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09/01/2011
In the 2011
legislative session, ISRA made its second attempt to make
certification mandatory. As you may or may not know, our
legislature ran into some issues this spring and basically went
on strike, for lack of a better term, and we were not able to
make it to a committee hearing once again. Our bill has to make
it to a committee hearing before we can lobby for anything to
our individual senators and representatives.
Additionally this year, the Professional Licensing Agency made
it abundantly clear that it could not support our efforts by way
of its office. There are many reasons for this, one of which is
financial; however, the PLA offered alternative plans for our
legislation, which we are confident will satisfy our original
goals.
Senator Greg Taylor from Indianapolis, the sponsor of our bill,
is optimistic regarding the chances of our bill passing in next
year’s short session. We have spent time working on the
language, ironing out inconsistencies and making this a bill
that benefits everyone involved and therefore makes it hard to
vote against.
Lastly, ISRA would love to hire a lobbyist to work toward our
efforts in this area. After researching and talking to the state
leaders of associations who have been successful with this
legislation in the past 10 years, the key was always their
lobbyist. ISRA does have money in its legislative account to
hire a lobbyist, but not knowing how long this process will
take, we will need to work on fundraisers in order to keep the
money coming in to our legislative account.
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