Michigan licensing agency outlines scope, rule reforms and staffing needs to House subcommittee

At a meeting of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and Insurance and Financial Services, officials from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) briefed members on the department's licensing responsibilities, rulemaking workload and recent legislative activity.

The presentation, led by Paige Fultz, director of LARA’s Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs, and Marnie Triemstra, deputy director, outlined LARA’s mission, the department’s four strategic goals and the bureaus and type 1 agencies that operate under its umbrella. “We directly serve nearly 2,000,000 individuals and entities,” Fultz said, summarizing the department’s scale.

The briefing matters because LARA regulates professions and facilities that touch health care, construction, public safety and consumer protection across Michigan. Committee members asked about board structure, new licensing responsibilities, and staffing to implement recently enacted laws.

Fultz told the committee LARA was established in 1965 as the Department of Commerce and was renamed LARA in 2011. She said LARA groups its work into three categories: regulatory bureaus (offices with statutory authority), type 1/autonomous agencies (agencies that operate under LARA but have statutorily granted powers) and central services that provide administrative support. She said LARA coordinated rule…