Lawmakers are threatening to temporarily revoke the state bar’s authority to collect licensing fees in the wake of a critical audit that found a backlog of unresolved disciplinary cases has grown despite the agency’s plans to shrink the number.

A bill by Senate Judiciary Chairman Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, would keep the fee-collection ban in place until the state Senate confirms the bar’s choice for chief trial counsel, the executive position that oversees disciplinary actions. The job has been vacant since 2018 when the bar’s pick, Steven Moawad, withdrew his nomination.