As you are aware, the California Massage Therapy Act is up for sunset review this legislative session. However, ABMP just received confirmation that the California Legislature is adjourned until April 13, 2020. As such, the March 24, 2020, committee hearing is canceled. This is in response to COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the legislature engaging in social distancing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At this time, we do not know when a hearing will be rescheduled.
The California massage therapy sunset review remains a hot topic discussion. What happens during this critical periodic review is the legislature assesses the state of massage therapy regulation and examines how well it serves public interest. Essentially, the legislative committee will evaluate the need, effectiveness, and performance of an agency—in this case the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC)—for the purpose of improvement or discontinuance.
In our last email, we asked members to share with us your experiences with either CAMTC or local government regulation. Thank you for the feedback! While the California legislature is temporarily adjourned, please continue to email us (gr@abmp.com) your comments, experiences, and thoughts on massage regulation.
ABMP will inform you when we receive notice of a rescheduled hearing regarding the sunset review. Additionally, we will continue to update our members about ways they can take advantage of any relief opportunities created in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and we invite you to read ABMP’s latest update (https://www.abmp.com/updates/news/our-new-world-covid-19-march-16-update...) regarding the virus and how it impacts massage therapists.