Bill

HB 1698

85(R) - 2017
House Licensing & Administrative Procedures
Senate Business & Commerce
Read Bill & Check Bill Status
House Licensing & Administrative Procedures
Senate Business & Commerce
Occupational Licensing

Vote Recommendation

Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral
  • Neutral

Author(s)

John Kuempel

Sponsor(s)

Craig Estes

Bill Caption

Relating to the licensing and regulation of a journeyman industrial electrician.

Fiscal Notes

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

Bill Analysis

Occupational licensure laws for people working as electricians are very broad, onerous, and sometimes convoluted. There are many exemptions to the licensure laws which mean people have to have different types or levels of licensure depending in some cases on their employment status as an employee of a company or a contractor. Within the electrical profession there are a variety of subcategories of electrical licensure. 

HB 1698 would create a new subcategory of occupational licensure called "journeyman industrial electrician" which would allow a person to get a more narrowly tailored license than a full "journeyman electrician". A person "who engages in electrical work exclusively at a business that operates a chemical plant, petrochemical plant, refinery, natural gas plant, natural gas treating plant, pipeline, or oil and gas exploration and production operation" would be eligible to become a journeyman industrial electrician. The testing for this license would be more narrowly tailored than that of a full journeyman electrician, and if the journeyman industrial electrician wanted to work elsewhere at the journeyman level he or she would have to take the full journeyman electrician exam. 

The requirements to obtain a journeyman industrial electrician license would be similar to the requirements for other subcategories of electrician. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

In general, we are opposed to increasing the number of professions that require an occupational license. This bill, while technically creating a new subcategory of license within a heavily regulated and licensed field, does not actually impose a new licensure burden where none already exists. It merely allows a specific category of electrician to get a license for their field which does not require testing on information irrelevant to their scope of practice. For this reason we view HB 1698 as an administrative bill updating licensure requirements in a way that does not grow the scope of government or diminish the free market any more than existing regulations in this field already have. For this reason we remain neutral on HB 1698.

Organizations Supporting

Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas