Committee advances SB 47 to reauthorize agency rules, removes time clause for some licenses

The House Health & Human Services Committee voted to favorably recommend Senate Bill 47 as substituted after the bill’s sponsor described it as the routine annual administrative‑rules reauthorization. Senator McKay said the measure preserves minimum hour requirements for certain licensed professions while removing an unclear additional "no sooner than a year" timing clause that remained in some agency rules.

Senator McKay told the committee the change affects a small set of professions whose hour requirements remained in administrative rule rather than statute. "We have a 2000 hour minimum requirement ... we are removing that subsection ... as it relates to those various jobs and or those licenses," he said, explaining the text aligns rule language with legislative intent.

Mark Steinegal, division director of the Division of Professional Licensing, testified for the agencies and said the division is neutral on the bill. "We're neutral on the bill, but the process, I think, was a good process," Steinegal said, describing a review last summer in which legislative staff and the division identified rules that still referenced timing requirements and worked with professional boards to revise or explain them.

There was no public opposition at the hearing. Representative Monson moved a favorable recommendation, which the committee approved by voice vote; the motion passed without recorded opposition.

Next steps: SB 47 will move forward from committee with a favorable recommendation to its next legislative stop.