Right-of-center leaders are praising the normally regulation-heavy  Obama administration for using its influence to reduce barriers to professional licensing in states across the nation. In June, the administration said it would direct $7.5 million to private groups to help portability of licensing, which is mostly state-controlled, and to help reduce the overall regulatory burden of licenses.

Some conservatives, however, also note that its recent fact sheet highlighting eleven states’ efforts to reform license requirements primarily focused on the benefits to two constituencies, felons and immigrants. While criminal justice experts agreed with the efforts aiding prisoners, others objected that the administration’s efforts often put immigrants’ priorities before those of U.S. citizens.

A Real Barrier

While industry lobbyists often claim licenses help protect consumers, such regulations can also stifle opportunity by preventing competition and ease of employment acquisition when moving from state to state.

According to Justin Owen, president of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a group working to reducing government regulation, the White House has increased “awareness that occupational licensing is a pervasive problem when it comes to trapping people in poverty and preventing upward economic mobility. It has also allowed those of us on the right to showcase that this is not a right vs. left issue, but a right vs. wrong issue.” The problem of licensing is one “that the states need to solve,” however, he said.

“Occupational licensing presents a real and often insurmountable barrier that prevents low- and middle-income citizens from obtaining a good job,” Owen, a signatory Right on Crime‘s statement of principles, told The Stream. “And it’s only getting worse.”

Koch Industries’ Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mark Holden offered unstinting praise for the White House, saying it “did a good job using its bully pulpit to drive this discussion and get several states on board with reform efforts.”

President Obama’s efforts was also praised by the American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis, who said licensing affects 25 percent of U.S. jobs, up from five percent 60 years ago. Certain fields are more arduous than others. In Idaho, for example, 2,000 hours of training are needed to become a cosmetologist, and Montana requires 2,000 hours to be a barber.

Licensing Reform and Felons

Owen said in an e-mail that while he opposes using federal funds to encourage states to change policies, “most of the reforms are helpful in that they encourage states — where most of occupational licensing hurdles reside — to take action.” This was important for those leaving the prison system who are often hurt most by licensing regulations, he said.

“Even if they could meet the stringent and often expensive requirements to obtain a license,” Owens explained, “a felony sometimes completely bars them from entering that occupation. The harder we make it for reformed felons to re-enter society and become productive, taxpaying citizens, the more likely they are to reoffend.”

Owens called for policies to help reformed felons. “One way to do this would be to offer these individuals a provisional license, and if they don’t reoffend in a set period of time, the license becomes permanent. Of course, if we sufficiently reform licensing laws overall, it means fewer barriers to a good job for reformed felons and everyone else alike.”

Noting that his group has “partnered” with the White House to discuss licensing reforms, Holden told The Stream that “we support efforts to improve consumer quality and safety and we agree some professions are in need of licensing such as doctors and lawyers. But we believe occupational licensing is used by businesses and individuals not to further quality or safety, but to gain an unfair advantage or insulate themselves from competition with the assistance of the government.”

Like many other proponents of the free market, Holden said licensing is often “cronyism and an abuse of power that creates barriers to opportunity.” He also said “occupational licensing reform is part of reforming our criminal justice system. We believe that ex-offenders should be allowed to get a license for certain types of employment so they can turn their lives around and not become a recidivist. It is well-settled that having a job is a great way to avoid going back to prison.”

Licensing Reform and Immigrants

The other major demographic targeted by the White House’s licensing efforts is immigrants. Examples of measures of the sort pushed by the administration are a new Minnesota law making licensing easier for immigrants and refugees who are doctors, and new Michigan regulations helping immigrants get jobs in the state.

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA told The Stream that “there is absolutely no economic basis for these sort of initiatives. Legal Permanent Residents can already enter the U.S. authorized to work and go through existing licensing programs. What the White House proposes is a new program to bring foreign workers in with a ‘license’ to displace qualified workers already here, or to allow employers to not have to recruit workers domestically.”

While he acknowledged that “foreign workers who would granted these license may, in fact, have the requisite skills,” Beck said “there are already Americans here who have those same skills but would be more expensive to employers, particularly since it is unclear that this is not another attempt to grant work authorization to illegal aliens in the form of a ‘license.’”