September/October 2017

PE Report
NSPE Convenes Meeting of Societies To Address Licensure Threat

NSPE has initiated a meeting of engineering and architecture societies to discuss a growing threat to licensure that is arising in legislatures across the country.

The threat often comes disguised in the form of legislation designed to eliminate occupational licenses that some say unnecessarily stand in the way of people trying to make an honest living. The finger is often pointed at occupations such as manicurists, naturopaths, florists, and hairstylists.

The zeal of state legislators and regulators to attack occupational licenses has design professionals concerned about becoming collateral damage in broad-stroke antilicensing campaigns. As Executive Director Mark Golden wrote in the May/June 2016 PE: “The price of victory in establishing a licensing regime that is now an integral part of professional and public life is sometimes a dangerous complacency. But the PE cannot be taken for granted and assumed to be inviolate. And the need for aggressive advocacy has never been greater than it is today, because we face ongoing challenges to the integrity of the PE license.”

In June 2015, the Indiana Job Creation Commission, inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council’s antioccupation licensure model law, released a draft report recommending the elimination of engineering licensure in Indiana. NSPE and the Indiana Society of Professional Engineers launched an extensive advocacy campaign and successfully convinced then governor Mike Pence’s office to rescind the recommendation in August 2015.

But within only the last year, NSPE and its state societies have been forced to respond to similar efforts in Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

As the number of cases rose, NSPE leaders believed it was time to convene a meeting of design professional organizations. At press time, an August 23 meeting was scheduled with representatives of NSPE, the American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Watch for further updates in PE magazine and at www.nspe.org.

Learn about the latest threats to the PE license.