Amends TCA Title 4; Title 20; Title 47; Title 55; Title 56; Title 62 and Title 68.

This bill makes various changes to present law concerning occupational and professional licensing boards as follows: (1) Replaces the requirement that the Tennessee board of court reporting impose a prorated fee for any license that is for a period less than 24 months with a requirement that a license renewal fee be reduced by 50 percent if the initial license was held for less than one year. This bill also waives the continuing education requirements for court reporters in the case of renewals of initial licenses held for less than one year; (2) Present law prohibits credit services businesses from charging a consumer before completing all services that the business agreed to perform for the consumer. Present law also prohibits credit services businesses from using a program that employs installment payments featuring payments charged directly to a credit card prior to full and complete performance of the services that the credit services business has agreed to perform for or on behalf of the consumer. This bill adds that a credit services business may enter an installment plan with the consumer, so long as that installment plan does not exceed six months and is approved by the commissioner of commerce and insurance; (3) Specifies that a fingerprint-based criminal history records check is only required for those officers of applicants for registration under the Uniform Debt-Management Services Act who are authorized to have access to the trust account; (4) Replaces the requirement that motor vehicle salespersons seeking a transfer of employment return their licenses to the motor vehicle commission for a change in endorsement with a requirement that such salespersons submit an application for transfer. This bill also expands the grounds upon which the commission may suspend, deny, or revoke a license by adding failure to make available for inspection to the commission or its agents all books, records, and other memoranda of all transactions, transfers, or sales of motor vehicles; (5) Under present law, disbursements from the accounts of boards attached to the division of regulatory boards must be made solely for the purpose of defraying expenses incurred in the implementation and enforcement of the boards' areas of regulation. This bill adds authorization for such disbursements to be used, at a board's discretion and upon the approval of the commissioner of commerce and insurance and the commissioner of finance and administration, for capital purchases, communications and marketing programs related to the board's regulated industries, educational programs, payment of legal fees and related costs associated with legal representation by the attorney general and reporter, and other initiatives related to the department of commerce and insurance's strategic plan. This bill also authorizes the commissioner of commerce and insurance, with the approval of the commissioner of finance and administration, in extraordinary circumstances, to expend reserve funds in a board account for the purpose of administering the board's corresponding programs; (6) Reduces the minimum age for issuance of a technician or master barber certificate from 17 to 16, and, in the case of technicians only, eliminates the requirement of having graduated from high school or obtaining an equivalency diploma. This bill makes a technical clarification concerning the amount of classroom instruction and apprenticing that a student in a barbering school must obtain. This bill adds a requirement, which will not apply to public and vocational schools, that barber colleges and schools only enroll a student who is at least 16 years of age and has completed and passed at least two years of high school or received a score of at least 38 percent on a high school equivalency examination; (7) Reduces from 40 hours to 30 hours the minimum weekly work hour requirement to register as an apprentice funeral director or embalmer. This bill specifies that a licensed funeral director selling pre-need funeral contracts only on behalf of a funeral home that is owned, in whole or in part, by that person, is not required to register as a pre-need sales agent; (8) Authorizes the director of the state board for licensing contractors to issue citations by standard mail rather than certified mail; (9) Clarifies that scrap metal dealers are not required to separately register a scrap metal business and makes late scrap metal dealer registrations subject to a late fee in an amount set by the commissioner of commerce and insurance; (10) Removes the requirement that a person must provide a permanent, fixed business address with an application for a locksmith's license. This bill specifies that a locksmith who operates as a solo practitioner is not required to show proof of affiliation with a locksmith company or to obtain additional licensure from the commissioner to operate as a solo practitioner; (11) Removes the requirement that a person must obtain a court-ordered judgment to recover from the real estate education and recovery account, makes a technical change concerning notice of claims against the account, and gives the Tennessee real estate commission a subrogation right as to any amount that it pays out from the account. This bill deletes the requirement that an applicant for an affiliate broker's license, broker's license, or time-share salesperson license provide proof of Tennessee residency. This bill authorizes brokers and affiliate brokers to make their licenses available for public inspection electronically in lieu of physically displaying their licenses. This bill authorizes the sending of notices related to hearings concerning real estate licensure to be sent via standard mail rather than registered mail; (12) Reduces from 21 years to 18 years the minimum age for licensure as a public automobile auctioneer; (13) Deletes the present law requirement that solicitors for collection services possess a valid solicitor's identification card issued by the Tennessee collection service board. Also, deletes the requirement that a licensed collection service maintaining more than one place of business in Tennessee register each place of business. This bill authorizes the board to transmit complaints to licensees via standard mail rather than registered or certified mail; (14) Removes the requirement that the real estate appraiser commission charge licensees $25.00 to process a change of address request. This bill removes the requirement that the commission make publicly available, at a reasonable price per copy, a copy of its roster of the name and place of business of each real estate appraiser currently licensed and each real estate appraiser currently certified; and (15) Removes the requirement that the Tennessee athletic commission meet at least quarterly, so that the commission will only be required to meet as often as its duties require. This bill extends from within 30 days of applying for licensure to within 90 days of applying for licensure the time within which an applicant for licensure from the commission must have undergone a medical examination and tests for infectious diseases. This bill takes effect upon becoming law for rulemaking purposes and October 1, 2021, for all other purposes. NOTE: Section 13 of this bill adds enrollment requirements for certain barber schools in the form of a new subsection and exempts public and vocational schools from the section, which would exempt public and vocation schools from certification, instructional, and reporting requirements. ON APRIL 28, 2021, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 771, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 revises the bill as follows: (1) Adds to item (5) in the bill summary above that, on or before December 31 in each year that such reserve funds are expended, the commissioner of commerce and insurance must report to the chairs of the finance, ways and means committees of the senate and the house a list containing the name of each regulatory board reserve account for which funds were expended and the amount expended; (2) Revises the exemption in item (6) above for public and vocational schools to specify that the exemption does not apply in regard to the present law requirement for barber schools, including public school conducting a vocational education program in barbering, to keep daily attendance and submit progress reports on the students; and (3) Clarifies, in various provisions regarding mail, that mailing may be by first-class mail instead of by registered mail.