The threats are real.
The campaign against professional licensing advances on three fronts—lowering the standards, burdening the boards that enforce them, and in the most extreme cases, abolishing those boards outright. The result is the same: a public left less protected.
1. LOWERING THE BAR
These proposals downgrade the level of competency required to become licensed. They take several forms:
- Reduce or eliminate the qualification standards licensing is built on
- Force states to recognize out-of-state licenses, even if licenses from those states have lower professional standards
- Cut the continuing competency requirements that keep professionals current in their field
- Hand control of licensing standards to legislators and government bureaucracy instead of the expert practitioners who understand the work
What this looks like in practice:
Florida (HB 1461, 2025): A proposal that would have eliminated all continuing education requirements for engineers, landscape architects, and dozens of other licensed professions, including that standard that keeps CPAs current with evolving tax law and auditing standards.
Universal licensing bills: Circulating in multiple states, these proposals would require a state to accept any out-of-state license regardless of whether the originating state’s standards are equivalent – effectively making the weakest state standard the de facto national floor.
These proposals are often sold as a way to grow the workforce or cut regulations. But lowering the bar doesn’t produce more qualified professionals. It just leaves the public less protected.
But the cost isn’t borne only by the public. Business owners depend on professional licensing to assess qualifications, hire with confidence, and protect their reputations.
Business decision-makers say licensing works
92%
Say licensing helps them assess qualifications and hire with confidence
90%
Say licensing protects customers and the public from substandard work
90%
Say licensing protects and enhances their businesses’ reputation
2. ADDING UNNEEDED BUREAUCRACY
These proposals undermine the efficient licensing board model that makes licensing work, and is where the anti-licensing argument most contradicts itself. Under the guise of shrinking government, these proposals would:
- Replace profession-specific boards with a single government agency or a combined board that oversees dozens of unrelated professions. The result: less expertise, less attention to any single profession, fewer staff, and delays and bottlenecks across every element of licensing and oversight.
- Create redundant bureaucratic layers that bog down both legislatures and licensing boards. Legislatures establish the legal framework for licensing. Boards bring the professional expertise to carry it out. Forcing boards to go back to the legislature to execute licensing decisions doesn’t increase accountability — it just makes both institutions slower, less responsive, and harder for the public to count on.
What this looks like in practice:
In Idaho, a consolidated board saw processing times balloon to 90 days, compared to 7-day turnarounds by well-run independent boards elsewhere. The backlog exceeded 2,000 applications. Professionals who had completed every requirement correctly waited months to practice.
Well-run independent boards
7 days
Processing window: 7 days
Idaho consolidated board
90 days
Processing window: 90 days – backlog exceeded 2,000 applications
These proposals are solutions in search of a problem. They ignore the fact that licensing boards are already efficient and self-funded, and they would create the very bureaucracy and inefficiency they claim to fix.
3. DESTROYING THE SYSTEM OUTRIGHT
The most extreme proposals don’t consolidate or weaken licensing boards. They abolish them.
Florida has been the most aggressive testing ground. In 2025, legislation was introduced to eliminate 20+ professional licensing boards — including the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. All licensing oversight would transfer to a central government agency staffed by people with no subject-matter expertise in any of the 20+ professions they would be regulating.
In 2026, new legislation went even further, proposing the elimination of the Florida Board of Accountancy outright. Both bills advanced through multiple House committees.
These are not fringe proposals. They are advancing in one of the largest states in the country, with significant legislative support.
Florida Bill Advances, Would End Board of Engineers, Other Professional Agencies
Elon Musk’s age of government efficiency has spread to Florida, with legislation advanced last week that would abolish at least 22 state boards that oversee licensing and disciplinary reviews for engineers, contractors, building inspectors, accountants and many more professionals. READ MORE
These aren’t solutions. They are new problems.
And the public agrees.
82%
Of voters say it’s “highly important: for licensing boards to be composed of practitioners with private-sector expertise – the opposite of what consolidation delivers.
90%
Of voters fear that consolidating boards will lead to a loss of profession-specific knowledge – and worse decisions for the public.
Public opinion survey, April-May 2024, n=1,200 registered voters
Here’s what’s at stake, and where we stand.
The Issue
How licensing reform lost its way, and what’s at stake when standards fall
Licensing Threats
Lowering the bar, disrupting the boards, and destroying the system outright
Our Position
What we support, what we oppose, and what responsible policy looks like
News & Insights
Commentary, research, video content, and press resources
About ARPL
Who we are, who we represent, and how to reach us