(The Center Square) – The Ohio Senate took a step toward easing licensing restrictions for some jobs Wednesday when it passed two bills that joins the state with others to accept requirements across state lines.

Advancing to the House is Senate Bill 5, which enters Ohio into the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact, along with Senate Bill 7, which does the same for occupational therapists. Both bills were sponsored by Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson.

“Today was a great day for physical therapists, occupational therapists and patients who have or will utilize these services across the state of Ohio,” Roegner said. “The passage of SB 5 and SB 7 through the Senate today moves Ohio closer to joining the licensure compacts for these two professions.”

The bills, if passed by the House and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, allow a licensed physical therapist or occupational therapist in Ohio to have other states in the compact reciprocate, rather than requiring a new license in each state. The idea is similar to a driver’s license, where an Ohio driver’s license is valid in each state.

Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the idea is critical at a time when telehealth is increasing, but it also eliminates barriers for a spouse of someone working in the military who may be licensed in a specific area and is forced to relicense when stationed in a new state.

Huffman continues to push for less business regulation, but is asking senators for more specific, target regulation reform rather than a broader approach.

“We need to look at these things mostly as a way to better serve the public, not just in medicine, but in a lot of regulatory schemes,” Huffman said. “We need to be specific when we reduce regulations.”

The licensing bills continue a trend of dialing back business regulation that began at the end of the last year in the previous legislative session.

The Ohio Senate passed a bill in December that eliminated requirements for a number of occupational licenses and reduced training requirements for others. The Legislature also passed a bill that trimmed government regulation to help businesses across the state. The effort, according to then Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, was a four-year process.

Obhof pointed to Ohio’s long list of regulations, saying the state has more than 100,000 more regulations than other states, and those create issues for small businesses. He also said the legislation would change the daily work for regulators to discover ways to end government red tape, rather than searching for new regulations.

“This is perhaps the most sweeping regulatory reform in modern Ohio history,” Obhof said at the time. “Now, we all know that some regulations are necessary for health and safety and the environment, but many of these restrictions create unnecessary hurdles for Ohio’s small businesses. We don’t need 100,000 more regulations than other states.”