House committee approves occupational-licensing docket after debate over genetic-counselors' ethics code

The House Health & Welfare Committee approved administrative rules filed by the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) after a contentious exchange over an incorporation by reference of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Code of Ethics.

John Price, bureau chief for the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, told the committee the contested language had been present in the chapter and in some cases was a relocation of existing text. Price said the portion at issue required adoption by reference of the NSGC Code of Ethics for genetic counselors and that parts of that incorporation — specifically a sentence about counseling guidance tied to race or religion — had raised concerns for some committee members.

Representative Raizer (spelled in transcript) moved to approve the docket with a specific subsection removed. Multiple members questioned whether the committee could strike a portion of an incorporated document at this stage and whether doing so would require rejecting a previously finalized incorporated rule.

Brad Hunt of the Office of the Administrative Rules Coordinator explained that a 2017 version of the incorporated document had already been finalized and that removing portions would require rejecting the final rule and revisiting that incorporated document. "If you did want to go in there, then you would have to reject the final rule, the incorporated document," Hunt said.

After substitute and amended substitute motions and legal consultation, the committee accepted a motion to approve Docket 242401 as filed. The committee also agreed to take up the finalized incorporated document separately at a later time so members could consider striking the specific NSGC language as a final-rule action. The final voice vote carried and the docket was approved for the committee record.

The discussion centered on process as much as policy: members pressed staff on whether the language was newly proposed or merely relocated, whether the committee had procedural authority to remove specific lines of an incorporated document, and on how to proceed if the intent was to excise portions of a finalized rule. Price and Hunt advised that the proper mechanism would be to address the finalized incorporated rule at a subsequent meeting or to reject the final rule and move through the final-rule process.

No recorded roll-call vote appeared in the transcript; the committee approved the docket by voice vote and indicated it will bring a final-rule item back to address the NSGC incorporation specifically.