Licensing Reviews: Agriculture and Banking Committees

The Occupational Board Reform Act (OBRA) was passed in 2018 and became effective in 2019. It requires legislative committees of jurisdiction to review all occupational licenses in the state, roughly 20% per year, on a five-year rotation. These reviews examine whether the licensing requirements are adequate or excessive by current standards. The committees then submit reports to the Clerk of the Legislature, where they are available for public review.

By way of reminder, almost all licensing regulations are created to protect the “health and safety” of the public. Occasionally, that purpose becomes protecting the “health, safety, and welfare” of the public. One of the things that OBRA reports are supposed to do is determine whether the regulations are fulfilling those purposes.

Each committee deals with these reports slightly differently, and the way that an individual committee handles the reviews for different licenses may differ. Most committees submit interim studies to provide notice that they will be looking at specific licenses. Then,The  they decide whether to hold hearings or conduct an internal study by staff.

This is the first in a series of articles discussing the work of the various committees, now that they’ve completed their first five-year cycle and have started on their second.

For more context, see this post.

Agriculture Committee Reviews (2019-2024)

The Agriculture Committee has a relatively small number of licenses under its jurisdiction and has been able to move through them with one or two license reviews per year. Many of the licenses would be considered more akin to a permit. They typically involve on-the-job training, followed by a brief exam and the payment of a $25-$100 permit fee to the state. The goal of most of these permits is to ensure that minimal care is taken with certain agricultural products to protect food safety. However, in one instance, it’s to ensure the proper use of certain pesticides.

Bulk Milk Hauler/Sampler (2020 and 2021 Reviews): aims to regulate the collection of bulk raw milk for processing in the state

First Purchase Grain Dealers (2022 Reviews): This regulation is in place largely to protect Nebraska grain producers who sell grain outside of licensed grain warehouses. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t seem to be an occupational license, per se, but rather a business license.

Pesticide Applicators (2023 Reviews): qualifications for this licensure consists primarily of on-the-job work, followed by a test and payment of $90 license fee (valid for 3 years).

Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee (2019-2024)

The Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee covers a broad spectrum of areas, primarily related to the banking and insurance industries. Most of the licenses covered in the jurisdiction of this committee could probably be said to be attempting to protect the financial welfare of the public instead of the health or safety of the public. The committee’s reports can be divided into five  broad categories.

Debt Management Services (Credit Counselors) (2023): The Committee attempted to obtain information regarding the licensure from the Secretary of State’s office (the licensing body). As of the printing of the report at the end of 2023, the Secretary of State had refused to comply with the request after two requests.

Insurance Sector (2024 and earlier in 2019): The general findings were that the existing statutory framework were effective in monitoring the industry and removing “bad actors.” They believed that licensure was crucial for consumer protection due to the access of potentially sensitive information, and that deregulation would harm both consumer protection and nationwide reciprocity efforts, since all states have similar regulatory structures. Occupations included would be insurance agents and brokers.

Securities Sector (2022/2023 cycle): As with the insurance sector, the committee recommended that the current regulatory structure stay in place, both to prevent bad actors and to protect consumers. Occupations covered in this sector would include financial advisors as well as issuer-dealers and issuer-dealer agents.

Banking Sector (2022/2023 cycle): This sector includes Bank Executive Officers, Loan Officers, Mortgage Originators, etc. The committee’s recommendations are for this sector are similar to the previous ones described: maintain the status quo system to protect the financial welfare and privacy of the public.

Real Estate Sector (2022/2023 cycle): This sector includes real estate agents and brokers, as well as abstractors and real property appraisers. The recommendations are the same.

Other Occupations: Certified Public Accountants (CPA’s): Because the standards for CPA’s are pretty consistent across the states around the country, the committee recommends that there be no regulatory changes made.

While these first two committee reviews suggest that there will be rare recommendations for major changes to licensing regulations, the systematic review of licenses seems prudent, especially in a term-limited Legislature where new legislators may not recognize the scope of their committees’ jurisdiction. As we’ll see in some later reviews by other committees, occasionally some changes are inspired by these reviews.