Update on HB 7007:

THE REVISED VERSION OF HB 7007 WAS PASSED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON 6/16/16 and has also passed the Senate.

It has been a busy week since Monday for Government Relations members. We received notification that House Bill HB7007 had resurfaced. Unfortunately the House didn’t put the revised Bill out on the web, so we saw the same Bill we all fought against back in March.  We attended the House Committee meeting on Tuesday ready to defend our stance. The results were reported to you Wednesday morning via Constant Contact and posted on the website, the official reporting system for our Chapter. Later that day we received a copy of the actual revised House Bill 7007. We were in contact with the National AMTA Government Relations office and all agreed the language to the revised Bill was acceptable and favorable to licensed massage therapists. Although we are not happy to host it in our practice act it is livable and helps State and municipal authorities. We’ve been told by the National office other State practice acts have similar types of regulations.
Bottom line – we can live with it. Accepting the regulation shows good faith and support to help rid our communities of illegal businesses. We were told by one prominent State officials it would actually strengthen our practice act.
We thank all of you who used the Engage system. As of yesterday mid noon 300 letters had been sent. That is a very good response and proves the tool works. Thank you to those who alerted massage therapist, friends, family and concerned citizens via Social Media and petitions.

Joanne Lozy, LMT
AMTA RI Chapter
Government Relations Chair

Michaele Colizza, LMT
AMTA, Rhode Island President

The new legislation, is available here: http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText16/HouseText16/H7007A.pdf, would only allow city/town regulation of UNLICENSED bodyworks establishments. Licensed massage therapists would NOT be subject to this further city regulation.