2002-02-04                     House Journal                      Page 2138
HB 343                                                                                            
The Labor & Commerce Committee has considered:                                                      
                                                                                                    
     HOUSE BILL NO. 343                                                                             
     "An Act extending the termination date of the Board of                                         
     Professional Counselors."                                                                      
                                                                                                    
and recommends it be replaced with:                                                                 
                                                                                                    

2002-02-04                     House Journal                      Page 2139
     CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 343(L&C)                                                                 
     "An Act extending the termination date of the Board of                                         
     Professional Counselors; and relating to licensing of professional                             
     counselors."                                                                                   
                                                                                                    
The report was signed by Representative Murkowski, Chair, with the                                  
following individual recommendations:                                                               
                                                                                                    
Do pass (2):  Meyer, Murkowski                                                                      
                                                                                                    
No recommendation (3):  Rokeberg, Hayes, Crawford                                                   
                                                                                                    
A House Labor & Commerce Committee letter of intent for                                             
CSHB 343(L&C), signed by Representative Murkowski, Chair, and                                       
Representative Halcro, Vice Chair, appears below:                                                   
                                                                                                    
"It is the intent of the House Labor and Commerce Committee that the                                
operations and regulatory oversight responsibilities of the following                               
professional licensing boards be combined into one board:                                           
                                                                                                    
     1.  Board of Professional Counselors                                                           
     2.  Board of Marital and Family Therapy                                                        
     3.  Board of Psychologist and Psychological Associate Examiners                                
     4.  Board of Social Work Examiners                                                             
                                                                                                    
To help ensure an effective transition, the four boards are to work                                 
cooperatively to develop an appropriate proposed statute for this new                               
combined board.                                                                                     
                                                                                                    
Such a proposed statute should be designed to accomplish the intent of                              
the committee to combine the operations of the boards while meeting                                 
the individual regulatory and oversight responsibilities of each current                            
separate licensing board.  If the boards involved would like to propose                             
alternative combinations of how to combine the four boards, they are                                
encouraged to also draft alternative proposed statutes.                                             
                                                                                                    
Jointly, the chair of each board is to report on their progress in both                             
January 2003 and 2004.  Status reports should be sent to both the chair                             
of this committee and the Legislative Auditor.  The proposed                                        
legislation to accomplish combination of the boards should be                                       

2002-02-04                     House Journal                      Page 2140
completed by March 2004 so that it may be part of the sunset review                                 
process for the boards currently due to terminate by law on June                                    
30, 2005.                                                                                           
                                                                                                    
The Legislative Audit Division is directed to consider and review the                               
draft legislation as part of the sunset review conducted for each of the                            
boards involved.  The merits and deficiencies of combining                                          
alternatives of the licensing boards should be discussed in the sunset                              
audit report."                                                                                      
                                                                                                    
The following fiscal note(s) apply to CSHB 343(L&C):                                                
                                                                                                    
1.  Fiscal, Dept. of Community & Economic Development                                               
                                                                                                    
HB 343 was referred to the Finance Committee.