SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 3940

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MARCH 17, 2025

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly Bill No. 3940 (1R).

      As amended and reported, this bill updates current law by creating licensure for mortuary and embalming science and licensure for mortuary science.  Both types of licensee would be overseen by the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey.  Under the bill, a practitioner of mortuary and embalming science would provide services under what is currently recognized as mortuary science.  The bill provides that a practitioner of mortuary science would solely provide funeral directing services. 

       The education, including continuing education, and examination requirements, as well as other provisions of the law, are modified to incorporate this update to the mortuary science licensure to be regulated by the board.  This also includes updates to qualifications for licensure, including by not requiring a person to be a resident of New Jersey, lowering the age to eighteen to qualify, and whenever possible, an actual demonstration on a cadaver as part of the examination.  However, for a person to be licensed as what is now known as a practitioner of mortuary and embalming science, the requirement remains that that class of licensure still be proficient in both funeral directing and embalming.  Additionally, updates are made to certain terminology, including references to “trainees” changed to “interns” and “school of mortuary science” to “program of funeral service education.”

      The funeral directing industry is regulated, in large part, by the “Mortuary Science Act.”  Prior to the enactment of that law, the licensing board was directed to issue three separate licenses: one for embalming, one for funeral directing, and a third for both embalming and funeral directing.  The 1952 law consolidated the three licenses into one, issuing thereafter a license for a practitioner of mortuary science, who were to be proficient in both embalming and funeral directing. 

      For religious, cultural, environmental, and philosophical reasons, an increasing number of funerals center around disposition without embalming.  This bill, by allowing funeral services not involving embalming to be provided by persons licensed by the board who are not embalmers, would facilitate the response by the funeral services’ industry to New Jersey’s diverse population and to societal changes.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to:

      (1)  require a demonstration for an applicant for licensure as a practitioner of mortuary and embalming science, wherever possible, an actual demonstration on a cadaver of the embalming proficiency and qualifications of the applicant;

      (2)  remove a requirement for an identification card; and

      (3)  update the effective date.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) estimates the establishment of a two-license system for 1) mortuary and embalming science and 2) for mortuary science, both overseen by the Board of Mortuary Science in the Division of Consumer Affairs, will increase annual State expenditures and revenues by indeterminate amounts.

      The OLS notes that the bill will potentially increase the number of licenses regulated by the Board of Mortuary Science, thereby increasing annual State expenditures and revenue collections from the administration and collection of application fees and licensure fees. Further, the OLS anticipates expenditures and revenues related to enforcement of the new mortuary science license.