Senate laws would modernize long-range planning, improve cybersecurity, and defend Floridians’ knowledge.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Clearwater Republican Senator Ed Hooper, printed Senate Proposed Invoice (SPB) 7026, Data Expertise, and SPB 7024, State Budgeting and Planning. Each payments are a part of the Florida Senate’s authorities effectivity and accountability bundle for the 2025 Legislative Session, which modernizes and enhances Florida’s sturdy authorities accountability framework. President Professional Tempore Jason Brodeur, a Sanford Republican, is the lead on SPB 7024. Stuart Republican Senator Gayle Harrell is the lead on SPB 7026.
“Our state has been properly served by the efficiency metrics, planning necessities, and accountability requirements Governor Bush and legislative leaders put in place almost 30 years in the past,” mentioned Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican. “Florida has grown and adjusted so much since that point, and immediately expertise continues to revolutionize almost each aspect of our economic system and our lives, at a tempo by no means seen or felt earlier than. It’s not sufficient to know authorities is finishing a process or offering a service, we have to know if that service is being supplied properly, which implies we have to have new, progressive methods to measure efficiency. Moreover, on the subject of cybersecurity, Floridians’ private knowledge, and the IT infrastructure of our state – our residents anticipate us to get that proper.”
“The Authorities Effectivity Activity Pressure, on which a number of Senators served, beneficial modernizing the Lengthy-Vary Program Plan to enhance flexibility, simplify processes, and shift a spotlight to measured outcomes versus outputs,” mentioned President Professional Tempore Brodeur. “This invoice takes the Lengthy-Vary Program Plans and simplifies them to key knowledge factors, removes provisions which haven’t confirmed to be good measures, and updates the processes to supply and current the plans to the Legislature. By modernizing this method of accountability, our companies will probably be higher ready to answer altering conditions rapidly and effectively, spending much less time on paperwork and extra time on their core missions.”
“Over my years within the Home and Senate, Florida has tried many alternative methods to handle Data Expertise. We have now carried out a number of totally different constructions, however we proceed to face challenges. This laws creates the Company for State Programs and Enterprise Expertise as a cupboard company, bringing consolidated consulting groups divided by program areas to offer particular help to companies and suggestions to assist develop tips and requirements that can assist ensure that our knowledge is protected,” mentioned Senator Harrell.
The invoice SPB 7026, Data Expertise establishes a central IT governance physique by way of the creation of the Company for State Programs and Enterprise Expertise (ASSET) beneath the course of the Cupboard, making certain uniformity and effectivity throughout the enterprise.
Republicans say the invoice improves IT transparency and accountability with the addition of annual IT expenditure reporting, sturdy enterprise structure requirements, and company assessments. Particularly, companies conduct cybersecurity threat assessments on a biennial foundation, together with vulnerability and penetration testing and a written acknowledgment that company management is conscious of the dangers included within the report. The invoice additionally establishes required reporting when an IT mission is one month late or $1 million over finances.
Lengthy-Vary Program Plans submitted by state companies have been in place since 2000 and supply a five-year plan for strategic objectives and targets, together with explanations for finances requests. The Authorities Effectivity Activity Pressure, on which President Albritton, President Professional Tempore Brodeur, Chair Hooper, and Democratic St. Petersburg Senator Darryl Rouson and Republican Lakeland Senator Colleen Burton served, beneficial modernizing Lengthy-Vary Program Plans to enhance effectivity and accountability.
The Senate’s authorities effectivity and accountability bundle for the 2025 Legislative Session additionally contains Senate Invoice (SB) 108, Administrative Procedures, by Vero Seaside Republican Senator Erin Grall. The invoice improves authorities oversight and accountability, creating a transparent, constant, annual course of for overview and repeal of administrative guidelines. SB 108 additionally will increase transparency for state licensing by creating necessities for monitoring company compliance with statutory timeframes to make sure Floridians making use of for a license are accepted in a well timed method.
To enhance and guarantee transparency, the invoice establishes a 90-day timeframe for an company to publish a discover of a proposed rule from the efficient date of laws. All guidelines being adopted and reviewed have to be printed electronically with any modifications coded in a strike-through and underlined format so Floridians can simply determine modifications being proposed.
SB 108 additionally requires every company issuing licenses to trace compliance with the licensing
timeframes established in legislation. Stories should embrace the variety of license purposes
submitted to the company within the following circumstances:
- Required requests for added data;
- The applicant was non-responsive to requests for added data;
- Not accomplished by the applicant;
- The company requested an extension;
- The applicant requested an extension;
- Not accepted or denied inside the statutory timeframe;
- Remaining company motion was appealed and the variety of hearings requested;
- The typical and median variety of days for approval or denial of a accomplished
utility.
