Threats to Professional Licensure: State List

SB 171 creates the Sunrise and Sunset Occupational Licensing Commission, which would be tasked with reviewing all occupational licensing regulations. The bill prohibits anyone who is licensed, or whose spouse is licensed, by a particular Board from serving on the Commission that will review the respective Board’s regulations. This means the Commission won’t have any subject matter experts who can speak to the reasoning or necessity for specific regulations.

HB 2231 Requires amendment of existing occupational licensing regulations, using the “least restrictive” model that assumed market competition is sufficient to protect public health and safety.

SCR 1037 was a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution. This resolution stated that a person has a fundamental right to engage in an occupation or profession. “No state law or rule shall be enacted or enforced that prohibits or regulations a person from engaging in any occupation or profession unless the state law or rule is clearly necessary to protect the public health or safety.”

SB 236 required the Department of Regulatory Affairs to presume that consumers are sufficiently protected by market competition and private remedies, and to create occupational regulations only where the department finds credible evidence of a present, significant, and substantiated harm to consumers.

SB 193, or the “Right to Earn a Living Act” prohibited state agencies from imposing a personal qualification requirement in order to engage in a profession or occupation unless the agency could show that the requirement was demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to address a specific, legitimate public health, safety, or welfare objective.

On or before July 1, 2019, every agency would have been required to review occupational regulations and determine whether any regulations should be repealed or amended based on specific requirements. An individual could also file a petition with an agency requesting that an occupational regulation be repealed or amended.

NSPE alerted NSPE-CO to these pieces of legislation and collaborated to oppose these measures.

H.B. 707 establishes a schedule for systematic review of occupational and professional licensing entities when the board is set to expire. The sunset review process would allow for the elimination of redundant and unneeded licenses or boards.

This tracking software legislation mandates that all state contractors use software to verify the amount of time they are working on a state contract. The software tracks total keystroke and mouse event frequency, and records a screenshot at least once every three minutes. It presents significant privacy and security concerns.

On Thursday, 31 January, Governor Little signed two executive orders following up on prior efforts to streamline occupational licenses in Idaho.

The first order includes an order that requires the state to periodically review all occupational licenses in regards to eliminating any that are no longer needed.

The second order requires state agencies that may want to enact new administrative rules to identify at least two existing rules to be eliminated or simplified.

The Governor noted that public safety is number one.

There are 442 different occupational licenses in Idaho administered by forty-seven boards and commissions and thirteen executive branches.

More than a dozen lawmakers, on February 5, 2018 to announce the formation of a “Regulatory Reform Joint Subcommittee.” The subcommittee would examine state licensing board rules and regulations, and look for ways to streamline or eliminate unnecessary regulations, and review for anti-competitive provisions. The panel, co-chaired by Representative Gayann DeMordaunt and Senator Todd Lakey is a subcommittee of the House Business Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee.

The panel consists of three majority members and one minority member from each house’s committee and invites state regulatory boards to appear before it to detail the licensing rules and regulations specific to each industry. The Subcommittee has all the authority of an Idaho Legislative Committee including: power to subpoena, summon and examine witnesses, and require production and examine books, records, and papers. In this case the subcommittee will likely be ‘morphed’ into an interim committee to continue work through the interim.

In Apri, 2018, the Committee transition from a Special into the Interim Occupational Licensing and Certification Laws Committee and met several times in 2018. NSPE and the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers will continue to track actions by the Subcommittee in order to ensure the P.E license is upheld.

NSPE and the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers will continue to track actions by the Subcommittee in order to ensure the P.E license is upheld.including two senators, held a news conference.

The Right to Earn a Living Act establishes that at all entry regulations with respect to businesses and professions and all public service restrictions shall be limited to those demonstrably necessary and carefully tailored to fulfill legitimate public health, safety, or welfare objectives.

Within one year after the enactment, all agencies shall conduct a comprehensive review of all entry regulations within their jurisdictions, and for each such entry regulation it shall:

• Articulate with specificity the public health, safety, or welfare objective or objectives served by the regulation; and
• Articulate the reason or reasons why the regulation is necessary to serve the specified objective or objectives.

Known as a “Consumer Choice Bill,” these companion bills allow any person to practice any occupation without a license, as long as the person discloses to the consumer that he is unlicensed, before entering into an agreement with the consumer.

This tracking software legislation mandates that all state contractors use software to verify the amount of time they are working on a state contract. The software tracks total keystroke and mouse event frequency, and records a screenshot at least once every three minutes. It presents significant privacy and security concerns.

Generally referred to as a “consumer choice” bill, SB 500 and bills like it allow a non-licensed person to practice an occupation for which licensure is required, so long as the practitioner discloses to the consumer that he/she is unlicensed. The only type of disclosure that SB 500 requires is a notice on the practitioner’s homepage. Which means a consumer could hire this practitioner without the knowing the practitioner is unlicensed.

