate of 20% per year.

— New rules adopted after July 1 to undergo a similar review in their fifth year.

— Agencies to file a notice of rule development within 30 days of a legislative mandate and proposed rules within 180 days. Failure to meet deadlines will trigger a rule withdrawal.

— Rules incorporating outside materials to be published electronically, with clear markings showing what changes have been made.

— Agencies to publish the full text of emergency rules in the Florida Administrative Code.

The bill also requires agencies to track compliance with legally required timelines for issuing licenses and publish that data in their annual regulatory plans.

SB 108 also allows individuals to request a statement of estimated regulatory cost workshop, clarifies how agencies must analyze transactional costs and market impacts, and standardizes the requirement that rules cannot sunset unless explicitly authorized by statute.

Agencies must also notify the House Speaker and Senate President of their rule review findings by Jan. 1 each year to help lawmakers monitor how well state rules align with legislative intent.

A Senate staff analysis warned the bill “may have an indeterminate, negative fiscal impact on state government.”

Fort Pierce Republican Sen. Erin Grall — who sponsored SB 108, carried similar legislation in 2023 and served with Overdorf as an alternating Chair of the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee — said the changes “will improve oversight and accountability for everyone involved, including the Legislature.”

“It is our responsibility to make sure bills we pass are implemented properly, so we can make changes if needed,” she said in a statement. “This bill creates a thorough, systematic review to determine if existing agency rules are functioning to appropriately implement the law, or if certain rules need to be updated, amended or repealed.”

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Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics contributed to this report.