Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2019

smart legislators would eliminate something as important to consumer health and safety as plumbing. Well, you draw you own conclusion as to the condition of the Texas plumbing industry or their legislature; but, that is exactly what happened. With jaws dropped, the industry went to work and Governor Abbot found a loop hole that gave him power to re-institute the State Board of Plumbing Examiners to at least May 2021. This demonstrates the power of an industry to change the winds of political direction. This averted a disaster. Now, Texas plumbers need to continue their efforts to assure that the program gets extended permanently. Like I said, the HVACR Licensing Program could experience the same thing as the Texas Flush. On the other hand, if Arkansans work together, we can keep our HVACR Licensing Law and perhaps even expand it. There are over 11,000 people in the HVACR industry in Arkansas serving over 3,000,000 people--their families and businesses. We are a potent force when we work together. When our Sunset review occurs, we must be proactive and not wait like plumbers did in Texas. They had to

Old News

Still Very Important Governor Abbot of Texas Re-institutes Plumbing Program Hallelujah!

Governor Abbot of Texas used a provision of his emergency powers relative to Hurricane Harvey to re- instate the Plumbing Program in Texas until May 31, 2021. Now, don’t take this too flippantly. Texans screwed up. Last spring they went through a process of program evaluation very much like the Arkansas HVACR Licensing Program will do in a few years. (Few could mean months or up to six years.) To my knowledge, the exact date has not yet be set. Gossip has it that when the Texas Plumbing program went through their review, they were not prepared at the administrative or industry level. After all, what person would have thought that