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Committee considers broad statutory cleanup to consolidate licensing rules under OPLC
Summary
Representatives considered a large statutory-cleanup bill requested by OPLC that moves numerous boards and rulemaking responsibilities under the office umbrella; witnesses raised concerns about removing or relocating specific disciplinary and board-authority language.
Representative Carol McGuire introduced House Bill 82, a request of the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification intended to consolidate and harmonize statutory language created or affected by prior legislation (including HB 655) so that the OPLC umbrella statute controls administrative, rulemaking and certain operational provisions across boards.
OPLC staff explained the technical intent: to avoid conflicting statutes and to centralize administrative procedures — licensing, renewal, retirements, and some rulemaking — under the RSA 310 framework that already governs OPLC. Deanna Juris told the committee the request was a cleanup effort reflecting changes the Legislature previously enacted and signed into law, and that the office was open to specific drafting fixes to ensure operational practicality.
Several trade and professional witnesses testified with requested clarifications. Electrical contractors asked for clearer language about reexamination timing; the Electrical Contractors Business Association asked whether the draft would unintentionally limit reexamination opportunities or require a new application for common candidate circumstances. Land surveyors and a licensed forester who also holds a land-surveyor license said the proposal repeals some enumerated disciplinary and rules sections from their statutes and that the board’s explicit authority (for example, lists of disciplinary grounds) should be preserved or translated into the umbrella statute in a way that leaves no gap.
Joe Hawes raised concerns tied to a specific auctioneer qualification line, asking why a ‘‘good professional character’’ clause was being removed; Representative McGuire and others said that language historically had enabled discriminatory application and that continuing references to peer references and existing qualification checks remain part of the auctioneer process but that the general ‘‘good character’’ phrasing had caused problems and was being removed for that reason.
OPLC general counsel Nicholas Fry told the committee the intention is not to strip boards of their expertise: boards will continue to set objective standards for licensure and to advise on disciplinary matters; statutory duplications were the problem the cleanup seeks to remove. Juris and Fry told the committee the office will work with stakeholders on targeted wording, and they also reported that the Insurance Department proposed a narrow technical amendment to ensure that individuals licensed under the OPLC umbrella would be covered by certain insurance-related statutes that reference board licensing and practice in New Hampshire.
Committee members asked for additional drafting detail and were told the bill would be referred to the licensing subcommittee to work through technical changes and stakeholder concerns.
