Committee advances bill to merge four licensing boards into a single board for rehabilitative professionals

Representative Ed Buttry presented House Bill 438 to create a unified board for physical rehabilitative and developmental health‑care professionals, consolidating four current low‑volume boards into one 12‑member board within the Department of Labor and Industry.

Commissioner Sarah Swanson told the committee the consolidation aims to increase administrative capacity: together the professions total roughly 4,200 licensees and the new board would reduce meeting costs, staff time and duplicative processes while preserving discipline‑specific expertise through screening panels and minimum representation requirements. "We'll save at least 12 board meetings a year," she said, noting fee‑setting and appropriations limits under statute.

Stakeholder representatives — including occupational therapy, speech and hearing, athletic trainers and physical therapists — described months of negotiation that produced the board makeup and transitional provisions. Athletic trainers and audiology/Speech‑Language Pathology representatives said the bill preserves minimum representation to ensure specialized oversight.

Commissioner Swanson emphasized the consolidation complies with interstate compacts and would not change scopes of practice aside from a limited technical change for athletic trainers. The committee voted to advance the bill to the floor by voice vote.