Sens. Lee, Cruz, Sasse, and Rep. Issa Introduce Occupational Licensing Reform Bill
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ben Sasse (R-NE), as well as Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced the Restoring Board Immunity Act Thursday, a bill designed to help states reform their occupational licensing regulations.
“Occupational licensing costs consumers $200 billion in higher costs every year and deprives an estimated three million prospective professionals of job opportunities,” Sen. Lee said. “This bill creates an incentive for states to implement much needed occupational licensing reforms.”
"Occupational licensing schemes are one of the worst expressions of special interests stifling the American dream for hardworking men and women across this country,” Sen. Cruz said. “The government should not be unnecessarily denying people the opportunity to earn an honest living. This bill incentivizes states to roll back and reform job-killing regulations, and create better paying jobs and greater opportunity.”
"If we want to help our neighbors find work and fight poverty, we can start by clearing away unnecessary occupational licensing barriers,” said Sasse. “Men and women who want to serve their communities and provide for their kids shouldn’t have to wander through the complicated maze of complicated licensing requirements."
“Today roughly one in three American workers is required to obtain some sort of occupational license, often requiring hundreds in fees and months in training just to be able to do their job,” said Congressman Darrell Issa. “While many licenses are to ensure safety, these requirements are often for jobs no more risky than braiding hair, dog-watching, or flower arranging. These overly burdensome requirements have become an often-overlooked inhibitor of economic growth and made it difficult for honest Americans to get ahead. This bill makes long-overdue reforms that will encourage states make changes in order to create jobs and promote opportunity for all.”
For some professions, like pilots and dentists, government sanctioned licensing requirements are necessary for public safety. But there is no reason a license is needed to decorate a room or braid someone’s hair. Unfortunately, far too many professions are now closed off to new entrants because of onerous licensing requirements.
The Federal Trade Commission has been fighting some of these laws on antitrust grounds and in 2015 the Supreme Court’s decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC created significant uncertainty regarding the legality of state occupational licensing boards across the country.
This bill would both provide state occupational licensing boards the antitrust protection they need to continue operating, so long as the state enact certain occupational licensing reforms designed to protect consumers and prospective professionals.
An electronic version of this release can be found here.
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Sens. Lee and Leahy Introduce ECPA Modernization Act
WASHINGTON – Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the ECPA Modernization Act Thursday, a bill that would update federal statutes to better reflect Americans’ modern expectations of privacy.
“Americans don’t believe the federal government should have warrantless access to their emails just because they are 180 days old,” Sen. Lee said. “They don’t believe the government should be able to always know where you are just because you are carrying a cell phone. It is long past time that Congress updated our federal laws to better protect Americans’ privacy.”
“Our digital privacy laws are woefully out of date and make no sense in the modern world,” Sen. Leahy said. “Americans expect and deserve strong, meaningful protections for their emails, texts, photos, location information and documents stored in the cloud. It’s time for Congress to enact broad reforms to ECPA and other privacy laws to bring these laws into the 21st Century.”
An electronic version of this release can be found here.
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Sens. Lee, Leahy, and Others Introduce the Email Privacy Act
WASHINGTON – Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Dean Heller (R-NV), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Steve Daines (R-MT), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Al Franken (D-MN) introduced the Email Privacy Act Thursday, a bill that would update federal privacy law for email retention.
“The Electronic Communications Protect Act was written 30 years ago before the widespread use of email,” Sen. Lee said. “Americans now expect that their email communications will have the same privacy protections as their written communications. This bill would provide that common-sense protection.”
The Email Privacy Act would require law enforcement to go before a judge and get a search warrant based on probable cause whenever it seeks to obtain our emails, photos, or texts held by technology companies. This bipartisan bill updates the 1986 Electronic Communications Protect Act (ECPA), which currently allows the government to take your private information from third parties if that information is older than 180 days.
An electronic version of this release can be found here.
