Texas Tribune by Alexa Ura May 27, 2019
The state agency that regulates Texas plumbers is set to begin a “wind down†period and is scheduled to be abolished in 2020 after state lawmakers failed to pass legislation Sunday that would have extended the agency’s existence.
But there will be little for the agency to do after September. Lawmakers on Sunday also nixed the portion of state code that gives the state authority to regulate the plumbing profession. It's possible cities and counties could instead oversee plumbing, lawmakers said.
The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners — responsible for licensing plumbers and enforcing plumbing law — was caught up in a legislative fiasco with lawmakers twice failing to pass the legislation that would have kept it going. It was also not saved via legislation known as a “sunset safety net bill†that lawmakers pass each legislative session to keep a long list of state agencies from shutting down.
The agency was up for what’s known as the sunset review process, through which lawmakers periodically make assessments on how efficiently state agencies are being run and whether they should continue to exist.
Lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission pitched transferring the plumbing board to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, a broader agency that oversees more than two dozen professions. The commission’s review found it took up to eight months to receive a plumbing license from the plumbing board at a time when the state and the nation are facing a workforce shortage of plumbers. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation estimated it could reduce that wait time to a matter of weeks.
But lawmakers were split on the timing of that move.
More:
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/05/27/texas-plumbing-board-and-laws-abolished-after-legislative-strife/
