MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Senate passed legislation on Tuesday setting up an occupational licensing office within the Department of Workforce.
A bill by State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) would establish the Office of Occupational and Professional Licensing within the Alabama Department of Workforce to serve as a centralized entity providing leadership, support, and oversight to certain professional or occupational licensing boards operating within the state.
The bill would allow legislators on the Sunset Committee to transfer boards to the Department of Workforce. The committee periodically examines licensing boards and decides whether they can continue operating or require changes.
"It really gives the Secretary of Workforce the option of setting up a section underneath the Department of Workforce to handle occupational licensing. That's really critical to address a lot of the Sunset Committee's ongoing concerns that we've had about some of the administrative functions of these boards," Elliott told reporters on Tuesday. "What we're trying to do is provide some administrative entity that can handle those that are having problems. It provides an option for the Sunset Committee to place a board that may be having trouble or that may be being consolidated with another board up underneath a competent, capable administrative professional just to do the administrative services. These are all separate government agencies, and we want to make sure they're run properly, and this is the way to do that."
The bill now heads to the House for its consideration.
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