Texas. Dept. of Licensing and Regulation.

The Texas Bureau of Labor Statistics was created in 1909 (House Bill 109, 31st Texas Legislature), headed by a commissioner appointed by the governor for a two-year term. The bureau was charged with collecting statistical information concerning the commercial, social, educational, and sanitary conditions of Texas employees and their families. Gradually the legislature added powers of administration and enforcement of industrial laws affecting the welfare of employees, employers and the general public, including wages, hours, timeliness of payment, health, safety, morals, child labor, etc. As of 1972, there were seven divisions: Labor Law, Safety, Employment Agency (to staff the Private Employment Agency Regulatory Board), Boxing and Wrestling, Boiler Inspection, Mobile Homes (to inspect electrical, plumbing, and heating, and body and frame design and construction of manufactured housing), and Accounting and Personnel. There were eventually twenty investigative field offices. In 1973 (House Bill 901, 63rd Texas Legislature) the name was changed to the Texas Department of Labor and Standards. The commissioner of the Department of Labor and Standards was advised by the following advisory bodies: the Private Employment Agency Regulatory Board, the Performance Certification Board for Mobile Homes, the Board of Boiler Rules, the Industrialized Building Code Council, the Manufactured Homeowners' Recovery Fund Board of Trustees, and the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors Advisory Board.

In 1989 (House Bill 863, 71st Texas Legislature), not only was the agency's name changed again, to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, but a six-member Commission of Licensing and Regulation, appointed by the governor to six-year overlapping terms and confirmed by the Senate, was created to act as the governing body. Purely labor functions were transferred to the Texas Employment Commission (renamed the Texas Workforce Commission in 1995). The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation became the state's umbrella occupational regulatory agency, responsible for the regulation of 23 occupations and industries. As of January 2007, these areas include the following programs: eleven businesses and occupations (barbering, combative sports, cosmetologists, for-profit legal services, loss damage waivers, personnel employment services, service contract providers, staff leasing services, talent agencies, temporary common worker providers, and vehicle protection product warrantors), three professions (auctioneers, licensed court interpreters, property tax consultants), six building and mechanical industries (air conditioning and refrigeration, architectural barriers, boiler safety, electricians, elevator/escalator safety, industrialized housing and buildings), and three natural resources industries (water well drillers, water well pump installers, weather modification). In 2005 (Senate Bill 411, 79th Texas Legislature), the Texas Board of Barber Examiners and the Texas Cosmetology Commission were both abolished, and those functions transferred to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The commission issues licenses, certificates, or registrations; manages records; investigates complaints; and pursues appropriate legal remedies.

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