Two Greenleaf Bills Move Forward

HARRISBURG –Two bills sponsored by Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf—one to ensure that more disabled veterans will be eligible for special license plates, and another to enhance continuing education requirements for landscape architects—have moved forward in the Senate.

Senate Bill 691, which reduces the percentage of service-connected disability from the current 100 percent disabled to 75 percent disabled for eligibility for a special vehicle license plate designating the owner as a severely disabled veteran, received unanimous Senate approval and now awaits consideration in the House of Representatives.  The State Department of Transportation issues the special plates based on the armed forces' certification of the percentage of a veteran's disability.

Senate Bill 612, which amends the Landscape Architects' Registration Law, was voted out of the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee.  The bill raises the minimum continuing education requirement from 10 hours to 24 hours for every two-year period and removes a provision in the law that allows applicants to avoid taking the exam.  The goal of the legislation, which is supported by the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, is to increase the level of professionalism of landscape architects in the commonwealth.  Comparable standards of continuing education hours as those proposed in Senate Bill 612 are required of landscape architects in the states of New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Delaware.