Panel advances bill adding experience-based pathway to CPA licensure

A House subcommittee advanced House Bill 148 to create an alternate, experience-focused pathway for Certified Public Accountant licensure and to expand cross‑state practice mobility for licensees, supporters said at a regulatory subcommittee hearing.

Supporters said the bill is intended to expand the pipeline of new CPAs while preserving the profession's standards. "What this house bill 148 does is goes back to those old requirements in regard to or should I say it provides a new pathway," a bill presenter told the committee, describing a pathway that would allow either a master's degree plus one year of experience or a four‑year degree with an accounting concentration plus two years of experience, with passage of the uniform CPA exam required in either route.

The change aims to address a shrinking pipeline of new CPAs and difficulty recruiting auditors for smaller cities and rural counties, witnesses said. "I have not seen the profession both in the state of Georgia and across over 30 other states coalesce together this quickly over statutory changes to accountancy law," Boyd Search, president and CEO of the Georgia Society of CPAs, told the committee.

Catherine Fletcher, a quality control partner at her public accounting firm and chair of the Georgia Society of CPAs board, said, "House Bill 148 helps address this issue while preserving the high standards of education, experience, and ethics that define our profession." She and other witnesses said the bill mirrors changes adopted in roughly 35 other states that shift some emphasis from a fifth year of coursework to practical experience.

The bill also would update mobility rules so CPAs licensed in other states could perform assurance work in Georgia if they hold a license in good standing in their home state and meet any board‑defined education requirements. Don Cook, legislative affairs director for the Georgia Society of CPAs, said, "For mobility to work, they have to have a license in good standing, from their home state, obviously. They have to pass the CPA exam, and then we're also going to point to board rule to define if there's any added education requirements on top of that."

Committee members pressed on the rural impact and workforce competition with large firms in Atlanta; a presenter said the shortage is especially acute outside metropolitan areas. The subcommittee took a voice vote to advance the bill. A motion to pass was made and seconded; committee discussion recorded no roll‑call tally and no opposition was recorded during the voice vote, and the item was advanced to the full committee.

The bill packet and testimony included support from the Georgia Society of CPAs, the Georgia State Board of Accountancy and references to national accounting firms.

The bill will proceed to the full committee for further consideration.