1999 - AB 1096 (Romero) would have created a State Board of Interior Design, a scope of practice, and a licensing system. The bill was vetoed by Governor Davis, and he explained his rationale in the veto message there was no evidence of consumer harm that would justify creating a new regulatory program. 2008 - SB 1312 (Yee) would have created the Registered Interior Designer Committee under the California Architects Board. This bill was held in the Senate Appropriations committee due to its exorbitant costs and weak justification.

2012 - AB 2482 (Ma) would have created the California Registered Interior Designers Board. The bill was never agendized for a vote due to overwhelming opposition.

While there are different nuances in each of these proposals that make them unique, they all attempted to create a restrictive regulatory system designed to limit competition. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself. On January 1 of 2024, new legislation SB 816 (Roth) went into effect to codify a “commercial designation” for Certified Interior Designers. Before those provisions even went into effect, the International Interior Designers Association (IIDA) submitted restrictive legislative provisions to create the Commercial Interior Designers Technical Committee under the California Architects Board.

Finalized on January 30, IIDA attempted to introduce the language as part of the Sunset Review process for the California Architects Board, but was unsuccessful. Subsequent IIDA efforts to find a legislator to introduce a will with the language also failed. Nevertheless, IIDA has signaled that they will be back in 2026 with yet another attempt to advance the self-serving, monopolistic proposal.