Meyer signs executive order to cut red tape on professional licensing

August 21, 2026

Katie Tabeling, Delaware Business Times

Gov. Matt Meyer orders review of Delaware professional licensing boards to remove unnecessary barriers and ease worker shortages. | DBT PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING

Gov. Matt Meyer has signed an executive order directing a review of state licensing requirements in hopes of identifying and removing unnecessary barriers for workers in select licensed profes

sions.

The executive order also directs the Delaware Department of State to identify at least five job licensing boards and commissions for review within 30 days for the governor.  Over the next five months, the department will consult with each of those boards and submit recommendations on streamlining requirements.

Recommendations can include reducing pre-licensure education or training hours to the national median for chosen professions when those requirements are set by state regulation rather than by law. They could also include recognizing out-of-state license equivalents and creating a 30-day approval process for some of those licenses, among others.

The Department of State may also recommend statutory changes to the legislature, like universal license recognition and expanded license reciprocity with other states.

“Right now, there’s a crisis of career in many communities across our state and there’s a crisis in affordability. Professional licensing is important when it protects the public. But if a requirement doesn’t make Delawareans safe, it makes it harder for the right people to enter a profession,” Meyer said in an interview with the Delaware Business Times.

In the meantime, licensing boards and commissions are urged, although not required, to hold off on proposing new restrictions unless they have clear evidence that a rule is necessary to protect the public. The order cannot override existing statutory requirements.

Meyer told DBT that he declined to mandate a total halt because he saw the aftereffects of the Trump administration’s attempts to cut through red tape. Meyer called it “crossing out entire sections of regulations and ripping things up.”

“A lot of these regulations require judgment calls that we’re going to have to make about the cost in terms of public safety and what’s the gain in terms of time,” the governor said. “I don’t want to force bad regulation or changes. I want us to be thoughtful and smart.”