Senate panel tables interstate massage-therapy compact after debate on training standards and trafficking risk

A Georgia Senate committee on Monday tabled House Bill 232, a proposal to adopt an interstate massage-therapy compact, after extended questioning about training-hour requirements, grandfathering of existing practitioners and whether proposed language could ease the movement of bad actors between states.

Representative Silcox introduced the compact, saying Georgia would be among the first states to adopt a multistate licensing pathway and that the bill increases the statutory training requirement to 625 hours to align with a national standard. She said the compact would improve public access to massage therapy, help military families and support student eligibility for federal aid.

Maileen Petrine, director of legal and regulatory affairs for the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, told the committee proposed revisions promoted by the Department of Defense (referred to in the transcript as the "Department of War") would lower standards and could facilitate trafficking, in her view. "The lower standards of the proposed language will facilitate human trafficking," she said.

George Ray of Gold Dome Partners, representing the American Massage Therapy Association, supported multistate licensure but opposed the specific statutory language in the bill, arguing it would raise the minimum education requirement to 625 hours and could force currently licensed Georgia practitioners to return to school to obtain interstate privileges. He urged stakeholder negotiations and offered alternative compact language that would preserve Georgia practitioners' access while maintaining protections.

Committee members also raised Pell Grant implications and whether "legacy" practitioners lacking the higher-hour coursework would be excluded; witnesses said the commission established under a compact could use rulemaking and substantial-equivalence determinations to address grandfathering.

Facing unresolved differences and a scheduled stakeholder meeting with the Department of Defense and national compact organizations, Senator Summers moved to table HB 232; the motion passed unanimously. The chair said the sponsors should expect to work with stakeholders and that the bill will likely return to the committee for further consideration.

Sources and evidence: Sponsor presentation, testimony from Maileen Petrine and George Ray, committee questioning about hours and Pell Grant eligibility, and the motion to table recorded in the transcript.