Last Week in the Legislature
TXCPA’s Legislative Agenda has a Big Week
By Kenneth Besserman
Director of Government Affairs and Special Counsel
March 27, 2025 | Issue 9
AUSTIN - The 89th Session of the Texas Legislature just passed the half-way mark of the 140-day session. Committee hearings on both sides of the rotunda are in full swing and both the House and the Senate are now meeting every day of the week as bills start to emerge from committees and make their way to the House and Senate floor for debate and passage. While the Senate has been conducting committee hearings and floor debates for some time (the Senate usually moves quicker than the House early in the session), House committees have started passing bills out of committee on their way to the Calendars Committee then to the House floor. Be assured that the time members spend on the House floor in the coming weeks will increase significantly.
TXCPA’s 2025 legislative priorities – creating an additional pathway to CPA licensure and modernizing CPA practice mobility – made considerable progress this week. SB 522, legislation to modernize individual CPA practice mobility – was heard in the Senate Business & Commerce Committee on Tuesday. The committee substitute includes language that bases a person’s ability to practice and have mobility into Texas on their individual qualifications as a licensed CPA in another state. As dozens of states address the need for additional pathways to licensure, states are all addressing mobility to make sure there are no interruptions in the ability to practice in another state and to allow for CPAs licensed in a new pathway to likewise be able to rely on seamless mobility provisions. Texas and TXCPA have been leaders in developing model language in the proposed Uniform Accountancy Act changes and in legislation addressing mobility.
SB 522 passed out of the Senate Committee on Thursday with a unanimous vote and has now been sent to the Senate Local & Uncontested Calendar. The Senate Local calendar acts much like a consent calendar that allows for easier and quicker passage of uncontested or non-controversial legislation. We can expect SB 522 to pass the full Senate on the first local calendar – likely next week.
Pathways legislation – SB 262 and HB 1757 – has also moved through the legislative process this week. The legislation will create an additional pathway to licensure requiring the completion of a bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration, two years of work experience and the passage of the CPA Exam. SB 262 passed the full Senate two weeks ago and is waiting to make it through the House Licensing Committee.
HB 1757, the companion to SB 262, was heard in the House Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee on Tuesday. The bill received a great reception from Chair Dade Phelan and committee members. While the bill was left pending – most House committees leave bills pending for one week – the bill is expected to be voted out at the next hearing. The bill will then move to the House Calendars Committee, which vets all bills before they move to the House floor for full vote of the House. The House has not yet taken up bills for floor debate, so we are a bit ahead of the curve, but are well positioned to get a vote soon.
While TXCPA’s bills are making great legislative progress, a few other major state issues are also moving. The Senate passed its version of the state budget this week. The two-year budget – which will begin on September 1, 2025, and run through August 31. 2027 – is a $336 billion budget. This is a 4.5% increase over the current budget. While policy considerations differ among Democrats and Republicans, the budget passed unanimously out of the Senate.
Important aspects of the budget include $71 billion for the Foundation School Program (which is the major source of public school funding); $4.3 billion for teacher pay raises; $500 million to address school safety measures; $6.5 billion for border security; $6.5 billion for new property tax cuts - $3 billion to be sent to local school districts to help them lower local tax rates and $3.5 billion set aside to increase the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000; and $10 billion for the state’s energy, water and broadband infrastructure, with $205 billion for the Texas Water Fund to be allocated for new water projects and maintaining/repairing existing water projects.
While differences remain with the House version of the state budget – primarily on how much money to put into school choice proposals – passage of the budget is likely and will not be the stumbling block this session. Next week, we will look at some of the high priority items identified by the Lt. Governor and Speaker and see how likely or unlikely they are to make their way through the legislative process. As you all know and remember, the Texas legislative process is made to kill bills and not pass bills, so every day counts to get bills moving and through the hurdles and roadblocks.
A great week for TXCPA! Let’s keep the momentum going. Reach out to your members of the legislature to ask them to support TXCPA legislation and thank them for their votes.
Only 65 days left in the session!