Big Four Lobby Congress on Accounting Pipeline, AI, Crypto

The Big Four firms targeted a portion of their millions in Capitol Hill spending last year on a pivotal problem facing the industry: shoring up a dwindling supply of qualified accountants.

Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, KPMG LLP, and PwC LLP spent a combined $9.4 million directly lobbying Congress in 2023, focusing on issues such as digital assets and immigration requirements. Three of the firms also joined industry efforts to designate accounting as a science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—field, according to federal lobbying disclosures.

Those efforts, along with a revamped CPA exam and other initiatives, ...