Progress made toward easing occupational licensing laws

In response to an executive order made last year by Brad Little, then lieutenant governor and now governor, a number of state boards are looking for ways to ease occupational licenses to make it easier for people— especially military spouses and veterans — to work in Idaho. And there’s more to come, both through executive orders and legislation.

“The tidal wave is shifting to see how to make this easier for people to get to work while at the same time protecting public health and safety,” said Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian.

Little first signed an executive order in May 2017, when serving as acting governor, calling for an overall look at occupational licenses. Executive Order 2017-06 required state agencies to submit a report to the governor’s office by July 1, 2018, to assess whether licensure requirements are necessary, and with recommendations for improvement, modification or elimination. That report was released on Oct. 22, 2018.

Little has since followed through on a pledge he made in his State of the State message to issue an executive order to add “sunset” and “sunrise” provisions to occupational licenses. The order requires the rules of at least five licensed occupations to be examined each year for possible removal, and a series of eight factors, to be answered by industry, in evaluating proposals to regulate a business or modify existing regulations.

Last session, the Legislature also formed its own occupational licensing interim committee, which met three times during the interim. The Legislature recommended that it be reauthorized to continue its work during the next interim session.

In fact, some members of the committee had been working on sunrise and sunset review of occupational licensing and were pleasantly surprised to hear Little call for it, Den Hartog said. “We said, awesome!” she said. “We had no idea he was going to say that.”

Producing Little’s report appeared to galvanize a number of the licensing boards to look at their own requirements and consider revising them over time. There are already several rules changes and other bills under consideration by the Legislature submitted by the various licensing boards.

The Legislature might write additional legislation easing occupational licenses, Den Hartog said, such as offering reciprocity for military spouses and veterans who are transferred to Idaho but already have licenses in other states, as well as several years of experience and a clean work history. If it takes a long time for their licenses to be recognized by Idaho, and they’re only here for a couple of years, in the meantime, they’re not working, she said. “That’s not what we want.”

While Den Hartog’s preference would be for a single piece of legislation that covers all occupational licenses, it’s probably not going to work out that way, she said. “In reality it’s going to have to be license by license,” she said.

Idaho’s not alone. A number of states are looking at their occupational licensing requirements in response to a 2015 Supreme Court case against a North Carolina board that required people carrying out teeth whitening to be licensed dentists. Consequently, occupational licensing could be considered to have an antitrust component.

The National Council of State Legislatures has created a consortium of states that are looking at the issue. Formed in 2017 with 11 states using a $7.5 million Department of Labor grant, Idaho and four other states were added to the consortium in 2018 after an additional $1 million grant, said Suzanne Hultin, program director with the Denver organization’s employment, labor and retirement program.

“There’s a momentum in the state toward wanting to improve accessibility and portability of occupations, more so than in other states,” she said.

While it’s important to protect the health and safety of consumers, some occupational licensing laws are decades old, Hultin said.

“There’s definitely a lot of interest,” she said. “Every state should really examine what’s on their books and statutes, and question whether that’s reasonable and if there are unintended barriers.”