House to be ‘leaner’ under Daniel Perez, but with new panels on IT investments, threat assessment

Incoming Speaker Daniel Perez is shaking up the House’s committee apparatus, replacing the chamber’s long-standing appropriation and education committee structures and creating new panels focused on information technology investments and threat assessments.

That means fewer members will have lofty titles, he said, but the House will be more effective as a result.

“Rather than creating committees with little work to do just so that a few more members can have the title ‘Chairman,’ we have proposed a leaner structure that will make service on committees more meaningful for all of you,” he said in a Thursday memo to House members.

In place of the Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees will be a new Budget Committee and subcommittees. Perez, a Miami Republican, acknowledged that the name change may seem cosmetic, but it “carries a deeper philosophical point.”

“We have spent taxpayer funds excessively and indiscriminately in the last few years. Member projects in the House budget have grown from $174 million in 2019 to $1.3 billion in 2024, which is a 645% increase,” he said.

“As elected officials, we should not be asking, ‘How much of the public’s money can we spend?’ As a House, we should do what Florida’s working families do every day: budget their money responsibly.”

Also gone are the subcommittees under the Education and Employment Committee, whose separation of K-12 and higher education issues Perez views as counterintuitive. In their place, two new subcommittees will weigh in on education matters from the pre-K level to universities, with an emphasis on “the nature of the education issues under consideration rather than the type of program.”

“We need to see our education system as a singular enterprise with the purpose of preparing our kids for their futures whether those futures lead them to college or a profession,” he said.

There are two other major additions coming to the 2025 Session.

The first is a new Information Technology Budget and Policy Subcommittee, which will fall under the Budget and State Affairs committees. Florida invests hundreds of millions of dollars in IT projects, Perez said, but many fail largely because lawmakers have had “no clear information technology policy strategy.”

The panel, he said, will directly impact the budgeting process, evaluate all technology projects proposed for the state budget in an open forum, seek “synergies and strategic alignments” with state agencies and make recommendations to the Budget Committee.

“Our response to the repeated failure to execute IT projects has been to create, dissolve, and recreate a technology agency,” he said. “Technology policy in the Legislature either happens informally through behind-the-scenes conversations or appears as language buried in budget proviso. As policymakers and stewards of taxpayer dollars, we must do a better job.”

The other big one is a new Security and Threat Assessment Committee where House members will be briefed on and discuss law enforcement, cybersecurity and governmental threats. Briefings will be open only to the committee members. Security-related briefings will be open only to the committee’s members.

This is a change from an existing policy where only presiding officers in the House received confidential threat-related information.

“In a healthy legislative body,” Perez said, “the circle of trust should be wider.”

The structure for the 2024-2026 term includes the:

— Budget Committee, under which the Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget, Health Care Budget, Higher Education Budget, Information Technology Budget and Policy, Justice Budget, PreK-12 Budget, State Administrative Budget, and Transportation and Economic Development Budget subcommittees will operate.

— Commerce Committee, under which the Economic Infrastructure; Industries and Professional Activities; Insurance and Banking; and Housing, Agriculture and Tourism subcommittees will operate. Sarasota Republican Rep. James Buchanan will serve as Chair.

— Education and Employment Committee, under which the Careers and Workforce, Education Administration, and Student Academic Success subcommittees will operate. Lakeland Republican Rep. Jennifer Canady, who is on deck to lead the House after the 2028 elections, will chair the committee.

— Health and Human Services Committee, under which the Health Care Facilities and Systems, Health Professions and Programs, and Human Services subcommittees will operate. Polk City Republican Rep. Josie Tomkow will serve as Chair.

— Judiciary Committee, under which the Civil Justice and Claims, and Criminal Justice subcommittees will operate. Macclenny Republican Rep. Chuck Brannan will serve as Chair.

— State Affairs Committee, under which the Government Operations, Information Technology Budget and Policy, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Natural Resources and Disasters subcommittees will operate. Bradenton Republican Rep. Will Robinson will chair the committee.

The Rules Committee, which Perez chaired in the 2022-24 term, will become the Rules and Ethics Committee under Chair Sam Garrison, a Fleming Island Republican who is set to follow Perez as Speaker. The committee will consider matters of ethics and standards of conduct for public officers and employees, including breaches of decorum, policy and propriety by House members.

The Ways and Means Committee, previously chaired by Ocala Republican Rep. Stan McClain, will remain intact and cover issues of state and local taxes and select non-tax revenue sources. It will also address statutory and constitutional policies regarding tax rates, base design, collection, enforcement, financing, administration and debt financing policy.

The 2025 Legislative Session officially commences March 4.

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