PROFESSIONAL AFFAIRS
If a bill to eliminate licensure is found:
1. Contact the legislative committee who drafted the bill to get more
information/see if it is an oversight that can be removed.
2. Identify who is sponsoring the bill, meet with the author’s office imme-
diately and present your concerns and let them know you will unfor- tunately have to oppose if they proceed.
3. Meet with Committee staff early in the process to let them know your
concerns. Also provide a packet of information for the committee staff which will help them in developing the analysis.
4. Send an Alert to communicate to email list of geologists with the
problem and what is being done, and contact the AEG Licensure Committee.
a. Who has been contacted within the legislature?
b. What more information is need- ed?
c. What is the status of the bill and when are the next major deadlines voting – rewrites?
d. What is needed – contact of someone from the legislative party, letters of opposition?
e. Get letters of opposition sent to Author, committee consul- tants, members of the commit- tee, as soon as the bill is sent to the committee. Letters should reflect issues related to pub- lic health, safety and welfare. Sample letters are available on the AEG website.
f. Determine whether there may be a need for help from a lob- byist and funding to do so. If needed, obtain the appropriate form from the AEG website. The form is in MS Word and is formatted so that it can be easily filled out and, if needed, edited.
5. Write a letter to your senator / representative / legislative com-
mittees on behalf of AEG and other respected professional entities.
6. Stick with it to the end, even if it the bill is rewritten to remove the
language it can be added back in at the last minute. Need to continue to monitor the legislation.
Editor’s Note:
This Article was prepared on behalf of AEG by Greg Hempen, AEG Past President (2017-2018), for the Geologic Legislative Action Group, which is composed of repre- sentatives from AGI (American Geosciences Institute), AIPG, GSA and GSA-EEDG (GSA Environmental and Engineering Geology Division), AEG, AASG (American Association of State Geologists), ASBOG (National Association of State Boards of Geology), NCKRI (National Cave and Karst Research Institute) and NSS (National Speleological Society. In many cases the representatives on this committee are the leaders of the organization concerned (Pres. Keri Nutter and Exec. Dir. Aaron Johnson for AIPG, for example,and Pres. Allyson Anderson book of AGI, as well as Past-President Hempen of AEG. The Geologic Legislative Action Group’s mandate is to devise a joint strategy for obtaining and maintaining effective input to all of 51 legislative bodies in this country.
Dr. Hempen’s and Dr. Beswick’s notes present the most cogent approach to dealing with Legislatures that I have seen in my 18-month involvement with the Texas legis- lature: they lay out the levels of financial and time commitment that will be required, and the reasons this level of commitment is required if we want to be effective. They also present a well-thought-out plan of action.
Your Editor wishes to thank Dr. Hempen for his permission, in fact, encouragement, to use this important summary of what we need to do to ensure the place of geology in, and the ability of geologists to, improve and ensure public welfare and safety in this great country. J.L.B.
Proposals from AEG to the Geologic Legislative Action Group
There are three related proposals that AEG would like to raise with the Geologic Legislative Action Group (with initial discussions held on Monday, November 5, 2018 AEG has been involved with supporting Geologic Licensure since the early 1980s. Legislation, which AEG has considered potentially harmful to public welfare and the environment, has been introduced over the last decade in several states concerning science educa- tion, water rights, geologic hazards, and geologic licensure.
AEG created its own Licensure Committee and implemented a support fund after careful review of legal and tax issues concerning our tax status. AEG believes the professional, applied geol- ogy community needs to be more proac- tive and act to assist practice groups in each state on how to handle legislative concerns. [A file on Proactive Concerns from the AEG Licensure Committee is included with this narrative.]
The first proposal is educational. Applied geologists, and particularly licensed, certified and registered geolo- gists, should be educated by our prac- tice organizations regarding potentially harmful legislation to public welfare, the environment, and our practice. Members of our practice organizations should
be encouraged to know, to annually correspond with, and to be resources for their state legislators. In this way professional geologists can be a source trusted by their legislators for advice on geologic impacts to public health, safety and welfare. Applied geologists must be a vocal and involved body with their state legislators.
The second proposal is organizational. AEG believes a captaincy (for lack of a better term) of three to five applied geologists should be formed in every state to: understand their state’s legis- lative activities, assess bills, and be the nexus with the intrastate professional geologists and regional or US, geologic organizations. The applied geologists should reside in the state for which they will be acting and must be licensed or registered in that state, if that state has a geologic practice licensure board. The geologists of the captaincy cannot be state employees nor be on the geologic practice licensure board, because they must be able to speak out on legislative issues. The individual applied geologists should have staggered terms, perhaps of two or three years, in order that each person would know their limited length of service and so that burn-out would not occur.
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