AUSTIN, TX — The Texas House of Representatives refused to concur with the Senate amendments to HB 2649 on May 29, thus temporarily ending the bid to prohibit anyone from practicing lighting design except for licensed architects, landscape architects, interior designers, and Chapter 1305 electricians.
The proposed bill began in the House as legislation regarding the engineering of concrete slabs. The House approved it and sent it to the Senate, where it was amended to include the clause about lighting design.
Senator Kip Averitt added the language after one of his constituents hired a residential lighting designer who performed in an unsatisfactory manner, according to sources close to the legislation. The modified bill passed in the Senate and went back to the House for a final vote.
After the bill was modified, the authors and sponsors of the bill received a flood of phone calls and visits from concerned lighting professionals and lighting organizations. By the evening of May 28, a spokesman for Senator Averitt called the offices of PLSN to confirm that the language would be struck from the bill and that an interim committee would be formed to study the proposal for a future legislative session.
