(The Center Square) – Plumbers filled the Commerce Committee in the Louisiana House of Representatives on Monday in opposition to a bill that would ease the requirements to secure a plumbing license, expressing concerns that the proposed law would endanger public safety.
Proposed by Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, the bill is part of a broader push within the Legislature to strengthen the state’s workforce in preparation for nearly $100 billion in business investment. Other workforce development initiatives have drawn little opposition, but House Bill 953 was met with testimony challenging both the need for and prudence of the bill.
According to opponents, the law would “allow mass quantities of unqualified workers to perform the critical work of plumbing recovery. Without appropriate standards across the industry, citizens are at risk of substandard and dangerous plumbing systems,” the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling-Contractors Association of Louisiana said.
Despite the breadth of opposition, the committee advanced the bill without objection, though it was amended significantly.
There was a lengthy debate among legislators and Fontenot over eliminating the work requirement.
The State Plumbing Board requires licensed plumbers to obtain 7,000 hours, which Fontenot said is unnecessary and not required in any other trade. An amendment was introduced that would allow the Contractors Board to determine the appropriate work requirements itself.
The most substantive change, however, removed the Contractors Board’s authority to issue actual master, journeyman, residential, and apprentice plumber licenses under those names. Instead, the Contractors Board could offer a certified plumbing technician license. Fontenot also committed to adding a residency requirement for securing the technician license.
None of the opposition’s concerns were settled by the amendments. Opponents maintained that the bill would enable underqualified plumbers and create public safety issues, especially related to drinking water and sewage infrastructure.
“We have a good path to becoming a plumber,” Aubrey Brand, a New Orleans plumber, told The Center Square. “This is a public safety thing more than anything.”
Brand, along with several other opponents, questioned what they described as the lowered standards in the legislation.
According to several witnesses, the standards demanded by the Plumbing Board are crucial to the competency of the state’s plumbers. Michael Hale, a union leader out of Shreveport, said the construction companies building the Meta data center in Richland Parish told him the state “has the best plumbers we’ve ever seen.”
“The most important thing that we can do is not overlook the pipes behind our walls and the systems beneath our streets and the water that flows at the turn of the handle,” Zach Payne, a plumber with Central Plumbing, told the committee. “The responsibility to guard against disease and infection does not rest on hospitals and laboratories. It begins with standards. It begins with regulation, and it begins with the skilled hands of licensed professionals that answer the call to protect the health and safety of life itself.”
Opponents also took issue with earlier claims that the Plumbing Board has been slow to respond to the state’s growing workforce needs. Vincent Giglio, vice chairman of the State Plumbing Board, said the board has already taken steps in recent years to expand access to the trade.
The committee also considered the Plumbing Workforce Access Act. It would offer an alternative route to securing a license, primarily through the Louisiana Community and Technical College System.
The bill did not receive the same opposition as Fontenot’s measure. Proposed by Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, the bill would establish the Institutional Plumbing Pathway as a licensing alternative to the traditional apprenticeship route overseen by the State Plumbing Board.
It would allow someone to qualify for the journeyman plumber exam through an institution-based pathway – community colleges, vocational-technical schools, or correctional-facility training programs – instead of only through an employer-sponsored apprenticeship.
Jordan’s bill advanced through committee without objection. Both Jordan’s and Fontenot’s legislation seek to address what they describe as “systemic inequities” that limit access to the trade, especially among minorities. According to Fontenot, there are only five Black plumbers in the state that hold a masters license.
