No. CS/HB 607
Filed under Occupational.
Industries and Professional Activities; Renames, removes, & redesignates specified boards, commissions, and councils established within DBPR; changes office locations of certain divisions; specifies that certain license application requirements apply only to certain professions; provides licensing authority to department rather than licensing boards; removes postlicensure education requirements for brokers, broker associates, and sales associates; removes continuing education requirements for licensure renewal as broker, broker associate, and sales associate; removes continuing education requirements for licensure renewal due to inactive status; revises provisions pertaining to board to transfer powers, duties, and responsibilities of board to DBPR; granting certain authority to department, rather than Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board; requires department to adopt rules; revises violations for which retail tobacco products dealers are penalized; revises retail nicotine product dealer administrative penalties; requires FDLE to accept and process certain fingerprints; specifies procedures for submitting and processing fingerprinting; requires department to conduct certain background checks.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFlorida strips more than a dozen professional boards, from architects to veterinarians to auctioneers, of their rulemaking and licensing authority, handing that power directly to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation instead.
Continuing-education requirements disappear for veterinarians, architects, engineers, contractors, cosmetologists, and real estate agents, and renewal cycles stretch from one or two years to four across those professions plus gyms, pawnshops, and moving companies.
Accountants get a new path to a CPA license with only a bachelor's degree instead of the extra college credit long required, trading one added year of supervised work experience for less classroom time.
AIA new subsection added to the engineers' governing statute abolishes the Board of Professional Engineers outright on July 1, 2033 -- the explicit endpoint of a bill-wide pattern that moves licensing, rulemaking, and discipline for over a dozen professions, including CPAs, veterinarians, architects, and contractors, from independent boards to the department itself.
AIThe postlicensure course requirement for newly licensed sales associates and brokers, and the 14-classroom-hour continuing education course otherwise required every renewal cycle since, are both repealed outright, along with the extra makeup hours previously required to reactivate an inactive license.
AIStarting January 1, 2027, a person can qualify for a CPA license with just a bachelor's degree in accounting or finance, instead of the 150 semester hours (roughly a fifth year of college) the law has long required, provided they complete two years of supervised work experience instead of one.
AIThe minimum experience needed to qualify for a Class C private investigator license drops from two years to six months of verifiable, full-time related work or training, while separate branch-office and manager license categories are eliminated across the private investigation, security, and recovery-agent industries.
AIHealth studios (gyms) move from paying a $300 registration fee every year to paying the same $300 once every four years, and the same annual-to-quadrennial shift hits pawnbrokers, movers, LP-gas dealers, and independent travel agents registered with the state.
AIA brand-new statute requires the Department of Law Enforcement to fingerprint and run state and federal background checks on incorporators, officers, directors, owners, and managers involved in organizing, operating, or managing any insurer authorized or seeking authorization to sell insurance in Florida.
AIThe requirement that every prescription drug wholesale distributor designate a state-certified representative, someone with two years' experience, a passing exam score, a background check, and a duty to be physically present during business hours, is repealed entirely, along with its $150 certification fee.
AIA veterinarian who prescribes flea and tick control medication based solely on a telehealth evaluation, with no in-person exam, can now write that prescription to last a full year instead of just one month before the pet must be seen again.