Trump signed a new executive order loosening occupational licensing restrictions around the country
Earlier this week, President Trump signed an executive order that effectively intends to loosen occupational licensing restrictions around the country. This executive order mirrors the universal licensure recognition that some states like Arizona have enacted.
The Trump Administration recognizes the costs that come with restrictive licensing laws
Overly burdensome occupational licensing requirements can impede job creation and slow economic growth, which undermines our Nation’s prosperity and the economic well‑being of the American people. Such regulations can prevent American workers and job seekers from earning a living, maximizing their personal and economic potential, and achieving the American Dream.
Therefore to this fact, the purpose of the order is “to reduce the burden of occupational regulations in order to promote the free practice of commerce, lower consumer costs, and increase economic and geographic mobility, including for military spouses.”
What is in the executive order?
The order is guided mainly by six principles all of which work in one way or another to reduce licensing oversight or make the licensing process easier especially for migrating populations. For instance, the older subjects “all recognized occupational licensure boards to the supervision of a designated government agency or office”. Licensing boards usually hold autonomy over rulemaking and are rarely subject to any oversight. This is an opportunity to curb monopoly power if it means rule changes will be subject to more scrutiny or analysis as far as how they affect the economy.
When it comes to the actual scope of licensing laws the order requires licensing boards and entities to ensure that they only “adopt and maintain the criteria and methods of occupational regulation that are least restrictive to competition sufficient to protect consumers from significant and demonstrable harm to their health and safety.”
And for already existing rules states governments overseeing regulations should review laws to ensure that “their requirements are the least restrictive to competition sufficient to protect consumers from significant and demonstrable harm.” And this also applies to any future adoption of policies.
Some of the other principles in the Executive order pertain to individuals with criminal records as well as a person who is a spouse of an active duty member. But all in all, the order urges the need to make licensing as least restrictive possible to competition without jeopardizing safety. And based on what we have seen with overly burdensome laws that plague entrepreneurs, even in Minnesota, this is something that can be done and should have been done a long time ago.