HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

8

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING REVIEW BY THE AUDITOR OF THE LICENSING AND REGULATION OF PROFESSIONS AND VOCATIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS.

 

 

WHEREAS, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (Department) is statutorily directed to set standards and enforce laws and rules governing the licensing, regulation, and discipline of trades, businesses, and professions throughout the State; and

WHEREAS, section 26H-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, sets forth the policies regarding the regulation of certain professions and vocations and provides that:

(1) The regulation and licensing of professions shall be undertaken only where reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers of the services;

(2) The purpose of regulation shall be the protection of the public welfare and not that of the regulated profession or vocation;

(3) Regulation in the form of full licensure or other restrictions on certain professions or vocations shall be retained or adopted when health, safety, or welfare of the consumer may be jeopardized by the nature of the service offered by the provider; and

(4) Regulation shall not unreasonably restrict entry into professions and vocations by all qualified persons;

and

WHEREAS, twenty-five regulatory boards and commissions are administratively attached to the Department and are authorized to develop requirements for licensure and requirements for a licensee to maintain the license; and

WHEREAS, an additional twenty-one regulatory programs are under the jurisdiction of the Department and the Department is authorized to develop requirements for licensure and requirements for a licensee to maintain the license; and

WHEREAS, the Department, in cooperation with its regulatory boards and commissions, has attempted to effectuate changes to the licensing laws and rules for the purposes of reducing and streamlining regulation; and

WHEREAS, it has nevertheless been argued that some of the regulatory programs overseen by the Department and its boards and commissions may serve to increase the costs of goods and services to consumers and unreasonably restrict entry into professions and vocations by all qualified persons; and

WHEREAS, it has also been argued that the regulatory programs overseen by the Department and its boards and commissions have, in some recent instances, increased in number and in scope and in explicit contravention of conclusions drawn by the Auditor that such regulation is unnecessary; and

WHEREAS, in response, the Department is committed to removing barriers to business and job growth and to cutting unnecessary regulation, wherever doing so will not jeopardize consumer health and safety; and

WHEREAS, in order to assess whether the Department’s regulatory and licensure programs are reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers and whether the programs unreasonably restrict entry into the professions or vocations or serve any anticompetitive purpose, the Legislature concludes that a comparative analysis of professional and vocational regulation implemented in other states should be conducted to identify areas where Hawaii imposes educational, testing, experience, or other requirements that are more burdensome than national norms, and, from that, to recommend whether any such requirements are necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of consumers; and

WHEREAS, the principles that regulation be based on sound policy decisions and that regulation not be unreasonably restrictive or anticompetitive are those which the Auditor follows pursuant to chapter 26H, Hawaii Revised Statutes; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, the Senate concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a comparative analysis of the professional and vocational regulations of Hawaii and those of the other states in the areas of educational, testing, experience, and other requirements, and, from that, to recommend whether these requirements are justified by the need to protect the health, safety, and welfare of consumers or whether any of these requirements may be repealed or modified; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to report the findings and recommendations relating to the aforementioned comparative analysis of the regulatory programs implemented by the twenty-five regulatory boards and commissions administratively attached to the Department to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to report the findings and recommendations relating to the aforementioned comparative analysis of the regulatory programs implemented by the twenty-one licensing programs under the Department’s jurisdiction to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor and the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

BY REQUEST

Report Title:

Audit Review; Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs