UPDATE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the creation of the Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which will work to further eliminate waste within state government, save taxpayers money, and ensure accountability in Florida.
“Florida has set the standard for fiscally conservative governance, and our new Florida DOGE task force will do even more to serve the people of Florida,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “It will eliminate redundant boards and commissions, review state university and college operations and spending, utilize artificial intelligence to further examine state agencies to uncover hidden waste, and even audit the spending habits of local entities to shine the light on waste and bloat.”
Under Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida has the lowest number of government workers per capita in the country yet provides better services at a lower cost than any other state of comparable size. Since Governor DeSantis took office in 2019, Florida has continually cut government and trimmed waste:
- Florida has eliminated dozens of unnecessary boards and lifted needless regulations.
- We’ve saved billions for Floridians year after year, including $3.5 billion in spending last year.
- Florida has paid down 41% of state debt and increased our rainy day funds by over $9.4 billion.
The Florida State DOGE Task Force will implement a multi-pronged approach to eliminating bureaucratic bloat and modernizing our state government to best serve the people of Florida. It will also utilize AI and new technologies to identify waste and noncompliance. The task force will serve a one-year term which will sunset following the completion of the term. Florida’s DOGE will:
Eliminate Bureaucracy
- Florida will abolish an additional 70 boards and commissions this year.
Review Colleges and Universities
- Florida will conduct a deep dive into all facets of college and university operations and spending and make recommendations to the Board of Governors and State Board of Education to eliminate any wasteful spending.
Further Examine State Agencies
- Florida will utilize AI to supplement ongoing efforts to review operations at our state agencies and identify more ways to cut unnecessary spending and eliminate bureaucracy.
Audit Local Governments
- State task force will look into local government expenditures by utilizing publicly available county and municipal spending records to expose bloat within local governance.
Return Unused & Surplus Federal Dollars
- Florida will aid DOGE’s federal efforts to save taxpayers’ money by returning unused or surplus federal dollars allocated to the state.
Read the enacting Executive Order here.
With the new federal Department of Government Efficiency making international headlines, Florida State House Rep. Tiffany Esposito, a Republican from Lee County, filed a bill that would create a “Florida DOGE” or “FLOGE.”
“Florida will continue to lead in the #DOGE movement,” Esposito said in a social post. “We MUSK cut red tape standing in the way of entrepreneurs. I appreciate Chairman Representative Toby Overdorf inviting me to present HB305 to the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee.”
Esposito stated that Florida has over 170,000 regulatory restrictions and intends to streamline these with this bill.
“Rules and regulations are burdensome to our businesses, right? Like, it costs time, and time is money,” said Esposito. “So, I think it saves the government money in not having to look at that administrative piece of every single one, every single one of those rules and regulations — but more importantly, it saves our businesses money and saves our Floridians and our taxpayers money.”
Esposito’s bill, HB 305, is gaining momentum, as Representative Esposito has partnered with a senator to advance it. With the legislative sessions scheduled to begin in just a few days, lawmakers who support the bill are gearing up to present it to the committees.
The bill’s summary reads:
Administrative Procedure: Specifies that issuance of guidance document or other statement interpreting statute without express statutory delegation to issue such guidance is an invalid exercise; requires statement of estimated regulatory costs for proposed or existing rules; requires retrospective cost-benefits analysis for specified rules after specified period; requires publication of materials used to produce estimates of regulatory costs in specified fashion; provides additional requirements for cost-benefit analyses; revises requirements for review of rules by JPAC; requires additional information to be published in FAC; provides for expiration of rules after specified period unless readopted; provides requirements for readoption process; providing exceptions to expiration & requires review of such exempt rules; provides for limited extension of expiration in certain circumstances; provides that party subject to enforcement action may challenge action on basis that agency lacked statutory authority for rule or guidance document; provides for challenges to rules for failure to comply with specified provisions.
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