In the News...

Professionals' Licensure Bill Passes

Wednesday, March 10 2010

The Pueblo Chieftain
By: Patrick Malone
March 10th, 2010

DENVER — The Senate on Tuesday granted final approval to a bill that makes it easier for professionals in certain regulated fields to practice their occupations in Colorado after moving from another state.

State Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, sponsored HB1175 in the Senate. Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Colorado Springs, was the House sponsor. Tapia said it's aimed to help military families transition to the state.

  The bill calls for streamlined processes for licensing chiropractors, dentists, dental hygienists, optometrists, nursing home administrators and physical therapists in Colorado when they move from other states.

"It was really a military-driven bill," Tapia said. "It's for people coming to Fort Carson and their spouses. For years people have been assigned there, and their spouses had to work six months or a year toward a certificate or a license. In some cases, these are people who've been competent professionals for 20 years before they came to Colorado."

Tapia said the Department of Regulatory Agencies, which grants credentials in the fields named in the bill, is agreeable to abbreviated processes for issuing certificates and licenses for new residents to the state.   Depending on the experience the new residents bring with them, they could be issued certificates or licenses to practice in Colorado based on interviews, testing or truncated periods of work in their field here.

In committee hearings on the bill, lawmakers heard from witnesses who said strict licensing requirements for professionals can sometimes separate military families, when a spouse doesn't want to leave their field or take a professional step backward.

Tapia said he hopes this bill will rectify that.

"A lot of families coming to Fort Carson, and some of them to Pueblo, will have a much easier transition because of this,"

Having earlier been passed by the House and by the Senate on Tuesday, the bill is awaiting the governor's signature to become law.