Creates the Boards and Commissions Task Force to:

1. Evaluate the purpose and necessity of each existing board and commission;
2. Determine the cost-effectiveness of each board and commission by considering their governmental, economic, and societal costs and benefits;
3. Identify opportunities to eliminate or consolidate boards and commissions;
4. Identify opportunities to modify the size, mission, and structure of boards and commissions;
5. Identify opportunities to reduce barrier to entry in occupational licensing programs;
6. Recommend comprehensive executive and legislative reform proposals to the Governor no later than October 31, 2017.

The Task Force provided policy recommendations to the Governor in October 2017 in its Task Force Report, emphasizing that if all recommendations were undertaken, “close to 450 gubernatorial appointments will be eliminated.”

H.B. 1104 requires review and amendment of existing occupational licensing regulations, using the “least restrictive” model that assumed market competition is sufficient to protect public health and safety.

H.B. 1260 would establish a sunset review which would allow for the elimination of redundant and unneeded licenses or boards. Professional engineers aren’t specifically targeted but are often included.

This measure established that all individuals should be permitted to enter any profession or occupation unless there is a demonstrated need for the state to protect the interests of the public by restricting entry into the profession or occupation. Required least restrictive form of regulation necessary to protect the public interest.

The measure also established criteria for the review or enactment of professional or occupational regulation by the state, to be administered by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification.

The measure was ruled "inexpedient to legislate" during the February 27th Committee Meeting which is a means to kill the measure.

NSPE worked with the New Hampshire Society of Professional Engineers to ensure that this legislation was defeated.

This tracking software legislation mandates that all state contractors use software to verify the amount of time they are working on a state contract. The software tracks total keystroke and mouse event frequency, and records a screenshot at least once every three minutes. It presents significant privacy and security concerns.

If passed, H.B. 289 would have required occupational licensing boards to expire on December 31, 2023 or five years after the board’s creation, whichever is later. This emancipates a person to engage in the profession without an occupational license, notwithstanding any law that requires a person to possess a license to lawfully engage in that profession. An occupational licensing board could be renewed by enactment of a law that continues the statutes creating, empowering, governing, or regulating the board.

NSPE alerted the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers to the bill and collaborated on efforts to defeat the legislation.

S.B. 1891 would establish a sunset review which would allow for the elimination of redundant and unneeded licenses or boards. Professional engineers aren’t specifically targeted but are often included.

S.B. 1678 requires review of all occupational boards and their regulations and requirements, on a 5-year rotating basis (20% of all boards each year). Requires “least restrictive” form of regulation for protecting public health, and safety. Assumes occupational licensing is the most restrictive and therefore the least desirable form of regulation.

Creates the Occupational Licensing Advisory Commission, which will review each occupational or professional licensing once every four years and make recommendations to the Legislature.

H.B. 7359 requires amendment of existing occupational licensing regulations, using the “least restrictive” model that assumed market competition is sufficient to protect public health and safety.

These identical bills (HB 883 & SB 20) became the bipartisan regulatory reform deal between Governor Northam and the General Assembly. As originally filed, HB 883 would have created a pilot program requiring state agencies to submit two or more existing regulations to be “replaced or repealed” before a new regulation can be approved. The updated version, as well as SB 20, removed the two-for-one requirement and instead created a three-year regulatory reduction pilot program with a goal of reducing by 25% the regulatory requirements and burdens, and compliance costs within the Departments of Professional and Occupational Regulation and Criminal Justice Services.

HB 1195 creates the Joint Commission to Evaluate Professional and Occupational Licensing Requirements, tasked with examining statutory and regulatory professional and occupational licensing requirements to determine whether any may be reduced or eliminated while still, in the least restrictive manner, protecting the public health and safety.

HB 880 establishes the position of Professional and Occupational Regulatory Analyst within the Division of Legislative Services to assist the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules in (i) exerting its best efforts to evaluate at least three professions or occupations in each year and (ii) to the extent feasible, review legislation establishing or modifying an occupational regulation to determine whether the legislation uses the least restrictive regulation necessary to protect or preserve the public health, safety, and welfare.

H.B. 1770 Requires review of all occupational boards and their regulations and requirements, on a 5-year rotating basis (20% of all boards each year). Requires “least restrictive” form of regulation for protecting public health, and safety. Assumes occupational licensing is the most restrictive and therefore the least desirable form of regulation.

H.B. 2875 requires review of all occupational boards and their regulations and requirements, on a 5-year rotating basis (20% of all boards each year). Requires “least restrictive” form of regulation for protecting public health, and safety. Assumes occupational licensing is the most restrictive and therefore the least desirable form of regulation.

S.B. 313 and H.B. 4011 reorganizes the codification of licensing entities into three chapters organized by occupational subject matter, education criteria, and other common requirements for licensure. It does not change the jurisdiction power of the engineering board, but it can make it easier to enact sweeping licensing reform in the future.

H.B. 4949 requires review and amendment of existing occupational licensing regulations, using the “least restrictive” model that assumed market competition is sufficient to protect public health and safety.

“Buyer Beware” legislation, also known as a “Consumer Choice Bill,” these companion bills would allow any person to practice any occupation without a license, as long as the person discloses to the consumer that he is unlicensed, before entering into an agreement with the consumer.