Eager to resume her nursing career, April Williams applied to a Georgia agency this year for a license, which is required for 30% of American workers.

After initially forgetting to submit her diploma, the Byron resident resubmitted her paperwork several times. But after several weeks of waiting, she was ready to vent her frustration before a panel of state lawmakers tasked with investigating problems within the Department of State's Division of Occupational Licensing.

The Joint Blue Ribbon Committee to Study Licensing Issues is expected to hold several meetings this year as it considers ways to reduce occupational licensing issues, costs and time spent processing and reviewing applications. Ideas include establishing more universal standards and making it easier to transfer licenses from other states and countries.

The old joke among people who advocate for better access to jobs in Georgia is that you need a license to cut someone's hair, but you don't need one to build and sell a house. It remains to be seen whether state lawmakers are willing to make it easier to get a state-licensed job when a less restrictive licensing process could cost businesses and workers a lot of money.

The state department performs administrative and clerical work for 42 licensing boards covering dozens of professions, including architects, electricians, cosmetologists, social workers and nurses. A number of other independent boards oversee professional licensing for doctors, engineers, real estate agents and other professionals.

Williams said licensing staff often take too long to respond to her emails and voicemails, and that she was told there was no one at the Macon office to help her fill out the application when she recently offered to stop by several times.

Her plan now is to return to California and work as a registered nurse on a contract basis until she finds out what happens with her license in Georgia.

“I definitely agree that employees need to get back to the office because when you get someone on the phone, you can tell they're not engaged. “They're overworked. They're not helpful. They're not happy,” Williams said at the June 26 committee meeting at Middle Georgia State University in Macon. “I have a family to support. I have a mortgage to pay.”

Republican Rep. Matt Hatchett, who co-chairs the joint committee, says the most common complaint lawmakers like him receive from the public is the unreliable admissions analysts and call center agents they come into contact with when applying for licensure for a particular profession.

Division of Occupational Licensing Director Gabriel Sterling said long-standing problems with staff shortages and underfunding, as well as outdated technology and laws, had contributed to the backlog of applications.

Sterling said there has already been initial success in reducing the time it takes for employees to respond to voicemails and emails from customers, in part because the voicemail system no longer has a 100-message limit.

The company is currently developing a new online application system to simplify the licensing and certification process. The system has cost $3 million so far, but as more occupations are added, additional funding is needed. Go online.

The licensing division will benefit from having a full-time director take over later this month, said Sterling, who works in other capacities for the secretary of state and became the public face of the elections division after Georgia's 2020 presidential election.

There is a false perception among the public that the Foreign Minister dictates how professional associations should work, he said.

“We cannot dictate anything to a board,” said Sterling. “It is the licensor and it is responsible for administrative support.”

Georgia's growing workforce has helped ensure more occupational licenses are issued each year. There are currently 545,518 active licensees, up from about 440,000 in 2018, but the number of full-time employees has not increased to meet demand.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger praised lawmakers for increasing this year's budget for the Division of Professional Associations by $1.5 million, allowing for the hiring of additional full-time staff.

Raffensperger, however, is calling for a larger share of the state budget to be allocated to licensing, which brings in about $30 million in fees each year, but more than half of the revenue goes into the general state coffers.

Changes in licensing

Republican Rep. Rick Williams of Macon, who has been a funeral director for 51 years, said there is a problem with some state boards that seem more concerned with protecting the profession by imposing additional hurdles for applicants seeking licensure.

In December, a significant change in professional licensing law occurred when the Georgia Supreme Court adopted a legal framework requiring that a compelling interest in protecting public health, safety and welfare be present in order to issue required state-recognized certifications.

With its unanimous decision, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs who had challenged a 2016 law. This law required breastfeeding counselors to obtain state certification after completing several years of training and examination programs run by a private advisory board.

Sen. Larry Walker III, a Republican from Perry, said the committee should seek to simplify the licensing process to address staffing shortages in health care and other fields. Nursing job applicants who also want to prescribe drugs sometimes have to wait more than a year to be certified by a medical board after they have already received licensure from a nursing board, he said.

“Unless they have a compelling interest in these areas, I don't think we should be charging someone a fee and requiring them to jump through all these hurdles just to make a living,” Walker said.

The Georgia State Legislature has passed several licensing-related bills over the past two legislative sessions, including allowing veterans and their spouses to quickly obtain provisional licenses for occupations for which they were already licensed in another state.

New state laws this year allow couples and family therapists to get a fast-track license. And professionals who simply apply makeup and shampoo, blow-dry and braid hair will no longer have to be a state-certified cosmetologist, who must complete hundreds of hours of training to offer more comprehensive hair care services.

A licensing working group appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has recommended that licensing committee directors be allowed to issue licenses even if the committee does not respond within 60 days of the application.

Criminal justice reform advocates and bipartisan lawmakers are pushing to remove barriers for people who have criminal records unrelated to the profession in which they seek work.