Archive for June, 2010

Brief Update on Licensure

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

The NYS Senate HIgher Ed Committee voted our licensure bill out of committee and it is now in the Codes Committee in the Senate. This is the procedure for all licensure bills under the Democratic Senate leadership. Steve Malito will work with us and Senator Craig Johnson to get it out of Codes and onto the Senate floor for a vote. Please call or email and thank Senator Craig Johnson for getting the bill out of

the Senate HIgher Ed Committee. Please also ask Senator Johnson to pass S1262B and show he is a champion for blind consumers.

http://www.nysenate.gov/senator/craig-m-johnson 

The NYS Assembly HIgher Ed Committee unilaterally postponed all licensure bills until the next legislative session except ours. Assemblyman Bing agreed to remove the “99″ under pressure from Chair Assemblywoman Glick on the condition that she meet with us to discuss the future of the bill. Dr. Grace Ambrose-Zaken, Nancy D. Miller and Steve Malito, NYVRA’s lobbyist, met with Assemblywoman Glick on Wednesday June 9 in her

Albany office. Glick’s position is she will not allow any licensure bills out of the Assembly HIgher Ed committee until the corporate law problem raised by the social work licensure bill is resolved. (This has to do with supervision of all licensed professionals.) Assemblywoman Glick stated that she supports certification but would not be specific about what that means. Scope of practice protection seems to be an area of contention. Basically she appears to support a weak bill with little consumer protection. 

All your phone calls, petitions and meetings with the legislators has had a profound impact and we have gained incredibly strong positive legislative support. 

The lack of a state budget since April 1 and the weekly budget extenders with severe budget cuts are clearly taking the attention of the legislature away from any other issues.

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