DPOR tells House General Laws it is expanding license portability, cutting rules and wrestling with IT and funding limits

The Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) briefed the House Committee on General Laws on its licensing programs, rule-reduction effort, backlog improvements and technology and funding challenges, agency officials said.

"Occupational licensing approaches vary widely across the country," DPOR policy and legislative affairs manager Jennifer Sai told the committee during a presentation the agency provided for newly seated members. DPOR, she said, regulates roughly 320,000 licensees across several hundred license types and employs about 200 staff to oversee 18 regulatory boards.

DPOR director Steve Kersner outlined recent initiatives that the agency said aim to streamline licensure and reduce unnecessary regulatory burden. "Universal license recognition is essentially a pathway for qualified individuals who hold a license in another state to be able to transfer that license to Virginia in a streamlined fashion," Kersner said, and DPOR has seen "approaching 1,500 applicants" use that pathway since it began in 2023, with roughly 500 applicants per year on current trends.

Kersner said the program has produced some unexpected patterns: a high number of tradespeople (electricians, plumbers, HVAC) and a large volume of applicants for an alternative on-site sewage master license, most of whom appear to come from North Carolina. "We're finding that individuals are going to North Carolina, they're getting that license, and then transferring it back into Virginia," he said, explaining boards are reviewing whether Virginia's training requirements remain appropriate given interstate differences.

Regulatory reduction work was another major focus. Kersner said that under an executive directive the agency reviewed discretionary regulatory requirements line-by-line using a three-question framework (is a rule statutorily required; what risk to health/safety/welfare does it mitigate and is it the least restrictive means; is it administratively necessary). The boards' review, which Kersner said consumed thousands of hours and many meetings, produced about a 29% reduction in discretionary requirements through deletions and changes that yielded economic-credit calculations (for example, lowering cosmetology training from 1,500 to 840 hours produced an estimated $3.3 million annual economic benefit for students, per DPOR's presentation).

Committee members asked about consumer protection and training standards. "Has there been any way to manage the increase in the number of bad haircuts that are coming out as a result of cutting the number of training hours in cosmetology?" Delegate Marcus Simon asked. DPOR responded that boards convened regulatory advisory panels, reviewed decades of vocational program experience (programs historically operated at a range of hours and many at 840 hours), and considered other safeguards when adopting changes.

Kersner also described improvements in license-processing backlogs as an economic issue: DPOR reduced an average backlog from 33 days in 2022 (which Kersner said represented a projected annualized drag on economic opportunity) to five days at one point and said current backlog was about eight days. The agency has increased multilingual testing materials and begun remote-proctored exams for several large boards to reduce friction for applicants.

On infrastructure and funding, DPOR told the committee its core licensing, enforcement and records systems are aging and fragmented — many parts date to the 1990s or early 2000s — and that the agency cannot yet offer full online services for new applicants. Kersner said DPOR operates as a non-general-fund agency under the Callahan Act (Va. Code §54.1-113), raising revenue through fees set by boards; he said fee-setting and fee increases can take multiple years to move through the administrative process and constrain the agency's ability to staff and respond to market changes.

During questions, members also asked about pathways for veterans and military spouses. Kersner cited Va. Code §54.1-18, which allows boards to accept equivalent military experience and noted an expedited licensing provision that can apply to military spouses, plus a new DPOR coordination effort with the Department of Veterans Services to make those pathways clearer.

The presentation materials were attached to patron notifications and are available on the Legislative Information System (LIS) and the committee agenda, Chair Paul Kriezac said. A motion to adjourn was moved and seconded and the chair called for those in favor to signify by saying "I;" the provided transcript ends as the voice vote is called and does not show a formal tally.

What to watch: DPOR said it will continue board-level reviews of specific licensing pathways flagged by the universal recognition process (for example, the alternative on-site sewage master license) and that legislative action may be required to address structural constraints in the Callahan Act that affect fee flexibility and the agency's ability to staff and modernize IT systems.