Agency annual rulemaking and regulatory plans; reports.

(1) REGULATORY PLAN.—By October 1 of each year, each agency shall prepare a regulatory plan.

(a) The plan must include a listing of each law enacted or amended during the previous 12 months which creates or modifies the duties or authority of the agency. If the Governor or the Attorney General provides a letter to the committee stating that a law affects all or most agencies, the agency may exclude the law from its plan. For each law listed by an agency under this paragraph, the plan must state:

1. Whether the agency must adopt rules to implement the law.

2. If rulemaking is necessary to implement the law:

a. Whether a notice of rule development has been published and, if so, the citation to such notice in the Florida Administrative Register.

b. The date by which the agency expects to publish the notice of proposed rule under s. 120.54(3)(a).

3. If rulemaking is not necessary to implement the law, a concise written explanation of the reasons why the law may be implemented without rulemaking.

(b) The plan must also include a listing of each law not otherwise listed pursuant to paragraph (a) which the agency expects to implement by rulemaking before the following July 1, except emergency rulemaking. For each law listed under this paragraph, the plan must state whether the rulemaking is intended to simplify, clarify, increase efficiency, improve coordination with other agencies, reduce regulatory costs, or delete obsolete, unnecessary, or redundant rules.

(c) The plan must include any desired update to the prior year’s regulatory plan or supplement published pursuant to subsection (5). If, in a prior year, a law was identified under this paragraph or under subparagraph (a)1. as a law requiring rulemaking to implement but a notice of proposed rule has not been published:

1. The agency shall identify and again list such law, noting the applicable notice of rule development by citation to the Florida Administrative Register; or

2. If the agency has subsequently determined that rulemaking is not necessary to implement the law, the agency shall identify such law, reference the citation to the applicable notice of rule development in the Florida Administrative Register, and provide a concise written explanation of the reason why the law may be implemented without rulemaking.

(d) The plan must include a certification executed on behalf of the agency by both the agency head, or, if the agency head is a collegial body, the presiding officer; and the individual acting as principal legal advisor to the agency head. The certification must:

1. Verify that the persons executing the certification have reviewed the plan.

2. Verify that the agency regularly reviews all of its rules and identify the period during which all rules have most recently been reviewed to determine if the rules remain consistent with the agency’s rulemaking authority and the laws implemented.

(e) The plan also includes all of the following:

1. A list of the agency’s existing rules scheduled for review pursuant to s. 120.5435.

2. A 5-year schedule for the review of all existing rules as of July 1, 2025.

3. A yearly schedule for the rules it will review each year during the 5-year rule review. The agency may amend this schedule, if necessary.

(f) The plan must include any desired update to the prior year’s regulatory plan or supplement thereof, published pursuant to subsection (5). If, in a prior year, the agency identified a rule under this paragraph as one requiring review pursuant to s. 120.5435, but the agency has not yet completed an action described in s. 120.5435(5):

1. The agency must identify and list such rule in its regulatory plan as an untimely rule review and notify the committee of such action; or

2. If the agency subsequently determined that the rule review is not necessary, the agency must identify the rule and provide a concise written explanation of the reason why the rule does not require a rule review.

(g)1. Beginning October 1, 2025, each agency issuing licenses in accordance with s. 120.60 shall track the agency’s compliance with the licensing timeframes established in s. 120.60, and beginning October 1, 2026, must include in the regulatory plan required by subsection (1) all of the following information regarding its licensing activities of the prior fiscal year, categorized by type of license:

a. The number of license applications submitted to the agency.

b. The number of license applications that required one or more requests for additional information.

c. The number of license applications for which the applicant was nonresponsive to one or more requests for additional information.

d. The number of license applications that were not completed by the applicant.

e. The number of license applications for which the agency requested that the applicant grant an extension of time for the agency to issue a request for additional information, determine that an application is complete, or issue a decision to approve or deny an application.

f. The number of license applications for which an extension was requested by the applicant and for which an extension was required by the state agency or judicial branch.

g. The number of license applications that were not approved or denied within the statutory timeframe.

h. The average and median number of days it takes the agency to approve or deny an application after receipt of a completed application.

i. The number of license applications for which final agency action was appealed and the number of informal and formal hearings requested.

j. The number of employees dedicated to processing license applications, if available.

