Legislation passed unanimously by the Pennsylvania House Professional Licensure Committee Wednesday will make becoming a licensed engineer easier, state Rep. Dave Zimmerman (R-Lancaster) said.
HB 565 would make it easier for professional engineers to obtain their licenses in the state. Zimmerman, the legislation’s author, said the bill would require licensing boards to recognize what the professionals have accomplished in other states.
The legislation will make the state more attractive to out-of-state businesses, he said.
“One of the simplest things we can do as a future employer is to clean up the path of hurdles that obstruct the path which leads into Pennsylvania,” he said. “Recognizing and respecting what someone has accomplished elsewhere is a great step.”
Currently, he said, the law makes licensing unnecessarily difficult, and requires engineers to not only hold an engineer-in-training certificate, but to also show proof that they have obtained four or more years of engineering work after they received that certificate.
“In some cases, such as the case of one of my constituents, an individual may have the years of required experience and training, but it may have occurred prior to them obtaining their engineer-in-training certificate in Pennsylvania,” he said in a memorandum to the House when he introduced the bill in March.
The new legislation would allow qualified experience to be evaluated by the licensing board without regards to when the engineer-in-training certificate was issued.
“Why make it harder on them by ignoring their existing work experience and training because it was accomplished elsewhere? We’d be eliminating an incredibly unnecessary ‘hoop’ they presently have to jump through to get licensed in Pennsylvania,” he said.
The bill will now move on for consideration by the full house.