Florida’s transformative IT bill unanimously passes Senate
The Florida Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill that would create a new, larger centralized agency to oversee the state’s technology projects.
The bill, which passed 36-0, would create the Agency for State Systems and Enterprise Technology, or ASSET, absorbing the Florida Digital Service, the state’s most recent attempt at an effective technology division. With $177 million in funding and nearly 200 staff overseeing technology for most of the state government’s IT, the new agency would come with a pool of resources and expertise unseen since the state’s first attempt at a technology department more than 20 years ago.
State Sen. Gayle Harrell, who introduced the bill, said she was “delighted” to see it supported in the Senate. But to become a law, it must be referred to a legislative committee and a companion bill must be passed in the House.
By Harrell’s count, this would be Florida’s sixth stab at creating a technology department, but this attempt is different in several ways. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the agency would be centralized, meaning the agency has some level of authority over how state other agencies procure and implement their technology. Former State Chief Information Officer Jamie Grant recently told StateScoop he’d been given “100% of the responsibility and closer to 2% of the resources and empowerment” he needed.
James Taylor, chief executive of the trade association Florida Technology Council, said he thinks the bill’s passage in the Senate indicates the state is serious about “modernizing” its approach to technology.
“The Senate’s ‘all in’ mindset has been clear throughout this process — they’re not backing down until meaningful change is achieved,” Taylor wrote in an emailed statement. “While the House is taking a more measured path, the two chambers share the same goals: empowering agencies, supporting bold IT decisions, modernizing legacy systems, and laying the groundwork for smarter, more efficient government operations.”
Becoming a law would only be the effort’s first of many hurdles, though. The agency would need to fill roughly 180 IT positions, and state governments everywhere struggle to compete with the private sector for such talent. With salaries in the proposed agency averaging around $160,000, the positions are potentially attractive, but Harrell said the hirings wouldn’t need to happen overnight. The plan is to launch in July 2026, and not to become fully operational until 2028.
“We have a transition period in order to make it all work,” she said. “You can’t do this in one bite.”
And the legislation accounts for the workforce challenge. It would create within ASSET a division of IT workforce and a state chief technology education officer who would lead efforts like offering standards-based curriculums and training, internships and scholarship programs. Harrell said the strategy is for the state to train from within.
“Part of the problem in the past, we were understaffed and dependent on outside consultants to really drive things,” she said. “We need to have internal people who understand the different agencies.”
The latest effort is so far progressing smoothly, said Harrell, who helped form the state’s first technology office in 2001.
“In the appropriations bill we had a lot of questions and I think was everybody was satisfied,” she said. “At the end of the day, this was a very good way to dramatically change how we’re doing IT in the State of Florida. And it truly is a transformative bill.”