2. No later than December 31 of each year, the committee must submit a consolidated annual agency licensing performance report that provides all of the information required by subparagraph 1. The Department of State must publish a hyperlink to these reports in the first available issue of the Florida Administrative Register.

(2) PUBLICATION AND DELIVERY TO THE COMMITTEE.—

(a) By October 1 of each year, each agency shall:

1. Publish its regulatory plan on its website or on another state website established for publication of administrative law records. A clearly labeled hyperlink to the current plan must be included on the agency’s primary website homepage.

2. Electronically deliver to the committee a copy of the certification required in paragraph (1)(d).

3. Publish in the Florida Administrative Register a notice identifying the date of publication of the agency’s regulatory plan. The notice must include a hyperlink or website address providing direct access to the published plan.

(b) To satisfy the requirements of paragraph (a), a board established under s. 20.165(4), and any other board or commission receiving administrative support from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, may coordinate with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and a board established under s. 20.43(3)(g) may coordinate with the Department of Health, for inclusion of the board’s or commission’s plan and notice of publication in the coordinating department’s plan and notice and for the delivery of the required documentation to the committee.

(c) A regulatory plan prepared under subsection (1) and any regulatory plan published under this chapter before July 1, 2014, shall be maintained at an active website for 10 years after the date of initial publication on the agency’s website or another state website.

(3) DEPARTMENT REVIEW OF BOARD PLAN.—By October 15 of each year:

(a) For each board established under s. 20.165(4) and any other board or commission receiving administrative support from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation shall file with the committee a certification that the department has reviewed each board’s and commission’s regulatory plan. A certification may relate to more than one board or commission.

(b) For each board established under s. 20.43(3)(g), the Department of Health shall file with the committee a certification that the department has reviewed the board’s regulatory plan. A certification may relate to more than one board.

(4) CORRECTING THE REGULATORY PLAN.—A published regulatory plan may be corrected at any time to accomplish the purpose of concluding an affected rulemaking proceeding by identifying the applicable rule pursuant to subparagraph (1)(c)2. The regulatory plan is deemed corrected as of the October 1 due date. Upon publication of a correction, the agency shall publish in the Florida Administrative Register a notice of the date of the correction identifying the affected rulemaking proceeding by applicable citation to the Florida Administrative Register.

(5) SUPPLEMENTING THE REGULATORY PLAN.—After publication of the regulatory plan, the agency shall supplement the plan within 30 days after a bill becomes a law if the law is enacted before the next regular session of the Legislature and the law substantively modifies the agency’s specifically delegated legal duties, unless the law affects all or most state agencies as identified by letter to the committee from the Governor or the Attorney General. The supplement must include the information required in paragraph (1)(a) and shall be published as required in subsection (2), but no certification or delivery to the committee is required. The agency shall publish in the Florida Administrative Register notice of publication of the supplement, and include a hyperlink on its website or web address for direct access to the published supplement. For each law reported in the supplement, if rulemaking is necessary to implement the law, the agency shall publish a notice of rule development no later than 30 days after the effective date of the act that requires rulemaking and provides a grant of rulemaking authority, and a notice of proposed rule shall be published no later than 180 days after the publication of the applicable notice of rule development. If such proposed rule has not been filed by October 1, a law included in a supplement shall also be included in the next annual plan pursuant to subsection (1).

(6) FAILURE TO COMPLY.—If an agency fails to comply with a requirement of paragraph (2)(a) within 15 days after written demand from the committee or from the chair of any other legislative committee, the agency shall deliver a written explanation of the reasons for noncompliance to the committee, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chair of any legislative committee requesting the explanation of the reasons for noncompliance.

(7) EDUCATIONAL UNITS.—This section does not apply to educational units.