A bill relaxing licensing standards for elevator mechanics, electricians, plumbers, crane operators, sprinkler fitters and HVAC technicians has cleared both chambers of the West Virginia Legislature.
House Bill 2008 reduces hourly experience requirements for certified sprinkler fitters, electricians and HVAC technicians. It allows plumbers to achieve certification by passing a written exam, replacing previous hours-of-experience requirements for that profession.
The bill would allow U.S. veterans who have worked as HVAC technicians for the military to apply for certification using their experience from that time.
The legislation further nixes state regulatory requirements for crane operators, still subjecting them to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements.
Republicans who supported the bill, in both the House and Senate, said it was about increasing job opportunities in West Virginia.
“The idea is not to be hurting jobs, but to get government and bureaucracy out of the way and still achieve these things in a safe manner,” said House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, before the House’s vote Thursday.
Democrats in both chambers who opposed the legislation questioned the bill’s attention to consumer safety.
Del. Phillip DiSerio, D-Brooke, said Thursday the legislation would “steal” jobs from West Virginians.
“Let’s just make it so anybody can come here and work,” DiSerio said. “Let’s not worry about our citizens. … Let’s just go ahead and vote this bill through.”
The House voted 59 to 40 to advance the legislation, with amendments from the Senate, to the governor Thursday.
The Senate voted in favor of the legislation, 17 to 16, on Wednesday.
This is one of a few highly debated bills originating in the House of Delegates to relax occupational licensing rules.
House Bill 2007, which is still in the Senate Government Organization Committee, would create a “universal occupational licensing recognition act,” calling on the state to recognize licensing achieved for certain professions from other states.
In the latest bill to pass the West Virginia House of Delegates dealing with occupational licenses, lawmakers voted to relax experience requirements for plumbers, sprinkler fitters and electricians.
House Bill 2008 replaces certain hourly requirements for plumbers with a written proficiency exam and scales back five-year experience requirements for master electricians to two years.
It also includes provisions for U.S. veterans who can demonstrate they are certified in plumbing or electricity from their time in the military.
Delegates voted 61-37 in favor of the legislation. The bill’s lead sponsor, Del. Geoff Foster, said it was about attracting skilled workers to West Virginia and addressing barriers to employment.
“This is a jobs bill, to create jobs here in West Virginia,” Foster said Monday.
Democrats argued that the bill scales back necessary requirements for consumer protection, and that it’s unfair to licensed West Virginians who already have met existing experience requirements.
Del. Phillip Diserio, D-Brooke, pointed to an amendment that the House of Delegates agreed to pass last week, exempting crane operators from the bill.
Del. Vernon Criss, R-Wood, asked delegates on Friday to remove crane operators from the bill, referring to other professions like doctors and lawyers that have been exempted from similar licensing legislation the House has passed this year.
“My family business of almost 80 years, third generation, we’re in the river-servicing business,” Criss said Friday. “We deal with cranes on a daily basis. We would like to have the same opportunities as the doctors, lawyers, the engineers, to be able to do our thing without this bill.”
“You voted with the person that knows the industry, and told you, this is bad for the industry,” said Diserio, an electrician. “He asked you to take his part out because it’s bad for the bill. I’m asking you to take the whole bill out because it’s bad for the bill.”
House Bill 2008 was the 19th bill to pass the House, less than two weeks into the 60-day session.
It’s also the latest legislation dealing with occupational licensing to pass the House. On Thursday, delegates advanced House Bill 2007, to recognize out-of-state licenses for a slew of regulated professions, as long as an individual plans to move to West Virginia.
On Thursday, lawmakers agreed to eliminate requirements for continuing education to hair stylists and barbers.
The West Virginia House of Delegates advanced a bill to the Senate Thursday that would recognize a person’s occupational license from another state instead of requiring them to match the state’s own standards for certain regulated professions.
Republicans say the bill, creating a new “Universal Recognition of Occupational Licenses Act,” will attract more residents, cutting away the red tape that prevents some skilled workers from moving to West Virginia.
Democrats, meanwhile, criticized the bill’s one-size-fits-all approach for a diverse gamut of state-regulated professions.
Some of the jobs House Bill 2007 applies to include engineers, massage therapists, veterinarians, accountants, dentists and architects — professions that by West Virginia licensing standards vary greatly, in terms of required schooling and experience.
After committee meetings, lawmakers agreed to exempt from the bill several positions in law enforcement, medicine and the legal sector.
In order to qualify for a West Virginia occupational license through House Bill 2007, applicants must intend to become a West Virginia resident. They have to be licensed in another state for at least one year, and they can’t be in poor standing with any state that they’re licensed in.
“COVID-19 has created a unique situation where many people are leaving these heavily populated states and big cities to go to a less populated state,” said Del. Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, a sponsor of the bill. “This is about being proactive, and trying to attract people to this state.”
House Minority Leader Doug Skaff said Thursday that he takes issue with the bill using a person’s “intent” to move to West Virginia as a requirement, instead of their physical presence in the state.
“As long as you say you intend to live in West Virginia, you can come take a job from other West Virginians under the pretense that you may work and live in West Virginia,” Skaff said of the bill.
Foster said that it will be up to state occupational boards to prove intent and hold applicants accountable to that commitment.
Perry Bennett
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
The West Virginia House of Delegates voted 65-33 to pass House Bill 2007 on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said Thursday that Republicans were providing little opportunity for people affected by the bill to comment on it.
In the House Government Organization Committee, where House Bill 2007 was considered, Hansen said chair Brandon Steele rejected his request for a public hearing on the bill.
“If there was ever a bill that the House was considering that should hold a public hearing, it’s this bill, because of the wide variety of professions that are impacted,” Hansen said.
Foster, who is vice chair of the House Government Organization committee, said leaders decided against a public hearing to avoid the risk of COVID-19 spread. Steele did not return a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
Foster said committee staff sent emails to members of all the occupational licensing groups that would’ve been affected by an earlier version of this bill. The committee heard back from more than a dozen groups, according to Foster, who added that about six groups came to testify to the committee in person over the course of two meetings.
Lesley Rosier-Tabor, executive director of the West Virginia State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, said she received an email two days before the committee was scheduled to consider House Bill 2007.
Republican committee leaders did not allow Rosier-Tabor to testify, according to her and Hansen. She said Thursday that she would’ve urged lawmakers against imposing a one-size-fits all approach for regulated professions like hers, which, according to West Virginia licensing standards, requires applicants to have an accredited degree, four to six years of experience and successful scores on two national exams.
“When you’re dealing with the safety of our citizens and the designing of our critical infrastructure, all of those things are the responsibility of professional engineers,” Rosier-Tabor said. “We don’t want to find ourselves having to lower the standard that we would hold our own professionals and our own engineering students to.”
The West Virginia Board of Registration for Professional Engineers has about 8,800 licensees, according to Rosier-Tabor, 82% of which are licensed to work here, but don’t reside in West Virginia.
In the last five years, she said the board has rejected less than a dozen applications.
The bill, which passed 65-33, was the 12th to pass the House of Delegates by Day 9 of the 60-day legislative session.
It now heads to the Senate for approval, in order to reach the governor’s desk and become law.
