PHCCLA Opens Petition

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FORM TO SIGN OUR PETITION CLOSED AT 12:00 PM ON JUNE 3, 2026 SO THAT WE MAY COMPLETE THE PROCESS OF FILING THE PETITION.  WE ARE SO PROUD OF ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY AS WE WILL TURN IN THE PETITION WITH OVER 700 SIGNATURES!

If you would like to still have your voice heard, please contact the Governor's Office directly, letting him know about your concerns and oppostion and support of the petition filed by PHCCLA. (Below is the text of that petition to use for reference for your points.)

Contact his office at 225.342.0991 or https://gov.louisiana.gov/page/provide-feedback-on-legislation.

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On behalf of our state’s plumbing industry, the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Louisiana respectfully petition you to veto House Bill 953.

PHCCLA has worked in good faith throughout the legislative process to support meaningful workforce development, strengthen pathways into the plumbing trade, and protect the public health and safety of Louisiana citizens. We believe in responsible reform. We believe in opening doors for new workers. We believe in reducing unnecessary barriers where appropriate. However, HB953 as passed creates serious and unnecessary risks for the plumbing industry, consumers, hospitals, schools, businesses, and homeowners across Louisiana.

Plumbing is not simply another construction trade. Plumbing systems protect drinking water, remove waste, prevent contamination, support sanitation, serve medical facilities, and safeguard the public in homes, businesses, schools, churches, hospitals, and critical infrastructure. As a result, Louisiana has historically treated plumbing as a specialized profession requiring clear standards, proper training, technical expertise, and strong accountability.

HB953 falls short of those standards in several critical ways.

First, HB953 does not adequately preserve statutory protections for medical gas and backflow prevention.

Medical gas is one of the most sensitive and critical areas of plumbing. These systems serve hospitals, surgical centers, dental facilities, and other health care settings in which failures can have immediate and severe consequences. Medical gas should not be left to future rulemaking or treated as an afterthought. It deserves clear statutory recognition and protection.

Backflow prevention safeguards potable water from contamination caused by cross-connections, pressure changes, and improperly protected systems. Like medical gas, this work requires specific training, technical knowledge, testing, and oversight. These protections should be clearly preserved in statute and overseen by plumbing professionals with the expertise to understand the risks. Leaving backflow prevention standards uncertain or subject only to future rulemaking creates unnecessary risk for homeowners, businesses, schools, health care facilities, and public water systems across Louisiana.

By failing to include sufficient language relative to medical gas and backflow prevention, HB953 creates uncertainty areas in which uncertainty is unacceptable. The qualifications, oversight, and enforcement of these sytems should be firmly established in law, not dependent on rules that may or may not be adopted, interpreted, or enforced consistently in the future.

Second, HB953 allows a journeyman plumber to serve as the qualifying party for a residential plumbing contractor license, creating serious safety and accountability concerns.

Under the bill, a journeyman plumber may qualify for a residential plumbing contractor license for work on residential structures up to three floors in height. This is a major departure from the traditional distinction between a journeyman plumber and a master plumber.

A journeyman license should demonstrate that an individual has developed working knowledge and skill in the trade. It should not automatically qualify that individual to assume contractor-level responsibility, supervise plumbing work broadly, carry business accountability, and oversee plumbing systems in residential buildings of significant size and complexity.

The concern is not whether journeymen are valuable to the industry. They are. Journeymen are essential to the plumbing workforce. The concern is that contractor-level authority requires additional experience, training, judgment, and accountability. A person with limited experience should not be placed in a position to contract for and oversee residential plumbing systems of this scale without appropriate additional qualifications.

Third, HB953 does not create a meaningful education-based pathway to licensure.

Louisiana should be encouraging structured apprenticeship, classroom instruction, and career development in the plumbing trade. Unfortunately, HB953 does not adequately define apprenticeship, does not meaningfully incentivize completion of a structured apprenticeship program, and does not place apprenticeship under the clear authority of plumbing industry experts.

A true workforce development bill should strengthen training. It should encourage apprentices to receive related technical instruction, develop under qualified supervision, and progress through a clear and respected career pathway. HB953 instead focuses primarily on licensure thresholds without building the educational foundation necessary to produce a skilled, safe, and sustainable plumbing workforce.

This omission undermines both workforce recruitment and public safety. We cannot solve a workforce shortage by lowering expectations without also investing in training. Louisiana needs more plumbers, but it needs properly trained plumbers.

Fourth, HB953 weakens expert authority over examinations, continuing education, and apprenticeship.

The plumbing subcommittee created under HB953 does not have final authority over its own areas of expertise. Issues such as examinations, continuing education, specialty classifications, apprenticeship, and training standards should be guided by individuals with direct knowledge of plumbing systems, field conditions, code requirements, safety risks, and industry needs.

When final authority rests outside the specialized plumbing body, the result is a gap between the technical realities of the trade and the regulatory decisions that govern it. Plumbing evolves. Codes change. Materials change. Medical gas, backflow prevention, water quality, gas systems, storm recovery, and complex installations require ongoing technical expertise. A regulatory structure that limits the authority of plumbing professionals over these core issues is not in the best interest of the public or the industry.

Fifth, the removal of fee provisions during the conference committee process undermines transparency and further complicates implementation.

PHCCLA is deeply concerned that fee provisions were intentionally removed from the bill during the final stages of the legislative process in order to make the measure easier to pass. Fees are not a minor administrative detail. They are fundamental to the operation, enforcement, licensing, transition, and long-term stability of any regulatory structure.

Removing those provisions may have avoided immediate scrutiny, but it leaves significant unanswered questions about how this transition will be funded, how licenses will be administered, how enforcement will be supported, and how the new system will function in practice. This approach undermines the legislative process by advancing a major regulatory restructuring without fully presenting its operational and financial consequences to legislators, stakeholders, and the public.

A bill that abolishes an existing board, transfers regulatory authority, creates new licensing pathways, changes qualifications, and restructures oversight should not leave critical funding and implementation questions unresolved. The absence of clear fee provisions creates uncertainty for the industry, the regulatory body, and the individuals who will be expected to comply with the new law.

PHCCLA recognizes and appreciates the stated goal of expanding workforce opportunities. We share that goal. Our association has invested directly in apprenticeship, education, continuing education, recruitment, and career development. We want more men and women to enter the plumbing trade, build successful careers, and serve communities across Louisiana.

But workforce development must be built on training, not shortcuts. It must protect consumers, not create confusion. It must strengthen accountability, not dilute it. It must preserve specialized expertise, not remove final authority from the professionals who understand the trade.

HB953, as passed, creates too many unresolved risks in too many critical areas. It leaves medical gas protections uncertain. It allows contractor-level responsibility without sufficient additional qualifications. It fails to establish a meaningful education-based pathway to licensure. It limits the authority of plumbing experts over the standards that determine competency, safety, and accountability. And it advances a major regulatory restructuring while leaving critical funding and transition questions unresolved.

For these reasons, PHCCLA, along with the undersigned plumbing professionals, business owners, industry partners, apprentices, educators, and concerned members of the community, respectfully asks that you veto House Bill 953.

We remain committed to working with your administration, the Legislature, the State Licensing Board for Contractors, and all interested stakeholders on legislation that responsibly expands Louisiana’s plumbing workforce while preserving the standards necessary to protect public health, public safety, and the integrity of the trade.

Respectfully submitted,

Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors of Louisiana
and the undersigned members of Louisiana’s plumbing industry and community