TDLR Announces 2025-2029 Strategic Plan

Dear TDLR Licensees and Stakeholders,

We are pleased to announce that our 2025-2029 Strategic Plan is complete and posted to our website. We’ve also posted the Supplemental Schedules that contain information about our agency’s budget structure, performance measure definitions and the results of our customer service survey.  

As the new Executive Director of this agency, I’m excited to share our agency’s priorities for the next legislative session, and I’m ready to lead TDLR into its next chapter.

This plan is the result of months of effort and input from you, the people of Texas — our licensees and customers. During this process, we collected more than 6,000 valuable public comments that were essential to TDLR’s efforts to continue improving services for all our customers in this great state.

The TDLR Strategic Plan covers the agency’s priorities for the legislative session that begins in January 2025:

• Seeking continued funding for the Legacy Systems Replacement Project. The acquisition of a new licensing system will eliminate the inefficiencies and redundancies of TDLR’s antiquated and disparate legacy systems.
• Strengthening current laws to prevent barbering and cosmetology license holders from performing medical procedures. The performance of certain medical procedures by persons who are not authorized or licensed to perform those procedures poses a serious health risk for Texas consumers.
• Providing for an omnibus advisory board clean-up bill that would amend the advisory board language for TDLR-regulated programs that have advisory boards. This would allow TDLR to make the number of members of each board, the types of members, and the terms they serve more consistent, allowing for greater efficiency in the administration, oversight, and support of our 33 advisory boards.
• Creating a statutory provision that allows TDLR to work with the Texas Education Agency to support career and technology education programs and explore the development of apprenticeship programs. TDLR would be able to assist with the establishment of career and technology programs focusing on our regulated industries that have large numbers of licensees retiring and that lack newly trained, licensed professionals.
• Allowing Podiatrists to enter into delegation agreements with advanced practice registered nurses. Unlike other medical doctors, podiatrists are unable to delegate provision of care. Podiatrists will be able to care for more patients while improving access to care with the assistance of advanced practice registered nurses.
• Adding an alternative to filing notices in newspapers of general circulation. Adding more modern methods of notice, such as through the internet, would create an additional pathway for the public to see the notice in areas where there is no newspaper of general circulation.

The plan also includes 7 agency goals during the next four years:

1. Procuring and successfully implementing the Legacy Systems Replacement Project to modernize TDLR’s outdated licensing software systems. TDLR currently relies on multiple disparate software systems to carry out its licensing functions. Most of those systems are based on antiquated technologies that are at or near the end of their utility and do not meet modern standards for functionality or security. TDLR inherited many of these systems when the Legislature transferred regulatory programs from other agencies. These multiple disconnected systems present significant roadblocks to operational efficiency, data security, data quality and TDLR’s ability to provide customer service.
2. Expanding training and licensing opportunities for career and technical education (CTE) in high schools and community colleges. This summer, TDLR will complete rulemaking for H.B. 1859 and H.B. 1391, 88^th Legislature, to expand training and job opportunities for young people seeking careers in electrical and HVAC fields, and will continue to gather input and feedback from schools, educators, industry members, and legislators about additional opportunities to expand CTE, including Government Code Chapter 51 authority for TDLR to establish apprenticeship programs.
3. Continuing to effectively assist the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, which was administratively attached to TDLR for the next three years for policy-making and administrative oversight.
4. Successfully implementing a regulatory environment for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) across the state of Texas to standardize and ensure public safety for this emerging technology.
5. Continuing to build capacity and strengthen the effectiveness of TDLR’s anti-trafficking efforts by assigning functions according to area of expertise. Investigations will be conducted by the Enforcement Division, inspections of licensed and unlicensed businesses will be conducted by the Field Inspections Division, and outreach and training will be performed by the Anti-Trafficking Team within the Compliance Division.
6. Implementing remaining recommendations resulting from the Sunset review process and Sunset bill (H.B. 1560, 87^th Legislature).
7. Exploring the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and large language models to provide automated on-demand customer service and enhance accuracy, security, training, and user experience.

Over the last decade, TDLR’s responsibilities have increased from 24 to 38 licensing programs, and the agency now oversees almost 1,000,000 individual and business licenses. During this time, we have consistently improved services and streamlined regulations for those programs transferred to us from other agencies, while also focusing on eliminating impediments for businesses and reducing regulatory burdens for all our licensees.

This strategic plan serves as the roadmap to move us forward into a brighter, stronger future, in service to the citizens and small business owners of Texas, with accountability and integrity in all that we do. I am excited to help lead the agency on this journey, together.

Sincerely,

Courtney Arbour, Executive Director

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