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Senate Commerce Committee releases bill to fund staff to clear professional licensing backlog; companion open-data bill advances
Summary
The committee released SB 818, which would appropriate $10 million in each of FY2026–FY2028 to hire staff to address a backlog of professional license applications, and also released SB 1413 to require an open-data portal showing licensing and complaint datasets.
The Senate Commerce Committee on Feb. 12 released Senate Bill 818, which would appropriate $10,000,000 in each of fiscal years 2026, 2027 and 2028 to the Division of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Law and Public Safety to hire additional staff aimed at clearing a backlog of professional license applications.
Chair Lagana said the backlog affects a wide range of professions and that the funds are intended both to "allow for the immediate hiring of additional staff to alleviate the current backlog" and to sustain staffing levels going forward. "My bill S1413 is supposed to do just that, to make this information readily available," the chair said, referring to a companion measure released the same day.
Althea Ford, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, told the committee that applicants often cannot track the status of their requests. "It's kind of gone into the abyss," Ford said, adding that applicants "press send and you get no feedback or response" about what needs to be remedied. Ford and other business witnesses said the state currently licenses more than 720,000 professionals and that staffing shortfalls have compounded service delays.
SB 1413, the open-data companion measure released by the committee, would require the Division of Consumer Affairs to create and maintain a public portal providing professional and occupational licensing registration and certification information and consumer complaints, subject to the Open Public Records Act and applicable privacy laws. Supporters said the portal would give applicants clearer status information and help the Legislature quantify the backlog.
Following testimony, a motion to release SB 818 was made by Senator Crichton and seconded by Senator Singer. Committee roll call recorded Senator Singer and others in the affirmative and the chair announced the bill was released. A separate motion to release SB 1413 also carried.
The committee did not adopt any substantive amendments to SB 818 during the hearing; sponsors and witnesses were urged to supply additional data about the size and duration of the backlog.
