Advocacy Update: 3 Senate Bills

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Things are heating up in the Oregon 2015 Legislative Session.  Currently, three separate bills have been submitted for legislative concepting.  Their concepts are as follows:

1. A Practice Act:

This bill is similar to last year’s Senate Bill 1521 defining the definition of an interior designer and scope of services.  In general, it would require interior designers to obtain a license to work on commercial spaces.

Sponsor:     Senator Steiner-Hayward

2. Ability for interior designers to bid on government contracts:

Similar to the recent bill passed in Massachusetts, this bill will outline the scope of service interior designers perform and why they are qualified to bid on government projects.

Sponsor:    Representative Fagan

3. A Title Act:

This bill will further define to the state of Oregon what a “qualified design professional” is per the Oregon Structural Specialty Code.

Sponsor:    Representative Fagan

IDC Oregon has hired lobbyist, Niki Terzieff, with Leading Edge Public Affairs and Colin Cochran, PR with Hilltop Public Solutions.  It is currently unclear if they will move forward with the bills in the 2015 regular session as they are lacking legislative support. They may conserve resources and start fresh next year.  The board will decide this month whether to move forward this spring with a new bill.