The 2023 Legislative Session is underway, to the best of its ability. This year started bumpy and there is a lot of chaos at the capital, but AFCCA and Capitol Consulting will remain diligent in keeping track of the status of the Funeral Board and Licensure.
Over the past six months, there have been numerous stakeholder discussions with legislators, other interested parties, members of the funeral profession and the Association. The purpose of these meetings was to provide education to those outside of our profession, to voice our concerns surrounding removing licensure and ensure that restructure of the Funeral Board, if any, would be reasonable and would still protect the consumer as well the profession.
What started as fear of complete de-regulation has now turned to more informed decisions and thoughtful consideration from the legislature.
There is still more work to do.
Update from Jake Hinman, Capitol Consulting:
“First, tomorrow the Funeral Board will be discussed in Senate Commerce Committee of Reference. In talking with Chairman Kaiser today, it sounds like the purpose of the hearing is to provide a quick recap of the Auditor General’s report from last year, and then to update/remind the Committee about last year’s bill to sunset the Board.
I believe there will be some very general discussion about a potential bill this year that could move the Board to a new agency. I do not believe there will be much discussion about this move or any other changes that may be coming.
Second, I have heard through the rumor mill that licensing for Funeral Directors is currently in a bill draft, but the Embalmers license could become optional.
I offer this initial reaction: 1) Not having licensure requirements for embalmers is obviously a hard no for us, but 2) it’s a very positive development that at least we have some licensure elements in an initial draft. If these rumors are true, then we will react accordingly. As soon as I get my hands on a draft, I’ll send it over—I’m sure there will be other elements that we will have to react to.”
We will keep you up to date as more information develops.