State Updates
DC Council Unanimously Passes 120-Credit CPA Pathway Bill (B26-0494)
The DC Council passed a bill on July 14, 2026 creating a bachelor's plus two-year-experience path to CPA licensure and adopting individual-based mobility. It is not law yet: mayoral signature and a 30-day congressional review remain.
Published July 20, 20265 min readVerified as of July 20, 2026
What Happened
The Council of the District of Columbia passed Bill 26-0494 unanimously on final reading on July 14, 2026. The bill, introduced on November 20, 2025 by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson at the request of Mayor Muriel Bowser, creates an alternative path to CPA licensure that does not require 150 credit hours. Along the way it picked up a new name: a June 30 substitute amendment folded in unrelated business-licensing provisions, so the measure passed as the Business Licensing Reform and Accountancy Practice Amendment Act of 2026. The accountancy provisions are unchanged by that renaming.
What the Bill Does
The bill rewrites the eligibility section of DC's accountancy law (D.C. Code Section 47-2853.42) to create three routes to licensure. The headline addition is a pathway requiring a bachelor's degree with an accounting concentration, or coursework the Board of Accountancy deems equivalent, plus two years of relevant experience verified by a licensed CPA and passage of the CPA exam. One point most summaries miss: this is not an "any bachelor's degree" pathway, since the accounting concentration requirement stays.
- Bachelor's with accounting concentration (or equivalent coursework) + 2 years verified experience
- Bachelor's + 30 additional semester hours (the traditional 150-hour route) + 1 year experience
- Post-baccalaureate degree + 1 year experience
- Relevant experience means accounting, attest, management advisory, financial advisory, tax, or consulting skills, verified by a licensed CPA
DC Also Adopts Individual-Based Mobility
The bill rewrites DC's mobility section (D.C. Code Section 47-2853.49) into an individual-based practice privilege. An out-of-state CPA with a valid, unrestricted license in good standing can practice in the District without a DC license, provided their original licensure required passing the exam plus education and experience equivalent to the new standards. This replaces the old state-level substantial-equivalency test and matches the model in the 2025 Uniform Accountancy Act. The DC Board of Accountancy had already taken an interim step in December 2025, voting to treat out-of-state alternative-pathway CPAs as substantially equivalent for reciprocity.
Not Law Yet: The DC Wrinkle
Unlike a state bill headed for a governor's desk, a DC bill has an extra hurdle. After Mayor Bowser signs B26-0494, it must sit through a 30-day congressional review period under the Home Rule Act before it becomes law, and no official effective date has been announced. Realistically that points to fall 2026. Until then, nothing changes: DC still requires 150 credit hours and one year of experience for licensure, and candidates can already sit for the exam at 120 credits under existing rules.
Why DC Is Doing It
Mayor Bowser's transmittal letter framed the bill as a pipeline measure: "The cost of education, particularly obtaining a master's degree, has been a deterrent for some who may otherwise want to become a licensed CPA. Further, there has been a decline in licensed CPAs across the country, including in the District." The committee report cites the national numbers behind that concern, with first-time CPA exam candidates falling from 48,004 in 2016 to 28,082 in 2024. Support at the March hearing was broad. DC Board of Accountancy Chairman Robert Todaro testified that supervised experience is "equivalent to, or in some respects superior to" an extra classroom year. Greater Washington Society of CPAs Executive Director Kari Bedell called the bill "a timely and critical update to the District's accountancy laws" and described the 150-hour rule as "one of the most significant barriers to entering the profession." NASBA's legislative affairs office noted the pathway provisions are modeled on its updated uniform provisions. The Council Office of Racial Equity found the bill "will likely improve CPA license outcomes for Black and Latine people."
What It Means for Candidates
DC candidates should plan under current rules for now: 150 credits and one year of experience for licensure, with exam eligibility at 120 credits. If the bill completes mayoral signature and congressional review as expected, a bachelor's with an accounting concentration plus two years of verified experience becomes a full licensure route, and DC joins the more than 40 states that have enacted or are implementing similar pathways. We track DC's requirements on our DC CPA requirements page and will update it when the bill becomes law. For the national picture, see the 120-credit pathway tracker and our explainer on individual CPA mobility.
Sources
- 1.DC Council LIMS — B26-0494, Business Licensing Reform and Accountancy Practice Amendment Act of 2026(accessed Jul 20, 2026)
- 2.DC Council — B26-0494 Engrossed Bill Text(accessed Jul 20, 2026)
- 3.DC Council — Committee on Public Works and Operations Report on B26-0494(accessed Jul 20, 2026)
- 4.CFO Dive — Washington D.C.'s CPA Bill Advances to Mayor's Desk(accessed Jul 20, 2026)
- 5.Accounting Today — D.C. Advances CPA Licensure Pathways Bill(accessed Jul 20, 2026)
- 6.DC DLCP — Board of Accountancy Announces Licensure Updates to Expand Pathways(accessed Jul 20, 2026)
Brennan Kolar
Founder, Atlas CPA Index
Brennan Kolar is the founder of Atlas CPA Index, an independent CPA review comparison platform covering all 55 U.S. jurisdictions. With over 10 years of experience with CPA review, he built Atlas to help candidates find the right review course based on how they actually learn, not which provider has the biggest ad budget.
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