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

WHEREAS, section 26H-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, establishes the policies governing the Department's regulation of 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 to maintain a license; and

WHEREAS, an additional twenty-one regulatory programs are under the jurisdiction of the Department, which is authorized to develop requirements for licensure and to maintain a 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, in explicit contravention of the Auditor's conclusions that regulation is unnecessary; and

WHEREAS, in response, the Department is committed to removing barriers to business and job growth and to cutting unnecessary regulation whenever 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 unnecessarily 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, based on that analysis, that recommendations should be made as to whether the requirements are necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers; and

WHEREAS, the principles that regulation be based on sound policy decisions and not be unreasonably restrictive or anti-competitive underlie the purpose of chapter 26H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which governs the Auditor's duties with respect to evaluating the Department's regulatory programs; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a comparative analysis of the professional and vocational regulations in other states and Hawaii in such areas as educational, testing, experience, or other requirements, and based on that analysis, to recommend whether these requirements are necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of consumers; 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 before the convening of the Regular Session of 2006; 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 before the convening of the Regular Session of 2007; and

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

Report Title:

Licensing and regulating of professions and vocations