Barber agency shift doesn’t make cut

A bill that would place barbers under the same regulatory agency as cosmetologists failed to clear the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 567, sponsored by Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro, would abolish the state Board of Barber Examiners and transfer the responsibility for regulating barbers to the Department of Health, Board of Health and the board’s Cosmetology Technical Advisory Committee, which would be renamed the Barbering and Cosmetology Technical Advisory Committee.

Cooper said the bill would place regulation of the two related fields under the same entities and satisfy concerns that the current regulation of barbers violates federal antitrust laws by stifling competition.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that state licensing boards made up primarily of members of the professions they license have immunity from federal antitrust laws only if the board is actively supervised by a state agency or official that is not a part of the industry.

Cosmetologists spoke in favor of the bill Wednesday, while barbers opposed it. A motion to advance the bill out of the committee failed in a voice vote.

Cooper filed the bill last week after withdrawing Senate Bill 410, which would have eliminated the requirement for barbers to be licensed but require them to register with the Health Department.