HB579: HB579 Professions and businesses; licensure to engage in trade; provisions

Georgia licenses hundreds of professions and trades through boards housed under the Secretary of State's professional licensing boards division. This bill rewrites several sections of Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated that govern how that division and its boards operate. It gives the division director new authority to review and approve routine applications for issuing, renewing, or reinstating a license without waiting on the full board, while still letting boards handle applications the director cannot clearly approve. It changes license terms so licenses and certificates can be valid for up to two years and renewed on a biennial schedule set by the director. It narrows the grounds the Governor can use to remove a board member to inability or neglect of duty, incompetence, or dishonest conduct. It also requires that any rules a licensing board adopts be designed to protect public health, safety, and welfare, and it eliminates the separate standards committees within the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists. The changes take effect July 1, 2026.

• Lets the professional licensing boards division director directly approve, renew, or reinstate a license when an application clearly meets all requirements, without board review.
• Requires the director to forward unclear applications to the relevant board, which must then grant or deny them in a timely manner.
• Changes licenses and certificates to a term of up to two years, renewable every two years on a schedule the director sets and boards approve.
• Limits the grounds for the Governor to remove a professional licensing board member to inability or neglect of duty, incompetence, or dishonest conduct.
• Requires that rules adopted by any professional licensing board be designed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
• Eliminates the separate standards committees for the professional counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy specialties under the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists.

The bill affects anyone applying for, renewing, or holding a professional license, permit, or certificate in Georgia, the professional licensing boards themselves, the division director's office within the Secretary of State, board members subject to removal by the Governor, and licensed counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists whose specialty standards committees are eliminated.

Applicants for licenses in dozens of trades and professions could see faster approvals since routine applications no longer need full board review. License renewal timing could shift under the new two-year cycle, and board members face narrower removal standards, while counseling, social work, and family therapy specialties lose their dedicated standards committees.

• Section 1-1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 43-1-2, keeping the division director's roster and meeting duties but clarifying its confidentiality rules for applications and board deliberations.
• Section 1-2 amends O.C.G.A. § 43-1-3 to add reviewing and granting license applications to the division director's listed duties.
• Section 1-3 adds new O.C.G.A. § 43-1-3.1, authorizing the director to approve clear-cut license applications and requiring boards to decide unclear ones in a timely manner.
• Section 1-4 revises O.C.G.A. § 43-1-4 so licenses last up to two years and renew biennially, with a 45-day grace period after expiration.
• Section 1-5 revises O.C.G.A. § 43-1-17 to limit board member removal to inability or neglect of duty, incompetence, or dishonest conduct.
• Section 1-6 revises O.C.G.A. § 43-1-26 to require board rules be designed to protect public health, safety, and welfare.
• Section 2-1 repeals O.C.G.A. § 43-10A-6, eliminating separate standards committees for counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy specialties.
• Section 3-1 sets the effective date as July 1, 2026.

1. 2025-05-09Effective Date 2026-07-01
2. 2025-05-09Act 89
3. 2025-05-09House Date Signed by Governor (House)
4. 2025-04-10House Sent to Governor (House)
5. 2025-03-27Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
6. 2025-03-27Senate Third Read (Senate)
7. 2025-03-21Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
8. 2025-03-20Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)

• Matt Reeves (R, HD-099)Primary sponsor
• James Hatchett (R, HD-155)
• Marcus Wiedower (R, HD-121)
• Brian Prince (D, HD-132)
• Tim Fleming (R, HD-114)
• Sandy Donatucci (R, HD-105)
• Larry Walker (R, SD-020)

1. PassedHouse voteMarch 6, 2025

   158 yea, 2 nay (16 not voting, 4 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #201

2. PassedSenate voteMarch 27, 2025

   53 yea, 0 nay (0 not voting, 3 absent)

   Passage: Senate Vote #306

• professional licensing
• occupational licenses
• state government agencies
• counseling and social work regulation
• license renewal rules