RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (Department) is statutorily directed to set standards and enforce all laws and rules governing the licensing and operation, and to register and supervise the conduct, 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:

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 deregulating 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 regulations, wherever doing so will not jeopardize consumer health and safety; and

WHEREAS, in order to ensure that the Department’s regulatory and licensure programs are reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers and that the programs do not unreasonably restrict entry into the professions or vocations or serve any anti-competitive 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 restrictive or anti-competitive are those which the Auditor follows pursuant to chapter 26H, Hawaii Revised Statutes; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a comparative analysis of professional and vocational regulation in other states and in Hawaii in such areas as educational, testing, experience, or other requirements, and, from that, to recommend whether any such requirements are necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to report findings and recommendations relating to the aforementioned comparative analysis and 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 before the convening of the Regular Session of 2004; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to report findings and recommendations relating to the aforementioned comparative analysis and the regulatory programs implemented by the twenty-one licensing programs under the Department's jurisdiction to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

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

Report Title:

Professional and Vocational Regulation; Auditor Review