SPB 7026 would create the Agency for State Systems and Enterprise Technology (ASSET), replacing the state’s current IT agency, the Florida Digital Service, by June 2026.
Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-31, introduced the bill to the committee on Thursday.
“We have various state agencies, but we also have cabinet-level offices that really have been pretty independent on their IT structure,“ she said. “Everybody’s got their own silo, everybody builds their own systems, and somehow, they don’t talk to each other.”
As a result, she said, this process no longer works.
“In 2001, on our committee, we started the State Technology Office. In 2005, we went to the Agency for Enterprise Information Technology, then in 2014, we went to the Agency for State Technology, and then in 2021, the Division of State Technology, and then, of course, currently, we have the Florida Digital Service,” Harrell said. “We have been on this march for a long time, and now, I think for the first time, we are taking a holistic, enterprisewide approach to what we are doing.”
The overall goal of the legislation, Harrell said, is to have one system, enterprisewide, that is interoperable while still ensuring that agencies have their independence and meet certain standards.
If enacted, ASSET would be a cabinet agency led by the state’s chief information officer as its executive director, separating itself from previous iterations.
“This is different,” Harrell said. “This is not a governor’s agency. This is a cabinet-level agency, ensuring that we have uniformity and efficiency across the enterprise.”
Another key change proposed in the legislation includes requiring agencies and the judicial branch to include a cumulative inventory and status report of specified projects in addition to legislative budget requests.
As for specific timelines, Harrell said after the Florida Digital Service is formally dissolved, the former IT agency will start documenting agencies’ current IT environments, transition enterprise cybersecurity tools directly to agencies and report on cybersecurity incidents beginning in July 2026.
After that, she said, “We’ll have a CIO policy work group and work directly with the agencies to make sure that we are creating and providing feedback and recommendations to the Legislature on how things are going” by December.
In 2028, Harrell said, the agency is expected to be fully operational.
This story first appeared in Industry Insider — Florida, part of e.Republic, Government Technology's parent company.
