Governor Scott to Review Administrative Rules
Governor Rick Scott issued his first executive order promptly upon taking office, issuing Executive Order 11-01 relating to rulemaking by Florida’s administrative agencies. The executive order specifies that all agencies under the direction of the Governor should immediately suspend rulemaking and should not move forward with any notices of rule develoment, amendments to existing rules, or adoptions of proposed rules. The executive order further prohibits the office of the Secretary of State from publishing any rulemaking notices unless approved by a special rulemaking office organized by the Governor. The executive order also requests voluntary compliance by all Florida agencies that are not under the direction of the Governor.
The executive order creates the Office of Fiscal Responsibility and Regulatory Reform to review current and future rulemaking. This Office of Fiscal Responsibility and Regulatory reform will evaluate rules to determine whether they present unecessary restrictions on the entry to various professions, adversely affect the availability of services, adversely affect job creation, or otherwise pose unnecessary costs or burdens. Under the executive order, agencies also will be required to present cost-benefit analyses of their rules and determine whether the rules present unnecessary burdens on job creation.
The executive order requires agencies to prepare initial lists, to be updated annually, of all regulations that should be eliminated. It also prohibits affected agencies from entering into contracts valued at more than $1,000,000 without approval of the Office of Fiscal Responsibility and Regulatory Reform.
The executive order places a large number of potential rules in an uncertain state. Agencies not under the direct supervision of the Governor’s offfice have been studying the compliance obligations, and all agencies have been evaluating their current rulemaking. Florida administrative law mandates that various steps in the administrative rulemaking process take place within statutory-defined timeframes. Agencies therefore might request the prompt review of these rules by the regulatory reform office. In other instances, pending rulemaking is intended to reduce fees, streamline processes, or facilitate agencies’ routine business. These rules likewise have been on lists quickly provided to the Governor’s office for review under the new order.
Under Florida administrative law, a position taken by an agency that has general application must be adopted in the form of a rule and cannot simply be informally applied. Under Governor Scott’s new directive, agencies will be required to careful evaluate the positions they intend to take and seek guidance from the regulatory reform office that the proposed positions will not create unnecessarily burdensome regulations that impeded the Governor’s goal of stimulating Florida’s economy and creating jobs.