SB 90: A path to work for veterans

Utah is home to nearly 130,000 veterans. Many of them completed rigorous, high-level training during their service, skills that often match or exceed civilian standards. But when they come home ready to work, they hit a wall: Utah’s licensing system doesn’t recognize what they already know how to do. So they wait. They redo coursework they’ve already mastered. They sit through testing for skills they used in far higher-stakes environments than any civilian workplace. Meanwhile, their families go without income and employers go without talent.

Senate Bill 90 from Sen. Heidi Balderree fixes that. 

Extensive and unfair delays cost families income, deprive employers of desperately needed talent, and weaken our state’s ability to honor the men and women who have already sacrificed so much. 

Existing Utah law provides some support for military families, such as fee waivers and limited reciprocity for spouses, but it lacks a comprehensive framework to recognize military training and experience. That means veterans frequently need to redo coursework, repeat testing, or simply sit idle while paperwork inches through the system, despite being more qualified than many of the people already working in that field.

Utah should make it easier for people to work, that is especially true of veterans. SB 90 directs the Utah Division of Professional Licensing, in consultation with the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, to identify the skills, education, credentials, and experience that service members gain in the military and determine where those are substantially equivalent to civilian licensure requirements. The division must prepare a publicly accessible resource detailing these equivalencies. When a veteran or service member applies for a license and lacks certain civilian training, the division must give credit for equivalent military experience toward meeting those requirements.