Op-ed: Occupational Licensing Reforms Must Maintain Standards to Protect the Public
As the United States works to reverse the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, state legislatures will once again consider occupational licensing reform as a way to jumpstart the economy and get Americans back to work.
However, there is no silver bullet to this complex set of challenges.
Lately, anti-licensing groups have set their sights on so-called “universal licensing” (proposals from lawmakers that aim to allow states to recognize professional licenses from other states) as a way of enabling people to have more flexibility to move their careers from state to state.
Most people agree professionals should be allowed to move across state lines and earn a living with the least cost and hassle possible. Likewise, most people want to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare by ensuring they are being served by qualified professionals who have the knowledge, skills and experience for the job. This is especially true in highly technical, high-impact professions that the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) represents like certified public accountants (CPAs), architects, engineers, surveyors and landscape architects…
Read the full op-ed in Route Fifty:
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LTE: Be careful with broad-brush approach to occupational licensing reform
Point of View: Be Careful with broad-brush approach to occupational licensing reform
By: Tricia H. Hatley, President, National Society of Professional Engineers
“States need to cut licensing red tape permanently” (Point of View, Sept. 9) describes a push to weaken occupational licensing nationally. However, proponents failed to acknowledge the daily and invaluable contributions of licensed professionals to Oklahomans.
Efforts to weaken licensing, however well-intentioned, make no distinction for highly complex, technical professions. This is a critical distinction that broad-brush proposals like those referenced in the article fail to make — and puts thousands of lives at risk in Oklahoma and elsewhere.
Professions like engineering, architecture, accounting, landscape architecture and surveying are responsible for the safety of our physical spaces and the integrity of our financial systems. Because of this, they are required to meet rigorous standards based on education, experience and examination to demonstrate a minimum qualification level.
These working Americans create and maintain our most vital and valuable infrastructure systems. Oklahomans expect their buildings to have been designed and built to code and that structures can withstand the severe environmental hazards facing our communities. They assume vehicles will be able to safely traverse our interstates with appropriately sized entrance and exit ramps and bridges that can carry heavy truck loads. And they presume that informed and qualified CPAs are overseeing their financials and ensuring fiscal compliance.
Rigorous professional licensing is what makes that trust possible.
Oklahomans are rightly skeptical of broad-brush proposals that would sweep up these professions and wrongfully accuse their licensing practices as dispensable and unnecessary. It is not hard to imagine the negative repercussions of dismantling carefully developed professional licensing systems that protect the public.
LTE: Licensing for landscape architects
Licensing for landscape architects
By: Ryan R. Binkowski, Landscape Architect, Bonita Springs, FL
I was surprised to read a recent column in the Naples Daily News arguing for the elimination of licensing for landscape architects.
As a licensed landscape architect for 17 years and as a partner and chief operating officer of Waldrop Engineering, P.A., I believe this is a misguided and dangerous view.
Such a suggestion could put the health, safety and welfare of all Floridians at needless risk. Licensing for landscape architects is necessary, and it’s rigorous for a good reason: to protect public safety. The standards that come from licensing ensure that those who design and draft construction documents impacting our public spaces, transportation corridors and green stormwater infrastructure are qualified to do so.
Hurricanes increase the risk for Florida’s most vulnerable communities. Licensed professionals, including landscape architects, have the critical education and experience to develop necessary solutions.
Similarly, accountants, engineers and architects play a critical role in professions we depend on. They design and build our hospitals and protect our financial systems.
According to a recent study from the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing, 67% of voters believe they are best protected by a licensing system that oversees education, experience and examination standards. The public recognizes the value of licensing systems.
Op-ed: Reasonable licensing reform has to leave key protections in place
“You know, I always wanted to pretend to be an architect,” George Costanza told Jerry Seinfeld.
But you wouldn’t want Art Vandelay as your architect. Why? Because Vandelay — the sometimes alter ego of Seinfeld’s George Costanza — is not really an architect.
That’s where licensing comes into play: establishing, verifying, and enforcing the necessary minimum qualifications to practice critical professions such as engineering and architecture competently and safely.
Unfortunately, efforts are underway to undermine licensing and erode the public protection it provides. In state after state — Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, just to name a few — there is an orchestrated campaign to weaken professional standards by slipping legislation through during the COVID-19 crisis so a distracted public won’t see it happening, or by invoking the crisis as a justification.
Read the full op-ed in The Washington Examiner:
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LTE: Professional licensing must be protected in economy recovery
Professional licensing must be protected in economy recovery
By: Roger Grabman, PE, NSPE
Op-ed: Consumers are right to demand rigorous professional licensing remain as states reopen
From Juneau to Tallahassee, the issue of licensing reform is once again coming to the fore in statehouses across America as lawmakers weigh a range of measures to reverse the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
While licensing reform is predominately a state issue, the Trump administration has issued federal reports to guide state legislators on the difficult, delicate task of revising licensing laws.
Recently, the Trump administration issued an executive order loosening a raft of federal regulations in response to the pandemic. This approach is likely to be emulated by governors and state legislatures across America.
The purported intentions of the reformers: noble.
The apparent bipartisanship around their efforts: refreshing.
The allure of jumping onto their bandwagon: understandable.
However, as is so often the case with legislative solutions to complex problems, the devil is in the details — or perhaps, in the lack of them.
