Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser approved legislation this week to establish an alternative path to becoming a certified public accountant that does not require 150 college credit hours, teeing it up for the final congressional review. The new licensing requirements detailed in the act will become law after a 30-day period of congressional review is completed, provided there is no opposition, according to a spokesperson for Phil Mendelson, chair of the Council of the District of Columbia.
CPA candidates choosing the new route could be licensed after completing a bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration, two years of experience and passing the CPA exam. The legislation, D.C. Act 26-412, aligns with national standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Once finalized, D.C.’s CPA licensing requirements would largely match those that over 40 states — including neighboring Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia — have recently adopted.
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Driven by calls to address an accounting labor shortage, the push to either remove the 150-hour college credit requirement or provide an alternative to it has gained steam at a pace that has surprised many accounting experts monitoring its progress. The latest edition of the Uniform Accountancy Act recognizes the additional licensing route, along with two others that previously existed. They include the new 120-hour pathway which reflects the number of college credit hours typically needed for a bachelor’s degree, and the traditional 150-college credit hour or graduate pathways which each require just one year of experience. All routes require passing the CPA exam.
We are very happy to be aligned with our neighbors around the country and are excited for the new opportunities this creates for future CPAs, Kari Bedell, executive director of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs, said in an email Friday. Bedell also said she expects the act to pass through the mandatory 30-day review as written. We do not anticipate any issues during that period and unless some opposition were to arise, it will then become law without Congress taking any action, Bedell said. So, we expect this new pathway to be in place this fall.
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The initiative’s popularity with U.S. lawmakers’ constituents suggests the legislation won’t be held up in the congressional review process, Robert Pawlewicz, accounting department chair at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business, previously told CFO dive. For accounting graduates who have completed a four-year degree, the proposed change reduces the time and financial investment needed to achieve licensure. Instead of pursuing a fifth year of schooling or a master’s degree, candidates can apply their existing undergraduate knowledge toward professional requirements.
