TXCPA Legislation Continues its Progress

Published: May 14, 2025

This week, TXCPA’s two central pieces of legislation continued to make progress in the 89th Session of the Texas Legislature.

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Last Week in the Legislature

By Kenneth Besserman
Director of Government Affairs and Special Counsel

April 10, 2025 | Issue 11

AUSTIN - This week, TXCPA’s two central pieces of legislation continued to make progress in the 89th Session of the Texas Legislature. While the Senate has passed about 215 bills out of the chamber as of Thursday, the House has been much slower to pass bills out of the House, only sending about 15 bills to the other side of the rotunda. On Thursday, the House began debate on the state budget, with debate expected to head into the evening as the House considers hundreds of amendments to move money from one program to another, increase and decrease funding to programs, and set policy goals.

Once the House passes its budget this week, the budget will then go to a conference committee, which will meet for the next several weeks to iron out a compromise budget. Significant differences exist in the House and Senate budgets, including the amount and scope of property tax relief, the size of a school voucher program, and public-school finance funding.

As the legislature continues to debate the state budget, water infrastructure funding, school choice, THC-cannabis restrictions, limits on higher education teaching and operations, and other priorities of the Lt. Governor and Speaker, TXCPA legislation addressing the CPA pipeline continued its path to the Governor’s desk. SB 522  – modernizing and improving CPA mobility – unanimously passed the Senate on Thursday afternoon. The companion bill, HB 1764, was heard in the House Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee on Tuesday morning. The committee is expected to vote out HB 1764 at its next scheduled hearing next week.

The mobility legislation, which will ensure that only qualified out-of-state CPAs have practice privileges in Texas, has wide support in the legislature and the language has become a model for other states and is closely aligned with the proposed amendments to the Uniform  Accountancy Act. Next step on mobility is to pass the full House in the coming weeks.

SB 262  – creating an additional pathway to CPA licensure – passed the Senate last month and the House companion, HB 1757, passed the House Licensing Committee. The Calendars Committee will soon be considering bills to schedule for debate on the House floor. TXCPA is looking forward to moving the bills through the Calendars Committee and getting a vote on pathways legislation in the coming weeks.

The good news is that both of TXCPA’s bills are moving well through the process and there is sufficient time to get through the last couple of legislative steps to passage.

TXCPA continues to monitor and engage with legislators and legislative offices about a few bills that could affect CPA mobility. Universal licensing bills and mandatory reciprocity agreement bills, while well intentioned for some professions and occupations, could impact the well-established mobility regime that exists in the CPA world. TXCPA has successfully removed the CPA profession from those bills, but we continue to monitor those bills and all other bills that might affect the profession.

The advocacy work and efforts of our members, key persons and advocates have been instrumental in moving the pathways and mobility legislation. Your visits, calls and emails to legislative offices have paved the way to gaining unanimous support for our legislation. Thank you! We are getting close to the finish line, so stay tuned for more updates as our bills reach the final stages.

Only 51 days until the end of session!

 

 

 

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