Thursday, February 2, 2012

Legislative Update - Cautious Optimism






Tuesday the Virginia House General Laws Committee - Special Sub Committee #5 amended House Bill HB1291. Deregulation of Certified Interior Designers was removed from the bill. The special subcomittee meets again today (February 2nd), and the full General Laws committee will hear HB1291 on Tuesday February 7th, sending the bill to it's final stage.

Monday February 6th, the State Senate will hear Senate Bill 678 for the first time (deregulation of CID's was removed from thsi bill in the resolution phase of the process).

With cautious optimism, we expect that the final conformed version of this bill which reaches the Governor’s desk will not include deregulation.

Our success to date could not have been achieved without the hard work and grass roots efforts of Certified Interior Designers. Individual letters, calls to legislators, and visits to the general assembly made our case and raised awareness of our industry.

We will continue to monitor progress of these bills to ensure that protections for the health, safety and welfare of the public remain in place.

*DPOR is self funded by Certified Interior Designer Fees.
http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/dporweb/public_records_faq.pdf

**Three state universities ranked in the top ten in the nation by Design Intelligence.
Virginia Tech (8th)
Virginia Commonwealth University (10th)
Radford University (10th 2011)
http://www.di.net/news/archive/3735/

***2002 Economic Census Data:
54141 NACIS Code / Interior Design Services - 325 Establishments, $155,573,000 Revenue.

**** How Interior Designers Protect the Public.
http://ncidq.org/AboutUs/AboutInteriorDesign/HowInteriorDesignersProtectthePublic.aspx

***** Eliminates reciprocity with states and other jurisdictions.
http://www.asisvcs.com/publications/pdf/660949.pdf 

***** Eliminates the ability to stamp and seal drawings
 
******* Eliminates voting rights in professional corporations.
http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/dporweb/forms/ape/04pcreg.pdf

*******Reduces the interior designer's scope of work.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+54.1-400
http://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/StateBuildingCodesandRegulations/PDFs/2009/Related%20Laws%20Package.pdf