Lawmakers advance bills that aim to streamline professional licensing

Wisconsin issues more than 200 types of professional licenses, which are needed for professions ranging from physical therapy to cosmetology.

Now, amid complaints of long waits for credentials, some lawmakers are trying to streamline the process.

Seven licensing bills are tentatively scheduled for a vote before the full state Assembly next week. Republicans passed three of them out of the Assembly’s Regulatory Licensing Reform Committee on Wednesday.

One would extend renewal deadlines from once every two years to once every four years for many license types. Another would clarify that the clock for renewal starts once a license is granted rather than once an application is submitted.

A third proposal would expand the list of professions that are eligible to use an out-of-state license for practicing in Wisconsin temporarily while waiting to receive a Wisconsin credential.

In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order to temporarily allow interstate licensing reciprocity agreements, so that out-of-state health care workers could help out in Wisconsin. In 2021, lawmakers passed a bill that Evers signed into law that codified those agreements, allowing many types of health workers with out-of-state licenses to practice here while their Wisconsin license application is pending.

The bill advanced this week would make additional occupations, which aren’t included in the 2021 law, eligible for those types of preliminary licenses. That includes dental hygienists and naturopathic doctors. It would also include a host of business licenses.

Ann Zenk of the Wisconsin Hospital Association says many of the proposed changes would cut red tape while attracting desperately needed workers to Wisconsin.

“I’ve been through nursing shortages, workforce shortages that kind of come and go, I’ve never seen anything like this situation that we’re in now,” she said during a public hearing last week, noting that baby boomers are retiring from the workforce just as their health care needs are increasing.

All three Democratic members of the regulatory reform committee — Reps. Supreme Moore Omokunde and Christine Sinicki of Milwaukee and Rep. Lori Palmeri of Oskhosh — voted against the three licensing bills in committee.

In a written statement Wednesday afternoon, Palmeri said, absent sufficient funding for Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services, the changes wouldn’t actually improve the licensing process. The governor has asked for nearly 80 full-time equivalent employees to staff that agency as part of his budget request.

“While I am happy to work on solutions to make the procedures of DSPS more efficient, I’m disappointed that the bills coming to our committee continue to burden the department while inserting policy that has unintended consequences for working folks,” Palmeri said. “Without providing either additional staffing or funding to properly implement the changes proposed today, we would be creating a more inefficient process.”

The bills tentatively headed to the Assembly calendar for debate next week were initially suggested by a study committee that looked into Wisconsin’s professional licensing rules. That panel included a mix of Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as business owners and advocates.