I got an email this morning explaining why Senator Averitt added the language to the bill. Apparently, residential builders and owners in the Senator’s district had complained about people representing themselves as lighting designers, selling bad equipment that did not perform, and producing a loss for the builders. Apparently, the Senator had no idea that there was a legitimate profession called lighting design and that the bill would damage it.
Nonetheless, the Senator still perceived a need for regulation. He’s taking the current lighting design language out of the bill but inserting language requiring the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation to study the issue and propose regulation for the next legislative session in two years. When the next legislative session convenes in 2011, therefore, some type of legislative action may occur.
Ideally, the Texas Legislature and Department of Licensing & Regulation will work with groups like IALD throughout the process to ensure that any new regulation is rational and does not unfairly restrict the lighting design profession. But the result in the future may still be some type of licensing or qualification required for professionals providing lighting design services in the State of Texas.
