By Rick Wills
Published: Thursday, August 30, 2012, 11:36?a.m.
Updated 3 hours ago
Emily Embers was a licensed social worker in California when she and her husband, a Marine, moved to Johnstown, where they expect to live for three years. Instead of starting a job search in Pennsylvania, Embers spent the past year arranging to take the same licensing test she took in California, paying for another professional license and eventually getting work in the mental health field, her specialty.
?Things would have been easier if I had a provisional license and worked during that year,? said Embers, 27, a native of Orange County, Calif., and graduate of San Diego State University.
Pennsylvania would minimize such red tape if lawmakers pass a bill, pending before the House, to ease the transfer of professional licenses for military spouses. The measure applies to dozens of professions, including nursing, social work, real estate, accounting, cosmetology, law and medicine.
?The lives of military families are dominated by frequent deployments, relocations and extended periods of single parenthood,? said Rep. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon, the measure?s primary sponsor.
The federal government estimates about 100,000 military spouses in the country work in professions requiring state licenses. Top professions for military wives are teaching, child care work and nursing ? all subject to licensing and certification. Smith could not provide numbers for Pennsylvania.
Legislatures in 23 states have passed similar laws.
?We owe it to these families, who already sacrifice so much, to provide an easier method for obtaining a professional license while upholding Pennsylvania?s professional standards,? Smith said.
For Embers and other military spouses, the problem can resurface.
?We could wind up moving to Virginia because there are a lot of military people there. Then I?d have to go through all of this another time,? she said.
Twenty-five lawmakers co-sponsor Pennsylvania?s bill, and Smith hopes it will pass and reach Gov. Tom Corbett?s desk this fall.
The delay and paperwork that frustrated Embers are chronic problems, said Al Mercer, executive director of Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania Inc., a nonprofit agency that helps veterans and military members with housing, employment and other services.
?I have recently spoken to nurses and teachers, military spouses, who would like to work. We are seeing more and more of this,? Mercer said.
Many military spouses with professional degrees give up working or accept lower-paying jobs than their professions because of recertification hassles, Mercer said.
The law would assist with ?recruitment and retention of people who wear our uniform,? he said.
The Government Accountability Office reports one-third of all military members move each year. Statistics from 2010 show 24.1 percent of military wives moved across state lines, compared with 2.4 percent of civilian wives.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced federal legislation this week to provide a tax credit of up to $500 to any military spouse who needs to renew or transfer a professional license or certification as a result of moving.
Rick Wills is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7944 or at rwills@tribweb.com.
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