Missouri governor signs “best” universal recognition bill

On Monday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson joined the list of governors who have signed major occupational licensing reform in the last year. Missouri’s bill, like Iowa’s bill a few weeks ago, creates substantial universal recognition and opportunities under what has sometimes been termed a “fresh start act”–giving those who have spent time incarcerated the potential of earning occupational licensure and remaking their lives.

Our friends at the Institute for Justice–an early leader in occupational licensing–identify Missouri’s HB2046 as “the best recognition law in the country” (according to Senior Legislative Counsel, Lee McGrath).

Nebraska was an early leader in the occupational licensing reform movement, with the passage of LB299 in 2018. Since then, our neighbors to the east–both Iowa and Missouri–have one-upped us.

In 2020, Senator Andrew La Grone introduced LB1187 in Nebraska. That bill appears to have little chance of advancing in the remaining 17 days of the 2020 session beginning on July 20, as it did not advance from the committee before the priority bill deadline. We hope, however, that both the Legislature and the executive branch will see the wisdom in working to catch up with our neighboring states in this area of occupational licensing, in 2021. With the passage of a universal recognition bill, Nebraska would likely move back to the “top of the heap” in terms of the minimization of “red tape” for workers in our state.