Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) said today that he intends to push for legislation to allow military spouses’ professional licenses to be held valid in New York if they were obtained in other states. Hawley said New York State should not punish those who wish to continue their career in a state of which their original license was not obtained and the legislature should make this a priority as 47 other states have passed measures to correct this issue.

“The current laws do a disservice to families with a member in the armed forces,” Hawley said. “In many cases, spouses of armed services members cannot afford to remain unemployed when they relocate, due to the military obligations of a family member, to an area where their license is not held valid. Those with professional licenses often bring a valuable set of skills to the area where they live, and it would serve our state’s best interests to allow them to practice here. Members on both sides of the aisle have sponsored legislation for several years that would correct this issue, and I will push to see that it gets passed this session.”

Hawley, a veteran of the Ohio Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserves, currently sponsors two separate bills to address this issue. He has been a champion of veterans’ issues during his time in the Assembly as shown by his work as Ranking Minority Member of the Assembly’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee.