Louisiana Certification Action Alert

I'm writing today to make sure that you are aware of a bill which has passed the Louisiana House and is now moving into the Senate with an expected vote early next week. This bill, if enacted, may have an impact on your ACE certification.

Recently, the ESA Certification Corporation learned about Louisiana House Bill 748, the Occupational Licensing Review Act. Among other things, the legislation includes the following:

  • The bill bans the use of the terms "certification" or "registration" for non-governmental professional credentialing unless the relevant licensure laws require certification or registration to work in the profession.
  • All state licensing programs for which association certification programs are a condition for state occupational licensing (like many medical professionals) must be reviewed for cancellation every five years.
  • Each year the governor's office will view 20% of the state's existing occupational regulations and recommend to the legislature whether current regulations should be made less restrictive or repealed, or recommend that no legislation be enacted.
  • Occupational regulation must use the "least restrictive regulation necessary to protect consumers from present, significant, and empirically substantiated harms."
  • No licensure law may include certification as a requirement unless the governor's office finds "empirically substantiated harms to consumers" if certification is not required.

The general counsel for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, created this memorandum that analyzes the legislation and provides a deeper briefing.

If you would like to share your views on the value of voluntary certification programs like ACE and BCE, we encourage you to contact your state legislators. To find contact information for your state senator by name, district, parish, or address click here.

Sincerely,

Chelle Hartzer, BCE
2018 Chair of the ESA Certification Corporation's Certification Board

 

Update 5/9/2018: 

HB 748 passed the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee with all language related to certification and registration removed. We are grateful to the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee, Rep. Emerson (the bill author), and the Governor’s office for amending the bill to incorporate all changes that the ESA Certification Corporation and many others in the association community had requested. The bill was further amended to only provide for the Governor's office to review 20% of the agencies engaged in regulatory and licensing activities over the next 5 years. We are pleased that Rep. Emerson was receptive to changes after hearing from the association community.