Tennessee Senate Bill SB2447

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/2/26
• Chaptered: 5/5/26
• Passed: 5/5/26

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4 and Title 62, Chapter 2, Part 4, relative to certificates of registration for engineers.

Summary

SB2447 amends Tennessee’s professional engineering licensure law to create an additional pathway to a certificate of registration for certain engineering technology graduates. Under the bill, a graduate of a four-year-or-longer ABET ETAC-accredited engineering technology program may qualify to sit for the engineering principles and practice examination if they are approved by the board, provide three professional references from currently registered Tennessee engineers in good standing, and first pass the fundamentals of engineering exam. After passing the required examinations, the applicant must also show at least eight years of progressive engineering experience under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer before being granted a certificate of registration, assuming all other qualifications are met. The bill also makes a technical effective-date distinction: it takes effect immediately upon becoming law for rulemaking purposes, while the substantive licensing changes take effect July 1, 2026. This gives the board time to adopt any necessary rules before the new pathway becomes available to applicants.

Impact

The bill expands the categories of applicants eligible to pursue professional engineer registration in Tennessee by expressly recognizing certain engineering technology degree holders as eligible for the licensure process. It amends Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 62, Chapter 2, Part 4, which governs engineer registration, and may affect the Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners’ licensing standards, application review, and rulemaking. The change could increase the pool of candidates for licensure while preserving exam, reference, and supervised-experience requirements.

Sentiment

The available voting history shows strong support for the bill in committee, with unanimous 9-0 and 11-0 recommendations for passage in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee and the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. No committee transcript was provided, but the recorded votes suggest the measure was viewed favorably and without significant opposition at the committee stage.

Contention

No specific objections are documented in the provided materials. The main policy issue implicit in the bill is whether graduates of engineering technology programs should have a clearer statutory route to professional engineer licensure, and whether the added pathway maintains sufficient rigor through examination, references, and supervised experience. Any contention would likely center on licensure standards, workforce access, and the distinction between engineering and engineering technology credentials, but no recorded debate is available here.