Many other jurisdictions already have mandatory continuing education requirements.  For those P. E. license holders that work in other states, I would suggest that Virginia adopt the same 12 contact hours per year requirement that most other states have.  Then the courses taken to meet the other states' requirements will also count in Virginia.

While continuing education is a nuisance, the reality is that ongoing research tends to update methods of engineering and often results in changing requirements in building codes.  If engineers are not mandated to stay current, they may not be designing according to current codes and standards.  If they ever encounter a problem or failure with work they have designed, even if done correctly by "old" methods, it will be difficult to defend if not designed by current acceptable standards of engineering practice. 

I am almost 60, and I dislike the fact that many of the methods I learned in graduate school to perform structural engineering are now becoming outdated.  While it makes me want to just quit doing engineering, that is taking the easy way out.  If I was able to learn it once, I'm sure I can learn enough again to stay current.  I only wish they had waited to change the methods until I retired!