Last Week in the Legislature
The House is Now Open for Business
Senate Hearing Set for Feb. 18 for Alternate Pathway to CPA Licensure Bill
By Kenneth Besserman
Director of Government Affairs and Special Counsel
February 13, 2025 | Issue 5
AUSTIN - On Thursday, February 13, Speaker Dustin Burrows released his House committee chairs and committee assignments, setting the stage for House committees to start meeting, hearing bills and moving legislation to the House floor. While the 2,500+ House bills have yet to be referred to committees, the next few days on the House floor will see most bills referred to committee to begin in earnest the 89th legislative session.
TXCPA’s legislative priorities in 2025 – SB 262 (additional pathway to CPA licensure) and SB 522 (enhanced and modernized CPA mobility) have been referred to the Senate Business & Commerce Committee. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18 for SB 262. Contact your Texas Senator to let them know how important this legislation is to the accounting profession. (See this brief for talking points. Watch the hearing live.) The House companion legislation – HB 1757 and HB 1764 – are now set to be referred to a House committee.
In recent past sessions, CPA-related legislation has been referred to the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures (LAP) Committee. This session, former Speaker, Rep. Dade Phelan, has been appointed LAP Chair. TXCPA has a very good relationship with Rep. Phelan, both as a Representative and Speaker, so we are grateful that he has been appointed LAP Chair. Other key appointments to the LAP Committee include Rep. Senfronia Thompson, Rep. Charlie Geren, Rep. Jared Patterson, and Rep. Ramon Romero with whom TXCPA has developed close relationships in the past.
TXCPA follows and works with a number of other important House committees. Issues important to the CPA and accounting profession also tend to be referred to the House State Affairs Committee now chaired by Rep. Ken King. Rep. King was the former chair of the LAP Committee, so there is a continued good relationship with the new State Affairs Chair.
Other bills that are important to the CPA and accounting profession also get referred to the Trade, Workforce & Economic Development Committee, now chaired by Rep. Angie Chen Button, CPA, and to the House Pensions, Investments & Financial Services Committee, now chaired by Rep. Stan Lambert. All these committees have experienced chairs who know and understand our issues and are open to hearing from TXCPA and our members.
Probably the most important committee in the House is the Calendars Committee. The Calendars Committee is the gatekeeper for all legislation that goes to the House floor for debates and votes. A bill must pass its original committee and the Calendars Committee before it gets set for debate. The Calendars Committee is where bills go to die. This session, Rep. Todd Hunter has been appointed as Calendars Chair again after having held that position in prior sessions before his most recent appointment as State Affairs Chair. It is good to have a steady and known quantity as Calendars Chair. Rep. Hunter has been a close friend of TXCPA for many years and we look forward to working with him again as the new, and returning, Calendars Chair.
The biggest difference in the committee and chair assignments in 2025 as compared to prior sessions is that all chairs are now Republicans and all vice-chairs are Democrats. The House Rules, adopted two weeks ago, eliminated six standing committees and created two new committees. Additionally, the House established 10 working subcommittees to handle a lot of the workload of some of the larger committees and committees that were consolidated. Ultimately, any legislation referred to a subcommittee must also pass the full committee and committee chairs have full discretion to determine scheduling, votes and committee operations.
A full list of committee assignments can be found here.
Now the real work begins.
Only 107 days until the end of session.