On Tuesday, Republican senators Mike Lee of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska spoke about their newly introduced ALLOW Act, which would stop the Washington, D.C. government from enacting excessive and arbitrary requirements for people to get jobs. They hope that states will follow their lead.
The two senators spoke about the problem—one of few, as Lee noted, that is more rampant in states than in the federal government—in speeches at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
“Occupational licensing laws require individuals to meet qualifications, like passing an exam, or obtaining a professional certification, or completing a job training course,” explained Lee. When applied in certain ways to certain fields, these requirements make sense. Lee specifically cited professions like doctors and electricians.
Unfortunately, over the last few decades, “legal obstacles to work have multiplied.”
“In 1950, fewer than 5 percent of American workers were subject to licensing requirements,” said Lee, adding that today that number is 30 percent. “And in many cases, would-be workers have to pay large sums of money or wait periods of time—really long periods of time—sometimes years, or both, just to obtain the government’s permission to work.”
Sasse demonstrated the problem with the story of Ego Brown, who ran a shoe-shining operation in Washington, D.C. Brown employed homeless people who needed jobs and needed to learn job skills. Unfortunately, Brown didn’t have all the right licenses to shine shoes.
Yes, in D.C. you need a license to shine shoes.
“Today in D.C., to be a shoe shiner, you have to have four different kinds of permits,” explained Sasse. “You have to have a criminal background history. You have to have one—at least one of these is clearly legitimate to me, which is you have to demonstrate to D.C. that you’ve done all the paperwork so that you can pay your taxes. You have to pay a technology fee to be a shoe shiner in Washington, D.C. And there’s some fourth fee.” The total cost of those is $337—”but that only licenses you to shine indoors. So there are separate rules if you would want to shoe shine out of doors.”
“And back in 1985, Ego Brown didn’t know those rules, and so he was shut down,” said Sasse. Brown had to go back to working inside barber shops—which was not as profitable, and his business struggled.
He eventually sued the D.C. government so he could be allowed to shine shoes on the street. Brown won the 1989 case. Unfortunately, that only took care of one problem. More recently, a D.C. student learned about all it takes to shine shoes in D.C., including a $1,200 sidewalk permit. You can read his story here. There are many cases like Brown’s across the country.
Sasse and Lee are hoping their legislation will make a dent in these kind of regulations. The senators’ ALLOW Act would limit the kinds of occupational license requirements that the D.C. government can create “only to those circumstances in which it is the least restrictive means of protecting the public health, safety or welfare.” The act would also add other oversight measures. Lee cites the authority to do this in “Congress’s Article I authority over federal enclaves–including the District of Columbia, military bases, and certain National Parks.”
While the legislation only applies to those few areas, Lee doesn’t see that as a negative aspect. “The best part about this bill is that we don’t need to wait for Congress to act–though we certainly hope it does,” said Lee. “The point is, states can follow any one of these models right away.”
Sasse argued that “we need to recognize, that when there’s a license, it should have a clear public interest that’s trying to stop some harm that’s objectively definable. And if there isn’t one, then there shouldn’t be these licenses.”
“We need to put the burden back on local governments and bureaucracies, and on all levels of government, to define who precisely is the victim that they’re protecting, if they’re going to create incumbrences that make it more difficult to create the jobs that actually benefit our neighbors and provide dignity for the workers.”
Robert Johnson, a constitutional litigator at the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm that often represents those who have been harmed by occupational licensing regulations, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the ALLOW Act “embraces best practices in this area.”
“This is really important legislation, not just because it will promote economic liberty and entrepreneurship in the District of Columbia, but also because it will serve as a model for states and cities all across the country as they look to reform their occupational licensing laws. The bill embraces best practices in this area, and we’d love to see more like it all across the country. Any legislature that wants to cut back on red tape, grow the economy, and create new jobs should be looking to follow this same approach.”
If the ALLOW Act has the national impact for which Sasse and Lee hope, the Institute for Justice will have a lot of casework off its plate.
