Bert Harris Act & The APA
In 1992 as a Republican and member of the minority party in the Florida House, Pruitt teamed with veteran Representative and Democrat, Bert J. Harris Jr., in an effort to address the over-regulation and ownership rights of privately owned property. After two unsuccessful pushes to pass their Private Property Rights Protection Act, the two Representatives caught the break they needed in the third year. Prior to the 1995 Florida Legislative Session, Governor Lawton Chiles, having recently experienced a regulatory roadblock when he attempted to build a “cook shack” on his own private property, was ready to support the lawmakers' efforts. The Governor’s momentum helped enabled the two representatives to pass the bill (CS/HB 863 - 1995) through both chambers with only a single dissenting vote. Representative Pruitt honored his partner and friend by renaming the bill the Bert J. Harris Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act. Governor Chiles signed the act on May 18, 1995 and the Bert Harris Act has since served as a model to other states addressing environmental and land use regulation in respect to the rights of private property owners.
Furthermore, the Governor's "cook shack" difficulties and crusade against superfluous rulemaking, government red-tape and over-regulation set the stage for an overhaul of Florida's Administrative Procedures Act, reforms the legislature had been attempting for several years. In addition to sponsoring the Bert Harris Act in 1995, Pruitt was the prime sponsor of the APA legislation. While the act was vetoed by Chiles in 1995 as being too burdensome for the implementing agencies, it was passed the following year, making the first major reforms to Florida's APA since its inception in 1974.
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