Update on State and Federal Legislation Impacting Licensure and Private Certification

I.C.E. Exchange Program Description: With an emphasis on new categories of bills and changes in legislative trends, this session will discuss legislative threats to state licensure and the certification community and major state legislative trends the PCC has been tracking in 2023-2024. In addition, the session will address the federal legislative opportunities the PCC and ASAE have advocated for that would benefit those seeking certification or licensure.
The PCC focuses on legislative initiatives that are not profession-specific but may benefit or threaten the broader certification community and state licensing regimes, including the following:
• Attempts to set up alternative registries of private certification that would allow unlicensed individuals to practice licensed professions
• Bills creating private causes of action against private certification organizations for revoking certification
• Loopholes to licensing laws on applicant qualifications, including licensing laws that otherwise would require private certification
• Limits on licensing agency and/or private certification organizations consideration of conviction histories
• Challenges presented by the proliferation of Clean Slate bills
On the federal level, the PCC and ASAE have been advocating for the Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act, a bipartisan bill that would expand permissible uses of 529 tax-preferred savings account to include certification exams and expenses and that has significant sponsorship in the House and Senate. The session will address the provisions of bill and, if it has not yet been enacted, its prospects and political challenges.