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Committee advances bill to repeal rare thermal-styling equipment license
Summary
House Bill 120 would remove Idaho’s unique licensing requirement for sellers of thermal-styling equipment after lawmakers found no registrants and no complaints since the license was created in 2018.
BOISE — The House Business Committee voted Feb. 11 to send House Bill 120 to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation. The bill would repeal Idaho’s statutory license for sellers of thermal-styling equipment such as curling irons and hair-handling tools; lawmakers said the license has attracted no registrants since it was enacted.
Representative Jeff Ehlers, sponsor of the bill, said the license was enacted in 2018 and that the state has recorded zero registrants and zero complaints under the program. “There have been 0 registrants since it came on the books,” Ehlers said, and the bill would remove an anomalous licensing requirement that Idaho currently imposes while no other state does so.
Committee members recalled that the 2018 measure followed complaints about mall and kiosk sales of heated styling tools and concerns about burns. Representative Barbieri said the original effort appeared aimed at preventing the unsupervised sale of potentially hazardous devices in public settings. Ehlers told the panel he did not have a detailed legislative history at hand but that the license’s practical effect has been nil.
No members of the public testified and no opposition was recorded during the committee hearing. Representative Redmond moved the committee motion and the body approved the bill by voice vote.
If enacted, the repeal would remove the licensing requirement for thermal-styling equipment dealers; it would not directly regulate device safety standards or consumer-protection enforcement beyond existing product-safety laws.
