Senate Bill 773 would make North Carolina the third state to have Universal License Recognition. What is that? Well, remember at the start of the coronavirus policy response, when North Carolina and other states waived their individual licensure requirements to allow health care and behavioral health care professionals licensed in other states to practice here? It would do that for all other licensed occupations.
Check out my research brief today for more on the bill. As I explained,
The bill would help open North Carolina for return to service work in the post-COVID economy. Universal license recognition is one of the five reforms in the John Locke Foundation’s package of recommendations for streamlining occupational regulation to get North Carolinians back to work.
Let’s not forget that occupational licensing reform has long been a bipartisan issue. In recent years “red” and “blue” states alike have made significant licensing reforms. In fact, one of the strongest cases for reforming occupational licensing was made in a 2016 white paper by the Obama/Biden administration.
What are the five reforms in our package of recommendations for occupational licensing? These:
