On April 6, Florida's House of Delegates voted against an amendment filed by Rep. Saunders that would have excluded interior design from a list of 20 occupations that HB 5005 will deregulate.  This vote represents an important victory for office furniture dealers, manufacturers and manufacturers' representatives who have been precluded from legally providing even basic space planning services associated with fixed "non-structural interior elements" such as work stations and built-in storage under Florida's interior design statute.

A particularly onerous element of this law is a requirement that firms offering interior design services must have a principal owner or officer who is a state-licensed interior designer.  It is insufficient for the space planning services to be performed by a licensed interior designer employed by the firm, unless there also is a licensed officer or owner to assume corporate responsibility for providing such services.  This "practice" provision is not part of interior design laws or regulations in any other state.

Rep. Dorothy Hukill (R-Port Orange), the sponsor of HB 5005, said that regulating professions like interior design is unnecessary, since "we don't regulate for regulations' sake.  We regulate to protect the health, safety and welfare" of the public.