In March, the Federation of Massage State Boards announced (PDF):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2021
FSMTB SECURES ASSISTANCE FOR INTERSTATE COMPACT
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas – March 17, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Defense has selected
the massage therapy profession to receive technical assistance from The Council of State
Governments to develop an interstate compact for occupational licensing portability.
The Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, with support from the Commission on
Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) and Associated Bodywork and Massage
Professionals (ABMP), submitted an application for assistance with establishing an interstate
licensure compact for the massage therapy profession.
The FSMTB has a long-held goal to simplify and standardize the licensure process in order to
facilitate professional mobility. “We are very excited about this initiative that will benefit both
the regulatory community and the profession as well as ultimately facilitate increased consumer
access to massage therapy,” said David Cox, president of the Federation of State Massage
Therapy Boards.
The scope of the assistance includes the drafting of model interstate compact legislation,
developing a legislative resource kit, and convening a national meeting of state policymakers to
introduce the compact.
The FSTMB applied to the The U.S. Department of Defense for grant and help in developing this for occupational licensing portability. The Dept. of Defense is interested in helping military people moving around from state to state to be able to practice in any state with less hassles of having to get licenses in each state. Through funding from the Department of Defense, The Council of State Governments (CSG) is partnering with Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards to develop an interstate compact for licensure portability.
As you see, there is no mention of AMTA supporting this movement and there is not anything coming from the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education saying they support or don’t support this movement, but really it isn’t something the AFMTE deals with directly. Also no mention of the NCBTMB being involved and they right now control some of the approvals for CE which is also their main source of income.
What are Interstate Compacts?
Interstate compacts are formal agreements between two or more states that bind them to the compacts’ provisions. The Compacts Clause of the Constitution—Article I, Section 10, Clause 3—grants states the authority to enter into interstate agreements to achieve a common purpose. ~National Center for Interstate Compacts
Here is a video recording of the first webinar introducing the compact process and information on what will be happening from the National Center for Interstate Compacts.
One of the key things that was said is that they will be working on getting the compacts together but it will be up to the profession to implement them and support them.
Leave a Reply