As we have seen throughout the current crisis, existing professional licensing models have allowed professionals to move to areas where their expertise is most needed without jeopardizing the public’s health, safety, and welfare. At all times, but especially during times of national crisis, the public needs to have confidence that our nation’s critical physical and financial infrastructure is in the hands of competent, qualified professionals.
While proposals to weaken licensing vary, there is a deeply troubling and potentially dangerous constant across them all: They rely on a one-size-fits-all approach.
These proposals make no distinction between easing licensing where there is a legitimate need and weakening necessary qualifications and licensing requirements for professions upon which the health, safety, and welfare of the public at large depend.
Fast-tracking these proposals, as some state lawmakers have suggested, would be a serious mistake.
It is not hard to imagine the consequences of unlicensed individuals planning highways where the curves are too sharp, roadways where hills are steep and hazardous in poor weather conditions, or bridges that are not designed to withstand earthquakes. The long-term consequences could be catastrophic.
Intentional or not, anti-licensing bills disregard the important role of licensing in setting a minimum level of expertise for high-impact, highly complex professions such as engineering and landscape architecture. The legislation also ignores the role of responsible licensing systems to ensure professionals stay current in their field and provide oversight and enforcement against bad actors.
Professional licensing systems are in place to protect the public. They’re rigorous for a reason — and they’re too important to be swept aside by broad-brush reform. Lawmakers need to realize and value what their constituents already know: Professional licensing protects the public, and the public supports professional licensing.
A nation-wide survey of likely voters released in February by the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) found that nearly three-quarters of voters believe it is important to regulate professionals in accounting, engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, surveying and related fields with high impact on the public’s safety and well-being.
This concern about licensing reform becoming indiscriminate deregulation is well-founded. Legislation that would do just that was popping up in statehouses before the pandemic with alarming regularity, and it is expected to return as legislatures and courts reconvene.
Some measures bizarrely suggested that professionals should show qualifications only after harm has occurred and then, only the least possible amount of qualification is required. A smarter approach is to start with a bias toward safety and verified qualifications. Proponents seem to have forgotten the adage “Better safe than sorry” — not “Better sorry than safe.”
And the public agrees. The same ARPL survey found the public would rather be safe first with 71 percent of voters wanting licensing required — unless it can be proven that eliminating it will not impact public health and safety.
These proposals weaken professional licensing standards that keep the public safe, and the only remedies they offer for bad outcomes are costly litigation or posting a negative online review. That may work for bad take-out, but it is of little consolation for a structural deficiency in a bridge, road, or building.
No fair-minded observer questions that unnecessary barriers to entry exist for many occupations and trades. Governors, state legislators, and activist groups are right to focus their rhetoric and their energy on eliminating these barriers where possible to jumpstart an ailing economy.
Yet when it comes to professions with high public impact, maintaining licensing standards is imperative to ensuring public trust and safety.
As the discussions continue in statehouse committee rooms, lawmakers would do well to respect the concerns of their constituents and eschew risky, one-size-fits-all measures that would weaken critical qualifications and endanger the public they serve.
Tom Smith is executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Wendy Miller is president of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).
Matthew M. Miller is Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB).
Op-ed published in The Hill:
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CPA Conversations Podcast: The Fight to Protect Responsible Professional Licensing
Skip Braziel, Vice President – State Regulation and Legislation with AICPA and Veronica Meadows, Senior Director of Strategy with CLARB discuss the ongoing fight to ensure responsible licensing standards for professions that protect the public interest, new public opinion results on the importance of professional licensing, and how coronavirus has affected this issue.
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LTE: Floridians Right to Demand Rigorous Professional Licensing
Floridians Right to Demand Rigorous Professional Licensing
By: Christopher Sharek, President, ASCE Florida Section
Tallahassee Democrat
A recent article in the Democrat, Deregulate it? Florida lawmakers aim to boost employment by cutting licensing requirements (Feb. 7, 2020), described efforts by some state legislators to weaken or eliminate licensing requirements for Florida professions.
While lowering barriers to entry for occupations is a worthy goal that should be pursued, lawmakers must be careful not to sweep up professions with high public impact in the name of “reform.”
These proposals ignore one simple fact: the best way to ensure that Florida consumers are protected is to continue to require rigorous education, examination and experience for professions that directly impact public health, safety and welfare — overseen by licensing boards composed of independent experts.
The devil, as always, is in the details. Broad-brush deregulation will have the unintended consequence of putting all Floridians at needless risk.
A clear majority of consumers believe the current system protects the public, and they understand certain professions — like engineers, architects, landscape architects and certified public accountants (CPAs) — have systems in place that are rigorous for a reason. For example, professional engineers are designing the bridges you cross every day and the safe drinking water systems on which your family relies. By doing away with licensure, Florida is doing a disservice to its citizens.
Tallahassee would do well to listen to the will of consumers who are actually affected by changes in licensing laws. We ask leadership to be mindful of legislation that undermines the systems that are in place to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of our citizens.
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CLEAR Podcast, Episode 26: ARPL
Skip Braziel, Vice President – State Regulation and Legislation with AICPA and David Cox, CEO of NCEES introduce listeners to the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing.
It’s about our duty to protect the public, and where we see that threatened is where ARPL will become involved.
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Skip Braziel talks licensing on Cronkite News, Arizona PBS
Skip Braziel, ARPL, speaks with Cronkite News, Arizona PBS about the importance of responsible licensing for professions with high public impact.
We are very specific, unique professions that have a high public impact. If something goes wrong, the public suffers a great deal. So we want to make sure that the standards remain high and that we balance economic development with public safety.
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