CHAIRMAN MACKIE announced HB 208 to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE LISA MURKOWSKI, sponsor, said HB 208 is a housekeeping bill that was requested by the Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and the Counseling Association. HB 208 defines the authority of the Board created in SB 331 last year. It extends by six months the deadline for an individual to qualify to become an eligible professional counselor. She noted that Ms. Reardon would address some amendments. Number 100 MS. CATHERINE REARDON, Division of Occupational Licensing, said the first amendment adds to page 2, line 30, the language: "has not had a license related to the practice of counseling, psychology, marital and family therapy, or social work in this or another jurisdiction suspended, revoked, limited or surrendered in lieu of discipline unless the license has been fully reinstated in that jurisdiction:". Under the original bill an individual could not qualify if his/her counseling license was suspended or revoked elsewhere. MS. REARDON said, "Since we have a lot of allied mental health professions, we didn't think we'd want someone who had their psychology license revoked turning around and becoming a professional counselor any more than we wanted to have someone with their professional counselor license revoked coming to Alaska." The issue is that a professional with a particular license could have his/her license revoked in one profession and apply for a license in a very similar profession. MS. REARDON continued. New language was added to page 3 that establishes the grounds for discipline or denial. It provides that disciplinary action for other types of mental health licenses is grounds for denial or discipline of a counseling license. The last change is not substantive. The reference to licensed psychiatrists was removed because they are not licensed separately from physicians therefore the reference is redundant. Number 222 SENATOR KELLY expressed concern that if a person's license was suspended elsewhere and then cleared, but that person chose to move to Alaska and get licensed, they could not under these terms because they didn't get relicensed in the former state. MS. REARDON said that is true, but there is a more frequent situation where someone gets into trouble in another state and then decides to move to Alaska to avoid a bad reputation. SENATOR KELLY asked why "licensed psychiatrist" was deleted. MS. REARDON explained that licensed psychiatrists were removed from the list of professionals who can supervise the training of a professional counselor. Both licensed physicians and licensed psychiatrists were listed which is redundant because all psychiatrists are physicians. She suggested removing the word "limited" from the list of things that automatically disqualify an applicant from getting a license. Denial of a license would then be an option, not automatic. REPRESENTATIVE MURKOWSKI said she had no problem taking it out. SENATOR LEMAN moved to adopt SCSHB 208(L&C) as the working document of the committee. There being no objection, it was so ordered. SENATOR LEMAN moved to insert on page 3, line 11 "or nationally" after "regionally." He explained some institutions have national accreditation but not regional accreditation. The Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education treats them equally in regard to student loans. He noted that would be consistent with previous legislative action. There being no objection, it was so ordered. SENATOR LEMAN moved to pass SCSHB 208(L&C) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.