Louisiana Plumbing Licensing Reform Sparks Controversy and Public Health Concerns

BATON ROUGE, LA — On Monday, June 1, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed House Bill 953 (2026), a plumbing licensing bill sponsored by Representative Bryan Fontenot.

The legislation makes several changes to how plumbers are licensed and regulated in Louisiana, including dissolving the State Plumbing Board of Louisiana—an institution that has overseen plumbing standards for more than 100 years—and moving all plumbing regulation under the authority of the State Contractors Board of Louisiana.

“It's a power grab,” Trey Giglio, Vice President of Universal Mechanical in Shreveport, and President of the Louisiana Chapter of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association said. “[General] contractors want to control plumbers. They want to drive down the costs of subcontractors in order to drive their profits up.”

A Public Health ‘Disaster’

While the bill’s sponsors have sold the legislation as a way to address the shortage of plumbers in the state by streamlining the licensing process, the PHCCLA is sounding the alarm: apprentices will receive less training (from 8,000 hours of on-the-job training to 2,500), what constitutes a training hour could be redefined, and what constitutes an apprenticeship could be redefined—all to the detriment of the profession.

Giglio notes that the Contractors Board will now also control the examination process and what the exam looks like. The Contractors Board has never in its history issued an individual license in Louisiana, they have only licensed companies.

“This is a disaster for the public health of the citizens of the state,” Giglio said, “and in a state like Louisiana, where we have an insurance premium problem, this is certainly going to exacerbate that problem when we have unqualified people dealing with natural gas and water.”

National Concerns

Whatever money builders might be saving will probably mean increased maintenance costs for commercial and residential building owners. After developers have finished a project and sold it, their financial and legal obligations typically end. The new owners would then be stuck with sub-standard plumbing systems and need to deal with the failures of those systems months or years after the fact.  

“We have a genuine concern about watering down licensure and about the way that this is being done,” Dan Quinonez, the incoming CEO of PHCC-National said. “It's a very short-sighted effort to save some money on their part, but in the long run, it's damaging to consumers. Without a doubt, we will see the ramifications of this effort, and it will come in many forms, not the least of which will be consumers struggling to pay off expensive repairs.”

The PHCC National organization intends to lobby and advocate in state capitols, educating legislators on the importance of licensure.

“Thankfully, there's been some proactive efforts in states like Georgia to prevent moves like this,” Quinonez said, “but other states might start thinking, oh, this is an opportunity… Hopefully we can work to stem the tide.”

Quinonez noted that, along with possible pushback from insurance companies, data center developers—with their exacting specifications and zero-downtime demands—might also have concerns about the dependability of a state’s plumbing licensure.

Next Steps

The bill now moves to the desk of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. The Governor has ten days (until June 10) to either sign or veto the legislation. After that the bill automatically becomes law.

The PHCCLA has filed a petition to veto with the Governor’s office. That petition concludes with:

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.

The PHCCLA urges all interested parties to contact the Governor’s office directly, or via the office of the Governor’s legislative feedback site: gov.louisiana.gov/page/provide-feedback-on-legislation.

What the Bill Does (and Does Not) Do

In Its final version, the bill does the following:

Dismantles the State Plumbing Board of Louisiana; all plumbing regulation is moved under the authority of the State Contractors Board of Louisiana.

Moves all properties and monies owned by the plumbing board to the contractors board.

Adds two seats for active licensed plumbers to be nominated by the Louisiana Pipe Trades and PHCCLA.

Creates the Plumbing Sub-committee, with eleven members: Three plumbers from PHCCLA, three plumbers from Pipe Trades, one from General Contractors Association, one from ABC Louisiana, one from Home Builders Association, and two at large members (one in the business of plumbing, and one not affiliated with any plumbing). The subcommittee will be chaired and vice-chaired by two members appointed by the contractor board chair.

The Plumbing Sub-Committee may prescribe, adopt and enforce rules and regulations.

Requires a report from the Plumbing Sub-Committee to the legislature in 2027 relative to the recruitment and growth of minority participation in the industry.

Creates Master Plumbing Contractor able to contract to perform plumbing work for any structure, and qualifies as LMP.

Creates Residential Plumbing Contractor able to contract to perform work on structures up to three floors in height, and qualifies as LJP or LMP.

Apprentice Plumbers qualify for Journeyman Plumber license after 2,500 hours.

Journeyman Plumbers qualify for Master Plumber license after 1,000 hours.

Increases the ratio of journeyman to apprentice from 1:1 to 1:3.

Allows for rules and regulations to be promulgated relative to applicants from other states, in compliance with the Welcome Home Act.

However, the bill does not: 

Provide at all for medical gas or backflow prevention. 

Give final authority of any matters to the Plumbing Sub-Committee—all decisions must be ratified by the full contractors board.

Provide Plumbing Sub-Committee direct oversight over examinations or apprenticeships.

Require a journeyman plumber any further qualification to be eligible for a Residential Plumbing Contractor classification.

Provide for any fees —for renewals, fines, applications, etc. (The bill author and parties have indicated that this will be handled in the next legislative session.)

Provide for any formal training as an apprenticeship program. The bill only references an "apprenticeship" and does not specify what that means, nor does it incentivize standardized training.

CONTRACTOR will continue to follow this story as it develops.